We live in a democracy with a balance between a defendant’s rights and the power of the state. It isn’t perfect, it’s often frustrating, but it beats the alternative of a police state where the government has unlimited power to get people to spill their guts in pursuit of a crime. That’s not the kind of country I want to live in.
15 Likes
Too cold, and too old to get my freak on last night.
12 Likes
Davidians?
4 Likes
@Hatmama Jesse Wegman on the SC’s recent “ethics code.” Yes, there’s always impeachment, in theory. Lots has been written on the new “ethics code,” but I found Wegman’s scathing analysis particularly good.
17 Likes
Well then, I hope you got your quilt on last night.
9 Likes
The legal system is failing in the principle that Justice delayed is Justice denied. A principle that applies to both defendants and the public who needs to see action against alleged criminal activity.
4 Likes
Bannon stiffed his lawyers. So did Rudy. Prosecutors draw the same salary no matter who they prosecute. Appellate attorneys don’t appeal if they don’t get paid. And so on.
Bannon is going to prison, most likely first for NY state fraud charges come next spring. Navarro is going to prison too, probably not right away but in the next year or so. Lawyers can help delay the inevitable, but they cannot make it un-inevitable. trump is finding that out too.
37 Likes
I think he still uses one of those old electric blankets.
2 Likes
I agree that unusually long delays result in justice denied. On the other hand, this isn’t a smash and grab at a jewelry store that can move through the court system quickly. The DC and GA election interference trials have many moving parts, many co-conspirators and witnesses to deal with.
So I would cut the justice system some slack in not getting here any sooner, just for the sheer scale of the crimes and the number of people involved.
4 Likes
The chance of electrocution or being burned keeps life interesting I suppose.
7 Likes
Rather pointedly, democracy is not “beating” a police state. In the cases described here, the people trying to build a police state have escaped the clutches of democracy, again.
I recognize that’s not the sense of “to beat” that you had in mind, but it will be the far more important sense.
This is not football. The sides don’t go home after the big game and then return next season to repeat it all for fun. Losing today means there will be no tomorrow. With all due respect to Elise Bean, this article describes losses, not victories. The sugar-coating about potential future effects is a fantasy that doesn’t pass the laugh test. Exercising restraint now out of principle will do nothing to temper the abuses that Bannon and/or Navarro will help usher in in 2025. The only use for her law degree will be to help richies like Elon Musk sue private citizens for saying that Teslas look ugly.
I’m gonna let this rest before I turn more into a sea-lion.
8 Likes
Wondering if they’re as afraid of him and his supporters as they are TIFG and his supporters.
Those supporters may be one and the same (or at least cross, in the manner of a Venn diagram).
2 Likes
Actually I have a comforter and thick cotton blanket under that. And socks on the feet of course.
3 Likes
I’d love to see the Branch Davidians make arguments to the SCOTUS. Are there any left?
4 Likes
They’ve gone the way of the Branch Denisovans.
12 Likes
This is a long wait but not terribly unusual (there was a case, IIRC, here in the 7th Circuit that sat undecided for years). 10-14 months is fairly average, we’re beyond that but not in molasses glacier territory.
The panel consisted of Garcia, Pillard, and Walker. I leave to the Hive to consider whether the delay is attributable to someone’s unhappiness with the current draft opinion.
ETA: Oral argument was on the 9th, and since Bannon appealed from the conviction on November 4, 2022, this actually is fairly slow. Looking at the DC Court of Appeals’ schedule for oral arguments, though, there appear a few cases up for argument that may have been around even longer. So: delay there is, but it may be attributable more to a backlog than the merits of the case (and too early for drafts to be floating around). Also, Judge Walker (the lone Trump appointee on the panel) reportedly was skeptical of Schoen’s arguments on Bannon’s behalf.
12 Likes
I would feel better if they went to jail for 20 years, and got sued by the lawyers when they got out and went back in to debtor’s prison for another 20. 
8 Likes
The first death by electric shock other than lightning occurred in Lyon France to a stage carpenter. A Seimens AC generator used for lighting was the perp.
12 Likes
The oaks are 95% down. Time to finish cleaning up the mess they make.
Beautiful trees but a pain in the ass.
2 Likes
IOKIYAR
1 Like