Roundup
(1) Is the Engoron verdict against Trump a violation of the 8th Amendment against the imposition of “excessive fines”? And if so, is Trump required to post the excessive fine and go through the entire state appeal process before getting to a federal court?
(2) I thought the British royal family didn’t comment on politics. Why did William make an exception?
(3) As if this all weren’t enough, now we have zombie deer, a prion disease.
(4) CAIR, which to the best of my recollection came into prominence in the US after 9/11 in the fight against so-called “Islamophobia,” is a front for the Muslim Brotherhood.
On (1), I’ve wondered if Trump can go straight to federal court and bypass the NY state courts for this reason. I don’t know. I don’t know much about NY appellate courts, but I have my doubts about whether he would get a fair shake. I also have my doubts about the quality of the legal representation advising him on the matter.
Why did William make an exception?
Because he’s an idiot?
RE: Deer zombie disease. Prion diseases are mainly transmitted by consumption of neural tissue, primarily the spinal cord and or brain. Low efficiency transmission is possible by handling contaminated tissue with open cuts or abrasions. Suggestions that this might erupt into the general human population are just click bait.
An old favorite quote:
‘There were five forms of governance that migrated from theory to reality in the 20th Century: Socialism, Communism, Fascism, Nazism and Progressivism. The common denominator among them was unprecedented control and regulation by the State over human activity. It is delusional to think that the totalitarian impulse expired with the 20th Century.’ – E. Nuff Said
(2), (4), and (5) – Islamists may be worse than those 5 all put together…if that is even possible!?
William and his father have both been vocal about “climate change” and in favor of the left-wing policies the alarmists call for. This excursion into foreign wars is new, though. It’s easy to imagine that their sole news source is the BBC.
Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) is the prion disease they’re talking about here, and it’s been in Minnesota and Wisconsin for decades. The state DNR routinely takes samples of brain tissue when you check in your deer after harvest.
This is nothing new, just the latest attempt to keep the ignorant in a state of panic.
It’s mostly found in areas where deer congregate tightly; where people routinely feed large groups of deer is a major contributing factor. But deer also congregate in “deer yards” in the wild in wintertime, and I’ve seen over 50 deer in a small clearing in the woods…got close enough to peg a big buck with a snowball, and watch the clearing explode with running/jumping critters.
The British royal family is a great example of regression to the mean.
Furthermore the judge committed errors in fact in his decision should have used a ouija board. Like misrepresenting cash entries on financial statements
https://melaniephillips.substack.com/p/prince-william-and-the-red-cross
Part of the last omnibi
https://www.theblaze.com/news/biden-s-doj-awards-university-nearly-1m-to-create-disinformation-dashboard-to-help-track-curb-violent-extremism?utm_source=theblaze-breaking&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=20240221Trending-ActiveTrending&utm_term=ACTIVE%20LIST%20-%207%20Day%20Engagement&tpcc=email-breaking
#5… Same as it ever was.
“Diversity is our strength.”
Uh huh…pull the other one.
Re: France
The French are trying harder than you may think.
–“France in Full Revolt: Farmers, Truckers, and Construction Workers Unite Against Macron’s Globalist Agenda… 5-Day Blockade Surrounds Paris”
https://citizenwatchreport.com/france-in-full-revolt-farmers-truckers-and-construction-workers-unite-against-macrons-globalist-agenda-5-day-blockade-surrounds-paris/
This hasn’t gotten much attention in our press. The non-Woke French are on to the Muslim threat too.
It’s a hard story to follow. The French media are no better than ours.
___________________________
Joan, you are our only hope…
Come save [France] a second time
–”Chant for Saint Joan of Arc”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sI2v4FckAuw
Re: Deer Zombie Disease
One major concern is that it is spreading. I think the fact that there are so many places where deer populations have gone crazy has helped. Some states’ Departments of Natural Resources offer testing if hunters want it for their kill. For a while, it was only being found in the west, but that it is spreading east is a concern. Also, it could be like Mad Cow / New Variant CJD, Kuru, and other prion diseases and take a loooooong time to show up in humans. A friend who does research in neurobiology said that one theory about the spread of CJD (not the new variant, which is “mad cow” but the original CJD) is that it may have spread through optometrists. Which is why I will only do the “puff of air” test for glaucoma.
A funny thing I’ve noticed in my life since Joan of Arc…
There is no better example of a “girlboss” in all of human history, but no liberal Christian church nor Woke film studio will touch the Maid of Orleans, La Pucelle d’Orléans, today.
I attended a beautiful progressive Episcopalian church in San Francisco which had commissioned a monumental mural of saints wrapping around its rotunda:
https://www.saintgregorys.org/the-dancing-saints.html
Needless to say, they crammed in every remotely intersectional saint they could conjure.
Except Joan of Arc.
I asked. I was told they had enough women in the roster and besides Joan didn’t give quite the right message.
‘… in all of human history…”
Hmm…I would imagine that in some corner of heaven (or for some people, Hell) Maggie Thatcher is harrumphing…
Barry Meislin:
I guess I missed the part of Maggie’s life when, as a teenager, she persuaded a near-monarch to give her control of an army to go out and defeat an opposing military force, and then she did. 🙂
Joan was burnt at the stake at the age of 19.
Sui generis.
Well, Thatcher suffered her very own auto da fe—so to speak—at a more advanced age…
(At least one could say, more prosaically, she was deposed…)
No doubt they’ve been discussing the matter even as we speak…
MT: It must have been so exciting for you! Oh, how I DO wish that, donning armor, I could have, on a jet-black steed, led my valiant soldiers in the far-off Falklands…. Oh, it would have been glorious. I would have been glorious. Dennis would have been so proud….
JoA: Exciting it was, madame, and glorious, too; but I do wish our Dear Lord—Whose Glory fills the Heavens—could have made it a bit more, um, comfortable. Nothing is beyond His power, so we MUST believe, don’t you agree? But tell me, madame: I hope I’m not being too discourteous—I hold you in great respect, this you must surely know—but how in God’s great world did you end up marrying someone like Dennis?
Etc., etc.,
By all rights Trump should go to federal court in NY and seek an injunction against that Order. But I recall from law school that there is something called the Anti-Injunction Act.
Maybe file a declaratory judgment, but that might not be good enough.
And, of course, the federal judges in NY are probably no better than the state court judges.
This is all insane.
Speaking about insanity, I had some recent interactions with libs online and it is clear to me that they are mostly insane and we will never agree with them on anything important. The funny thing is when – acting all concerned for me – they tell me I’m disturbed and need “to seek help.”
On another note, my best friend was in Vegas right after the Super Bowl. She said the place was over-run with “furries.” These are people who dress up like animals. Add that to the trans movement and it is clear we are in a late-stage civilizational collapse. Just wait until the blackouts start.
I worked in the New York appellate courts for some years. I don’t know for sure if there’s some route by which Trump can bypass the state courts to get to federal court, but I don’t believe he can — unless there’s some route straight to the Supreme Court.
Assuming he can somehow solve the problem of the appeal bond, either by getting it deferred pending the appeal or finding the money somewhere, his first State Court appeal would be to the Appellate Division, First Department. New York has a three-tier system for its principal state courts, with the Supreme Court where Trump’s trial occurred at the bottom (just to confuse us), an intermediate appellate court, the Appellate Division, above that and on top, the Court of Appeals, a seven-judge court that is the last stop for state law issues.
The Appellate Division is divided into four departments state-wide. The First Department covers New York County and the Bronx, where Trump’s trial was. The Second covers Long Island and some counties north of NYC. The Third and Fourth cover the rest of the state. My familiarity is with the Third and Fourth, and if Trump’s appeal were there, I’d feel pretty confident he’d have a fair chance. The upstate courts are non-partisan, as the population is mixed Dem/Repub and the judges elected to the courts reflect that. The upstate appellate judges, in my experience, are fine, well-prepared judges who take the law seriously and don’t divide themselves up on the basis of politics.
I just don’t know if that’s true of the First and Second Departments. In New York, judges are elected to the Supreme Court, and then the Governor picks judges from the Supreme Court ranks to appoint to the Appellate Division. NY has not had a Republican governor since 2006. Plus, judges who succeed in getting elected in New York County (basically Manhattan) are likely to be Democrats. Are they just a bunch of Judge Engorons? They certainly could be. I wish I knew.
On the other hand, the First Department has expertise in commercial law and handles many highly complex banking and finance cases, because, of course, it’s New York City. It’s possible that the Court might just be too familiar with commercial law to blind itself to what took place in the trial court; or that the judges might be more interested in their own legacies and reputations than J. Engoron appears to be. I hope so.
Trump’s appeal to the Appellate Division would be as of right — the Appellate Division has to hear it, as long as Trump meets all the timing and bond requirements. That’s not true of the Court of Appeals, which can and does turn down many attempted appeals. It is a deeply Democratic court. I may have lost track a bit, but the last I knew, six of the seven judges, including the Chief Justice, were Democrats, and all of them were appointed by Democratic Governors. Several of the Justices are very far over indeed to the left. That Court was not historically politicized or notably partisan, but that has been changing lately. Former Chief Justice Janet DiFiori resigned in 2022 in the wake of a highly controversial and divisive 4-3 gerrymandering decision that stood on principle, not politics, and badly hurt the State Democratic party. The surviving judges will certainly remember that. Faced with Trump, as a bunch of Democrats, would they have the courage to try to be fair? I am not at all sure.
Israel Update, Mike and Gadi chat up the news, “99 out of 120 Knesset members tell Biden: DON’T! “: https://rumble.com/v4ev71r-99-out-of-120-knesset-members-tell-biden-dont.html
3) A few months ago we had a beautiful fawn suffering from chronic wasting disease on our property. It was very sad to watch. Its mother and one of its siblings kept tabs on it from afar, and appeared to be trying to help it up close, during the nights. I know a lot of people view deer as pests, especially the herds that live amongst us suburban/urbanites, but they are beautiful creatures to me. They run and jump so effortlessly and elegantly. It was tragic to watch one unable to control its movements as it wasted away.
https://twitter.com/DiMartinoBooth/status/1760428316937347408
The terrible Trump verdict is a clear and present example of legal tyranny, with a good law against fraud being used in a bad way to persecute somebody.
Sad, outrageous, unjust, unfair, total violation of rule of law.
Dems & Trump haters are calling him a fraud, a criminal, and this verdict supports that rationalization. Juries can be wrong, and judges can be very wrong. And in this case, they are, falsely punishing the innocent. A Type 1 error, where letting the guilty go free is a T 2 error.
Trump supporters will be more strongly supportive—which might be what Dems want.
Recent Trump reply about revenge, which he’s not into, “my success will be revenge.”
The West has done a bang up job of ignoring that we have been at war with Islam since 711 ad.
The royals take care not to come down in favor of any British political party, but they do address social issues: Charles with ecology and architecture, Diana with landmines and AIDS. William is looking for something to do to fill his days until he becomes king, so like his father, he’ll find things to talk about.
Lee also:
The “puff of air” method isn’t as accurate as the Goldmann tonometry (contact method). Unless, maybe, your optomotrest has the most modern air puffer.
The research opthalomologists at the Casey Eye Institute (Portland OR, eye disease is all they do, not brains) don’t use air puffers. Goldman tonometry is the “gold standard.”
Glaucoma can develop in eyes with “normal” interoccular pressure. Your eye doc should be looking at your optic nerve margin as well as monitoring your eye pressure once you reach a “certain age.”
You don’t want glaucoma to be found when you go in for cataract surgery.
If this guy isn’t an opthalomogist why would you trust your vision to him?
#1 Emergency stay of the trial court’s ruling. Based upon his 8th Amendment rights against excessive fines. (That’s the federal hook.) But he has to show a probability of succeeding on the merits.
This is a civil fine, which are designed to deter unwanted behavior. So what behavior is to be deterred? Having one opinion on what real estate properties are valued, creditors another, and agreeing to a line of credit, which the debtor pays off in full and on time? Gosh, can’t have that.
Granting the stay only delays paying the fine, whereas not granting could result in the defendant having to liquidate assets at below market prices, causing financial injury.
Just off the top of my head.
Maybe 60-40 he gets it.
(2) The Daily Mail thinks that there has been some politicking involved in Prince William’s statement. He is not an idiot, based on past form, but I suspect his acquaintance with non-elite sources of information is small.
Which should not be the case with a monarch-in-waiting.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13108499/I-hand-Lord-Cameron-Williams-call-end-Israeli-war-Gaza-requested-Foreign-Secretary-royal-biographer-Tom-Bower-claims.html
@ huxley > “This hasn’t gotten much attention in our press. The non-Woke French are on to the Muslim threat too.”
Correlation or causation?
We could use a few more Joans, and Maggies, on both sides of the pond.
“Joan didn’t give quite the right message.”
Of course not: she was obeying the voices of Saints per their orders from God, and we can’t have THAT, now can we?
The same reaction from the French and English prelates at the time was the true cause of her trial and execution.
Everything they cited in their charges was just the excuse.
The mural is quite stunning and the heavenly dancing is fine by me*, although I was surprised that Lady Godiva’s hair was not a bit more (ahem) strategically draped (there are children still attending the church, are there not?).
I have no objection to Christians honoring great people of all faiths (or none), because the Lord uses all of his children in his work (and sometimes they have to be “behind the lines” so to speak), but the prelates here seem to be taking the meaning of “canonization” a bit loosely.
*The stylized positions reminded me of this picture of Shakers dancing.
https://daily.jstor.org/the-rhythms-of-shaker-dance-marked-the-shakers-as-other/
A short video; the only accompaniment for their dancing is their singing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lhc9PK2tG5k
@ Miguel > The Biden administration keeps getting more totalitarian every day.
I can give them the answers to those questions for less than $1M:
(1) Someone said something bad about Democrats or good about Republicans.
(2) The platform is run by conservatives or heretical liberals, and/or read by conservatives and heretical liberals.
(3) They are conservatives or Republicans.
(4) The key themes are criticism of Democrats or the Left, regardless of any variance.
Easy-peasy.
And thanks for the link to Melanie Phillips’ mask-lifting report on the Red Cross.
And she cites worse things than that, specifically about the 10/7 massacre and hostages.
Some years ago, I read a report on charities that indicated the Red Cross was among the worst in using donations to actually help people (as opposed to paying “overhead” and raising funds) and have never given them another penny.
That’s independent of their political positions.
Round-up looks like a good place for these.
https://www.thefp.com/p/alexei-navalny-the-people-who-look-the-other-way
Alexei Navalny: ‘The People Who Look the Other Way’
@ Mrs+Whatsit
“On the other hand, the First Department has expertise in commercial law and handles many highly complex banking and finance cases, because, of course, it’s New York City. It’s possible that the Court might just be too familiar with commercial law to blind itself to what took place in the trial court; or that the judges might be more interested in their own legacies and reputations than J. Engoron appears to be. I hope so.”
• 100% agree with your “I hope so” – for all our sakes.
• Recently listened to a “Twitter podcast” that involved several lawyers that I follow, and they were discussing Trump’ options.
• No clear direction – since this a unique abuse of the law, etc. – but felt like Trump could make a case to the SC, once the NY appeals process had been completed.
• If they are right about the “been completed”, they pointed out that Trump would need to request a SC review if the NY appellate judges supported Engoron’ decision.
• And they noted that the NY appellate judges may not want to risk going down in history as not only being overruled by the SC – but being overruled due to their support of such an egregious & blatant abuse of the law.
• Their “legacies and reputations” analysis strikes me as a key factor – in favor of Trump prevailing in NY – in part because I learned early in life to never underestimate the ego of people in power.
Thank you for sharing