Vaccinations and Centenarians

A vaccine is an immune system booster. It is not a cure or a treatment for disease.

You have to have an immune system to start out with.

My question is, in the case of centenarians, how much of their immune system is left?

Aaron Swartz: Blame MIT and USAO

I wrote this four years ago, pointing out that the Swartz prosecution was political in nature. MIT and the US Attorney’s Office in Boston are responsible for his death. After his suicide, the Boston USAO lied, claiming that they had offered him a six-month plea bargain. That was and is a lie:

The Federal Sentencing Guidelines provide a base sentence of 57-71 months in prison in this case, followed by 2 or 3 years of supervised release and no computer use during this time. I have not seen a report where the prosecution offered Swartz a six-month cap in exchange for a plea. I have seen a report that the prosecution insisted on what is called an open plea to the entire indictment. This is not a plea bargain at all.

My only conclusion from all of this is that this case was and is a political case and so was handled differently from run of the mill criminal matters. The government no doubt wanted to make an example of Swartz and his efforts in opening up PACER played into this. The Government is afraid of people like Swartz, Assange and Anonymous (and perhaps even Kim Dotcom–they are viewed essentially as one entity.

Society’s reaction to crime ebbs and flows. In medieval England, the sole penalty for felony was death. The idea was that the punishment was so horrible that no one would commit a felony. This obviously did not work. The United States is similarly using draconian legislation to modify the behavior of people interacting through computers. This effort will fail. The greatest blow to people pirating music was iTunes offering songs for less than a dollar and not any draconian legislation.

The Swartz case raises so many issues. Perhaps only a Constitutional Convention could address all of them (keep in mind that the federalization of crime took place under Hoover; at the founding of the Republic there were only three federal crimes).

What do you call a Post-K Arbitration?

An adjutorious arbitration; an archaic word but then again, in the law nothing is archaic. There has to be a good deal of good will and cooperation where the parties fail to provide for an arbitration clause, a dispute arises and they nevertheless agree to resolve their dispute amicably using ICC Arbitration. So “adjutorious” in the sense of “helping” them to resolve their dispute. Accessory or ancillary arbitration doesn’t work because such an arbitration is the principal one. It ’s not ancillary to anything except the contract–not the dispute–and if you could use “ancillary” you might as well use “additional”. “Sequacious” could also be used in the sense of “following” the contract, but this word is mostly used to describe a person. No reason it couldn’t be used here, it’s just a question of repeated use and acceptance, but you lose the euphony of alliteration. Perhaps someone could start looking at the Selden Society’s volumes, there might be a term from Law French. Which, of course, is not French at all.

Another Extrajudicial Killing

You cannot applaud the assassination of Mohsen Fakhrizadeh in Iran while condemning the assassination of Khashoggi in Istanbul.

(And if it’s OK for Israel, it’s OK for Saudi Arabia)

A new law of war is needed:

medium.com/@al_mu7am…

Happy Birthday

Ronald Reagan left the White House when he was 77 years old after serving two terms.

Joe Biden today is one year older than Reagan was at the end of his term and getting ready to begin his.

Biden will be 82 at the end of his term.

Sumerian Wind Demons

“There’s no freedom of religion unless you are free to worship Sumerian wind demons”

Francis Scott Key and John Marshall

Francis Scott Key, the author of the Star Spangled Banner, was an attorney in Maryland.

And a slaveowner.

John Marshall, the 13th Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court, was a slaveowner too. He owned 150 slaves. He is the intellectual author of the principle of judicial review, found in the seminal case of Marbury v. Madison.

Trump's Post-Presidency

It looks like Biden is the victor, assuming no court intervention. Whatever happens between now and January 20th, the Press will focus on Trump. They will not admit it, but they will miss him greatly. Unless he runs into Alberto Fujimori on the golf course, Trump will provide reliable entertainment as he has always done. The Press will clutch their pearls and say “how dare he?”

Moreover, Trump will find a way to stay relevant. He will visit foreign capitals and mouth off as usual—stealing the new president’s thunder. Imagine a two-year world tour, à la Ulysses Grant. He would be unable to comply with subpoenas, could not be called to testify, and would wreak havoc wherever he went.

Let’s say Trump were to grant his first post-presidency interview to Howard Stern: how many millions would tune in? It’s quite possible, indeed, as I write this I think it is more and more likely—that Trump will continue to grab the spotlight in new and astonishing ways in his post-presidential career.

Dick Cheney re-invented the Office of the Vice-President. Trump could re-invent the post-presidency. Jimmy Carter devoted his post-presidential years to doing good deeds. Imagine a president who devoted his post-presidential years to further shenanigans, to getting even with the American public.

Trump would be the darling of any out of power foreign administration, giving them continued legitimacy merely because of his appearance. Imagine if Trump were to meet with the Dalai Lama. China would be furious and American reassurances that “he’s only a private citizen” would be ignored by the Chinese, who would see this as some kind of insidious American scheme. Freed of the constraints of the White House, Trump can be relied on to be unpredictable and the unpredictable is dangerous.

Biden would have to beg Trump to behave, making Trump a kind of “senior-president” holding a veto over those policies of the new administration he didn’t like. The Catholic Church has two popes. Why can’t the United States have two presidents? The fact that one is in the White House and the other on Twitter won’t matter to a constituency that increasingly spends most of its time on the Internet anyway. It’s all greenfield—a perfect environment without rules for one who never believed that the rules applied to him anyway. It will be an amazing show and the press will cover every move.

Or, Trump can join Jimmy Carter and build houses for the poor. Yeah, right.

Whatever Biden plans to do, he better do it fast—he will be a one-term president. I say this without any regard for his future policies or popularity, but merely due to his age. After age 60, years are like dog years. Biden will be 83 at the end of his term.

Eighty-three. Maybe there will be an “80 is the new 60” campaign.

Danger Will Robinson: Biden may try to raise taxes significantly, knowing that he doesn’t have to stand for re-election. People voted for Biden not because they were enamored of him or his traditional Democratic policies, but because he wasn’t Trump. What does Biden stand for? What will be the issue de jour that he sets upon and decides to call his own? Wouldn’t it be ironic if Biden turns out to be the real demagogue?

Every move that Biden makes will be attacked by Trump, who will inevitably get the microphone and attention. And that is precisely what he wants. What he so desperately needs.

With Biden in the White House, I expect four years of stasis. The Ship of State will barely move. The Democrats will squabble amongst themselves. The Republicans will say “no” to their “yes.” Expect two full years of new investigations, of Trump, Hunter Biden and others, both known and unknown to the grand jury. These sideshows will consume a great deal of energy but will amount to nothing.

The Post-Presidency

British Judicial Understatement

In describing an incident where feces were found in the marital bed that Amber Heard shared with Johnny Depp, Judge Andrew Nicol found that it is likely the feces were not human given that Heard’s dog “had an incomplete mastery of her bowels after she had accidentally consumed some marijuana.”

So if someday you are accused of public defecation, point out to the officer that you merely had “an incomplete mastery of your bowels.” The officer is likely to respond with, “Whaat? Did you shit in the street or not?”

It is also good to know that the pooch did not “deliberately” consume marijuana, though I am not sure how His Lordship came to that conclusion.

Who Will Win?

We won’t know on election night and there’s the rub. The courts may give the election to Trump, as they did to Bush in 2000. Things may get violent. Trump will not go quietly. I think there will be several razor-thin elections in different states. It’s too close to call. What I can predict is this: whoever wins doesn’t matter. Nothing will change.

How I Got My Twitter Account Back

Whose Fault?

When I woke up one morning in June, there was a message from Twitter on my phone, telling me that there was suspicious activity on my account and that they would send an SMS code which I should then enter on the screen to be provided. I clicked “OK” or “Send.”

But no message arrived.

I clicked again. Nothing. And again. Nothing.

I opened Twitter on my laptop to find that my account had been suspended. I clicked on the blue box now prominently displayed at the bottom of the screen to “Find Out More.” A new window opened, with a form to fill out an inquiry. I filled out the form, pressed “Send” and got a new screen thanking me and saying that under normal circumstances, these issues are resolved in a day or two.

I received an email telling me that my inquiry had been received and registered and that Twitter would address the issue as soon as they were able.

Time Passes

A few days later, I had received no further message from Twitter and my account was still suspended. I sent a follow-up email which was instantly replied to noting that I had an open inquiry and that the new email would be added to the open inquiry. That was fine with me, so I waited.

And waited some more.

Now a week had gone by. Was I being de-platformed?

De-Platformed?

I do not know what algorithms Twitter uses to place posts in my feed. My standard rule is that if a post shows up in my feed, it is inviting a response. I may or may not respond if I have anything to add to the discussion. Sometimes I do, but usually I don’t.

The subject of de-platforming comes up frequently. There are basically four sides to this argument:

• de-platforming is censorship, violating the First Amendment
• de-platforming is not censorship, because Twitter is not the government and the First Amendment only addresses government action
• a particular person should be de-platformed because he violated Twitter’s ToS and community standards
• a particular person should not be platformed because de-platforming is in effect censorship or because their posts aren’t that bad or don’t violate Twitter’s community standards.

Proponents of any of these four arguments like to make them. My personal position is that Twitter is not a publisher and should not be a censor. The only ones who should be censored are those who call for censorship. Edge cases can be dealt with in the courts. My personal opinion is but one of millions and there is no reason to give it more credence than anyone else’s.

In my opinion, time has affected these arguments. Twitter is clearly a public place. The president uses it to communicate directly with the people. If the president can do so, so can any other public official. And so can anyone else who disagrees with that public official.

In my opinion, sometimes a platform can become “too big to censor.” Twitter is such a platform. A local chess club bulletin board with news of upcoming events and analysis of recent games is not. No one would argue that the chess club has a right to keep non-chess posts off its site. But Twitter and Facebook are in a different category simply because of their size and reach.

There is no legislation which would eliminate their claimed right to censor. Such legislation is needed to address the situation where a large public forum undertakes to censor information where, if the government were to take the same action, would be considered free speech. It’s not difficult to write such legislation: make the law applicable to platforms with a half million users or more. There’s an equal protection counter-argument here and there would be a great deal of legal squabbling before things settled down.

From time to time I would point out that the largest shareholder of Twitter, other than its founders, is (or was) Saudi Arabia’s Prince Walid bin Talal. I do not believe that Prince Walid ever tried to censor Twitter posts. Nevertheless, it would be difficult for Twitter management to resist an initiative by a major shareholder to ban those critical of Saudi Arabia, critical of Israel, or critical of any other country.

But I have few followers (probably less than one hundred) and I don’t think that either Jack Dorsey or Prince Walid himself feels especially threatened by my comments about de-platforming.

I hadn’t written anything praising Antifa, inciting armed insurrection, organizing militias or planning bombings. Other than pointing out that Senator Marco Rubio is a Mormon from Utah and not the Cuban refugee he pretends to be to his constituency in Florida, I hadn’t posted anything about religion. I have often criticized the FBI’s use of informants to trap the weak and have written about the Liberty City 7 case in Florida. It is highly unlikely that the FBI felt so threatened by me that they sought to have me censored.

I support the #DignidadLiteraria movement and posted complaints about the Irish-American fantasy novel #AmericanDirt, but if my comments about a Twitter shareholder didn’t merit corporate attention, neither did my posts about these topics. I have written a blog post about George Floyd and the teenagers who “thought” he might have paid with a counterfeit twenty after he left the store and another about Rayshard Brooks which pointed out that deadly force cannot be used to stop a misdemeanant, but both articles were too long for Twitter. I only linked to them. In short, I just wasn’t much of a controversial Twitter user.

So if I wasn’t de-platformed, what was going on?

Meanwhile, I sent another e-mail to Twitter and received the same automated response. No human being had yet reviewed my issue.

June became July and July became August.

Snowjob

The US Government waited until Carlos Lehder had terminal cancer before fulfilling its promise to permit his transfer to Germany. The promise was made to induce Lehder to cooperate in the prosecution of General Manuel Noriega of Panama. After invading Panama, that prosecution was one the US could not lose. Cooperation deals rained down like a burst piñata.

I wrote the introduction to a book entitled Snowjob, by Carlos Stier, one of Lehder’s erstwhile lieutenants. Lehder’s transfer was world news—news that showed up in my Twitter feed. Repeatedly, post after post, new posts and retweeted posts and commented upon posts. At least one hundred of them.

I commented on about twenty of these, posting this graphic.

Oops. Twitter thought I was a bot. That’s why they checked and sent the SMS inquiry. When Twitter’s bot thought that I was a bot, it responded by suspending my account. But I wasn’t a bot.

Another email to Twitter was followed by yet another automated response. I tried a new tactic and sent an email to Twitter support. I received a response noting that I had an open inquiry with Twitter and that my new support request would be joined with the open inquiry, an inquiry that, I decided, had determined I was a bot and that there was no need to respond.

For whatever it’s worth, I didn’t even post the same graphic each time.

In a way, I can’t blame Twitter. How many support personnel would you have to hire to deal with millions of users? The labor payroll would be a staggering expense. On the other hand, Google doesn’t seem to have any support personnel at all. There are stories of people losing their passwords and never getting their emails back. The only Google support team exists to sell you advertising. That team is happy to speak with you on the phone and will even try to schedule phone appointments with you that you haven’t asked for. Have you ever tried to get Google on the phone? The only department that takes calls is the legal department and that’s limited to law enforcement emergencies and…

…that gave me an idea. That was the way in.

I’m not law enforcement and I don’t have an emergency, but perhaps the best way to handle this issue was to move it from the cyber world to meatspace, a term I had not even seen for some time.

August became September; September became October.

USPS To the Rescue

I hooked up my occasionally used printer and printed out screenshots and emails. I then wrote a letter and addressed it to Twitter’s Security Department. I looked up the street address, which Twitter helpfully publishes, presumably to assist with law enforcement subpoenas.

I went to the post office where the envelope was stamped and accepted for delivery. I calculated that delivery would take a few days.

There’s Something About Paper

Jay Foonberg is an attorney and author of How to Start and Build a Law Practice, the book most-stolen from law libraries. In that book, he recommends sending clients a copy of all correspondence received and all correspondence sent. Any pleadings filed or received should be copied and mailed to the client. The reason for doing so is not immediately obvious, but there is a clear financial reason to do so: it is difficult for a client to claim “my attorney hasn’t done anything” while staring at a column of paper stacked to the ceiling.

“You have to do something with paper,” Foonberg instructs. “Even if it’s just a question of throwing the paper into the trash, someone has to physically take out the trash.” Paper sits on a desk or hides in a file cabinet taking up space. Until it’s dealt with, paper is an action item. When it sits on someone’s desk paper is a reminder of work not done, not put away, it is there for anyone—and especially a supervisor—to see. In short, paper cannot be ignored.

One week after I mailed my letter, one week after the move from the ethereal to the physical, my account was restored.

Character Evidence

Evidence of good character is relevant in many types of legal proceedings.

How long before the number of Facebook “likes” a person has received can be admitted in evidence as proof of good reputation in a community?

Conversely, how long before the lack of Facebook “likes” constitutes substantive evidence?

Should a person with a million likes and ten million followers be treated the same as a Facebook nobody?

Facebook Obituaries

How long before an obituary records the number of Facebook “likes” a person received during their lifetime?

Jerry Jeff Walker RIP

When you’re down on your luck

And you ain’t got a buck

In London, you’re a goner

They say you remain faithful to the music that was popular when you were in middle school for the rest of your life. When I was in middle school, popular music was rock music. The Beatles, the Dave Clark Five, Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix and those naughty Rolling Stones filled the airwaves whenever they wanted. But sometimes there is room for new musical styles to slip in and take hold. This is a story of one such time.

Later, when I went to college, I lived at Woodward Court, commonly called the “New Dorms” by students who no longer lived there. Popular music then was still rock ’n roll. People hadn’t figured out that the 60s were over. Rock bands still owned the charts. There were different kinds of rock but it was still rock music. Chicago added horns and was getting used to its new name. Led Zeppelin was at its height and had just finished flying around the US in the band’s own jetliner. The Rolling Stones still played to amphitheaters.

These were dancing’s wasteland years. Disco had snuck in and those who wanted to dance turned away from rock to this new music from New York. One day Steve Dahl, a local radio personality, held a “Disco Demolition” event at Comiskey Park on the South Side of Chicago. A crowd that hated everything about Disco burnt vinyl in a bonfire. The event got out of control and Disco was on its way out of musical fashion.

At college there was an evangelist amongst us, one who was not beholden to rock or to disco. He brought from Texas another style of music, a music that none of us had heard before but which somehow caught on, or at least, caught on amongst us.

Even London Bridge

Has fallen down

And moved to Arizona

I thumbed through his records. “What’s that?” I asked, “I’ve never heard it.” I wasn’t the only one. “Just listen,” he answered, “this is what we listen to back home.”

What, if anything, will we be remembered for? Not too long ago I received a letter that noted, “I remember you turned me on to Jerry Jeff Walker.” Today, when asked, “tell me something that no one knows about you” the answer is usually, “I have a secret fondness for country music, especially Jerry Jeff Walker.”

I wanna go home with the armadillo

Good country music from Amarillo

And Abilene.

Music brings back a place and time. How many times do you hear an old song on the radio and are instantly brought back to the place and time where you heard it first, or at least, when the song first ‘stuck?’

Those who shared these experiences hear his voice while reading these lyrics, and on hearing those silent notes in their head, are brought back to a place and time when they shared the secret of Jerry Jeff Walker’s music.

Hovering Around 3100

For the past six days, the number of active Covid-19 cases in Bahrain has hovered around 3100.

Sick Travelers Game the System

Sick travelers game the system, putting everyone at risk, to be able to travel to Pakistan. This is what happens in a culture where “gaming the system” is socially acceptable.

Embassies to the Middle East

American cultural embassies to the Middle East:

• KFC
• McDonald’s
• Dunkin Donuts
• Krispy Creme Donuts
• Burger King
• Dairy Queen

Any others?

Travel Dreams

Travel dreams.

Bug the Fire Extinguishers

When the CIA bugged the Ecuadorian embassy in London (howdey doodad?) they placed the bugs on the bottom of the fire extinguishers. The fire extinguishers were unlikely to be removed (except every few years) and were unlikely to be touched in the meantime unless there was a fire.

What is Close Contact

Close contact may not be close contact, and occasional contact may now be close contact.

I guess.

Howda hell diddy get dat?

Howda hell diddy get dat?

Irresistible Force Meets Immovable Object

Irresistible Force: Blaming the Russians, Cubans, Chinese

Immovable Object: Having to pay your employees’ comp claims.

More: www.gq.com/story/cia…

Bulgarian Chihuaha Smugglers

Bulgarian chihuahua smugglers operating in Norway may mean the death of this innocent animal.

Lining Up In An Orderly Fashion

This is what the US has been fighting for in Afghanistan.

Foreign Policy by Indictment

Childhood

My childhood was typical: summers in Rangoon.

(From Austin Powers)

Americans Can't Extend French Visas, But Chechen Murderers Get Ten Year Residency

Americans can’t extend French Schengen visas, but Chechen murderers get ten year French residency permits.

Something to think about.

Sea-Launched Drones

Bad news for the US Fifth Fleet: Iran now has sea-launched drones. The Fifth Fleet is headquartered in Bahrain on the Arabian Gulf, facing Iran.

Proposed Scrivener Pleading Wizard

One way to make Scrivener easier would be to add Wizards for common tasks, like compile.

Back in the days of Wordperfect 5.1, I could set up a federal pleading simply by pressing alt+u. With a pleading Wizard, Scrivener could have the same functionality.

Masked Confrontations Now Commonplace

The masked and the maskless both have strong opinions. That is why fistfights break out over masking, sometimes with tragic consequences. The maskless believe that the masked are fools; the masked feel threatened by the maskless. Social etiquette has not yet developed appropriate standards of behavior. Confrontations are common, especially on airplanes.

Machine Gun Kelly

Machine Gun Kelly was Italian, not Irish, as his name would otherwise suggest.

Causeway Questions Clear Up

The Causeway/border mystery has been resolved. The Causeway is open. But the reason why there has not been much cross-border traffic is because crossing is now expensive–to get into Bahrain, you need a Covid-19 test. The cost of testing in Saudi is SAR 850 ($226). If your lab isn’t on the list, you have to repeat the test in Bahrain at a cost of 60 BD ($160). In Bahrain, you’re supposed to self-quarantine for 24 hours, but if you have a positive test, they’ll come and get you for mandatory quarantine. Test results are only good for 48 hours, which means you’ll have to be tested going back. Family of 4? Four tests, no discounts. This means that casual day trips or weekend trips are no longer practical.

How the Indian Education System Teaches Students to Game the System

A devastating analysis of Jugaad, the Indian education system and gaming the system as a way of life:

pulkitsharma07.github.io/2020/10/0…

Second Wave: Ireland

Ireland’s Covid-19 task force is now recommending a full, Stage 5 lock-down as cases increase to levels not seen since last April. Donegal, bordering on Northern Ireland, has been under Stage 3 restrictions.

Second Wave: French Bars to Close

The French will be forced to drink at home as the number of cases of the Sickness increases.

Saudi Arabia and Vitamin D

Vitamin D deficiency has been linked to susceptibility to the Sickness. Fully 83% of Saudi citizens have “Vitamin D issues.”

Juliette Binoche and E-Books

Dealmaking in the Middle East

It is common in the Middle East for a party to enter into a transaction only to find strangers claiming commissions when the transaction is to close. What are the legal ramifications?

Here’s the scenario: Buyer contracts with Seller for a product. Seller doesn’t have the product, and eventually admits this to A, saying the product is difficult to find. Seller promises to source the product. Eventually, the product is found. Buyer is surprised because the contracts now mention a Stranger (“C”), who is from a third country (often Lebanon) who seems to have no relationship to the transaction: the Stranger does not have the product to sell.

What is the legal status of the Stranger? What are A’s obligations to him?

Making introductions and acting as a buyer or seller’s representative constitutes valid consideration for a contract requiring payment for services, whether on a percentage or flat fee basis. In other words, there is nothing wrong with the payment of a commission. The problem is when you throw in names of individuals without specifying their roles in the transaction. Then, without a reference to consideration, a trier of fact could reach the conclusion that the contract was a contract for a gift, which is not a legally binding contract.

This happens when someone decides to add names to a transaction to thank someone for whatever reason where that person has no real involvement in the transaction.

If you have a contract that says,

“Buyer will pay a commission to Seller for brokerage services”

that is completely acceptable. But there clearly is no consideration for anything paid to the Stranger.

There may be a relationship between the Seller and the Stranger. The Stranger may be a subcontractor of the Buyer. But that is not the Buyer’s problem or responsibility. If the Seller promised to pay the Stranger for services, let him pay out of his own pocket.

Given the above scenario, someone could later come in and say, “the Stranger is only the Seller’s friend, there’s no entitlement to a commission, so it cannot be paid.”

This is why for the document to be legally binding the roles need to be spelled out. Identifying a party as “integral to the deal” is a good way to analyze the party’s role. If a person has no role which is “integral to the deal” that person is a bystander looking for a gift. Contract law does not require a buyer to compensate bystanders.

Looking Back at the Roger Stone Arrest

I still believe that the (televised) Roger Stone arrest was the result of a deliberate leak by the FBI to CNN.

“everybody knew something was going to happen…”

Secret grand jury proceedings. Indictment sealed. Without a tip-off, there was no reason to send anyone to Broward county. Stone could have been anywhere. The question is, why not simply request that he show up in D.C. as he had so many times in the past? Why the need for the Florida sideshow? Short answer: there was no need; it was done for publicity.

What’s the best way to get publicity? Tip off the press. Which is what happened. Do you think that CNN was the only news agency covering the Mueller investigation? But they were the only one to show up in Broward. So you’re saying every other media organization was asleep at the switch? But that somehow CNN deduced from people walking around in the courthouse carrying pieces of paper that an arrest in Broward was imminent? Or is it simply more likely that someone on Mueller’s team or the FBI leaked the return of the indictment to a single CNN reporter?

It’s important to look back at these events, lest they repeat in the future.

There is no "Kavanaugh Rule"

Lawrence Ferling

Lawrence Ferling is the birth name of the poet you may know as Lawrence Ferlinghetti.

Trump-Biden Debate Analysis

Congratulations, America; you got your spectacle.

The problem is media coverage: treat the (unnecessary) event like a key sporting event and idiots will opine as to who “won” or “lost.” The event–because nothing was debated–was merely more reality TV, with Chris Wallace pushing for drama (“Can you renounce Satan? Right now?”). No Donna Brazile even bothered to leak the questions because they no longer matter. It’s a race to the bottom; if the Biden campaign were smart they would have said no to the event. Can anyone really claim they learned 𝘼𝙉𝙔𝙏𝙃𝙞𝙉𝙂 during this event? These events are useless and add nothing.

Jesus was Illiterate

Jesus was illiterate.

Against All Odds

Unrestrained Greed

Lil Tay was a nine year-old Internet sensation who used foul language while flexing (that is, flaunting her wealth) on Youtube until she reached more than a million followers. Her father pulled the plug because he believed that a child should not engage in such behavior.

Lil Tay’s success showed that a million people approved of her unrestrained greed. They had no problem mocking those who disapproved. Better to be sad in a chauffeur-driven luxury car than happy on a bicycle is one modern Chinese saying. The bicycle rider doesn’t know where his next meal is coming from; the automobile passenger is unconcerned.

Here's a Preview of the 2020 Vote

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bush_v._Gore

Taiwan is Now Arrakis

Taiwan is now Arrakis.

One Step Forward, One Step Back

A Grim Number

The Grammar of Money

The secret laws of money. Ignore them at your peril.

Better than an Appeal

I guess this is one way to show your disapproval of an 11th Circuit opinion requiring felons in Florida to pay all their outstanding fines before they may vote.

Kosher Salt in Bahrain

Diplomatic relations with Israel were only established last week and look what’s already on the shelf.

DiBlasio and Netanyahu

DiBlasio and Netanyahu bob have the same problem when it comes to getting the haredim to obey social distancing and masking rules.

About Latinx

There are serious people on both sides of this argument. Grammatical gender is a feature of many language families. Removing it to make the language more politically correct…

won’t work.

Besides, “latin” already comprehends “latino” and “Latina.” Latine no se necessity.

The Difference between Canada and the USA

Which is why the US has more cases than any country in the world.

Nothing Wrong

I told you, there’s nothing wrong with my passport.

Journalists Beware

The US DoJ has argued in the Assange extradition case that US journalists can be convicted under the Espionage Act for publishing leaked information.

The NYTimes is not covering the proceedings. At their peril, I would say.

Aztec Plague Advice (from David Bowles)

The Aztecs treated their kings harshly for failing to follow plague protocols.

Where's Walid?

Prince Walid bin Talal, famous Saudi billionaire, the most well-known of all those incarcerated in the Ritz, has yet to leave the country after his release.

Or has he? Has Prince Walid’s travel ban been lifted?

Here he is on his 747 prior to his arrest. You don’t buy a jet unless you like to travel.

The Ultraviolet Solution

Ultraviolet light kills Covid-19.

Read more.

Russian Vaccine

Sputnik V, the name of the Russian Covid-19 vaccine, seems to be effective. Vaccinations have been undertaken in the UAE.

Read more in The Lancet

Opening Postponed

Based on the more than doubling of new Covid-19 cases in the past two weeks, Bahrain announced today that it is postponing the relaxation of restrictions for another month.

The Long Game

Would a Trump victory insure the nomination of a progressive by the Democrats in 2024?

With another loss by centrist, Debbie Wasserman-Shulz/Donna Brazile Democrats, perhaps the party would turn towards its Roosevelt roots.

Bernie would be too old. AOC too young and perhaps too polarizing. Liz Warren would be 75.

Is there a 50-something progressive in the house?

Underground Bahrain

Someone sent me this…

Fake News

It was 61° F in New York today; not 31°. The source was an Arab television station.

38/32

It’s 38° C in Bahrain; 32° F in NYC.

Assange Extradition

Unfortunately, you can’t trust the United States government when it comes to extradition. Just ask Austria:

Sholam Weiss

Exorcism or Prosecution? The Nimitz Loses a Sailor

USS Nimitz Loses Sailor, Time for an Exorcism

A sailor assigned to the USS Nimitz, an American aircraft carrier on patrol in the Arabian Sea, was lost overboard on August 6th. The Nimitz is assigned to the Fifth Fleet, headquartered in Bahrain.

The Fifth Fleet certainly has been the victim of bad luck in the past few years. Perhaps a limpieza (a santería excorcism) would help. Or perhaps it is the ghost of Thao Suranari, demanding justice.

Her killer was not punished for the crime.

“*Phi Tai Hong

One of the most feared and most dangerous ghost types in Thailand is that of the Phi Tai Hong. Said to be ghosts of people who suffered violent or sudden deaths, Phi Tai Hong are angry and dangerous in their afterlife.*

[https://theculturetrip.com/asia/thailand/articles/13-terrifying-ghosts-thai-folklore/]

In view of the Fifth Fleet’s troubles, a Buddhist ceremony to propitiate her angry, dangerous ghost might be a solution. The justice obtained through a nolle pros decision or a transfer to CONUS or even a general discharge is not enough to satisfy a phi tai hong.

Prosecute her killer. That’s what we do in the West when we don’t believe in ghosts.

The Gates Foundation and Journalism

Subsidized news without or with little disclosure.

What's the Difference between Indie Publishing and Vanity Publishing?

The difference is sales to strangers. Vanity publishing means printing and ordering books. After giving a few copies to friends and family, the undistributed books sit on a pallet in the garage. Indie publishing means getting a book into a distribution channel, like Amazon, where it can be bought by anyone. Sales to strangers is the key difference.

In the U.K., at least in the non-fiction and specialty markets, an author is often required to fund publication in part. It’s pay to play. So there at least, the distinction between paying for publication and being paid for publication breaks down. There is a lot of blurring at the edges of these definitions. Is a bookstore owner who publishes his friends (and himself) a self-publisher? What about City Lights Books?

The Drug War and Napoleon

No one anticipated that a wealthy Saudi who took up our invitation to throw the Russians out of Afghanistan would turn against us and cross oceans to wage war in New York. After 2001, the drug war became an afterthought; like the empty Venetian courtrooms after Napoleon put an end to the thousand-year Venetian republic, the new fourth courthouse would be mostly unused.

M. Duras Spoke Vietnamese

Marguerite Duras, author, film director, Resistance fighter grew up speaking Vietnamese. Though she wrote many works in French, she never wrote in Vietnamese.

Discuss.

Never Grill a Rubber Chicken

Always sound advice.

You Should be Using It

For typesetting.

Sturgis v. Peru in the CoronaBowl

(From David Stockman)

“Finally, there’s this. When over 460,000 motorcyclists descended upon Sturgis, South Dakota in the Black Hills for the annual Sturgis motorcycle rally, it was the largest event in the entire country this year – without masks or sacred social distancing protocols.

Yet no epidemic of coronavirus was ignited by this mother of all mass gatherings, contrary to media predictions. As one astute analyst observed,

‘So where is the monumental imprint on the country? There are zero deaths reported, and I have only seen one hospitalization alleged to be associated with Sturgis attendance. The epidemic generated by the rally was so powerful that they evidently had to conduct mass testing to discover a “CASEdemic” of over 100 cases – and all those tested in one city were asymptomatic at the time of testing.

If Sturgis in South Dakota broke every rule of the COVID-19 cult with success, then Peru is the polar opposite. The country used heavy-handed law enforcement to force one of the longest and most draconian shutdowns. In mid-March, President Martín Vizcarra ordered all cars off the road and an 8 p.m. curfew, and residents were only allowed to leave their homes even during the day for food or medical care. Mask-wearing was 100% mandated everywhere. This was imposed for 15 weeks. In other words, everything the media and leftist politicians have asked for.

The result? Peru has now surpassed Belgium as the country with the most deaths per capita in the world. At 871 COVID-19 deaths per 1 million people, Peru has 4.6 times the number of deaths per capita of South Dakota, which had no lockdown or mask mandate.‘”

Low Level Persistent Spread

Low-Level but Persistent Spread

Like Cuba, Bahrain is an island. Like Cuba, Bahrain has closed off its airport to visitors. Unlike Cuba, Bahrain has an artificial land bridge to Saudi Arabia, but traffic has been and remains exit only. Both countries have low levels of infection. In Havana, the authorities have ordered a modified lockdown because of the “low-level but persistent” spread of the Sickness. This is exactly the situation in Bahrain. A low-level but persistent spread keeps the number of cases hovering around 3000.

A lockdown is one way to stop the spread.

The First Electrocution

But the blood was continuing to ooze from Kemmler’s small finger wound. His heart still had to be beating. The physicians around the limp figure recoiled as one yelled in horror, “Great God! He is alive!” Another ordered, “Turn on the current.” “See, he breathes,” gasped a third. When Dr. Southwick and the others whirled around at these cries, they saw that Kemmler’s body was still limp, but his chest was heaving up and down. He seemed to be struggling for breath, and foam was seeping horribly from his masked mouth hole. “For God’s sake, kill him and have it over!” screamed one witness. The Associated Press reporter fainted on the wood floor, and several men carried him to a bench, where they fanned him. Durston had turned chalk white. He fumbled and reattached the scalp electrode. As the current flowed anew and Kemmler again went horribly rigid, “an awful odor began to permeate the death chamber.” Kemmler’s hair and skin were being visibly singed. A blue flame played briefly behind his neck. His clothes caught fire, but one of the doctors quickly extinguished them. “The stench,” reported the Times, “was unbearable.” After several minutes, the current was turned off, and as purple spots mottled Kemmler’s hands, arms, and neck, the doctors again declared him dead. The room reeked of burned meat and feces. The nauseated witnesses signed the death warrant for Warden Durston and then trailed out into the stone corridors, silent, shaken, several sick, the Erie County sheriff so distraught that tears trickled down his face. Three hours later, when the doctors had sufficiently recovered to perform an autopsy, they found that rigor mortis had stiffened Kemmler into a permanent sitting position. Examination of the body showed scorch marks wherever the electrodes and buckles touched the body. Kemmler had been “roasted” as well as a piece of overdone meat. Once the autopsy was complete and numerous organs removed, Kemmler’s baked corpse was taken and buried at night in the prison courtyard with great quantities of quicklime to dissolve all ultimate traces.

From Empires of Light: Edison, Tesla, Westinghouse, and the Race to Electrify the World

End of Story Translation

End of story = Capítulo cerrado.

Spanish, obviously.

New Orleans

A beignet is just a small ojaldra. Discuss.

On an Island

I’m on an island. The only land border was closed on March 6. The airport closed then as well. Basically, we’ve been shut-off from the outside world. If there is any place where the virus should have been easy to get under control, it’s here. Yet the number of active cases hovers around 3000 or so. The airport re-opened eventually with limited flights, but entry to foreigners was restricted, passengers could transit onwards only. Arrivals have not been the steady source of new infections.

It should be easy to get the Sickness under control here. In China they had a rigorously enforced lockdown for six weeks or so and since May everything has returned to normal. At least on this island we could be past this—but people don’t and won’t behave. 

Politicizing everything doesn’t help either.

The virus is wildly inconsistent in its effects on people For most people, they don’t even know that they have it. I have a friend in New York–mild headaches, loss of taste and smell. Went to the doctor, told him don’t worry. A few days later, headaches gone, senses returning. If it were me, I would have figured, OK, I have headaches today, part of life. Sense of taste/smell, must have been something I ate. Nothing here to go to the doctor about. 

Three years ago I had the “regular” flu, despite getting a shot. I was sick for a week, and I mean, “maybe I should make a will sick.” Fever, fatigue, even unexplained bleeding from the mouth. After a week started to come out of it, though I missed the big boss’ annual party and I think this contributed to my losing a job. 

There is no question that the virus kills mostly only those over 80. But even there it is inconsistent. My aunt lives in Clifton, Illinois, in a home in the middle of a cornfield, one hour from the nearest town. She came down with the Sickness and was taken to the hospital as a precaution. A few days later she was released. She is 95 years old. 

On the other hand, there are many reports of younger people not making it. No one knows why. I think we should have gone the Sweden route, used common sense and not locked down. We still have not. It is not easy to leave this island because so many countries have stopped issuing visitor visas. Lockdowns are a fact. I’m not happy with that, but they exist. I only hope this will be all over soon. But everyone says, “two months.”

On another island, at Mallory Square in Key West people gather to watch the sun go down. It’s a party atmosphere that has been a Key West tradition for longer than anyone can remember. There are mimes and street performers including a lion tamer TBA who puts house cats, rather than big cats, through their paces. There is a popcorn vendor who sells freshly popped popcorn. There is a sign on his stand which says, “Free Popcorn Tomorrow.” Except that the sign never changes.

Our sign could read, “Two More Months.” Except that like the popcorn sign, the Covid-19 sign never changes.

Steve Bannon Arrest

The arrest was made by US Postal Inspectors, one of the most professional of all federal law enforcement agencies. If you look, you will see that while the FBI has had rogue agents, rogue directors and has gone rogue itself (see, COINTELPRO) the Postal Inspection Service has not suffered such political blows.

Bannon is charged with mail fraud; one of the easiest federal crimes to prove. In practice,

• tell a lie
• lick a stamp

Are the two elements of the crime. Bannon has a lot to worry about.

Death in Laos

The Laotian hazmat squad shows up to take away the coffin carrying the infected body.

Average Age of Covid-19 Deaths

Average age of Covid-19 death is 82 years.

tessst

kielbasa rump short ribs buffalo. Ribeye t-bone chuck chicken burgdoggen tail prosciutto pastrami turducken pork belly pancetta alcatra. Jowl prosciutto pancetta, venison meatball pork belly capicola frankfurter. Shank bacon short loin chicken picanha chislic, filet mignon biltong tri-tip shankle kielbasa leberkas.

Boudin drumstick tongue pork, pig shoulder chicken. Pig buffalo jerky, picanha bacon salami brisket ham hock turkey sausage pancetta hamburger short ribs drumstick. Pastrami picanha meatloaf drumstick pork belly biltong jerky pork loin shoulder ball tip ham hock t-bone. Fatback capicola cow leberkas flank spare ribs corned beef tenderloin biltong meatball chuck meatloaf sausage. Tenderloin strip steak kevin turducken rump, cow boudin shank kielbasa chicken salami. Andouille strip steak chislic turkey bresaola picanha shank porchetta cupim.

Pork kielbasa ball tip ribeye buffalo t-bone. Kielbasa tri-tip meatball jerky tongue. Swine filet mignon ribeye jowl turkey pancetta strip steak. Doner burgdoggen capicola salami tongue tail ribeye pork belly t-bone prosciutto fatback pork bacon. Tri-tip filet mignon ribeye flank venison ground round prosciutto doner frankfurter pork pig rump pork belly.

Pressure on Saudi Arabia?

The WSJ claims that the establishment of diplomatic relations between the UAE and Saudi Arabia puts pressure on Saudi Arabia to do the same. The WSJ clearly does not understand Saudi Arabia.

#ksa #saudiarabia #uae2020 #israel

Test of Logging Version Marsedit

Bacon ipsum dolor amet filet mignon boudin swine porchetta rump turkey, t-bone beef ribs. Pork loin pancetta andouille brisket turkey ham. Salami meatloaf shoulder cow sirloin turducken picanha tongue boudin tail pork loin cupim frankfurter. Tenderloin salami drumstick ham hock leberkas doner, boudin pastrami ribeye alcatra chuck pancetta pig cupim. Tongue alcatra salami tri-tip corned beef turkey pig buffalo prosciutto ribeye.

Boudin brisket salami, biltong turducken pancetta porchetta buffalo tongue flank. Cow pastrami porchetta biltong, picanha short loin short ribs cupim bresaola landjaeger. Pork meatloaf tongue burgdoggen turducken tenderloin. Capicola jerky t-bone corned beef, swine chislic shank. Turducken pastrami meatloaf fatback filet mignon picanha pork andouille. Ground round chislic fatback hamburger shankle tail boudin jowl. Turducken t-bone andouille ham hock, chuck hamburger shankle capicola beef frankfurter pancetta flank beef ribs sausage picanha.

Picanha venison porchetta, meatloaf pork chop landjaeger beef ribs. Pork belly short ribs ham hamburger frankfurter, sausage pork loin rump leberkas filet mignon ground round. Ribeye meatloaf burgdoggen spare ribs sausage. Landjaeger drumstick tri-tip meatball picanha, chuck meatloaf jerky. Jerky porchetta salami tri-tip pancetta beef.

Who's Responsible for the Beirut Port Fire?

When the M/V Rhosus sailed into Lebanese waters in 2013 to pick up new cargo, the owners already had exhausted their funds and had no money to pay for the vessel’s voyage to Mozambique. Their plan was that the already-laden vessel would pick up new cargo that would pay the tolls for the Suez Canal and bunkers for the journey down the African coast. When the explosive cargo was finally delivered to the purchasers in Mozambique, the owners of the vessel would finally be paid and there would be money for the vessel’s debts.

Unfortunately, the Lebanese authorities did not let the Rhosus leave, beginning a chain of events that led to the terrible explosion on August 4th in Beirut. Who was responsible for the explosion? In a very real sense, all the lawyers involved, the Lebanese judicial system and the Rule of Law™ itself.

During the seven years the cargo has been in Beirut, no less than six lawsuits were filed by various parties in an effort to secure the cargo, obtain control over the cargo or sell the cargo. Every single one of these efforts was unsuccessful. As a result, the cargo sat rotting in the port. All that was needed was a source of ignition and eventually, one was found when nearby-stored fireworks ignited. The conflicting lawsuits and bankruptcies made it impossible for the authorities to take any decisive action. The Lebanese legal system was simply not up to the task.

In 2001, a container of Chinese fireworks stored in the open at the port of Dammam in Saudi Arabia caught fire during the summer heat. Fireworks are explosives, but people treat them as if they were toys. The fire quickly spread, but no other explosives were nearby. The authorities in Beirut failed to learn this lesson. When the Beirut fireworks caught fire, the fuse for the greater explosive charge was lit.

Now there will be more lawsuits. The vessel owner will escape liability: he has already declared bankruptcy and storage of the explosives for the past seven years has been at the direction of the Lebanese port authorities. It was a bad idea to attempt to carry this cargo on this ship, but there was no international authority preventing him from doing so and the customary laws of the sea are silent.

Finally, there is one aspect of this tragedy that has escaped notice: given that the bomb was 1/10th the blast of a Hiroshima device and on the whole, Beirut was not utterly destroyed, this incident will be used as an argument in favor of small, tactical nuclear weapons. After Hiroshima, such an idea was unthinkable. Now it is unthinkable no longer.

I Don’t Care

I don’t care if the vaccine has alien DNA in it or if it’s manufactured in Russia, if it works against the Sickness sign me up.

test

Marsedit pwd test

Biden's Election Means Trouble for Saudi Arabia

More here.

Anything is Possible at Zombo.com

The unattainable is unknown at zombo.com.

Worth a visit.

Saudi Arabia's Secret Payment to Spanish King

A curious payment: a contractor seeking a public works contract might be tempted to pay a bribe. Here, the tenderer made a strange payment to the contractor. Or was something else going on here? These days Saudi Arabia could use the 100 million paid to Spanish King Juan Carlos through a Panamanian shell corporation. (from the FT) #saudiarabia #kingjuancarlos #panamapapers

Game at 50, by W. Nanner Flint

Dating for the over 50’s:Game at 50.

De-Platforming is Censorship

De-Platforming is censorship.

Leveling the Playing Field Would Be Nice

Federal criminal defense attorneys must pay for PACER access out of their own pockets (in theory, they are reimbursed, often years later, often at less than the full cost). Nor can they access records in criminal cases in other districts.

Meanwhile, prosecutors don’t pay and have nationwide access.

It’s fair of course. Completely. The Rule of law™.

news.bloomberglaw.com/white-col…

Huawei, China, Canada

But not smooth enough to get out of a diplomatic crisis with China.

#mengwanzhou #fourdeathsentences #huawei #notmyfight

The ceviche was a success. This time I used a Panamanian recipe. I soaked the fish in brine for fifteen minutes. Used a white filet from a local fish. Some tabasco, a red onion rather than a white, and only five hours marinating. Didn’t get peppers, the tabasco was a substitute. Fish came out nice and cooked.

This is the Problem

My Extensive July Travels

A whole two kilometers.

Mid-Year Recap

2020 Mid-Year Recap

It’s been a helluva year. To briefly recap:

• Impeachment and trial of American president Donald Trump
• Australian Bush Fires
• Killing of Iranian Revolutionary Guard Commander Qasem Soleimani
• Iran Shoots Down civilian Ukrainian Airliner
• Plague of Locusts
• Covid-19 Pandemic
• Floyd George/Black Lives Matter Riots
• Murder Hornets found in North America
• India-China Border Conflict
• Missile Attack on Riyadh
• “Godzilla” Dust Storm
• US Navy Admits UFO’s

How to File a Grievance or Respond to an HR Complaint

How to Write an Employee Complaint

Upon getting that dreaded letter from HR (remember: HR is not your friend) advising you to mend your behavior or pointing out deficiencies or simply dredging up gossip because they want to fire you, most employees have no idea how to write a proper response.

Everything you have learned is wrong.

Everything you believe is wrong.

The reason is because the HR letter isn’t about you or your performance it all. It’s merely theater. What to do then, when you’re not writing the script?

You have to get them off-script. It is your only hope.

A reasoned, well-drafted response will play into their hands. That is what they expect you to do. They have played this game before, while you are just getting to know the rules.

What You’ll Need

• 1 typewriter

• 1 ream of paper (that’s 500 sheets)

• Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary, 2nd

• 1 Liter of Jack Daniel’s Bourbon Whiskey

• 12 cans of beer

• 1 shot glass

• 1 #2 (HB) pencil

Beg, borrow or steal a typewriter for this task. A computer won’t do you any good because the risk of checking emails, listening to music or posting on Twitter must be resisted at all costs.

Use letter size paper for North America only. Pro-tip: use A4 for North America because these sheets will not fit into any file or binder owned or maintained by HR.

Why are you writing on paper and not sending your response electronically? An email is easily deleted, lost, overlooked or forgotten. You do not want your response to fall into any of these categories.

Familiarize yourself with the typewriter. You may never have used one before. Make sure that you set the paten for single spacing: you do not want a double-spaced document. Legal documents are most often double spaced to facilitate easy reading, but that is not your goal.

The first line of your response should read as follows:

“With respect to your missive dated (•), I must point out the following:”

Open the dictionary to a page at random. Find a word you do not understand. It does not matter if the word is listed as “archaic,” so much the better.

Pour yourself a shot of whiskey. Wash it down with beer. Feel the heat in your throat.

Write a sentence using your new word. The sentence does not necessarily have anything to do with your employment and certainly should not address any of the issues raised in the HR letter, except perhaps tangentially. Allusions or complex metaphors work well here. Don’t know what a metaphor is? No problem.

Build a paragraph around the sentence. Don’t worry about making mistakes, just backspace and “xxx” them out. Who cares if it looks sloppy? The sloppier the better.

Repeat this process until you have a page. Remove the page and place another sheet of paper into the typewriter.

Repeat this process. If you fall down drunk or vomit and cannot keep going, do not despair. You can come back to your work. It matters not that this work seems more and more incoherent as the page numbers build.

You will need at least forty pages. One hundred pages is even better. When you finish, mark each page in pencil on the lower right side. Now you can make a copy of your opus. After making a copy, remove five of the sheets from the copy at random.

On the last day that HR has given you to respond, present them with the photocopy with removed pages. They will be surprised. They may have some questions. Tell them at this point, their questions must be put in writing.

After two days, deliver one of the removed pages with a handwritten note saying that you have learned their file is not complete. Add a brief apology for the error. Repeat this apology over the next several weeks as you deliver these “essential” missing pages to HR.

If, in the meantime, HR asks any questions (remember that such questions must be made in writing) tell them that you just turned up another key document (one of the pages you’ve removed at random) and that they should hold off on asking any questions until their “set” is complete.

Finally, they will have the full forty (or one hundred) pages and they will come back to you with an inquiry of some sort.

“I Stand By My Statement”

“I stand by my statement” is the only response you need give. You might, as an aside, ask if their legal department has reviewed the statement. If so, you would like to see their comments. They will resist, but then ask them if you should get a lawyer as well and watch the sparks fly. “But you told me I didn’t need one” is what you should say, whether they told you so or not. HR always says this, and they have done this to employees hundreds of times, they won’t remember.

What Happens Next

At this point they may just forget the whole thing and leave you alone. But HR is stubborn and determined, the best you can do is drag the process out as long as you can while you look for another job.

If you are lucky there will be some form of mediation, arbitration, informal or formal union meeting concerning your case. The arbitrators in these matters are usually wise and have been around the block. They will carefully read your documents—hopefully you’ve prepared more than one—and will reach the conclusion that you are trying very hard to say something. What, they do not know. You do not know either. They will ask HR what you are trying to say—after all, you are not a lawyer and are most inexperienced in the ways of the HR world. HR will say they don’t know either. The wise one will then recommend a halt to the proceedings to give HR a chance to respond.

Of course, this is the last thing HR wants to do. They want your ass kicked out the door, nothing more. But they can’t ignore the jurisconsult. “I think you should try to get to the bottom of this,” the wise jurisconsult will say, and suggest that you all reconvene in a month’s time.

Which means one or two more paychecks for you, depending on the billing cycle.

During this period, HR will come back to you with questions. Claim that you have answered whatever question they asked before. Before long, you’ll be back before the arbitrator, who will blame HR for the lack of progress.

At this point, you might suggest an outside investigation, with the results reported back to the arbitrator. The jurisconsult will likely agree to this, since it means both less work and keeps the meter running. And your paycheck delivered, by the way. Firing you during the pendency of the proceedings is called “reprisal” and is prohibited even if you are as guilty as Jeffrey Dahmer’s grocer.

And Then….

There is a slight chance you will keep your job. But had you not realized that the initial mild missive from HR was in reality a termination in sheep’s clothing you would already have been long gone.

Saudi Arabia Employee Handbook

Thinking of a job in Saudi Arabia?

It Could be Worse

Looks like the pandemic will be with us for a while yet longer.

Dementia is a Terrible Disease

How can the Democrats put forward a 78 year-old with dementia?

Nine Life Hacks You Won't Find Anywhere Else

###Use Pennies to Identify Recurring Monthly Payments

Let’s say you owe a creditor $50 per month. You make one $50 payment, then another. And another. Then the creditor comes to you claiming that a $50 payment wasn’t made. Finding and identifying the missing check-or deduction-now becomes a complicated exercise. To avoid this problem, make your first payment in the amount of 50.01. The second, 50.02 and so on. Now if a creditor claims that a payment has gone missing, you can quickly determine which payments were received and which checks haven’t been cashed. If the creditor claims, for example, that he has received a payment of 50.01 and 50.03 and you show you paid 50.02 as well, the error is his and not yours. It’s a lot easier looking for a 50.02 payment than trying to figure out which $50 payment is at issue.

You can restart the penny sequencing the next year, or in the case of a mortgage, you can simply keep adding the pennies. Once you hit 99, you can start over, or add a dollar to the amount.

Note that you must overpay by a penny (or two or three) because if you are one penny short your creditor will mark the bill as delinquent and charge you late fees.

Most creditors will merely credit the extra penny payment to your accounts. Some credit card companies will-astonishingly-send you a check for the overage. No matter: they will still note each month’s payment in the amount received.

Imagine what you could do with mills…

Avoid Late Fees by Paying Your Bills Ahead

Most American families live paycheck to paycheck so late fees are a fact of life. One way to avoid this problem is to pay bills one month in advance. This way, you are never late because the bill you are paying this month is next month’s bill.

What if don’t have the cash available to do this? The answer is to reach that one month cushion goal slowly. Can you pay 25% more this month? Save that 25% and in four months you’ll have enough to make an advance payment.

This method does not work with many credit card companies, especially those that want you to carry a balance. Some will return your advance payment, and some will credit the advance payment as merely an additional payment. Be careful because this tip will not work with all creditors.

This tip only works to avoid late fees. If you are looking to make extra interest-only payments in order to pay down this method will not work.

Go to a Chiropractor for an X-Ray

Chiropractic physicians are licensed in most English-speaking countries. In other countries, the practice of chiropractic is restricted or banned. While the originators of chiropractic believed that all diseases began with the spine and could be cured through spinal adjustment, today’s chiropractors have morphed into sports doctors. Their knowledge of musculature is invaluable on the sidelines. But even if you do not play sports or believe in the efficacy of chiropractic medicine, there is still one area where chiropractors beat the competition: the X-Ray.

If you need a quick X-Ray, go to a chiropractor. He will be happy to serve you, quickly and economically. If he thinks a bone is broken, he will be happy to refer to an orthopedic physician. Chiropractors do not set broken bones. If you want, you will be given a copy of your X-Ray which you can take to another doctor. Since most X-Rays these days are initially read overseas, you can save time and money by getting an X-Ray from a chiropractor instead of waiting in the cacophony of the Emergency Room of a hospital where you will be charged extortionate fees.

Privacy in Hotels

If you’ve ever stayed in a hotel in the Middle East, you know that the peephole in your room has a lid which is closed to protect the guest’s privacy. In the rest of the world (at least in the Western Hemisphere, Europe, China and Southeast Asia) there are no similar privacy protections. More than one peeper has pried using specialty lenses to see through the hole. How can you protect yourself? There is a cheap and effective solution-put a post-it note over the keyhole. Now no one can see in.

TBA

Writing a college paper, report or a document for work? What do you do when you are in the groove and suddenly you need a fact? If you stop to look up a fact next thing you know you’re checking your e-mail or looking at the calendar or browsing Reddit or answering the phone. Your groove is gone. How do you stay in the groove?

When you need to fill in a citation (quick, what’s the U.S. cite for Miranda v. Arizona?) and you don’t have it, simply write, “TBA” for “to be added.” When you finish, you can go back and fill in all of the missing information. The TBA’s are easy to find using the “Find” function in your application.

Oh if I had only known this in college…

Cover-up the Seatback Video Display Using a Large Post-it

Have you ever been on a night flight when the video display on the back of the seat in front of you wouldn’t turn off? And you ask the flight attendant for help and he tries and fails to turn off the display? All is not lost–Post-it notes are your friend. There is a version of the Post-it note which comes in the size of a half-sheet of letter paper. You can post several Post-it’s in this size over the display. You will need more than one because the display’s uncomfortable brightness will shine through a single sheet. Problem solved.

Break-in a New Notebook

Did you ever buy a new notebook and hesitate before writing in it? Not because of writer’s block, but perhaps because you bought the notebook with one idea in mind (to keep a diary) but are wondering if maybe you should use it for the grocery list? Or maybe you bought an expensive notebook and really don’t want to use it for grocery lists but you’re not ready to write your memoirs?

Open the notebook. Turn to the last page. Rotate the notebook 180 degrees (a half circle). Scribble your grocery list or whatever else you want. This writing does not “count” because, after all, it’s at the back of the book. Once you do this you will find it easier to use your notebook for its intended purpose.

Robbing a Bank

There is an art to bank robbery. The average bank robber only walks out with $700 or so. The take isn’t worth the risk. In order to successfully rob a bank you must…(you don’t really think I’m going to tell you, do you?)

Lost? Go to the Fire Department

If you’re in a new city (or just plain lost) drop by the Fire Department and ask how to get to where you’re going. The Fire Department relies on having this information to fight fires and respond to emergencies. Unless they are in the middle of a call, they are usually happy to help.

The Log (from Jerry Pournelle)

Reading Jerry Pournelle’s monthly column in Byte Magazine in the 1980’s and 90’s was always a pleasure. While the focus of the column was Jerry’s exploration of the new world of computing, sometimes there were tips that had application outside the usual talk of connecting a chain of SCSI devices.

Jerry’s tip was to maintain a log. He described it, as I remember it, as follows: keep one place, not several, where your write everything down. Talk to someone? Write down their name. Someone gives you a phone number? Write it down. You have to look up an address? Write it down. You look up a piece of information? Write it down. Over the year this advice has proved invaluable. Oftentimes, when you commence a project there are steps you have to go though along the way. Sometimes these steps are accompanied by discrete pieces of information, like phone numbers. If you have to repeat the steps in the future, you have the information. This is particularly useful when you contact a corporation or government agency and are passed off to whomever is handling customer service matters. Being able to recall the name of the individual you spoke to often proves the fact of the call and if you need to speak to that person again, you know who to ask for. Because companies and governments often take their time in getting back to you, writing the information down will insure that you don’t forget it.

A tip along these lines: if you have a tax practice, is to keep a separate phone book containing the name of every individual, office and phone number given to you by the Internal Revenue Service. This is invaluable down the road when you need to speak to someone and don’t want to waste time calling the general information number. Because internal IRS numbers aren’t published, you cannot simply look these numbers up on Google. Some people keep separate agenda-size phone books for the different agencies they deal with or the projects they work on. You can do this on paper or electronically as you prefer.

Applying for a Job on LinkedIn

Writing “interested” or “check my profile” is a popular method of applying for jobs listed on LinkedIn used mainly by people in the Subcontinent, but sometimes in other countries as well. This method never works. Employers are not going to waste their time reading through hundreds of irrelevant applications. If you don’t believe that there will be irrelevant applications, try to hire staff yourself.

Some people apply for positions they are not qualified for on the theory that, “it doesn’t hurt.” But, oh, it does. It identifies you as a person who is unable to read. If I list a position saying, “Saudis ONLY” and you are not Saudi and yet you apply anyway, I have to assume that you don’t know how to read or are deliberately wasting my time. If I am looking for a qualified chemical engineer who is legally permitted to work in Canada and you are a carpenter from the tribal areas of Waziristan, why are you responding?

In order to apply for a job on LinkedIn, use the method the job poster has indicated. If no method is indicated, look up the e-mail of the poster or the company’s e-mail and send your c.v. with a reference to the post. If all else fails and you absolutely cannot find any e-mail address (and this is unlikely unless the company you seek to work for does not do business with the public or is a secretive organization like the Sinaloa Cartel, write using snail mail to the company’s street address.

Here’s the address of the Sinaloa Cartel, if you are curious: “Sinaloa Cartel, Poste Restante, Culiacan, Sin. Mexico.”

That’s depressing.

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Pepys on Pubs in the Pandemic

Sage advice.

It's Monday

But the post office in Adliya was closed. Strange.

Document Post Test

Here’s a document.

Here is a link to the document:

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This is What "Defund the Police" Means

This is basically the idea.

MarsEdit 3

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Marsedit Image Test

Chicken bacon corned beef beef ribs venison. Pig chislic pork belly corned beef pastrami, shankle buffalo hamburger shank drumstick brisket pork chop. Chuck pork belly swine, porchetta leberkas beef ground round. Cupim pancetta beef capicola biltong rump pork loin short loin jowl frankfurter flank.

Boudin beef ribs chicken hamburger t-bone. Tongue jowl pastrami, shankle spare ribs strip steak andouille corned beef swine landjaeger tail kielbasa shank. Bresaola jowl pig, salami short loin meatball cow sirloin frankfurter pork loin. Ribeye leberkas meatloaf, jerky ham hock hamburger picanha frankfurter bresaola chuck chislic flank meatball pig venison.

Test of Marsedit

This is a test of Marsedit.

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Chicken bacon corned beef beef ribs venison. Pig chislic pork belly corned beef pastrami, shankle buffalo hamburger shank drumstick brisket pork chop. Chuck pork belly swine, porchetta leberkas beef ground round. Cupim pancetta beef capicola biltong rump pork loin short loin jowl frankfurter flank.

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Was It A Training Exercise?

The killing of Floyd George has drawn an avalanche of commentary due to the subsequent and continuing protests throughout not only the country but the world. Few of these analysts have tried to analyze the arrest itself or draw legal conclusions from the known facts about that arrest.

Let’s take a deep dive into the circumstances surrounding the arrest and the legal conclusions which follow. \

Facts

Cup Foods is a convenience store in Minneapolis owned by Mahmoud Abumayyaleh. His teenage relatives worked in the store. On Monday, May 25, 2020, George Floyd, a regular customer at Cup Foods, entered the store.

At the time Floyd entered the store, Abumayyaleh’s nephew was working the cash register. Floyd purchased cigarets and paid with a $20 bill. Floyd then exited the store, walked across the street and sat in his vehicle. There is no allegation that Floyd ran out of the store or otherwise caused a problem in the store. The teenagers did not ask Floyd to remain in the store.

By the time Floyd was already in his automobile, the teenagers became concerned that the $20 bill Floyd used to pay for the cigarets was counterfeit. They exited the store and walked to Floyd’s automobile. When they reached Floyd’s car, the right-hand side passenger door was open. One of the teenagers approached this open door “in an effort to retrieve the cigarets.” Floyd, having already paid, declined.

The teenagers then returned to the store and called 911.

The teenagers did not call the US Secret Service, the agency tasked with investigating cases of counterfeit currency. There is a US Secret Service field office in Minneapolis.

The 911 call was improper. There was no “emergency” of any kind. Abumayyaleh, the store owner, claims that it was store policy to call 911 in counterfeit currency cases.

Floyd remained in his automobile and until the police arrive, had no contact with any other person. A prudent counterfeiter would not remain on the scene after passing a fake bill. Floyd’s presence on the scene is indicative of innocence and suggests that he did not know that the bill was fake, if indeed it was. To this day, no one knows if the bill was fake. The Minneapolis Police Department refuses to give out any information on this key issue. Perhaps they do not know either and are waiting for the Secret Service to determine the bill’s authenticity. If the police to this day do not know, how can one expect Floyd to know?

Two police officers responded to the scene. They walked past the store and then across the street where they found Floyd peacefully sitting in his automobile. This was not a vehicle stop. They tried to get Floyd to exit the vehicle. Floyd declined and one of the officers pulled his own firearm. Floyd then exited the vehicle and the firearm was re-holstered. Handcuffs were put on Floyd, who then peacefully walked to a wall and sat down at the officers’ direction.

At this point, another police car arrived, carrying Officer Derek Chauvin, a training officer for one of the other responding officers. Floyd and Chauvin knew each other; they were co-workers at the El Nuevo Rodeo nightclub in Minneapolis.

Chauvin placed Floyd under arrest. At this point, and throughout the encounter, there is no evidence that any police officer conducted an investigation to see if a crime had been committed. Chauvin and the others walked Floyd to one of the two police cars on the scene and ordered him to get into the vehicle. Floyd claimed that he was “claustrophobic” and refused.

The officers then tried to push Floyd into the car. Chauvin pulled Floyd out of the car. Chauvin and two other officers pinned Floyd to the ground. A fourth officer stood watch between the three officers, the pinned Floyd on the ground, and a small crowd that had formed and began filming. What follows is well-known: Chauvin kneeled on Floyd’s neck. Floyd complained that he could not breathe. Chauvin ignored Floyd’s complaints and kept his weight on Floyd’s neck. Paramedics were called, but by the time they arrived, Floyd was lifeless.

\

Analysis

In Minnesota, knowingly passing false currency in small amounts, as here, is a misdemeanor. At the time of the arrest and thereafter, there was no investigation into whether the bill was counterfeit. Had Floyd simply stolen merchandise, my analysis would be different, because then there would be probable cause for the arrest. But in this case, there was no probable cause. Maybe the teenagers were correct and the bill was counterfeit: who knows? People make mistakes concerning counterfeit currency all the time. Before making the arrest, the police did not even examine the bill.

The officers were investigating a misdemeanor. Deadly force may not be used to halt a fleeing misdemeanant. But they treated Floyd as if they were trying to arrest not an alleged misdemeanant, but someone who had just committed a dangerous felony.

As a practical matter, Floyd should not have refused the officers’ command; as a legal matter, were the officers justified in making the arrest? If an arrest is unlawful, does a citizen have the right to resist?

At the time the officers approached Floyd’s vehicle, was there probable cause for his arrest? Certainly not. The officers had not even taken the time to examine the $20 bill. At best, they were permitted to keep Floyd in the area while they identified him and investigated whether there were grounds to arrest him for misdemeanor theft.

There was no felony to justify the use of deadly force—unholstering a gun was thus improper. What about handcuffs? I think the answer to this question could go either way. Handcuffs certainly escalate the situation, but the officers may feel they are necessary for their own protection and to insure that the suspect remains during an initial investigation. Floyd was a big, strong man. I do not believe that a court will substitute its after-the fact analysis and prohibit the use of handcuffs.

As of today, there is no proof that Floyd committed any crime. We do not even know if the teenagers were correct in their guess that the $20 bill was counterfeit; the officers certainly did not know. At best, the crime here is misdemeanor retail theft. A summons, that is a ticket should have been issued to Floyd and the matter left at that. Instead, full post-felony police deadly force rained down on Floyd as if he had committed a violent act.

The officers were only entitled to keep Floyd at the scene while they investigated the alleged misdemeanor. They did not have to let Floyd walk away—a crime may have been committed. To establish probable cause, at a minimum the officers should have examined the currency. They did not.

What is clear is that the officers had no probable cause to arrest Floyd. Without probable cause, was Floyd privileged, from a legal and not practical point of view, to refuse what were illegal police orders? Such illegal police orders are best sorted out, not on the street, but in a courtroom. Unfortunately, economically disadvantaged defendants rarely have the opportunity to engage judges in theoretical legal analysis. They are treated differently.

And did the officers lose qualified immunity because they were making an illegal arrest?

This analysis demonstrates, in part, the reasons for the frustration felt by the black community and explains in large part the nationwide reaction. Here a non-violent, unarmed man was killed where there may well have been no crime. Even when black people are only suspected of committing crimes, they are treated as a population under occupation, with violence the order of the day.

When police commands are not obeyed immediately, the police are trained to use force. This is in itself a problem, because the force used is all too often disproportional to the original reason for the police intervention.

Police commands are not laws. But to let a policeman’s command become equivalent to a criminal statute “comes dangerously near making our government one of men rather than of laws.” Gregory v. Chicago, 394 US 111 (1969)

A possible reason for the escalation in this case is because Chauvin took the opportunity to turn the situation into a training exercise for the new officer, demonstrating ways to subdue an arrestee. The problem with Chauvin’s decision is that, as the senior officer on the scene, he failed to conduct any investigation at all.

The only question for purposes of examining the constitutionality of the arrest is: Did Chauvin have probable cause to believe that a violation had occurred? See, *Draper v. Reynolds,*369 F.3d 1270 (11th Cir. 2004) . In the absence of any investigation, there was no probable cause and hence no immunity. No crime, no probable cause to arrest—no immunity.

Any lawyer knows how a misdemeanor retail theft case like this plays out: time served if the individual could not make bail and either probation or watch the movie and an order not to return to the store.

A misdemeanor case should not end with a body in the street.

\

Note: For many years I practiced federal criminal defense law. I am not an expert in Minnesota state law.

JT Leroy, Ted Berrigan, Alice Notley, Eileen Myles, T Kira Madden

Maybe it was because it was a different time

I am trying to understand the outrage behind the JT Leroy saga. Laura Albert is a writer and actress. She created what she called an ‘avatar,’ JT Leroy. She wrote a novel which became a best-seller. She followed up with another work of fiction, a collection of stories. This book was picked up by Hollywood and a film was made. So let me ask, what’s wrong with that?

The outrage comes because Albert hired an actress to portray Leroy. The subterfuge worked for a while, but eventually an investigative reporter found out that Leroy was Albert’s pen name. The problem is that Albert had told people that Leroy was not a pen name but a real person.

All of a sudden, the books and film became worthless, part of what has been called a literary “hoax.” Even though JT Leroy was not real, the books certainly were. And at no time did Albert, or the actress she hired, claim that the books were anything other than what they were, i.e., works of fiction. So why the outrage?

Steven King used the name “Richard Bachman” to write a series of novels. When the world found out that Bachman was King, Bachman’s books were merely added to King’s ouevre. Yet Albert was unfairly ostracized, even though one could argue that the whole JT Leroy portrayal was astonishing performance art.

What is a novel, anyway? And should the author’s true identity always be a consideration? Do we damn J.R.R. Tolkien because he never visited Middle Earth? Eileen Myles’ Inferno: A Poet’s Novel is really a memoir, isn’t it? When she writes about afternoons spent at the home of Ted Berrigan and Alice Notley, she is referring to the author of Tambourine Life and his wife, the author of The Descent of Alette. By saying, “this is a novel” is Myles warning, “I have modified the facts?”

T K. Madden’s recent Long Live the Tribe of Fatherless Girls approaches the question from the opposite direction, billing her work as a memoir but warning that her subjective memories of facts are her own. The level of detail in Madden’s work is similarly the opposite of the Latin legal rule, falsus in unus, falsus in omnibus: the truth of the details she recounts is strong evidence of the truth of the whole. Madden brings South Florida to life, she brings the 90’s to life: mentioning the padded strap of a Sony videocamera is but one accurate detail in a book full of trenchant observations.

Yet Myles’ book is full of observations as well. Annie Ernaux’s works fit well within what the French call autofiction , the Japanese the I-novel and sometimes read like a letter to a friend.

Those who claim “memoir” but actually write fiction are treated harshly–Little Pieces comes to mind. Laura Albert was treated just as harshly, but made no claim of truth.

Noam Chomsky once asked, “do the facts matter?” Perhaps the facts only matter when presented as facts. A journalist who lies is outside the pale. A novelist writing narrative fiction should be able to tell a story, whether that story is based on historical facts or invented, as they say, out of whole cloth.

Were JT Leroy’s “Sarah” to become popular today, would anyone care that Laura Albert had used a pen name?

Game at 50 by W. Nanner Flint. The dating manual for the over-50’s.

## Death of a Lawyer: Perry Mason 2020, S01 Ep 4

Death of a Lawyer: Perry Mason 2020, S01 Ep 4

Earle Stanley Gardner was an American lawyer, novelist and creator of Perry Mason, a crime-fighting lawyer who jumped from the novels to radio, film and finally a hit television series in 1957 starring Raymond Burr. Mason’s adventures were informed by Gardner’s work as a practicing attorney. The character was re-introduced in a new HBO television series that premiered during the pandemic.

Gardner never gave his readers Mason’s origin story; that story is the basis for the new series. Gardner went to law school in Indiana but never finished; he read for the law and took the bar exam in California, a state which then as now allows postulants to qualify without a law degree.

The new series is set in 1932. Mason is a private detective working for a newly invented character, a 74 year-old lawyer named “E.B. Jonathan” who is played by John Lithgow.

Jonathan and Mason are working on the defense of a sensational case, the kidnapping-murder of a young boy. Newspaper reporters constantly interrupt their work, but savvy Jonathan knows that playing the press is part of the defense. The district attorney grandstanded the arrest of their client while she was attending her own son’s funeral amidst a press riot. Jonathan must, as best as he can, present his client as an innocent victim as well.

At first, talking about the great California jurist and Supreme Court justice, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jonathan flaunts his own youth in comparison. Jonathan is 16 years younger than the 90 year old Holmes. In his own mind, Jonathan is younger still. He still very much has his wits about him.

But no matter. Old age stalks him. He has health problems, foreshadowed in previous episodes; feet that swell at night. Mason teases him by pointing out that he doesn’t suffer from the same ailments, to which Jonathan replies, “but you will.” Jonathan has fallen asleep in his clothes in his office; he asks Mason to help him with his shoes. The two men reminisce over their first meeting; Mason’s father had a property dispute; Jonathan’s office was between a blacksmith’s and a saddle maker’s. Those trades are gone, but Jonathan remembers the past fondly. He complains to Mason, just wait till “half your friends are in the cemetery and a million strangers on the street.”

Unfortunately, the wealthy grandfather of the victim who hired them has cut them off, now that he believes the child’s mother was involved in the crime. Jonathan moans that they have gone from being well-funded to defending the case pro bono. The Latin term, short for pro bono publico means, “for the public good.” What people do not understand is that the phrase also means, “the lawyer pays.”

Jonathan’s practice is not what it was. Time has taken away not only friends, but clients. The strangers in the street do not find their way to his office to seek a solution to their legal problems. While Jonathan still insists that his secretary answer the phone with both his name and the phrase, “and associates,” Jonathan knows that there are no more associates. He is the only lawyer in the office. But Jonathan knows how a case must be defended and how to defend a notorious case.

In a previous episode, Jonathan visited a colleague to ask for a loan. That colleague turned him away. When you need money, no one has it. Worse, the colleague reminds him of decades-old questionable financial maneuvering at the time of the First World War.

Jonathan has raided his savings to keep his office afloat. Unlike others, he was not destroyed by the 1929 Depression, but those events are still taking their toll. He has a payroll to meet, and Mason is not the only investigator he has working the case. With the loss of his client’s funding, he goes to his bank to seek a “measly” four month loan so that he can finance the case, his office, his secretary and the two investigators. But his bank officer, his friend Howard, is no longer with the bank and has retired. The new bank officer assigned to his file is unfamiliar with his business and sees only that Jonathan’s assets that survived the Crash are already mortgaged. There will be no bank loan.

Meanwhile, the district attorney has learned of the financial irregularities—to keep the lights on during the war, Jonathan “borrowed” from his trust account, though he replaced the funds and no client was harmed. For many years lawyers have been taught to view such conduct with horror, but a century ago the relationship between lawyers and banks was symbiotic in a way unimaginable today. Lawyers kept interest-free trust accounts at banks, which provided free banking services to the lawyer, such as covering checks that might otherwise bounce and providing automatic lines of credit. The district attorney threatens Jonathan with disbarment if he does not try the case or take a plea. The DA doesn’t want his investigator, Perry Mason to keep nosing around, either.

With no money to finance the case, Jonathan visits his client in jail to suggest a plea, which would at least give them both a way out. She would avoid the electric chair and he would be free of the case. In explaining the plea to her, he explains that sometimes when the power of the government is aligned against you, there is little you can do. Believing herself innocent, the mother refuses the plea. Jonathan gives a short inspirational speech, “we’ll fight then.”

But he doesn’t have the money to fight the case and now he cannot withdraw discreetly and honorably. If he withdraws, the newspapers will be merciless. The DA is threatening him with a very public disbarment. His life as a lawyer will be over.

Jonathan goes home to sleep and to think about the best course of action. The next morning he dresses as if to go to court. An old newspaper protects his kitchen table, displaying a story featuring a case he was once involved with, a reminder of ephimeral past glory. He arranges a chair, puts a towel under the kitchen door, turns the gas on and sits down.

This episode is not about Jonathan, not about the difficulties of practicing as a solo, not about the personal threats suffered by those who practice criminal law, not about the danger of getting involved in notorious cases or the thanklessness of pro bono work and certainly is not about the danger posed by trust accounts.

Or is it?

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Bahrain Active Cases Down to Mid-May Levels

Bahrain’s doing pretty well. 5374 active cases at the beginning of July and 2995 at month’s end. Last time there were only this many active cases was May 11. Let’s hope the downward trend continues.

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Anyone can get tested.

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Because People Won’t Follow Rules

The authorities in Milan were brutal.

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When You Stare into the Abyss

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The Only Safe Place

Hydroxychloroquine remains a subject of controversy. So far, we have been failed by the science–and because of all the political noise, it is impossible to discern the truth. Half say hydroxy is useless or even dangerous.
Then there’s this.

The Alley