Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Presidents are not kings, and Plaintiff is not President.

Our job is not to persuade republicans but to defeat them.

When do we start airlifting the women and children out of Texas?

Let there be snark.

I see no possible difficulties whatsoever with this fool-proof plan.

The cruelty is the point; the law be damned.

Insiders who complain to politico: please report to the white house office of shut the fuck up.

People are complicated. Love is not.

Shallow, uninformed, and lacking identity

Russian mouthpiece, go fuck yourself.

T R E 4 5 O N

No offense, but this thread hasn’t been about you for quite a while.

That’s my take and I am available for criticism at this time.

The worst democrat is better than the best republican.

Optimism opens the door to great things.

“More of this”, i said to the dog.

Reality always lies in wait for … Democrats.

Never entrust democracy to any process that requires republicans to act in good faith.

I did not have telepathic declassification on my 2022 bingo card.

Balloon Juice has never been a refuge for the linguistically delicate.

I like you, you’re my kind of trouble.

Too often we confuse noise with substance. too often we confuse setbacks with defeat.

We’ve had enough carrots to last a lifetime. break out the sticks.

The party of Reagan has become the party of Putin.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Open Thread: Bannon Gets A Trial Date

Open Thread: Bannon Gets A Trial Date

by | 208 Comments

This post is in: 

LOL

The judge just slapped Bannon into next week (literally, jury selection begins Monday)

Burn.

Nothing went his way today in court. Subpoenas  of congressional leaders shut down and my favorite, “something, something Einstein” was stopped in its tracks:

Jordan wasn’t trying to be flippant or funny is his tweets – but they are worth a read because they ARE FUNNY. The judge was having none of Bannon’s lawyers’ nonsense.

This…is an open thread

Reader Interactions

208Comments

  1. 1.

    Immanentize

    I added this thread by Jordan to the last thread — my favorite tweet so far regarding the trial:

    Steve Bannon’s attorney David Schoen: “We have to make a decision… what’s the point in going to trial here if there’s no defenses?”

    Judge Nichols: “Agreed.”

    Scrambling for a good plea offer….

  2. 2.

    feebog

    Loving every minute of this.  Hoping for a short trial and a quick sentencing date.

  3. 3.

    trollhattan

    What does Joe Rogan think? [NB I do not care what Joe Rogan thinks or eats.]

    I hope the judge forbade the defendant from the wearing of multiple shirts. This should be fun!

  5. 5.

    JaySinWA

    @Immanentize:

    Steve Bannon’s attorney David Schoen: “We have to make a decision… what’s the point in going to trial here if there’s no defenses?”

    Show trial or no trial /s

  6. 6.

    Old School

    So how was Einstein’s Theory of Relativity supposed to relate to Bannon’s case?

  7. 7.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    I think Bannon would wet himself if he actually saw Nancy Pelosi stride up to that witness stand and fix him with that FAFO glare

  10. 10.

    Immanentize

    @Old School: It was fancy lawyer bullshit throat clearing shut down immediately by the Judge.

    And remember — this is probably the most Trump-friendly Judge sitting in DC and on J6 cases.

  16. 16.

    H.E.Wolf

    David Schoen’s the very model of a shanda fur die goyim. His arguments aren’t valid, though he’s eager to deploy ’em.

  18. 18.

    Immanentize

    @JaySinWA: Why yes, yes he did, but he did not do that for long. Because had attorneys who told him that was just more evidence of contempt. The reason that this will be a quick prosecution case is that Mssr. Bannon didn’t show up at all. Produced nothing: even really obviously unprivileged material, like tapes of his public pod casts.

  21. 21.

    Immanentize

    @H.E.Wolf: But:

    Lawyers gonna lawyer!

    n.b. As a lawyer with lots of criminal defense experience, I can both laugh at, and sympathize with, Attny Schoen.

  23. 23.

    kindness

    I wonder what Bannon’s sentence could be when he is convicted?  I guess GitMo would be a little over the top.  Still, that’s Bannon’s bread & butter.  Let him (try to) do his podcast from Cuba

    @Immanentize: Because anyone who has been pardoned can’t use the 5th in any questioning there after.  Anyone pardoned would be forced to spill the beans.

  24. 24.

    feebog

    @Immanentize:

     Prosecution, rightly, said that their evidence should take a day or less.

    Yeah, little or no dispute regarding facts, and the judge just slammed the door on multiple lines of questioning by the defense.

  25. 25.

    Ken

    @Immanentize: That was my reaction too. The judge didn’t say “Has your client been offered any other options,” but he might as well have.

    Though given the well-known reciprocal loyalty of everyone in the Trump circle, Bannon will probably not turn state’s evidence.

  31. 31.

    Immanentize

    @kindness:

    Because anyone who has been pardoned can’t use the 5th in any questioning there after.

    That is the CW but it is not as absolute as you make it. If there is a pardon exception to the fifth, it is narrowly cabined to the specific acts the pardoned person did relative to that pardoned crime. Think a plea colloquey admission of sufficient facts. But saying anything more than that might incur additional criminal prosecutions, so a smart person (or their lawyer) would still, at least first, plead the fifth.

    The fifth amendment can be invoked without giving a reason and forcing someone to explain why would require a contempt proceeding which no Judge wants to have regarding the invocation of the 5th, unless immunity is also granted.

  32. 32.

    VOR

    @Immanentize: I wonder why Trump didn’t pardon anyone on his way out.

    Trump cares only about Trump. He would only pardon someone if it somehow helped Trump.

  34. 34.

    Roger Moore

    @Immanentize: ​
     
    To me the biggest issue is that Bannon wasn’t part of the executive branch during the time in question. He can’t plausibly claim executive privilege for actions he took as a private citizen.

  36. 36.

    HumboldtBlue

    The England v Norway matchup is a real corker. Up and down action as Norway scrambles to get back in the match down 2-0.

    The penalty England were given is still bullshit, though.

  37. 37.

    Betty Cracker

    I read somewhere that the maximum time Bannon faces is a year on each count, with a minimum 30 days, plus fines. I’m generally of the opinion that our justice system is unduly harsh, but in this case, not so much…

  39. 39.

    Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony

    @Betty Cracker:

    I’m generally of the opinion that our justice system is unduly harsh, but in this case, not so much…

    I agree with you. Honestly, the prospect of him doing any time gives me more faith in the system. Watching these flagrant criminals get away with it over and over again has been disheartening.

  43. 43.

    Immanentize

    @H.E.Wolf:

    You’re a poet and you don’t know it,
    But your feet show it —
    They’re long fellows.

    My Grandmother, a teacher, loved that one.

  46. 46.

    Urza

    @Betty Cracker: Its not harsh enough on white collar crime.  But usually to harsh on crime committed by the poor.

    Fines should be based upon the accumulated wealth of an individual, as a percentage.  So that they are always equally fair to the rich and poor, or at least more so.

  47. 47.

    BlueGuitarist

    @Immanentize:
    May Bannon, the whole mob, and their enablers find out,

    in the words of that album’s title song:

    the harder they come, the harder they fall.

  50. 50.

    Urza

    @raven: Unlikely here.  There’s at least 1 European country that does it.  Rich people end up getting a $100k speeding ticket for example.

  51. 51.

    Ken

    @cain: Perhaps a variation on the guy who tried to claim he ran a red light because of relativity — his speed was such that it looked green. IIRC the joke is that the judge determined the necessary speed, and fined him the statutory five dollars for every mile per hour over the limit.

  52. 52.

    HumboldtBlue

    And speaking of shredding, the way Pete Buttigieg repeatedly does to FOX News talking points, what’s his political future? He’s one of the best communicators Dems have.

  55. 55.

    Scout211

    Since this thread is open . . . Way off topic, but locally important

    There is currently a fire in Yosemite National Park that started on July 7 and is at 2340 acres and zero containment. The fire is threatening the Mariposa Grove and firefighters are working on protecting the grove.  The Washburn fire.

    The wildfire started Thursday in the southern part of the park and threatens 500 mature giant sequoias, some more than 2,000 years old, in the Mariposa Grove. Firefighters installed ground-based sprinkler systems in the grove to increase humidity near the trees. The Grizzly Giant, arguably one of the most famous trees in the world, has its own set of sprinklers.

    “We’re trying to give it preventative first aid and make sure that if the fire comes here that this tree is protected — that is, to cool flames and to increase the relative humidity and decrease the fire behavior around this tree,” a firefighter said in a video posted by Yosemite Fire and Aviation. “We really don’t want to leave this one to chance because this one is really an iconic tree.”


    The Grizzly Giant stands 209 feet tall and is estimated to be 2,700 years old. It is the second-largest tree in the park. 

  63. 63.

    Shalimar

    @Urza: Sounds fair to me.  If they don’t want a $100k fine, rich people should hire a chauffeur to speed for them, like all the other rich people.

  64. 64.

    Martin

    Yeah, I mean, Bannon claimed executive privilege, which wasn’t Trumps to give since Bannon was not a government employee during any of this, and not an employee of the WH. Additionally, Trump is not the executive to grant or revoke the privilege. Additionally, executive privilege only applies to policy issues, not campaign issues.

    There’s literally no defense for Bannon’s refusal other than he didn’t want to do it, and invented a bunch of defenses in his head.

    I also like that Congress isn’t giving him an out because according to them, even if he sits for a deposition (which he hasn’t agreed to) he hasn’t produced the evidence they’ve asked for in the subpoena so I can’t imagine he’ll find any leniency with the judge even if he does do that.

  66. 66.

    Mike in NC

    Trump had a unique ability to surround himself with the absolute dregs of our society. Bannon was the Nazi son he always wanted. His actual children are all terrible, but Bannon was Trump’s rotten ‘brain’.

  69. 69.

    Snarki, child of Loki

    Bannon’s crime (contempt of congressional subpoenas) occurred AFTER TFG was out of office, so he couldn’t be pardoned.

     

    Well, sure TFG *could* pull out his sharpie and write up a pardon, but it would be just as valid as the documents certifying fake electors. Could it put TFG in legal jeopardy for fraud on the US? Let’s find out!

  71. 71.

    Martin

    @Scout211: Yeah, don’t get too attached to any of this stuff. Big Basin is just starting to reopen 2 years after the fire there.

    All of the bristlecone pines in the panamint range have died in the last year.

    The really big news which nobody is covering is that the states with water rights from the Colorado River need to draw ⅓ less water than their rights allow. To put that in perspective, if all residential water draw was turned off completely (shut off water to all homes that get water from the river for 12-18 months) they’d still need to cut water draw by about half as much again.

    States like CA can weather this reasonably well. It’ll hurt farmers in the imperial valley, but the rest of the state have other water systems to draw from (though none have a surplus to make up the difference) but Arizona is completely fucked since the Colorado is damn near their entire source of water, and Arizona is going to do fuckall about it because it’s run by Republicans. The 7 states with water rights (WY, CO, UT, NV, NM, AZ, CA) plus the indigenous nations have about another 4 weeks to present a plan to the Dept of Reclamation or one will be imposed on them.

    About the only way to meet the water reduction is to fallow a lot of agriculture out here, so everyone needs to brace themselves for much higher prices on some crops – basically anything that is labor intensive, since almost no other states do high labor crops other than CA and parts of AZ. It’s not that Iowa can’t grow this stuff, its that there’s no labor in Iowa to actually do the work.

  76. 76.

    Roger Moore

    @Martin: 

    About the only way to meet the water reduction is to fallow a lot of agriculture out here, so everyone needs to brace themselves for much higher prices on some crops – basically anything that is labor intensive, since almost no other states do high labor crops other than CA and parts of AZ. It’s not that Iowa can’t grow this stuff, its that there’s no labor in Iowa to actually do the work.

    Maybe they should reduce production of rice and cotton first. At least those are crops where we have some hope of making up for the lost production by growing them elsewhere.

  80. 80.

    trollhattan

    @Martin: IMHO we’ll see a million or so acres of almonds get ripped out and the farmers will sell their federal water to cities and pocket the difference between what they pay and what the cities will be willing to pay.

  81. 81.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Old School: He should have opened with a definition from “Webster’s” instead and concluded that Steve Bannon was a land of contrasts.

  83. 83.

    Geminid

    The talk of pardons reminds me of how I really want to know what Anthony Pasquale “Pat” Cippolone told Tim Heaphy* and the rest of the 1/6 Commitee investigators on Friday. Eight and a half hours is a lot of time, even with breaks. Reports are that he was helpful. I guess we’ll see some of his testimony soon in public hearings.

    *Heaphy, the Commitee’s chief investigator, was U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Virginia during the Obama administration. He has a very good reputation.

  85. 85.

    H.E.Wolf

    @SiubhanDuinne: ​Thank you, but I could never have come up with that rhyme! Utterly brilliant!
     Thank you for the compliment! That is praise indeed. :)

  86. 86.

    Another Scott

    @Martin:  It’s not just California either, of course. Several here have mentioned Portugal as potentially being a nice place to retire to…

    Reuters:

    LISBON, July 11 (Reuters) – Bracing for soaring temperatures, Portugal raised its alert level to its third highest of four levels on Monday, with the government saying thousands of firefighters are ready to act, but it also urged people to prevent blazes.

    Under the state of contingency, which is in place until Friday but could be extended, the government has banned the public from accessing forests deemed to be at risk and prohibited slash-and-burn land clearances.

    Multiple wildfires erupted in Portugal in recent days but, according to authorities, the worst is yet to come as temperatures across most of the country were expected to surpass 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) from Tuesday onwards.

    Weather agency IPMA said in some areas, including in Alentejo, a southern region known for its plain pastures, temperatures could reach 46-47 degrees Celsius. The hottest temperature on record was 47.3 degrees Celsius in 2003.

    “This is not a very normal situation,” IPMA meteorologist Patrícia Gomes told SIC TV. “It is serious in all aspects – even for our health… it is not usual to see such long periods with such high temperatures.”

    Most of the Portuguese territory is facing a severe or extreme drought due to a shortage of rain over the winter months, meaning there is a significant amount of dry vegetation to burn.

    […]

    :-(

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  87. 87.

    H.E.Wolf

    @Immanentize:  ” ‘You’re a poet and you don’t know it,
    But your feet show it —
    They’re long fellows.’

    My Grandmother, a teacher, loved that one.​”

    I rather like it too. My thanks to you and ImmGrandmother!

  89. 89.

    Martin

    @Roger Moore: If only it were that simple. The water rights laws are over a century old. If you own that parcel of land and the water rights that go with it, you can do whatever the fuck you want with that water. CA has been developing mechanisms to use the price gap between residential and agricultural water, there’s also a water transfer market in CA so one district can buy water from another thanks to the canals and aqueducts that allow that water to be transferred. The market price of water on the Veles index is currently $1030 per acre-foot. That’s an all time high. Residential rates would be about $6000 per acre-foot. But some areas will have water rates as low as $100 per acre-foot because their water isn’t transferrable or because those rates are grandfathered in. It’s a fucking mess.

    The upshot is that it creates a lot of arbitrage opportunity for the state to buy out the water rights of farmers that could make more money off of the water than the crop, but the farmer is unlikely to agree to a permanent change because their land value is largely based on the existence of those water rights. With the rights, it’s a farm. Without the rights, it’s just desert. But at least CA has some practice with this. I don’t get the sense that AZ does.

    In the end, the states are going to have to figure out how to take that property right away and grant a different right. Basically, they’re going to have to eminent domain the entirety of the water rights across the region and the lawsuits will be endless. The states don’t want this without the feds on board as a result, and the feds aren’t eager to drop that political bomb on the entire west coast.

    My guess is we’re going to need some major cities to run out of water entirely. We have smaller cities with no water here in CA much of the time, but it’s never enough to get any action to take place.

  90. 90.

    CaseyL

    @Martin:

    Hoo boy.  I’ve been waiting a long time for the water rights shoe to drop, and this looks like it.

    The GOPer- run states will absolutely refuse to abide by any restrictions imposed by anyone, and esp. by the federal government.

    They’ll take it to court, shop around for a Federalist judge, who will not only find in their favor, but throw out the federal government’s ability to allocate any resources.  (Which SCOTUS will then uphold.)

    That’s not just scary; that’s terrifying.  It will rip the Southwest to pieces, and soon thereafter any other region that relies on established water rights treaties.

  92. 92.

    SpaceUnit

    I’m no expert, but I think when your attorney starts babbling about Einstein and the theory of relativity it means you’re pretty screwed.

     

    ETA:  But just out of curiosity I’d love to know where he was going with that.

  94. 94.

    Roger Moore

    @Martin:

    My guess is we’re going to need some major cities to run out of water entirely. We have smaller cities with no water here in CA much of the time, but it’s never enough to get any action to take place.

    And, of course, this is unlikely to happen because the bigger cities are almost always older and have the senior water rights.  The most likely candidates, IMO, are some of the wealthy Silicon Valley and Orange County suburbs, which tend to be a bit younger but still politically formidable.

  95. 95.

    StringOnAStick

    @Martin: We’re well into the early phases of the social disruption that climate change is going to cause; this is just a prelude.

    Thanks to whoever posted about the severe drought and fire risk in Portugal.  I have a friend who gets seriously worked up about politics and overturning Roe put her over the edge and now she’s serious about Portugal even though she has a husband well into dementia and pets she would have to give up plus kids staying here in the US.  It’s not rational but maybe that’s how she’s processing things right now.

    I have a framed poster of a Bristlecone pine from Great Basin National Park, from a visit 30 years ago.  I guess that tree is one of the many dead ones now.

  97. 97.

    HumboldtBlue

    @raven:

    I understand. I re-watched the Eagles v Pats SB last week, just because it brings such warm and fuzzy feelings.

  98. 98.

    Martin

    @trollhattan: See my followup at 89. If they give up the water rights, they lose their entire land value. Government is going to have to pony up a LOT of money to get them to do that.

  100. 100.

    CaseyL

    @Omnes Omnibus: Actually, you can – many states will want to sue, offering many jurisdictions to file in.  Just pick the one with the Federalist judge.

  101. 101.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    No Lie with Brian Tyler Cohen @NoLieWithBTC 1h

    NEW: Fox News is now saying that gas prices are falling too fast, with a host saying that this decline is “historically faster than usual” which is causing “independently-owned mom-and-pop gas stations” to “struggle.”

  104. 104.

    CaseyL

    @Another Scott:

    @StringOnAStick:

    Hey, I’ve been thinking about Portugal – but I was thinking, not for a few years yet (because kitties).  Funny how none of the glowing YouTube videos about it mention that the place is going up in flames like Australia, California, and Colorado.

    Yikes.  AGC is biting harder and harder, faster and faster.

  105. 105.

    Jeffro

    @Another Scott: Mrs Fro and I have started talking about where we might want to retire to in a few years.  Central VA is nice, but we appear to be sliding into higher temps and less rain…might have to find someplace cooler with regular precipitation if we want to keep up the hikes and kayaking.

    Once you take away everything west of the Mississippi (drought, temps), the tornado belt, hurricane-prone areas, and bad government, there’s not a lot of domestic options left!  =(

  108. 108.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @CaseyL: With a Federalist judge?  You file in a district court.   There are multiple judges and you get one of them.  Depending on the suit, you can improve your odds by filing in one district over another.

  109. 109.

    CaseyL

    @Jeffro:

    New England (other than Maine and New Hampshire), if you don’t mind the locals never quite accepting you. Though Vermont is the most notorious for that; other places might be friendlier.

    Upper Midwest (Minnesota, north Michigan) if you can stand the extreme cold.

  110. 110.

    Martin

    @CaseyL: People are wired to think of everything in linear terms. That 10% more CO2 will lead to 10% more problems. That’s not how anything works. Virtually all systems are non-linear, so that 10% might end up killing off 100% of some species, or turning a glacier into a non-glacier. Italy also had a glacier collapse around the same day. Killed 11.

    But yeah, high gas prices are the crisis.

  111. 111.

    CaseyL

    @Omnes Omnibus: My understanding – IANAL and could very well be wrong – but my understanding is that multi-state controversies are cases where Federal courts have original jurisdiction.

  113. 113.

    Jeffro

    @CaseyL: Yup – all of these, upstate New York, maybe one of the bigger Canadian metro areas.  We’ll see how it goes!

  114. 114.

    Jeffro

    @Martin:But yeah, high gas prices are the crisis.

    I Googled around looking for the story JFL referenced back at #101 (before I saw the link) and according to Fox, now that gas prices are on their way back down, THAT’s a crisis too.

    During Monday’s broadcast of America Reports, co-anchor John Roberts finally broke the news to Fox News viewers that the price of gas was “creeping back down” near his home. His colleague Sandra Smith, however, suggested that this may not be entirely a good thing.

    “It is. It is,” she noted. “And the point was made over the weekend, I believe it was the Wall Street Journal, that gas prices are actually coming back down historically faster with the price of oil than usual.”

    Smith continued: “And it just goes to show you what an incredible risk-reward calculation has to happen on the part of those small—independently owned, most of them—mom-and-pop gas stations. It’s a struggle for all of them!”

    North Korea is like, “now that is how you do propaganda right!”

  115. 115.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @CaseyL: New England (other than Maine and New Hampshire), if you don’t mind the locals never quite accepting you. Though Vermont is the most notorious for that;

    Huh. I always thought Maine the most hostile to newcomers, with New Hampshire a close second

    I remember telling one of my professors, who was from Maine, I forget which town, that it was a place I’d never been but could imagine myself living (I’ve been there since, and still could). He snorted and said “It’s eleven months of winter and one month of mosquitoes the size of songbirds.”

  118. 118.

    Geminid

    @CaseyL: I sometimes wonder if people’s choice of Portugal as a potential refuge reflects subconcious memories of Ingrid Bergman and Paul Henreid flying off to Lisbon, after escaping the Nazis in Casablanca.

  119. 119.

    trollhattan

    @Martin:

    What about their water contracts? SWP contractors are free to transfer water w/o affecting their contract and I expect CVP contractors are the same. A transfer is a one-time deal, not surrendering future access to that contractual water.

  120. 120.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Geminid: for me it was where the protagonists of Le Carré’s Russia House (Sean Connery and Michelle Pfeiffer in the movie) dreamt of fleeing

  124. 124.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    I just had an interesting book club experience, where I tried to lead a discussion of Miller’s CIRCE, and found that half the people there had never heard of any of the characters. Not Odysseus, not Daedalus and Icarus, not Medea, not Hermes. No one. How unusual is that?

  125. 125.

    Sister Golden Bear

    @HumboldtBlue:

    Lawyers, how will the anti-abortion freaks overcome this?

    The Texas National Guard acquires torpedos, and uses them. Which the Calvinball Court will then rule was justified and within their authority. Because reasons.

  126. 126.

    EmbraceYourInnerCrone

    @Martin: yeah. If you want to see the possible near future read The Ministry for the Future or With Speed and Violence: why scientists fear tipping points in climate change. There are so many things that affect climate that are already fucked up and affecting other things. Knock on affects are endless

  127. 127.

    trollhattan

    If the heat doesn’t kill me first, I’ll still be dead.

    If the effects of climate change continue unchecked, Sacramento could exceed 90 degrees for about one-third of the calendar year beginning in 2035, and reach triple digits nearly 50 days a year by the middle of the century. That’s according to a new online tool created by the Public Health Institute, released Monday in collaboration with UCLA researchers.

    The tool — available at heat.healthyplacesindex.org — displays expected increases in extreme heat impacts across California cities, counties, ZIP codes and other geographic boundaries such as congressional districts. Extreme heat indicators for those locations include projections of days above 100 degrees and above 90 degrees, for the periods of 2035 to 2064 and 2070 to 2099. The map shows Sacramento County is projected to average 49 days above 100 degrees and 122 days above 90 degrees for the period from 2035 to 2064. The numbers are similar for the city of Sacramento, at 46 days and 120 days, respectively.

    Between 1981 and 2010, downtown Sacramento averaged 74 days a year of at least 90 degrees and only 16 in triple digits, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s climate normals for that 30-year period. NOAA’s climate data for 1991 to 2020 did not include breakdowns of average days above 90 and 100. That means the Public Health Institute map tool predicts about a 62% increase in days reaching at least 90 degrees and a near-tripling of triple-digit days from 2010 to 2065.

    https://www.sacbee.com/news/weather-news/article263362198.html#storylink=cpy

    Join the fun and see when your town’s due to burst into flames.

  128. 128.

    Immanentize

    @Jeffro: I am currently looking at upstate property north of Oneida lake. It would need work (old farm house from the 1860s redone in the ’70s,) but nice land and the winters are getting more mild!

    Raven could come up and fish bass and trout and less pleasing fish (pike).

  131. 131.

    Immanentize

    @Omnes Omnibus: Have you seen the way Paxton has been judge shopping in Texas by filing in single judge fed. Districts? It is really working to increase horrible rulings with ultra-trump judges in the 5th. Ugh.

  132. 132.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: strikes me as odd, considering the sort of people who would self-select for a book club, and such a high number. I can easily imagine never having read the Odyssey or Ancient Greek plays (Euripides, you pay for dese!), but never having heard of them strikes me as odd. I wonder how many of them know the phrase: “he flew too close to the sun”. (Autocorrect capitalized the A on Ancient Greek, which also strikes me as odd)

  133. 133.

    danielx

    @HumboldtBlue: ​
     
    Not a lawyer, but anybody who thinks the State of Texas isn’t up to piracy on the high seas is deceiving him/herself. Compelling state interest and all that….Ken Paxton, to name the most obvious example, is more than capable of inventing reasons to commit murder to prevent murder or some such.

  134. 134.

    WhatsMyNym

    @CaseyL:   Just search on YouTube for Portugal (also Spain) and fire.  They’ve had wildfires for quite a few years.

  137. 137.

    Sister Golden Bear

    @Geminid: For me Portugal is under consideration because:

    1. It’s strong on LGBTQ rights
    2. Climate is similar to California, and it’s a pretty country with lots of beaches
    3. Cost of living is inexpensive, around $25K-$30K annual — which if I had to take early retirement is quite doable.
    4. Good healthcare system
    5. Politically stable
    6. Lisbon is a lively and interesting city — albeit a somewhat more expensive place to live, which is still really affordable.
    7. If you’re wealthy enough to apply for a Golden Visa (which is a fast-track to getting citizenship with all the EU privileges), Portugal is one of the more affordable countries to do so, with relatively lenient residency requirements. Most common way involves investing 500,000 Euros in real estate — most people buy a home and the rest goes into investment property. (I never did find out if there’s a way to eventually sell those properties and cash out.)
    8. While it’s in a far corner of Europe, it’s still in Europe, making travel to the rest of the Continent far easier than from places like Costa Rica, Mexico of Thailand.
  142. 142.

    JoyceH

    @Leto: someone on Twitter suggested that when Kavanaugh went out for a steak dinner, he should be served a few cow cells and told it was a steak.

  144. 144.

    stinger

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: I read Circe a couple of months ago — such lyrical writing! I certainly find it surprising that “readers” would be unfamiliar with famous names from Greek mythology. That anyone would, really. Time for my old-lady rant about the current shameful state of education and BTW get off my lawn?

  145. 145.

    Immanentize

    @Omnes Omnibus: Steve Vladeck at UT has a very good solution, I think — any case in which a party seeks, or is likely to have, national effect (like injunctions or stopping nation-wide effects of executive decisions?) Should be transferred (or transferable?) To the D.C. Circuit.

  146. 146.

    schrodingers_cat

    The Portuguese were the first colonial power to land in India and they had to be kicked out of Goa kicking and screaming in the early 60s. Other than Goa they didn’t leave much of a footprint in India because they were religious zealots and amongst the worst colonial powers in India (British, French, Dutch etc.)

    IDK about their current politics.

  147. 147.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    @stinger: I don’t know. I think young people might be more familiar with this stuff, curtesy of Rick Riordan. I felt bad. I didn’t want to come across as criticizing them for not knowing this. I’m sure they know stuff I don’t too

  150. 150.

    Martin

    @trollhattan: Right, but some estimates are that there are about 2x as many rights granted as there is water. Under that situation, you never leave the crisis unless you can permanently revoke or reallocate those rights. We’ve been lurching along in this crisis state since 2007 and things have only gotten worse.

    So yeah, so long as these are one-time efforts the underlying asset economy will hold. But we’re going to run out of runway  for those one-time efforts to work. And the problem is that the proposed solution is the opposite of what the public wants. This won’t result in fewer almonds being grown, but more of them because crops like almonds can earn enough more than the water rights are worth. Its the staple crops – salad greens, things like that which will get removed because the buyout is worth more than the crops, unless they switch to something with higher receipts – almonds, pistachios, wine grapes, etc. So you’ll get more luxury crops and fewer staple crops – particularly high labor staple crops because none of the other states will grow that stuff because they don’t have a labor economy for agriculture and don’t want the brown workers.

  153. 153.

    Baud

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    Texas has four districts, but then judges in each district are assigned to geographic “divisions.” I’m not sure if that’s statutory, but that’s why it’s so easy to judge shop there.  You only need to file in the right division.

  154. 154.

    Immanentize

    A really good chart:

    UPDATED COUP CHART with additions (including some special requests). Use it to follow along in the hearings. Once everything and everyone on this chart gets mentioned, you win bingo pic.twitter.com/vof2kcXQaR— Asha Rangappa (@AshaRangappa_) July 11, 2022

  157. 157.

    Immanentize

    @Baud: Its basically a vicinage concept. The divisions end up being the areas from which jurors are also gathered.

  158. 158.

    germy shoemangler

    As election laws continue to come under attack in Republican-controlled states, Congress has struggled to pass voting-rights reforms due to the delicate 50-50 Senate. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) is trying to change that with a new bill targeting a historically low-turnout voting group: young people.

    Warren’s new proposal, which she plans to introduce Monday, would expand voter registration at public colleges and universities, ensure all states allow 16- and 17-year-olds to pre-register to vote, require colleges and universities to have polling places on campus and ensure that all states include student IDs as a form of voter ID, among other proposals, according to a draft of new legislation obtained by The Daily Beast.

    https://www.thedailybeast.com/elizabeth-warren-launches-plan-to-get-more-young-people-to-vote?ref=home

     

    Rep. Nikema Williams (D-GA), who leads the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee’s voter protection efforts, is sponsoring the bill in the House.

    Their push comes after voting rights legislation hit a standstill in the Senate in January as Sens. Kyrsten Sinema (AZ) and Joe Manchin (WV) declined to join their fellow Democrats in supporting a filibuster carveout to pass the new reforms. There has been a subset of Republicans senators seemingly willing to work with Democrats on elections law, though most of their common ground has been on the Electoral Count Act, an administrative law that details how votes are counted.

    Warren’s bill, as it stands, is co-sponsored by six additional Democrats in the Senate, but no Republicans.

  159. 159.

    Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony

    @Martin: Staples like lettuce can be grown anywhere with water and cheap real estate using hydroponics, like in Detroit, MI. I can see costs going up, but not shortages. We are in for a big restructuring, though.

  160. 160.

    Wapiti

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: Wow. There were a few that I didn’t recognize, like Daedalus, but I got most of them. Do people not read the Greek myths any more? I grew up on all the tales (Greek/Roman, Norse, Native American, Grimm)

  161. 161.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    now I’ve got Joni Mitchell trilling in my head:

    Like Icarus ascending

    on beautiful foolish arms

    and Sting: Caught between the Scylla and Charybdis

    Suzanna Vega’s Calypso, which I don’t think made the top forty

    a couple of weeks ago on Endeavor, a cabdriver asked Morse, about his difficult step-mother, “Is Clytemnestra there family, then?” I did have to look that one up.

  163. 163.

    TaMara

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: I hate to say it, but despite studying Ancient History back in my freshman year of high school, I am not well versed in these – know in passing only. I actually stopped reading a comic at GoComics, because despite loving the characters, the jokes were based on knowledge of Greek God and their various spouses, children, etc.

    Now, you want to talk Shakespeare, I could probably cobble together a decent discussion.

  165. 165.

    Burnspbesq

    @Immanentize:

    if enough pre-trial rulings go against Bannon, his lawyers might be able to cobble together a non-frivolous appeal, thereby giving him more time to find a hole that doesn’t have an extradition treaty with the United States (hint: UAE).

  166. 166.

    Princess

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: the part that shocks me the most is that evidently they read the book and weren’t even curious enough to use google to look them up.

    I really liked that book.

  172. 172.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Immanentize: pot-bellied Ted Cruz on a beach is gonna leave a mark, I expect

    he strikes me as the type who keeps track of his on-line mentions

  173. 173.

    JaySinWA

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: I am actually part of a start up book club where no one other than the leader has the book. No wine, but some whines. A kind of support group with a book at the core.

    ETA we use the book for its cover.

  174. 174.

    eddie blake

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:  yeah i just ran into that in an art group with a painting of odysseus and telemachus-

    had to explain they were embracing because the son thought his father was dead as he was gone ten years on… an odyssey.

    kinda baffled me, figured that was all covered in grade school. so much for a good public school education.

  175. 175.

    Burnspbesq

    @HumboldtBlue:

    Lawyers, how will the anti-abortion freaks overcome this?

    Surveillance cameras on every dock from Port Arthur to Port Isabel, hard-wired to Paxton’s office.

  178. 178.

    JustRuss

    @Scout211: well damn.  I was in the Grove a couple months ago, love that tree.  They were doing prescribed burns in the valley then, so hopefully it’s pretty safe.

  181. 181.

    JustRuss

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: Oh FFS, gas stations barely make any money on gas. It’s the attached convenience store that pulls in the profit.  high gas prices probably hurt mom and pop more than helped, people drive less, that means fewer stops in the kwiki-mart.  Maybe some Fox journalist could look into this….nvrmnd, I see the problem there.

  182. 182.

    sab

    @germy shoemangler: What is the point of having 16 and 17 year olds register to vote at colleges when they don’t even know what college they will be attending or where they will be living. Doen’t registration go precinct by precinct?

  183. 183.

    Matt McIrvin

    @sab: I’m pretty sure the college stuff and the 16-year-old stuff are separate parts of the bill.

    But I’ve often thought that the fact that kids become eligible to vote right around the time they’re going off to college, making their residency uncertain, is a disruption that contributes to lifelong non-voting by making it difficult right at the beginning. I know I entirely missed the first election I was eligible to vote in (the 1986 midterm) because I thought I had to vote by absentee ballot and hadn’t taken the time to figure out how.

  187. 187.

    Dmbeaster

    @Martin: All of the bristlecone pines in the panamint range have died in the last year.

    No, this is not true.

    There is a small grove on Telescope Peak, which is the only location in the range where they grow.  That particular grove has suffered significant mortality over the last three years from bark beetles.  The bark beetles do not thrive in bristlecones, but do in certain species that often grow with bristlecones.  The main culprit here is limber pines.  The infestation spills over.  The beetles die off in bristlecones, but can do major damage.  Bristlecones in the Whites have been unaffected though subject to similar dry conditions, and they do have some limber pines around, but not as many.  They also grower higher in the Whites in pure stands, as Telescope Peak is only 11,043.  The Patriarch Grove in the Whites is 11,300.

  188. 188.

    Dmbeaster

    @JustRuss: The effort to protect the grove is pretty intense.  It is very accessible in order to mount a defense.  It has included small backfires on the perimeter for more protection.  It has included sprinkler systems in the grove, and one dedicated to the Grizzily Giant.  The fire has not been nearly as aggressive as recent fires.  Hopefully it should end well.

  189. 189.

    sab

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: Sigh. Just bounced the names off my husband. He could only recognize Icarus. But there isn’t a sports figure in the history of the world he hasn’t heard off.

    I spent most of elementary school engrossed in Edith Hamilton’s mythology books, and we had to read Iliad and Odyssey in high school. How odd that apparently was odd.

    Or maybe their all more interested in the Norse ones these days.

  190. 190.

    Another Scott

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: I assume it’s pretty common.  Our brains remember lots of stuff through repetition.  (My pet theory is) That’s why we sing and write and read the ABCs and numbers over and over and over again.

    I only remember a few of the Greek/Roman gods myths and would probably mix them up if I had to try to explain them.  It’s lack of use.  BoJo, on the other hand, would probably ace such an exam because Eton and class warfare and all the rest and they try to one-up each other when they’re sitting around BSing about their hard childhoods….  ;-)

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  191. 191.

    bjacques

    @eddie blake: in my high school we read maybe excerpts from The Odyssey in AP English, *cough*ty years ago, but I know most of the legends because in intermediate school I practically lived in the corner of the school library with science fiction (mostly 1940s-1960s), myths and legends from Greece, Ireland, Russia, Africa, Grimm’s fairy tales, ghost stories, HP Lovecraft, UFOs and parapsychology, and young adult mysteries. That and Dungeons & Dragons ca. 1980 prepared me pretty well for modern life, as it turned out.

  192. 192.

    eddie blake

    @sab: i mean, thank jack kirby and stan lee. OTOH, the prose edda is a fun read, hopefully the kids will go to the source.

    also, neil gaiman just put out a book on the norse myths.

  193. 193.

    eddie blake

    @bjacques: good stuff. for some reason i remember doing those in the regular english class in high school, but it might have been an elective. have several translations of both the iliad and odyssey on the shelf but the ones from school are still there.

    eta- was doing some spring cleaning a lil while back and found my 1978 AD&D player’s handbook.

  194. 194.

    Kent

    @Jeffro:

    @Another Scott: Mrs Fro and I have started talking about where we might want to retire to in a few years.  Central VA is nice, but we appear to be sliding into higher temps and less rain…might have to find someplace cooler with regular precipitation if we want to keep up the hikes and kayaking.

    Once you take away everything west of the Mississippi (drought, temps), the tornado belt, hurricane-prone areas, and bad government, there’s not a lot of domestic options left!  =(

    We live in Camas, WA which is WAY left of the Mississippi and has none of those things.  It is also cooler and has plenty of green, water, and rain with plenty of hiking and kayaking. We are not retired yet but are in our 50s and have absolutely no intention of ever moving.  Here is a bit of official chamber of commerce promo:

    https://youtu.be/z4vThZAuByQ

    Although once we are officially retired we will probably start trading time between Camas and Chile where my wife is from and has all her family.

  195. 195.

    SuzieC

    @Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony: Yes, Detroit has gone in big for urban farms.  I hate to mention it because Ohio is otherwise a shitshow but we have abundant rain.  We have abundant and beautiful local crops.  Our farmer’s markets are overflowing with succulent ingredients.  I’m looking out my windows right now at lush green trees and grass and flowers and herbs and vegetables, just in my small lawn.  My neighborhood grows enough food to feed the entire city of Columbus.  Parched Californians move here and turn Ohio back to blue!!

  198. 198.

    evodevo

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: Maybe they needed to be challenged…stretch those thinking muscles and do some research – not as if they couldn’t look this stuff up on their phones in two seconds…

    Just another result of 20 years of education reform (at least here in KY) where all the effort is concentrated on them writing the same essay over and over till they get it right (See: portfolios).  Heaven forbid they should be exposed to Greek mythology or classic literature…

  199. 199.

    Cmorenc

    @HumboldtBlue:Anti-abortion freaks in states outlawing it will try to supplement it with laws making it a felony to leave the state (say, Texas) to obtain an abortion in a state or location whete it is legal (say, California) and for extra measure, also make it a felony for anyone to provide money or assistance from the prohibition state for abortion services in the legal state.  Why did I pick Texas for my example? Anti-abortion zealots in Texas already want to implement this notion.

    One might think the longstanding, often previously affirmed constitutional “right to travel” under 14a would prevent this, but because this isn’t spelled out in specific black-letter wording in the constitution the current radical RWers on the court may toss it out like so much originalist toilet paper.

  200. 200.

    Jinchi

    @sab: ​ What is the point of having 16 and 17 year olds register to vote at colleges when they don’t even know what college they will be attending or where they will be living.

    I think you misread it. People don’t register to vote ‘at colleges’ anymore than they register to vote ‘at work’. The proposal is

    A) all states allow 16- and 17-year-olds to pre-register to vote.

    and separately,

    B) require colleges and universities to have polling places on campus

    The pre-registration would happen at whatever address the 16 year old currently occupies. That gets them in the system, clearing the first hurdle of ‘how the heck to I even register to vote’. Many young people will still reside at that address in their first election.
    Lots of states and localities are very hostile to college kids registering in college towns, and students often keep their parent’s home as their official residence for a few years in any case.Other states that require voter ID have explicitly excluded student IDs as forms of identification for voting, making it harder for students without driver’s licenses to vote as well.

    Hence (C) Ensure that all states include student IDs as a form of voter ID​​​

  201. 201.

    Mr. Bemused Senior

    @bjacques: Ahh, Lovecraft.  I read a lot of science fiction as a kid, (Asimov, Clarke, Bester, Cordwainer Smith, …) but never ran across him.  Then came Shrillblog in the Bush II years (Aaaiii! Ph’nglui mglw’nafh Krugman R’lyeh wagn’nagl fhtagn! Aaaiii! AAAAAAIIIIIIIII!!!!).  Plenty of work is available for free on the ‘net these days so I read some stuff, mildly interesting and an introduction to some mostly useless vocabulary (e.g., tenebrous).

    I didn’t realize from what I read what a racist he was.  My eyes were opened by N. K. Jemisin (in the City We Became), whose work I love.  That book speaks to me as a former NYC native, but others will disagree.  The Broken Earth is a masterpiece.

    I am so looking forward to the Steve Bannon trial.

  203. 203.

    HumboldtBlue

    @Burnspbesq:

    You joke, but hell, with these fucks…

    @eddie blake:

    Or frogmen

    @Cmorenc:

    Oh, the Texas GOP is definitely doing all they can on this front, saw a tweet where a law firm that had promised to help employees that received a letter that they would soon be charged with crimes if they ever helped a woman travel for an abortion.

  204. 204.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Jinchi: Like I said above, I was not at all aware that it might even be legal for me to register to vote locally when I was in college. I voted absentee at my parents’ address until a couple of years into graduate school, when I got my driver’s license renewed in Massachusetts and figured that was finally enough to establish residency.

  206. 206.

    Zinsky

    Very late to the party, but I hope Steve Bannon gets the maximum two years for the twin contempt charges and has to serve them in one of the more grim, maximum security federal facilities.  I also hope he gets nailed again on the We Build the Wall scam or whatever malfeasance he is involved with these days.  Besides looking like Otis, the town drunk in the Andy Griffith Show, he is a one-man crime wave, bilking people around the world with his ludicrous pseudo-patriotic schemes.  Lock him up!

  207. 207.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Mr. Bemused Senior: I got introduced to his work in a collection that, to its credit, had an introduction that made it extremely clear that Lovecraft was a shockingly extreme racist even by the standards of a generally racist age. (And a couple of the stories made that clear all by themselves, too.)

    I’ve heard it speculated that the emotional kick of his cosmic horror has its roots in the fear, in an age of fading empires, that white men might not be able to control everything. I think there’s something to that.

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