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O/T: We [Again!] Need To Get Off-World — To See A More… Celestial Beauty… And Grace…

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And Jupiter has been as fertile, as the undulating Nile Valley — for new discoveries, of late. This week we learned, via gracefully-twisting, copper clad, long legged Juno… that powerful but “shallow” lightning bolts ripple through the upper atmosphere [much as the heat of a wet summer storm (on Earth) feels like the underside of a light cashmere sweater, against the skin] in certain bands, there — causing a soft mush of large ball methane “slush-balls” to plummet toward the surface, under the immense gravity of that gas giant. Do see the NASA/JPL visualization of that, in CGI — at the bottom.

With Trump pretending that a president may author laws — pass “bills” in his own ignorant parlance, tonight — and tax and spend (hint: he cannot do any of these things)… I really need to look to the night skies, and remind myself that fine humans the globe over are looking up, too — and seeing the graceful orb of Jupiter in their telescopes, too.

Indeed, we are not nearly as cut off from one another (nor from those we long love, but have now seen pass, to Infinity) as we might imagine… and what a sight it would be, to fly through that strange, slushy methane rain (see video below)… lightning striking all around. That thought. . . gives me new wings tonight. Here’s a bit of the science, from NASA:

…New results from NASA’s Juno mission at Jupiter suggest our solar system’s largest planet is home to what’s called “shallow lightning.” An unexpected form of electrical discharge, shallow lightning originates from clouds containing an ammonia-water solution, whereas lightning on Earth originates from water clouds.

Other new findings suggest the violent thunderstorms for which the gas giant is known may form slushy ammonia-rich hailstones — Juno’s science team calls “mushballs”; they theorize that mushballs essentially kidnap ammonia and water in the upper atmosphere and carry them into the depths of Jupiter’s atmosphere.

The shallow-lightning findings [were] published Thursday, Aug. 6, in the journal Nature, while the mushballs research is currently available online in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets….

“Previously, scientists realized there were small pockets of missing ammonia, but no one realized how deep these pockets went or that they covered most of Jupiter,” said Scott Bolton, Juno’s principal investigator at the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio. “We were struggling to explain the ammonia depletion with ammonia-water rain alone, but the rain couldn’t go deep enough to match the observations. I realized a solid, like a hailstone, might go deeper and take up more ammonia. When Heidi discovered shallow lightning, we realized we had evidence that ammonia mixes with water high in the atmosphere, and thus the lightning was a key piece of the puzzle….”

Be excellent to one another… history has its eyes on all of us.

नमस्ते

The Able USDC Judge Gee’s Latest Order — From Yesterday’s Hearing — In LA…

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Well. . . Sarah Fabian (and Donald Trump) have already been thoroughly… warned. In fact, yesterday Judge Gee told Ms. Fabian — on the record, that she found her refusals to comply with prior court orders… “dismaying” — and that her arguments, in the filed papers, were “disingenuous“. Most competent lawyers I know would very much wish to avoid being so characterized, by an able federal district court judge — for they are… the cream of the judicial crop. Humiliating, indeed….

Apparently not so, for one Sarah Fabian. Perhaps she thinks she will find work for some xenophobic far right think tank, after her time in Trump-landia ends. I honestly don’t understand why a bright woman — one of her caliber — would exhibit such open defiance of the standards of simple human decency — to say nothing of applicable law.

In any event, here is the full order, and a bit:

…Pursuant to the Court’s June 26, 2020 Order and July 25, 2020 Order Denying Defendants’ Ex Parte Application to Stay [Doc. # 887], the parties filed a joint status report on August 5, 2020 regarding the adoption and implementation of proper written advisals and other protocols to inform detained minors and their guardians/parents about minors’ rights under the FSA and to obtain information regarding, and procedures for placement with, available and suitable sponsors.

Plaintiffs reported that the parties had come close to an agreement on a know-your-rights protocol, but Defendants stated their unwillingness to “voluntarily agree to any protocol that would potentially provide for the separation of a parent and child who are currently housed together in an ICE FRC.” Joint Status Report at 6 [Doc. # 902]. At the hearing, Defendants reiterated their view that the parties had exhausted any meet-and-confers on the topic. The Court therefore will proceed to impose a remedy for Defendants’ past and ongoing violations of Paragraphs 12, 14, and 18 of the FSA.

See June 27, 2017 Order at 27, 31 (finding violations of Paragraphs 12A, 14, 18) [Doc. # 363]; April 24, 2020 Order at 6, 16, 18 (finding such violations); June 26, 2020 Order at 3 (“ICE’s compliance with Paragraphs 12, 14, and 18 of the FSA remains at issue.”). Plaintiff shall therefore file a motion for implementation of proposed remedy for findings of breach, to be briefed and heard on an expedited schedule, described below….

August 14 will be the next delivery of briefs, on those sanctions. Onward — literally shaking my head at this… depravity.

नमस्ते

Odd. John Seems To Think Only Republicans… Pay Taxes, In The Carolinas… Very Curious.

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I will only mention in passing — this latest ass-hattery — from Hinderaker.

John complains bitterly this morning that an assistant professor at Clemson, a state school, has openly opined that all Trump supporters are xenophobes and racists. [I might edit that thought… only slightly — to observe that all his supporters (here in 2020), at a minimum, are completely aware of all his racist activities — still ongoing — and are completely indifferent… to his openly-avowed racism.]

From where I sit — that latter statement — based only on all the tons of available evidence, is [applying the principles of Sir William of Occam]… a fact.

John gets all frothy, though — in saying “Republicans are paying” the professor to say these things.

I do know Mr. Hinderaker’s aging brain… is growing more feeble, by the day — but to claim (as he does) that only Republicans pay taxes at the state level, in the Carolinas… is truly delusional.

Moreover, it ignores all the state land grant university professors who have tenure in the Carolinas… and continue to make… actually racist statements, themselves. Many more citations — available on request.

Out.

Amici’s 120 Plus Page Brief, Now On File — In Flores: Children Being… Tortured, In Our Name.

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I am running out of words, for the depravity embodied in Team Trump’s litigation positions, as they relate to defenseless… children. Children guilty (at most) of a misdemeanor (like jay-walking) — by crossing with their parent or guardian, without papers.

Here’s a bit, of the 120 page filing:

…More specifically, Defendants assert a Class Member’s refusal to separate from their parents creates a valid justification for detention under the Agreement. It does not. Class Members did not negotiate an Agreement that requires them to choose between freedom from harmful detention conditions and family unity; Class Members negotiated a legally binding contract that provides them with the right to be with their parents in the first instance and the right to be released from detention. FSA ¶¶ 11, 19. The maintenance of family unity of Class Members, who are minors, and their parents, cannot be deemed a “waiver” of their right to release under the Agreement….

The CDC specifically lists asthma, respiratory conditions, and high blood pressure among conditions that might increase the risk for severe illness from COVID-19 for individuals of all ages, and also advises that children who have “medical complexity, who have neurologic, genetic, metabolic conditions, or who have congenital heart disease” are at an increased risk for “severe illness from COVID-19 compared to other children.”

Among those detained beyond twenty days with risk factors and vulnerabilities are a number of children under the age of two, a three-month-old infant, a child suffering from chronic bronchitis, a one-year-old who suffered from neonatal asphyxia, children with asthma, children with viral stomatitis, and children with heart murmurs….

Unfathomable. These are the cases Sarah Fabian says her client, the US government — is now refusing any more meet and confer sessions, on. Yes, Judge Gee will now sanction the defendants — and possibly Sarah Fabian, personally — its lawyer in this matter.

नमस्ते

Hinderaker Uses UK Deaths… To Lie About US Deaths.

~ condor ~ 1 Comment

I think John’s cheese has slid off.. his cracker.

He completely ignores the fact that deaths in the US are accelerating, past 162,000 tonight — and won’t likely decline until late September, when almost certainly now, over 210,000 people in the US will have died. That will be between the third and fifth worst per capita COVID mortality, in larger post industrial economies.

He talks, speciously, about the UK, then offers this:

“…[It] is overwhelmingly the very elderly and infirm who are at risk. So why the hysteria?

That is where we are today. Examples of this phenomenon could be multiplied — claims about racial injustice are another obvious example — but for now let’s stick with COVID….

I can’t explain why so many Americans have seemingly abandoned their own observations as a guide to reality, but that does seem to be the point at which we have arrived….“

Another 9/11 — every two days, now. That’s reality in the US — all but 20,000 — or 90 per cent of the deaths, were avoidable — had Trump led competently, with science.

And if John had ever stopped… lying.

[If John hasn’t gone… insane… this post of his tonight is among the most reprehensible… he’s ever written.]

The bright spot? It is that he again tacitly admits, in his conclusion, that Trump will … lose in November.

Out.

[U: Adjourned.] Observations, During Live LA Federal Flores “Children: Impermissible Detention By ICE/DHS/HHS” Hearing…

~ condor ~ 3 Comments

As I am listening in, I will post snippets here, starting at 2 PM EDT.

But I expect Sarah Fabian’s team to be excoriated, by the able USDC Judge Dolly Gee.

…We are now underway; all counsel of record have checked in, and

∇ Judge Gee is calling the “hoteling issue” first….

∇ Sarah Fabian says it is not on the agenda. Judge Gee disagrees — she says all children in legal custody are part of the Flores settlement. Title 42 or no, they are to be addressed here.

∇ Judge Gee: Expedited briefing on this: August 14 for Plaintiffs; August 21 for government; reply by August 28….

∇ Briefs must include total number of kids, ages and numbers, by age, of these children….

∇ On to juvenile custody conditions: Judge Gee will instruct counsel to meet and confer as to the aging out process….

∇ Judge Gee wants this latest “squandered month” to be explained by Ms. Fabian — and expresses her “dismay” to Sarah Fabian, interjecting that she has been less than proactive about the litigation process….

∇ Judge Gee: “Ms. Fabian, you act like you don’t understand how litigation works” — “This is not your first rodeo — I may now impose a remedy against the Government…”

∇ Judge Gee reminds Sarah Fabian of her embarrassing performance — on what is “safe and sanitary conditions“, in ICE detention….

∇ Judge Gee calls Sarah Fabian’s position “disingenuous” — because she is not cooperating any longer in the ORDERED meet and confers. Peter Schey now explains how the Government hasn’t moved forward, to address the provided information — on breach of the settlement….

∇ Judge Gee asks Sarah Fabian why the Government isn’t providing the notices of rights, required under Section 12 of the Flores agreement… Fabian responds that they are trying to work out procedures… Judge Gee says you need to act on those commitments, and provide notices of rights….

∇ Judge Gee is now summarizing the various filings the Government owes the court by August 14….

∇ Judge Gee says she cannot understand how any lawyer can have a problem (meaning Sarah Fabian) with written advisals of legal rights…. [Ed. Note: I suspect Judge Gee is going to order it, now specifically.]

∇ Judge Gee orders the ACLU, by August 14, 2020 — to offer a list of proposed remedies against Team Trump, for the failures mentioned above.

Onward — but if I were Ms. Sarah Fabian, I’d be deeply embarrassed — and worried, now — to have to explain to any potential future employer (after her time under Trump ends), asking about these on the record positions, about children being tortured in solitary confinement…. Astonishing.

नमस्ते

Ahem. 50 U.S.C. § 1702(b)(3) Specifically Exempts “Information, Or Informational Materials” — Including “Films.. And Artwork” From Bans.

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Before we discuss the likely “arbitrary and capricious” infirmities in Trump’s supposed executive “order” — and before we reach his lack of power to ban constitutional First Amendment expressive activity… AND before we consider that he has floated it as a form of unlawful blackmail, on videotape, this week… let us consider the savings clause inside the very law he claims to rely on (50 U.S.C. § 1702)1, in setting a 45 day delayed “prohibition” of certain apps. [Finally of course, as we previously mentioned, it is practically impossible to do, as a technical matter, what he says he is trying to do.]

The section of the US Code that allows the president to act on international emergencies to restrict certain foreign transactions with US persons is — see page 12 of this primer — itself expressly circumscribed by Congress, to recognize core free expression values in the First Amendment, thus:

…Amendments in 1988 and 1994 updated this list of protected rights to include the exchange of published information in a variety of formats…. As amended, the act currently protects the exchange of “information or informational materials, including but not limited to, publications, films, posters, phonograph records, photographs, microfilms, microfiche, tapes, compact disks, CD ROMs, artworks, and news wire feeds,” provided such exchange is not otherwise controlled for national security or foreign policy reasons related to weapons proliferation or international terrorism….

Tik Tok’s primary content is user uploaded (and as here relevant, US protected persons’ expressive) short films, recordings, and artwork. This means, in effect, Trump’s action is meaningless.

Moreover, it is why his executive order itself says it is limited, to “the extent permitted under applicable law” (i.e., his people know this is all just so much… Kabuki theater). Except as a false, lawless international “blackmail” threat — this, like all things Trump — arrives… impotent. Impotent, except as a minor and doubtful cudgel, to try and force ByteDance to sell its US facing Tik Tok assets to Microsoft or Apple (and perhaps, lawlessly, for him to extract blackmail payments, from US companies). His people once again imagine he has powers he plainly… does not possess.

नमस्ते

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1. Perhaps uncharitably, it is… humorous, to me that Trumps’ official White House communication, to the Speaker of the US House, is itself a form the rubes did not bother to edit. It leads with two alternative addressees — but does’t delete “Mr. President.” These people are so… manifestly… incompetent. Yikes.

Flores Class Counsel Has Tonight Completely BURIED Sarah Fabian’s Dissembling Claims Of Last Night…

~ condor ~ 1 Comment

Do go read all of it.

No comment needed — other than this is what real lawyers… do: they lawyer. Against (in this case) an inability to read, for comprehension / or, less charitably, lying — by a DoJ political appointee hack.

…First, whether children detained for prolonged periods in hotels are in the legal custody of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (“CDC”) or the Department of Homeland Security (“DHS”) is irrelevant. The Settlement protects “all minors who are detained in the legal custody of the INS,” and binds the INS and Department of Justice, as well as “their agents, employees, contractors, and/or successors in office.” Settlement ¶¶ 1, 10 (emphasis added). The Homeland Security Act of 2002, Pub. L. 107-296, 116 Stat. 2135, codified in pertinent part at 6 U.S.C. § 279 (“HSA”), transferred responsibility for “the care of unaccompanied alien children” to “the Director of the Office of Refugee Resettlement of the Department of Health and Human Services….” Had Congress stopped there Defendants’ argument would at least be plausible. But it did not….

Congress provided that “the care and custody of all unaccompanied alien children, including responsibility for their detention, where appropriate, shall be the responsibility of the Secretary of Health and Human Services.” 8 U.S.C. § 1232(b)(1) (emphasis added). The statute specifically references the Secretary’s responsibility for a child’s placement and release. See, e.g., § 1232(c)(2)(A) (“Subject to section 279(b)(2) of Title 6, an unaccompanied alien child in the custody of the Secretary of Health and Human Services shall be promptly placed in the least restrictive setting that is in the best interest of the child.”) (emphasis added); § 1232(c)(3)(A) (“[A]n unaccompanied alien child may not be placed with a person or entity unless the Secretary of Health and Human Services makes a determination that the proposed custodian is capable of providing for the child’s physical and mental well-being.”); § 1232(c)(3)(B) (“Before placing the child with an individual, the Secretary of Health and Human Services shall determine whether a home study is first necessary.”).

Insofar as the custody of unaccompanied class members are concerned, the TVPRA specifically designates the Secretary of Health and Human Services (“HHS”) as the successor to the former Immigration and Naturalization Service (“INS”). As Defendants admit, Response at 7, both the CDC and ORR are subordinate entities of HHS, and whether CDC, ORR, or any other part of HHS has legal custody of Title 42 children is therefore immaterial: HHS has legal custody either way, and the Settlement binds HHS just as much as it does DHS….

Again, whether HHS, DHS, or any other federal department or agency has legal custody of an unaccompanied child, all federal agencies — including the CDC — are equally duty-bound to transfer the child to HHS, which must then “promptly place[] [her or him] in the least restrictive setting that is in the best interest of the child.” See 8 U.S.C. § 1232(c)(2)(A)….

Given the immense unused capacity of Defendants’ licensed shelters, including numerous shelters proximate to the southern border, there is simply no reason Defendants should be detaining children in hotels for any longer than 72 hours, and certainly not for as long as 19 days….

Some children, as young as two or three — have now been held for over 19 days, against a standard of 72 hours maximum, under the Flores settlement. Onward, to tomorrow’s massacre, of Sarah Fabian’s positions, in Los Angeles federal district court. We will live blog. Out.

नमस्ते

Gosh — John Hinderaker Is… Such A Whiny Victim, When Called On His Racist… Lies.

~ condor ~ 2 Comments

Tonight, Hinderaker finally figured out that his “Lie-In“-webinar, a video of his lies on US crime and race (he and one Heather Mac Donald try to perpetuate, and amplify) has been put behind an “offensive content” warning click-through / black screen, on YouTube. Oh. The. Humanities. — Clutch those pearls, boys….

To hear him tell it, these are injustices commensurate with those suffered by the women accused, tortured and hung — at the Salem Witch Trials.

Precious.

He is a decidedly silly old fool — and a… racist.

So now, I will re-run the balance of mine, on it all — from a week ago, below:

Sadly, Hinderaker And I Have Done THIS Dance Many Times, Before…

So forgive me — if I use some shorthand. [Click to enlarge.]

Today, he cries about being de-platformed. He was de-platformed, because he tells, and amplifies, obvious racial lies. Lies about crime — and race — in America.

Lies, that are intended to distract from the fact that in the US, any black person is TWICE as likely as any white person, to die — if they encounter the police, in any setting involving either a warrantless “stop and frisk“, or full probable cause arrest. [Note that it would be damn near impossible for any unarmed person to kill any police officer, once his/her gun is already drawn. Thus the highly misleading statistic, on the slide.]

That is… a fact. But it prevents his “white grievance” narrative from gaining traction.

So he, and this goof mouth-piece, on the video — dress up an irrelevant stat, comparing UNARMED black men, to all officers, white and black.

He thus assumes we are each warring tribes, simply trying to inflict casualties on each other.

That is not America. Police are supposed to serve ALL of us. We are all supposed to protect… each other.

Their own slide above, makes it clear that they do not agree with this view of America.

They see America solely as a racial war zone.

I’ll not dissect the other slides — as I say, John and I have done this dance, before — using (as I recall) the 2002 UCRs or Uniform Crime Reports. These are the nation-wide reports Trump now suppresses, in 2020 — because the truth is too damning.

In any event, if need be — I’ll return to this and dissect them all.

Goodnight, John… you [and your mouthpiece, on the video — soon to vanish again, in all likelihood] are not worthy of substantial effort in a reasoned debate — your hatred clouds… every single thing you touch.

[Soon enough, perhaps sooner than you imagine, in fact — you’ll be in one of those senior centers in Minnesota, you keep complaining about. And you will have… completely… earned it.]

I’m out.

[Unrelated Update, At Bottom] New York AG Files Suit To Dissolve The NRA — For Fraud, And Self-Dealing.

~ condor ~ 1 Comment

Well, no Trump family indictments just yet (which many had speculated this announcement might include)… but good news, just the same.

It is now highly likely the NRA will be dissolved, and its funds used to repay victims of its manifold frauds. Here’s the bit from a tweet out of the NY AG’s offices:

…We are seeking to dissolve the NRA for years of self-dealing and illegal conduct that violate New York’s charities laws and undermine its own mission.

The NRA diverted millions of dollars away from its charitable mission for personal use by senior leadership….

Unrelated Update, at Noon EDT: I will not dignify the bass-ackwards would-be federal lawsuit filed by Trump people in Nevada (on mail-in voting) with any longer reply. I will however, commend this fine legal analysis of its numerous fundamental flaws to the readership.

Onward… grinning. Ever onward.

नमस्ते