scipan
scipan's JournalRevealed: rightwinger Leonard Leo linked to efforts to keep Trump on ballot
In this instance, Accountable.US found ties between Leo and the following groups or their lawyers that filed amicus briefs in the 14th amendment case: Citizens United, the Public Interest Legal Foundation, the Claremont Institute, Landmark Legal Foundation, Judicial Watch, Jones Day, Wyoming’s secretary of state Chuck Gray and America’s Future.
Citizens United, a conservative group whose name is synonymous with the 2010 supreme court ruling that allows unlimited political spending by outside groups and corporations, filed a brief alongside Steven Calabresi, Leo’s fellow co-chair of the Federalist Society. Other lawyers tied to the society are signed on to the group’s brief as well.
The Public Interest Legal Foundation’s brief is co-filed with a man who has been featured in more than 100 Federalist Society events, and the group has received funding from groups tied to Leo. The Claremont Institute has also received funds from groups tied to Leo’s funding network, and the brief’s author wrote a book that includes a quote from Leo on the back cover and featured in society events.
Leo has complimented the chairman of the Landmark Legal Foundation as a “great patriot” and “our old Federalist Society stalwart”. The Judicial Watch president is also president of the Council for National Policy, which Leo has reportedly been involved with. Jones Day, a conservative law firm whose attorneys authored an amicus brief for the National Republican Senatorial Committee, has given money to the Federalist Society, and the firm is where Leo, Trump and others met to come up with a list of supreme court candidates.
https://www.theguardian.com/law/2024/feb/09/leonard-leo-federalist-society-trump-ballot-supreme-court
And here I thought SCOTUS wanted the Koch's candidate Nikki Haley. This is bad.
Mueller she wrote: What's taking the DC Circuit so long
https://post.news/@/MuellerSheWrote/2bBIfcWKFzeOaY5WbULjN0p3HENIt appears that the DC Circuit Court of appeals is weighing some pretty serious stuff considering it's been over a week and we don't have a decision on absolute presidential immunity and double jeopardy appeals from donald trump in the DC case brought against him by Jack Smith. Granted, ten days is NOT a long time in the court world, but given the urgency of this case, it sure seems like an eternity. So what could they be weighing if the case is so straightforward?
This is just my two cents, but perhaps it's the question of jurisdiction.
As you know by now (if you listen to the Jack podcast or follow me fairly closely), a court has to have jurisdiction first before it can rule on the merits of a case. There's kind of like an order of operations to it. The parties bringing the case must have standing to do so, then the court must have jurisdiction to hear the case, and then they can rule on the merits. There's other stuff in there but those are the biggies.
In trump's appeal for absolute immunity and double jeopardy, the three-judge panel in this case had a lot of questions about jurisdiction for both sides. Neither the DoJ nor team trump were arguing that the court does NOT have jurisdiction in this case, and both wanted the court to decide on the merits. But the judges didn't seem so sure.
More...
Funny! Norm Eisen and Harry Litman role play district court hearing
CNN
https://twitter.com/jeffstorobinsky/status/1744936755621453955?t=lnXgtDSLiRlO7oaZHKWOOQ&s=19
Cory Doctorow: Enshittification podcast about big tech
1 hour but well worth my time and probably yours.
Example: stages of a new digital app (like Facebook or Twitter)
1) maximize user satisfaction
2) maximize buy in companies' (like ads) satisfaction
3) maximize their own shareholders' satisfaction
Also how SciFi allows you as a writer to explore many ideas
The feeling of being powerless to change anything and why that's a delusion. But: we need to speak with one voice and that's why we need to organize.
I've read doctorow for years but never appreciated him until now.
Highly recommend. Has anyone else heard him?
https://twitter.com/CheeseMacro/status/1736009007175750120?t=PLSB3_8AVZemXDSicYaDAg&s=19
https://realprogressives.org/podcast_episode/episode-255-enshittification-a-monopoly-story-with-cory-doctorow
Judge Forces Trump to Testify About Insult Then Fines Him $10K
...snip
After a visibly perturbed Trump was sworn in, Engoron asked him who he was referring to when he directed his anger at the “very partisan” person sitting next to the judge.
“Are you sure you didn’t mean on the other side of me, my principal law clerk?” Engoron asked.
“Yes, actually,” Trump said, sticking to his story.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/judge-forces-trump-to-testify-for-insult-then-fines-him-dollar10k?ref=wrap
Just War Theory: makes more sense to me than Geneva rules
David Decosimo
@DavidDecosimo
37m • 16 tweets • 3 min read Twitter logo Read on Twitter
If your only ethics are Foucault & Fanon, you’re wholly unequipped to make the distinctions necessary to recognize justice & uphold dignity in relation to political violence.
Just war theory, an ancient tradition of ethical inquiry, offers a better way. It is relevant just now.🧵
In its classic formulation, the theory claims that certain acts of killing are neither ‘necessary evils’ nor merely permissible but, under certain constraints, just & right. The theory sets criteria for *when* war is just (jus ad bellum) & *how* it must be fought (jus in bello).
Jus ad bellum
1. Just Cause: serious & unlawful wrong to a polity, eg invasion, colonization, despotism.
2. Right Intention: an aim to right that very wrong, not revenge or annihilation. Here Hamas fails. Israel will fail if it aims for more or other than simply defeating Hamas.
3. Sovereign Authority: those waging war must have sovereign authority & due claim to represent a polity. A private group, faction, or smattering of aggrieved people cannot justly war. Still, a group of colonized or enslaved people can duly organize & constitute themselves.
If any of these jus ad bellum criteria go unmet, the war or rebellion as a whole is not just.
But regardless, the norms for just conduct within the war itself remain absolutely obligatory. These jus in bello criteria are especially relevant as Israel battles Hamas in Gaza.
Jus in bello
1. Discrimination: It is never licit to intentionally target non-combatants. Even a just rebellion by a colonized people must exclusively target combatants. Hamas fails here. Israel must only intentionally target combatants & military targets, never non-combatants.
2. Proportionality:
This concerns weighing the good secured by some attack on combatants against the likely *unintended* collateral harm it will cause to noncombatants. That side effect must be duly weighed. Proportionality *never* involves or excuses intentionally targeting NCs!
Say a combatant target abuts a school. The blast from even the weakest weapon will also kill many children. Proportionality means weighing such a tragic loss in itself & relative to the target & his death’s impact on the war. It may demand no strike or risking using ground troops
Note the NC death is not intended, even as it’s foreseen certainly. If the children miraculously survive, they don’t strike again but rejoice. In contrast, if the target survives, their purposes are thwarted; they strike again. Nor are the NC deaths a means to killing the target.
For example, taking noncombatant hostages or using threats or deliberate harm to NCs as a means of getting concessions from the enemy is forbidden & has nothing to do with considerations of proportionality.
In short, NC lives must be duly & truly valued: never intentionally targeted & weighed heavily in considering a strike on combatants that will collaterally harm them. Justice demands willingness to incur more casualties & risk oneself & a more costly/inefficient path to victory.
Armies who fail to distinguish themselves from civilians, use human shields, or occupy hospitals bear responsibility for harm to NCs that accrues from enemy strikes, but their evil conduct does *not* excuse the justly warring from discrimination or proportionality obligations.
3. No indiscriminate means: Some weapons/tactics are inherently indiscriminate (biological), disproportionate in effect, or both (nuclear). Debate on sieges concerns the indiscriminate nature of blocking access to basic goods like food/meds/water needed for noncombatant survival.
4. No inherently evil means: Intrinsically evil acts like torture & rape are always forbidden.
5. POWs must be given quarter & treated humanely.
6. No reprisals: Enemy violation of above norms doesn’t excuse doing so oneself. No attacks meant to punish rather than to win the war.
I’ve simplified & left much aside here. But I want to commend & offer this vocabulary. Whether you agree on every point, surely you can see it is an ethically serious effort to try to honor human dignity & seek justice amidst the horrors of war.
As war continues, all must uphold these norms. Hamas has horribly violated them & wars unjustly. Israel must not violate discrimination & proportionality norms lest it to mirror the terror it fights. It is always fair to ask whether a nation is fully honoring these obligations.
• • •
https://twitter.com/DavidDecosimo/status/1713331924708507704
What do people think? Of course, there is no body or tribunal to decide things; it's up to the combatants.
I saw an IDF soldier on PBS tonight. He said the plan is
to bomb every known Hamas building, and there are a thousand. That's before they start going from building to building.
Also that it's Hamas' policy to put them in with civilians. As most of us know by now.
That means of course no real effort to protect the hostages.
If possible to eliminate Hamas in Gaza, obviously saving future lives and maybe even changing the Gaza culture/government, it might be worth it? What else can end this?
Trump tried to get Crossfire Hurricane declassified on 1/20 and WAS REFUSED
Absolutely crazy story of the last 2 days trying to declassify it. They also gave it to John Solomon and 1 other "reporter" CLASSIFIED.
Sarah K. Burris
September 26, 2023 8:28AM ET
After the release of her book, Enough, the full details were revealed. According to Hutchinson, Meadows infuriated the White House counsel with the move. He made a last-minute mad-dash for the Justice Department, claiming Trump declassified the information after Trump had already left the White House, according to Hutchinson. The DOJ refused to declassify the information, but Trump's allies maintain Trump filed the necessary paperwork in time.
"I watched [Meadows] climb into the limo, noticing the original Crossfire Hurricane binder tucked under his arm," Hutchinson writes. "I didn’t have time to ask what he planned to do with it as he drove away. My mind whirred with questions. Why would [Trump] keep me on payroll? Generosity isn’t his style. And what the hell is Mark doing with the unredacted Crossfire Hurricane binder?"
It was the day before the inauguration.
https://www.rawstory.com/crossfire-hurricane-classified-binders-meadows/
Really good discussion with Weissmann, Mary McCord and Nicole Wallace
EPISODE NOTES
We’re live at the 92nd Street Y in NYC! MSNBC host Nicolle Wallace sits down with Andrew Weissmann and Mary McCord to talk about all of the latest legal developments in Trumpworld. She also asks Andrew and Mary some personal questions about their time at the DOJ, including what it was like to be there for the transition between the Obama and Trump administrations -- and we take questions from the audience in this very special live episode.
https://prosecuting-donald-trump.simplecast.com/episodes/bonus-live-from-the-92nd-street-y
It's almost like they are telling all. Insiders' views on what the transition was like. Just excellent.
One of my takeaways was that IF there is ever a hung jury on any of the trials, that cannot be allowed to be spun as a vindication of Trump's acts because you know he would try. Retry him! Immediately!
COVID-19 might either start or speed up neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer's
COVID-19 infection might either start or speed up neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer's disease (AD) and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD).
This paper is dense and deserves a break down.
Here you go:
There are increasing reports suggesting that a COVID-19 infection might either start or speed up neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer's disease (AD) and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD).
These diseases (and others) are caused by human proteins misfolding into a structure called an "amyloid fibril." Once these fibrils form, they can cause more proteins to misfold in a chain reaction.
SARS-CoV-2 Spike Protein:
•The researchers previously found a potential mechanism where the spike protein of the SARS-CoV-2 virus (which causes COVID-19) can turn into these problematic amyloid fibrils.
There are increasing reports suggesting that a COVID-19 infection might either start or speed up neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer's disease (AD) and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD).
•This happens when the spike protein is cleaved (or cut) by an enzyme called neutrophil elastase, which is abundant when the body is fighting a COVID-19 infection.
Main Findings:
•In their experiments, they found that these spike-protein-formed amyloid fibrils can speed up the formation of amyloid fibrils from the human prion protein (HuPrP), which is associated with CJD.
•They also tested other disease-associated amyloid fibrils to see if they had the same effect, but it seems the effect is specific to the spike-protein-formed fibrils.
•Additionally, they found that the formation of amyloid fibrils associated with Alzheimer's disease (A?1-42) was also sped up by these spike-protein-formed fibrils.
•They identified specific segments of the spike protein that were most efficient in causing this acceleration in different proteins.
Conclusions & Implications?
While these findings are based on in vitro experiments (meaning outside a living organism, like in a petri dish), they suggest that the spike protein's amyloid fibrils might play a role in the reported increase of CJD, AD, and potentially other neurodegenerative diseases after COVID-19.
I’ve seen some immediately claim that this means it causes Mad Cow disease.
Its important to keep in mind that while Mad Cow Disease and the potential effects of the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein both involve misfolded proteins, they are related to different types of misfolded structures (prions for Mad Cow and amyloid fibrils for the potential COVID-19 connection). However, the authors suggest a possible link between the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein and the acceleration of conditions like CJD, which is in the same family of diseases as the variant caused by Mad Cow.
https://twitter.com/drseanmullen/status/1697907201824677959?t=ZoovTNpWRUX3lHoYpOxQ_w&s=19
I haven't had it yet, and this makes me more determined not to get it. So, just keep masking and stuff if you can.
Profile Information
Gender: FemaleHometown: Chicago and Milwaukee
Home country: USA
Current location: Alexandria, VA
Member since: 2001
Number of posts: 2,366
