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Princess Turandot

Princess Turandot's Journal
Princess Turandot's Journal
July 1, 2020

He actually referenced a *tweet from Trump* while refuting one of the defenses they offered...

The APA requirement for a notice and comment period has an exception for situations were the notice might give rise to an even greater problem. DOJ argued that notice of the rule would cause asylum seekers to swarm at the border, jeopardizing life and creating general mayhem. Their evidence was a single WaPo article on a different immigration issue that discussed a hypothetical situation.

From the opinion, footnote 15

For example, according to one article, about a month before the Rule was promulgated, the
President tweeted twice
that Guatemala was preparing to sign an agreement that would force
migrants crossing through it to apply for asylum there and block them from seeking asylum
elsewhere, including in the United States. AR at 635. But nothing in the record suggests that
those tweets caused a surge at the southern border.

As FA45 might say, it is a beautiful point!

Similar to the census question case, they seemed to be offering flat-out horsesh*t as their defense, because they didn't have one.
June 29, 2020

This should do it. You first need to copy the tweet's URL.

Open the specific tweet with the gif in twitter. There will be an icon at the bottom of the tweet that looks like a tray with an arrow pointing. Click on that, and you'll find a copy link menu item.

Then go here: http://twittervideodownloader.com/download
Paste the address into the search box on that page and click download. Links to one or more sizes of the gif/video will appear. Follow the brief instructions on the page to save one of them.

Edited to add: the videos to download are .mp4 versions, not gifs. They play just fine.

June 28, 2020

WaPo has an article that explains one significant source of the error..

They used tax return filings for 2018 and 2019 to identify people qualifying for a payment. Given that around 2.3 million people die annually, there were undoubtedly quite a few people who filed returns in those periods but died post-filing. While the Social Security Admin has detail records on deaths, those records weren't available to the Treasury Dept/IRS. That was also the case when stimulus checks were distributed in 2008.

In a 2013 review of what happened in 2008, the GAO noted the issue and recommended that the pertinent records be shared in the event of a similar distribution. However, in their rush to make the 2020 payments, they did not take the time to do this. When the GAO recently took a look at the 2020 payments, I assume they were able to get the SSA records to run against the Treasury disbursement records: that allowed them to determine payments to the dead.

The Cares Act directed the stimulus payments to people who filed a 2018 or 2019 tax return. The payments went to people making up to $99,000 annually. According to the GAO, IRS officials raised questions with Treasury as the Cares Act was being drafted about the possibility that payments could go to people who filed tax returns but subsequently died. However, IRS counsel determined they did not have the legal authority to deny payments to people who had filed a return, even if they were deceased at the time of payment.

Also, Treasury officials noted that the Cares Act mandated delivery of the economic impact payments “as rapidly as possible.” To fulfill this mandate, they used procedures that had been put in place for stimulus payments issued in 2008, and as a result did not use death records as a filter. The GAO noted that in 2013 it had identified weaknesses in IRS procedures that allowed payments to go to dead people, and had recommended corrective action. IRS subsequently implemented a process to use death records to update taxpayers’ accounts to identify and prevent improper payments.
(snip)
But this control was bypassed for the stimulus checks issued under the Cares Act, which “substantially increased the risk of potentially making improper payments to decedents,” the GAO said. It also said that according to a Treasury official from the Office of Tax Policy, Treasury had been unaware that payments might go to dead people.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/us-policy/2020/06/25/irs-stimulus-checks-dead-people-gao/
June 18, 2020

There are 16 decisions pending on argued cases...

The first opinion will be released at 10AM. There may be more than one opinion released, but there could also be only one.

Status of decisions:

Graphic is from https://www.scotusblog.com, the best source of information on SCOTUS activities.

A quick summary of outstanding and decided cases by month: https://www.scotusblog.com/statistics/

The cases that they consider to be the most high profile are listed in red. There are 8 of those still undecided.

June 1, 2020

Nashville Police have arrested a 25 year man for setting fire to the city's historic courthouse..

The fire occurred on Saturday night.

A civil rights protester? Sure.. More like a friggin' incel.

"Specialized Investigations Division detectives & SWAT officers moments ago arrested Wesley Somers, 25, on charges of felony arson, vandalism, & disorderly conduct for setting fire to Nashville's Historic Courthouse Saturday night."

https://twitter.com/MNPDNashville/status/1267264305961066500

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