Full Circle

Posted on 7 August 2020 by eehines

Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance filed a new brief urging the Federal court in which he pleads District cases to allow him to execute his subpoenas for years of records regarding Trump businesses.

Vance is relying to an amazing degree on newspaper claims.

Court documents cited articles by The Wall Street Journal…and by the Washington Post….

Imagine that. Newspapers make unsubstantiated claims, which draw clicks to their outlets. Then prosecutors with axes to grind start manufacturing civil and criminal cases based on those newspaper articles, gaining political street cred for their ambitions. Then those newspapers write extensively about those civil and criminal cases as they develop, gaining yet more clicks for their outlets.

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Unlawful Delay?

Posted on 6 August 2020 by eehines

The Hong Kong Bar Association says the People’s Republic of China government’s move to delay Hong Kong’s legislature elections by a year “may be unlawful.”

They are mistaken; the delay is not unlawful. Unlawfulness presumes that there are laws to be broken. In a nation that rules by law—as opposed nations that operate under the principle of rule of law—any law is what the men of the People’s Republic of China government say it is. And they’ll adjust the text of a law, or rescind one or write a new one, at whim to suit their whims.

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Believable?

Posted on 5 August 2020 by eehines

Congresswoman Karen Bass (D, CA) now denies she’s a Castro simpática.

What Bass said when Fidel Castro died—in 2016, mind you—was this:

I wish to express my condolences to the Cuban people and the family of Fidel Castro. The passing of the comandante en jefe is a great loss to the people of Cuba.

Now she’s claiming

…she did not realize the impact she would have by referring to Castro as commander in chief of Florida’s Cuban exile community.

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Flynn, Mandamus, and the DC Circuit

Posted on 4 August 2020 by eehines

The DC Circuit has decided to rehear General Michael Flynn’s request for a mandamus ruling ordering the DC District Court to accept Flynn’s motion—agreed and proffered by DoJ—to drop entirely the case against Flynn. The Circuit plainly does not trust the original Circuit ruling to issue the mandamus and so to order the lower court.

The Wall Street Journal has opined on the matter. While I disagree with the DC Circuit’s decision to retry the Flynn mandamus appeal en banc, I more strongly disagree with the WSJ‘s rationale for not rehearing it.

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Hong Kong’s Elections

Posted on 3 August 2020 by eehines

They were scheduled for 6 September. Now they’re delayed by the People’s Republic of China for a year; although it was Hong Kong’s Chief Executive Carrie Lam who delivered the news.

Officially, the delay is due to the Wuhan Virus. However, the virus situation has been known for some months, but just before the decision to delay,

12 pro-democracy candidates were disqualified from running in the poll, for reasons including perceived subversive intentions, opposition to the new security law, and campaigning to win a legislation-blocking majority.

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Maybe Not So Much

Posted on 1 August 2020 by eehines

There may be an agreement between Oregon Governor Kate Brown (D) and DHS that Federal law enforcement officers in Portland will draw down to pre-rioting against and assaults on Federal property levels. The draw down is contingent on Oregon’s State police providing the requisite protection, with Federal law enforcement support.

However, the WSJ has this much wrong.

State and local police have so far failed to do that job in Portland.

No. Brown and Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler (D) have overtly prevented the State and local police from doing that job in Portland.

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Double Standards

Posted on 31 July 2020 by eehines

A Twitter representative illustrates.

Notice that. Even after the moderator’s clarification of Ostrovsky’s question, Twitter considers Iran’s head mullah Khamenei routinely calling for the destruction of Israel entirely acceptable “for conversation,” but Trump’s often rude remarks on Twitter worthy of warnings if not outright censorship and removal.

But @Jack doesn’t want to impact politics or political speech. And @Jack is an honorable man; so are they all, all of Twitter honorable men.

Aside: Arsen Ostrovsky is, among other things, Executive Director of The Israeli-Jewish Congress, an Israeli-based NGO.

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Progressive-Democrats and Economic Recovery

Posted on 29 July 2020 by eehines

Progressive-Democrats don’t seem to care about economic recovery, only about using the current Wuhan Virus situation and the economic dislocation the virus has spurred for their own political power gain.

This is made plain by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D, CA) in an interview she gave to CBS News‘ Face the Nation Sunday.

…what we will not support is the following. What they’re saying to essential workers, you have to go to work because you’re essential. We’ve place no responsibility on your employer to make that workplace safe and if you get sick, you have no recourse because we’ve given your employer protection.

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Preserving the Peace

Posted on 28 July 2020 by eehines

Christopher Columbus statues in Chicago’s Grant and Arrigo parks were taken down under cover of darkness in the wee hours of last Friday. Grant Park is in downtown Chicago, but Arrigo Park is in the heart of Chicago’s Little Italy.

The city’s tear-down was done in direct response to the prior week’s “protesters'” violence when they tried to rip the statues down themselves.

Chicago’s mayor, Lori Lightfoot (D), issued a statement about her government’s complicity in the statue takedown.

This step is about an effort to protect public safety and to preserve a safe space for an inclusive and democratic public dialogue about our city’s symbols[.]

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Politics of Division

Posted on 28 July 2020 by eehines

In a Fox News opinion piece about what Progressive-Democratic Party Presidential candidate Joe Biden needs to do to get elected besides ride ex-President Barack Obama’s (D) coattails, Progressive-Democrat Doug Schoen, 30 years a pollster and Democratic political consultant, had this remark.

Biden and his fellow Democrats are still struggling to develop a positive narrative surrounding Biden’s candidacy that is more than a reaction to President Trump’s polarization and division.

Trump’s polarization and division.

What polarization and division? It’s not Trump who’s practicing identity politics that, by design, divides and polarizes.

It’s not Trump who said 15% of Americans “are just no good.”

This is a preview of Politics of Division. Read the full post (378 words, estimated 1:31 mins reading time)

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Category Archives: ethics