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Last Week, Team Tangerine Offered A Truly Stultifying Reason NOT To Find A Copyright Infringement — Of “Electric Avenue”…

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We have begun following the infringement case Eddy Grant brought in Manhattan federal court, against Tangerine’s 2020 Campaign — for stealing his song, without permission, and (critically, in view of the below) without paying any royalties. We are late with this — as it was filed / happened while we were in the air, returning from the mountains. [My prior backgrounder may be found, here.]

These campaign guys have very little in the way of excuses, in their favor, true.

But as we see on page 4, below (full filing here), Team Trump now argues that BECAUSE Trump openly, and notoriously “stole” the song, without offering any royalty payment (or even contacting Mr. Grant or ASCAP to get a quote) — there could be no lost revenue. That is, since Trump was set on stealing it — no one might be able to complain that Mr. Grant lost money:

. . .Here, by contrast, there is no. . . such market. As a single social media post by Defendant former President Trump on his personal Twitter account, the Animation could not have been a lost licensing opportunity for Plaintiffs, as no licensing payments were generated. . . .

Wow. Just. . . wow.

“I was always going to steal it. . .” is not the best defense I’ve ever seen.

And, likely the dumbest band of miscreant crooks in US history, are these guys. Wow.

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Young, Inexperienced USDC (Dallas) Judge Drew Tipton Has Just Had “His Ears Trimmed”, By The Fifth Circuit… And That’s A Conservatively-Dominated Circuit.

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Ahem. Let’s call it a “high and tight” haircut, as though he were still “in training”, at his old US Marine facility, actually. Grin.

You’ll recall that we argued that Tipton (as a 2020 Tangerine appointee, with no real wide-ranging litigation or any prior judicial experience) simply misread every provision of federal law, in this case (at the behest of the Texas State GOP AG).

The Fifth Circuit here essentially tells him to. . . learn to read. That’s. . . humiliating, given that the Fifth Circuit cites the same US Supreme Court cases that we urged, and the AUSAs placed before him, all of which contradict his claims to broad powers, here.

Reading is. . . a skill, Judge Tipton. Here’s the full fifteen pager, admonishing Judge Tipton, and a bit — all as we predicted:

. . .Our main concern with the injunction is that we believe these IIRIRA provisions do not eliminate immigration officials’ “broad discretion” to decide who should face enforcement action in the first place. Arizona, 567 U.S. at 396. They address a separate question: the custodial status of individuals who are facing removal proceedings or who have been removed. See 8 U.S.C. § 1226(a),(c); § 1231(a)(2). To the extent the injunction prevents the Attorney General from relying on the memos to release those who are facing enforcement actions and fall within the mandatory detention provisions — for example, prisoners with qualifying convictions against whom ICE has lodged a detainer (8 U.S.C. § 1226(c)(1)) or individuals subject to removal orders (id. § 1231(a)(2)) — we see no basis for upsetting it at this stage as that is what the statutes govern.

The district court’s injunction, however, is not limited to detention decisions of aliens the United States has decided to remove. It is much broader. It enjoins reliance on memos that guide decisions on, among other things, “whether to issue a detainer,” “whether to issue, reissue, serve, file, or cancel a Notice to Appear,” and “whether to stop, question, or arrest a noncitizen.” ICE Memo at 3.

We see the United States likely succeeding on this core foci of the interim enforcement priorities—immigration officials’ ability to prioritize who is subject to investigative and enforcement action in the first place. See Reno, 525 U.S. at 483 (recognizing that law enforcement discretion extends to “initiation or prosecution of various stages in the deportation process,” including the “discretion to abandon the endeavor”). . . .

It is quite telling that neither [Texas or Louisiana] nor the district court have cited a single Supreme Court case requiring law enforcement (state nor federal, criminal nor immigration) to bring charges against an individual or group of individuals. . . .

What is more, in the quarter century that IIRIRA has been on the books, no court at any level previously has held that sections 1226(c)(1) or 1231(a)(2) eliminate immigration officials’ discretion to decide who to arrest or remove. . . .

The injunction is STAYED pending appeal in all other respects including the reporting requirements. . . .

In sum, the Fifth Circuit just said that young Judge Tipton simply “made up” this opinion, from whole cloth. This is the starkest rebuke imaginable: a GOP-leaning Fifth Circuit just effectively said he failed a simple statutory reading test. One with clear Supreme Court lamp-posts, to light his path. And he. . . ignored them. Ouch.

Onward now, to a wonderful weekend with the baby girl!

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Peggy Noonan’s Poor Take — No, We Haven’t Lost “The Thread”

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Ms. Noonan rarely writes much I agree with. No surprise.

But this bit is especially morose, dark and awful (even for her). She chastises 2021 America for not being more “unified” (compared to immediately after 9/11). From my perspective, there were some genuinely patriotic moments after 9/11 — but the bulk of what was “unified” was a hatred toward a single, faceless “other”. Demonized were all peoples who remotely looked to be from the middle east.

Unwittingly, one thing Tangerine helped real Americans see… was he helped all of us of good will, to see clearly how easy it is to make one American… turn on another.

His efforts at dividing us did not succeed — but they did expose charlatans like Peggy Noonan — for what they are: wanna-be goose-steppers.

She would prefer an America with a single common enemy (whether real or imagined)… over a complex, occasionally conflicting tapestry of brightly different threads… each shimmering in the sun, in turn, and doing their level-best to make their way in the ever accelerating, jangling world.

So — I will dutifully ignore her take, when she intones:

“…It had to do with a sense that we are losing the thread, that America is losing the thread. We compared — we couldn’t help it, it is in the nature of memory — the America of now with the America of 20 years ago, and we see a deterioration.

We feel disturbance at this because we don’t know if we can get our way back. The losing of the thread feels bigger than ideology, bigger certainly than parties. It feels like some more fundamental confusion, an inability to play the role of who we are, and to be comfortable in who we are….”

And, preciously — she neglects to mention that President Obama did get Osama Bin Laden.
Par for her course.

So, even her “bad guys” narrative is… specious. I won’t bother with debunking all of it, but she completely missed AOC’s point at the Met Gala 2021 — so I will make a picture of that much — for her. See at left.

Onward — grinning into the warm September night’s breezes — she will not sell me a bill of fake goods about my fellow Americans. No, sir.

Out.

Tangerine Expresses Solidarity… With Domestic Terrorists. Y A W N.

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Just to mark it for the record, here:

For the public record — tonight, on Gab.com, Trump has lauded the collection of the deplorables set to descend on DC this coming weekend — while in the same breath claiming that this is a “government / deep state” set-up, to “frame” them.

So in the same breath, he warns them to stay away, on radio shows, catering to the ultra far right.

He can’t even articulate a non-internally contradictory message, to save his life.

Meanwhile, Roger Stone is more often featured, and quoted, on the official RUSSIAN television networks, than even the farthest-right US web-only shows, now… that should tell you all you need to know. Both he and Trump are selling… only domestic chaos.

Chaos at the bidding of one… Vladimir Putin.

Pigs.

So Much For Hinderaker’s UN-American (Proposed) State Laws On So-Called “Viewpoint Censorship”

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I am quite tardy with this (as the specific case was decided months ago), but it is now painfully clear:

Hinderaker does not even remotely understand the current state of the law as to free expression and viewpoint moderation in private clubs, as a matter of US judicial precedent.

He has regularly proposed that individual states, by local legislation, may thwart the federal First Amendment.

Not so.

Here’s the proof — a law in Florida drafted along the lines John suggested… has flamed out. Been enjoined nationwide:

…To survive strict scrutiny, an infringement on speech must further a compelling state interest and must be narrowly tailored to achieve that interest. See, e.g., Reed, 576 U.S. at 171. These statutes come nowhere close. Indeed, the State has advanced no argument suggesting the statutes can survive strict scrutiny. They plainly cannot.

First, leveling the playing field — promoting speech on one side of an issue or restricting speech on the other — is not a legitimate state interest. See, e.g., Arizona Free Enter. Club v. Bennett, 564 U.S. 721, 749-50 (2011). Whatever might be said of any other allegedly compelling state interest, these statutes are not narrowly tailored. Like prior First Amendment restrictions, this is an instance of burning the house to roast a pig. See, e.g., Reno v. ACLU, 521 U.S. at 882; Sable Commc’n of Cal., Inc. v. FCC, 492 U.S. 115, 131 (1989)….

Hilarious. The Texas version (signed this week by Governor Abbott) will suffer a similar fate. Hinderaker is simply wasting the local taxpayers’ money with these ill-starred — and UN-American — nonsense bills.

Seven Count Felony Case Against Trump Mega-Fundraiser Barrack Moves Forward — Next Appearance Early November 2021…

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On this poignant twentieth anniversary, we’ll take a renewed look at a true billionaire — one who’s been a traitor to this nation, in secretly working for the interests of a brutal dictatorship, while adroitly manipulating the fecklessly-moronic (tangerine-hued) prior occupant of 1600 Pennsylvania — one Thomas Barrack (all allegedly). [But the documents in evidence are damningly clear.]

Here is the entire updating report (from a status conference that I missed, whilst one mountain pass away from his home confinement digs, at right) — and a bit:

. . .The government intends to seek designation of this case as complex pursuant to 18 U.S.C. § 3161(h)(7)(B)(ii). Mr. Barrack believes this decision should be deferred until the next status conference so that there is parity of access to discovery materials before Mr. Barrack takes a position on complex case designation. . . .

Counsel for Mr. Barrack has requested a bill of particulars from the government. The government has advised counsel for Mr. Barrack that it believes the indictment satisfies the pleading standards of Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 7(c)(1) and that a bill of particulars is not warranted in this case. . . .

The parties respectfully request that the Court schedule the next status conference approximately 60 days [out]. . . .

Now you know. Do be thankful for our freedoms this day. And be excellent to one another. . . smile.

नमस्ते

The QAnon “Shaman” Will Remain In Custody… Through Sentencing, On His Obstruction Plea…

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This is all very droll. Droll… because the generally fragile emotions he exhibits (and supposed maladies he “suffers” from) are ALL the ones QAnon regularly derides (on the left) as “snowflakes’ maladies”.

The former mascot for the QAnon January 6 insurrectionists says he will be “triggered”, if kept in jail.

I understand that his grandfather is ill. And that is sad.

But that is how incarceration works, after a guilty plea: one’s freedom is gone.

He is a flight risk; end of story.

So… Paul Mirengoff Must Have Missed The ENTIRE 1980s And 1990s — In Federal Civil Rights Lawsuits — Against States.

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These suits were ALL brought by the DoJ — and in several cases, by Ron Reagan’s DoJ.

But this evening Paul Mirengoff would tell us that the DoJ cannot bring suit against Texas — for denying liberty interests, and equal protection — to adult women who may only have known they were pregnant for 16 days.

[The notion that the Texas abomination is insulated, because it is private citizens who pursue people seeking abortions is still “under color of law” in the words of 18 U.S.C. § 242: Deprivation of rights under color of law.] He pretends that the fundamental privacy and liberty interests at stake are trivial compared to being able to go to a public school of equal standing, as a White- or Black- person (in the linked case in 1983, in Alabama — brought by Saint Ronnie’s DoJ).

Paul M. sniffs that “whatever one thinks of the Texas law” — we have no right to complain.

Poppycock.

We — the people of the other 49 states — including the DoJ… have clear civil rights act standing to enjoin the lawless abridging of fundamental womens’ rights — rights won under Roe v. Wade now almost a half-century ago.

Do not let these dishonest legal charlatans fool you: on the one hand, they’ll applaud a single Texas judge trying to re-write the federal immigration schema as though Texas was a separate nation (to keep brown people out!), all the while saying the federal government cannot do what JFK did — to end segregation in public schooling, in Little Rock, and in Birmingham — in sum, to protect human rights.

What an ironic crock of slop.

Out.

Is 53 Years… Enough? He Was 24 — When “Put Away” For What Was Supposed To Be A Death Sentence…

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And should it matter, that his victim was so. . . prominent? He killed the likely next President of the United States.

Thus, there is a sensible argument that his crime changed the course of US history — if not world history. Imagine if Bobby Kennedy, and a stronger form of liberalism, more generally, had taken the White House from Nixon.

The mind could boggle — would we have exited Vietnam by mid-1969? Would civil rights have advanced at a much quicker pace? Would there ever have been room, in serious politics, for an ex-actor from “Bedtime for Bonzo” / Ronnie Reagan (if there had been no weak handed Carter, in the White House)? [There might never have been room for Arnold as a Governor in California, if not for Reagan.]

And that in turn strongly suggests there almost certainly would never have been room for (or appetite for) a. . . Tangerine.

And maybe — just maybe — the first Black President would have been. . . a woman (when Barack was still in law school).

All of that said — I am convinced that Sirhan Sirhan shouldn’t be held to any greater account for that change in geo-politics, here half a century later — than any other cold blooded murderer. And he is eligible for parole, under California’s long-since changed laws.

Laws that speak of rehabilitation, and re-entry into society. In sum, to my eye, he is closer to a child-murderer — and it counts for. . something, that he committed this assassination when he was a very young, deluded radical. At 78, we all may agree that he presents almost zero chance of re-offending, as his last prison infraction was in 1972. So — should he be able to die as a free man, without the state paying for his food, clothing and increasing health care needs? I think so. What do you think? Tell me in comments, as we watch Ida. . . arrive.

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