CaptainTruth
CaptainTruth's JournalSanction threat looms for Facebook and Gibson Dunn in privacy class action
I've been following this case in San Francisco, sometimes referred to as the Cambridge Analytica coverup suit, that has to do with FB's data harvesting & sharing. Facebook were getting ripped by the judge last week, it was a thing of beauty. The judge was pissed at them & invited the plaintiffs to file for sanctions against Facebook AND partners at the law firm representing them in the case, Gibson Dunn.
Sanction threat looms for Facebook and Gibson Dunn in privacy class action
[link:https://www.reuters.com/legal/litigation/sanction-threat-looms-facebook-gibson-dunn-privacy-class-action-2022-02-14/|]
Facebook Inc and its lawyers at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher are learning the hard way that fierce litigation tactics can provoke equally fierce blowback.
At a hearing Thursday in a class action alleging that Facebook (now Meta Platforms Inc) violated consumer privacy laws by sharing users’ data with the political consultant Cambridge Analytica and others, U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria of San Francisco invited plaintiffs lawyers to file a motion for sanctions against Facebook and Gibson Dunn for “stonewalling” during discovery in the four-year-old case.
The judge came in blazing hot, announcing at the very beginning of the hearing that he had developed “quite a strong preliminary view” that the company’s conduct was sanctionable – and that the Gibson Dunn lawyers who signed Facebook’s briefs are just as much to blame as their client. Chhabria said he felt so strongly on that point that if plaintiffs lawyers from Keller Rohrback and Bleichmar Fonti & Auld were not inclined to seek sanctions from Gibson Dunn, “I’m going to want to know if there’s a good reason not to.”
The judge gave Keller Rohrback and Bleichmar Fonti until Feb. 24 to file the sanction motion. He also waived his usual 15-page limit, urging plaintiffs lawyers to “take whatever space you need to articulate the misconduct and to identify the appropriate standard for imposing sanctions.”
Facebook did not respond to my query on the hearing. Gibson Dunn declined to provide a statement. The company told the judge in a Feb. 9 filing that it had not engaged in litigation misconduct. “Facebook submits that the actual record will reflect that at all times it acted in good faith and complied with every order the special master [overseeing discovery] has issued,” it said.
Don't just complain, do something. Help GOTV!
You can blame NanceGreggs for this, her post inspired me to start more discussions.
Why? Because complaining about Merrick Garland or the DOJ or whatever doesn't win elections. What wins elections is registering new voters & working our butts off to get out the vote. That's on us. WE are the grassroots force that has the power to decide elections, if we choose to put in the hard work to make it happen. We did it in 2020 & we can do it again this year if we put our collective energy & effort into it.
So, in what I hope will be the first of several ongoing posts by me on the subject, I'm going to share some recent tweets by Teri Kanefield @Teri_Kanefield :
Lately, I've been suggesting joining @MichelleObama's organization @WhenWeAllVote as voting squad captain: https://whenweallvote.org/votingsquad/
[link:https://whenweallvote.org/votingsquad/]
Volunteering lets you be productive and connect with like-minded people.
Volunteering beats doomscrolling.
It's better for your sanity.
It's better for democracy.
It's the best Do Something Twitter.
I practice what I preach: I did a volunteer shift today on a voter protection hotline.
What are YOUR plans?
Ideas:
Things To Do
[link:https://terikanefield.com/things-to-do/]
CT (that's me): Look through that list, there are things we can all do to help save our democracy.
More to come...
U.S. Political Party Preferences Shifted Greatly During 2021
I don't place 100% faith in the accuracy of polls, but they do generally show trends. Folks, we need to GOTV like our democracy depends on it, because it does!!!
snip
the general stability for the full-year average obscures a dramatic shift over the course of 2021, from a nine-percentage-point Democratic advantage in the first quarter to a rare five-point Republican edge in the fourth quarter
[link:
|]
These results are based on aggregated data from all U.S. Gallup telephone surveys in 2021, which included interviews with more than 12,000 randomly sampled U.S. adults.
Both the nine-point Democratic advantage in the first quarter and the five-point Republican edge in the fourth quarter are among the largest Gallup has measured for each party in any quarter since it began regularly measuring party identification and leaning in 1991.
[link:https://news.gallup.com/poll/388781/political-party-preferences-shifted-greatly-during-2021.aspx|]
Donald Trump has been served
He was served in relation to Michael Cohen's lawsuit against him.
https://twitter.com/lauferlaw/status/1481423277432184839?t=7QpXXwYVhsSYD62qDuXHmQ&s=19
Andrew C Laufer, Esq
I can confirm Donald J. Trump was served via substitute serve upon the doorman at Trump Tower as well as via the Secret Service at Mar-a-Lago. See you in Court, Mr. Trump. @MichaelCohen212 @NYadvocateJKL
Crisis of Command: The Pentagon, The President, and January 6
More indications that Pentagon officials were concerned Trump might misuse the DC Guard on Jan 6.
-snip-
evidence is mounting that the most senior defense officials did not want to send troops to the Capitol because they harbored concerns that President Donald Trump might utilize the forces’ presence in an attempt to hold onto power.
According to a report released last month, Christopher Miller, who served as acting Secretary of the Defense on Jan. 6, told the Department’s inspector general that he feared “if we put U.S. military personnel on the Capitol, I would have created the greatest Constitutional crisis probably since the Civil War.” In congressional testimony, he said he was also cognizant of “fears that the President would invoke the Insurrection Act to politicize the military in an anti-democratic manner” and that “factored into my decisions regarding the appropriate and limited use of our Armed Forces to support civilian law enforcement during the Electoral College certification.”
-snip-
it’s now clear that such concerns were shared by General Mark Milley, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, as well as former CIA Director and at the time Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. Before Nov. 3, Milley and Pompeo confided in one another that they had a persistent worry Trump would try to use the military in an attempt to hold onto power if he lost the election, the Washington Post’s Carol Leonnig and Philip Rucker reported. “This military’s not going to be used,” Milley assured Pompeo.
-snip-
After Trump issued a Dec. 19, 2020 call to action to his supporters to come to DC to protest the certification of the electoral college vote on Jan. 6 (“Be there, will be wild!”), “Milley told his staff that he believed Trump was stoking unrest, possibly in hopes of an excuse to invoke the Insurrection Act and call out the military,” and that he sought to stay ahead of any effort by the President to use the military in a bid to stay in office
-snip-
Milley, according to multiple reports, “feared it was Trump’s ‘Reichstag moment,’ in which, like Adolf Hitler in 1933, he would manufacture a crisis in order to swoop in and rescue the nation from it.”
The top officials’ fears were warranted: Donald Trump, his close aides and a segment of Republican political figures had openly discussed the possibility of invoking the Insurrection Act or using the military to prevent the transfer of power on the basis of false claims that the election was “stolen.” But the Pentagon’s actions with respect to the National Guard suggest a scenario in which, on the basis of such concerns, a potentially profound crisis of command may have played out on Jan. 6.
-snip-
More at link...
[link:https://www.justsecurity.org/79623/crisis-of-command-the-pentagon-the-president-and-january-6/|]
My love & I went to the Immersive Van Gogh exhibit today.
I loved it. If you're at all interested in art, I recommend it. It's not just still images, elements have been extracted from the paintings & animated, & it's all set to an engaging soundtrack, it's very impressive!
[link:https://www.immersivevangogh.com/|]
https://www.immersivevangogh.com/
There's a new leader in charge of the US Capitol riot prosecutions
Source: NBC4 reporter Scott MacFarlane
There's a new leader in charge of the US Capitol riot prosecutions
Senate confirmed Matthew Graves as new US Attorney for District of Columbia
https://t.co/UeL6SLuo0R
(Sen Ron Johnson R-WI had previously put hold on nomination)
Oct 29, 2021 Press Release
WASHINGTON – Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) today announced that the Senate yesterday confirmed Matthew Graves for U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia. Norton recommended Graves to President Biden. Biden, like Presidents Clinton and Obama, has granted Norton senatorial courtesy for judges on the U.S. District Court for D.C., the U.S. Attorney for D.C., the U.S. Marshal for the D.C. Superior Court, and the U.S. Marshal for the U.S. District Court for D.C.
“Matthew Graves possesses all the qualities to be an exceptional U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia: experience, integrity, temperament, and intelligence,” Norton said. “He served with distinction as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia, demonstrating that he has the experience and judgment to serve as an excellent U.S. Attorney for the District.”
Read more: https://norton.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/norton-recommendation-graves-confirmed-by-senate-for-us-attorney-for-dc
Donald Rumsfeld, Nov 14, 2002: It Would Be A Short War
Never forget the words of GW Bush's Defense Secretary (& PNAC member) Donald Rumsfeld on Nov 14, 2002:
Rumsfeld: It Would Be A Short War
"Five days or five weeks or five months, but it certainly isn't going to last any longer than that," he said
[link:https://t.co/NTEvsiH0yV|]
Final update on my 100 yr old dad & my sister...
First, I want to say a sincere thank you to everyone who expressed words of condolence & support in response to my previous posts, they mean a lot to me. I feel like DU is my extended family.
Second, good news on my sister. She didn't have a stroke. It was apparently a combination of exhaustion from caring for my dad, low sodium levels, & the onset of pneumonia that caused her to collapse. She hit her head on a hard floor which caused a bit of bleeding that was initially interpreted as a stroke. Now the doctors say the small amount of bleeding was the result of the fall, not a stroke which caused the fall. She's doing much better & was discharged from the hospital today. She's expected to make a full recovery.
Third, my dad. After 100 years & 15 days on this Earth he passed away peacefully last night. He was in such bad shape the last few days, bedridden, unable to move, barely able to swallow anything, we all feel a sense of relief. It was a blessing that after 100 years he only had to endure such suffering for a few days.
Goodbye dad, you'll never know how much you were loved.
Sad update on my 100 yr old dad, & my sister/his caretaker...
I posted here a couple weeks ago that my dad turned 100. He was able to have a pleasant celebration surrounded by family members, while he was still cognizant & in good humor. It was truly a blessing.
A lot can change in 2 weeks. Since then he's rapidly gone downhill, & last night my sister, who he has been living with for the past few months, & who has been his primary caretaker during that time, had a stroke & ended up in the ICU. Today dad was in such bad shape that my niece had to call an ambulance & have him taken to ER, & he will probably go to hospice/palliative care either later tonight or tomorrow. None of us expects him to live more than a few more days. Needless to say, I'm on a plane tomorrow, the cost be damned.
We are a strong family, we stick together, we help each other regardless of the cost, family is family, blood is thicker than water & all that. We will get through this... but... support from friends is always helpful & appreciated...
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