Thursday, December 19th, 2019
Stephan: Yet another example of voter suppression. And there are others.
Democrats cried foul after a judge ordered a purge of nearly a quarter-million voters in response to a lawsuit filed by a right-wing group on Friday.
The Wisconsin Elections Commission sent a letter to nearly 234,000 voters in October warning that they needed to re-register in order to remain on the voter rolls because authorities believe they had relocated. “If you move, even to an apartment in the same building, you must update your voter record by reregistering,” the commission warned at the time.
The letter did not set a deadline for voters to re-register and the commission later said that voters would have until 2021 to do so. But the conservative Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty filed a lawsuit arguing that the commission is required to remove those voters within 30 days of sending the letter.
Ozaukee County Circuit Judge Paul Malloy, who was appointed by Republican Gov. Scott McCallum in 2002, agreed with the complaint on Friday, ruling that the commission must remove everyone on the list who does not re-register within 30 days,
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Thursday, December 19th, 2019
Stephan: According to The New York Times, speaking of the Sackler family, "A new audit finds that the family directed $10.7 billion from the drugmaker to family-controlled trusts and holding companies, as legal pressure tightened around Purdue." That $10 billion is the very definition of "blood money," as demonstrated by the thousands of deaths, and multiples of that in terms of lives destroyed. Will any of the family be arrested? Go to jail? Don't hold your breath. In a government controlled by oligarchs if you are very rich being held accountable is a rare event.
The Sacklers and members of their company Purdue Pharma have been named in a lawsuit that accuses them of profiting from the opioid crisis by aggressively marketing OxyContin, claims denied by attorneys for the family and Purdue.
The suit had been heavily redacted, but on Monday, Suffolk County Superior Court Judge Janet Sanders ruled that the unredacted amended complaint must be publicly released by February 1.
In the order, Sanders calls the defense’s protests “hardly compelling” enough to keep the information secret, adding that it is not intensely personal or private.
The redacted pages “appear to be discussions of tactics that could be used to promote the sales of OxyContin (particularly in higher doses), to encourage doctors to prescribe the drug over longer periods of time, and to circumvent safeguards put in place to stop illegal prescriptions,” Sanders says in the court filing.
“For many years, Purdue, its executives, and members […]
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Thursday, December 19th, 2019
Norman Lebrecht, - The New York Times
Stephan: While I was standing in line today I heard a Republican anti-semite in a MAGA hat say to his friend, "What have the Jews ever done that makes a difference? We ought to get rid of all of them." I thought that was an interesting question, and people ought to know the answer. So here is a short answer.
From left: Albert Ballin; Albert Einstein; Sarah Bernhardt; Sigmund FreudCredit…Hamburg Marketing GmbH; Associated Press; Bibliothèque Nationale de France; Sigmund Freud Museum, via Associated Press
GENIUS & ANXIETY
How Jews Changed the World, 1847-1947
By Norman Lebrecht
Illustrated. 438 pp. Scribner. $30.
Reciting Jewish achievements and Judaism’s contribution to civilization in order to fight anti-Semitic propaganda is a well-established genre that flourished in 19th-century Europe. After reaching the United States in the first part of the 20th century, it arguably culminated in the 1960s with the writings of popular authors like Max Dimont. Norman Lebrecht’s “Genius & Anxiety” belongs to that genre: Both the subtitle of his book and the preface testify to Lebrecht’s commitment to demonstrating “how Jews changed the world” as a response to the current moment, which, he laments, is yet again beset by anti-Semitism.
Spanning a century, between 1847 (the death of Felix Mendelssohn) and 1947 (the United Nations’ vote in favor of the […]
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Wednesday, December 18th, 2019
Donald J. Trump, President - The White House
Stephan: Read this letter from Trump to Pelosi. In my view, this is the letter of a guilty and mentally ill person.
The Honorable Nancy Pelosi
Speaker of the House of Representatives
Washington, D.C. 20515
Dear Madam Speaker:
I write to express my strongest and most powerful protest against the partisan impeachment crusade being pursued by the Democrats in the House of Representatives. This impeachment represents an unprecedented and unconstitutional abuse1 of power by Democrat Lawmakers, unequaled in nearly two and a half centuries of American legislative history.
The Articles of Impeachment introduced by the House Judiciary Committee are not recognizable under any standard of Constitutional theory, interpretation, or jurisprudence. They include no crimes2, no misdemeanors, and no offenses whatsoever. You have cheapened the importance of the very ugly word, impeachment!
By proceeding with your invalid impeachment, you are violating your oaths of office, you are breaking your allegiance to the Constitution, and you are declaring open war on American Democracy. You dare to invoke the Founding Fathers in pursuit of this election-nullification scheme — yet your spiteful actions display unfettered contempt for America’s founding and your egregious conduct threatens to destroy that which our Founders pledged their very lives […]
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Wednesday, December 18th, 2019
David Cay Johnston, Editor-in-Chief - DC Report.org
Stephan: In a few months, independent of what I hope is going to be the impeachment by the House and removal from office by the Senate of a criminal President, the Supreme Court is going to rule on whether our democracy has been debased to the point where criminal Trump and all the people that follow him in that office are above the law.
Our Supreme Court will hear Donald Trump’s claim that if he shot someone on Fifth Avenue police could not investigate him. Yes, these are crazy times.
In fighting a New York City investigation into whether Trump is a serial tax cheat, one of his lawyers argued in October that should he murder someone the authorities could not even collect evidence. However, lawyer George Consovoy added, Trump could be prosecuted after he leaves office.
Technically, the high court said Friday that it will take up whether Trump’s tax returns and supporting financial records must be turned over to three different investigations.
The deep issue in all three cases is whether the justices will embrace Trump’s claims of being above the law.
The crucial case for Trump is the Manhattan district attorney’s probe which involves subpoenas issued by a pair of House of Representatives committees.
Significantly, the high court is not taking up the most clear-cut allegation of Trump violating his oath of office with regard to his taxes.
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A court ruling Monday in Massachusetts will expose details about one of America’s richest families and their connection to the nation’s opioid crisis.
