DL Open Thread: Thursday, July 27, 2023

The Judge Got It Right.  When the prosecution and defendant can’t agree on what they had agreed to, you can’t sign off on something like that:

The hearing started to derail when Noreika began asking Hunter Biden questions as part of a mostly standardized conversation to ensure the defendant is knowingly and willfully accepting the plea agreement. She asked if Hunter Biden was relying upon promises from federal authorities in accepting the plea agreement.

He replied that he was relying upon promises made in the weapons charge diversion agreement. He told the judge he would not be pleading guilty to the tax charges were it not for the existence of the diversion agreement and that if that diversion agreement were invalid, he would not be pleading guilty to the tax charges.

Noreika then centered on the immunity language contained within the diversion agreement and Hunter Biden acknowledged he was replying to those promises as well. This prompted the judge to ask prosecutors if the plea deal was a “package deal” with the diversion agreement.

Wise, assistant U.S. attorney, said the plea agreement “stands alone.”

“He is saying they are,” Noreika said to Wise of the “package deal” question.

This prompted the hearing to grind to a halt with Noreika telling the parties to confer among themselves over this contradiction. She left the bench and the attorneys began to discuss. At one point, Wise pointed to a paper on the prosecution’s desk telling Biden’s primary attorney, Christopher Clark, “We can’t get around this.” 

You wouldn’t expect such bad lawyering in a case like this, but that’s what you got.  Reporters Wilson and Newman did a good job of explaining a complicated story.

‘Stupidity’ Enables Fascism And MAGA. Because you can’t reason with them. Read this prescient essay by Dietrich Bonhoeffer written shortly before he was hanged by the Nazis:

“Stupidity is a more dangerous enemy of the good than malice. One may protest against evil; it can be exposed and, if need be, prevented by use of force. Evil always carries within itself the germ of its own subversion in that it leaves behind in human beings at least a sense of unease.”

“Against stupidity we are defenseless. Neither protests nor the use of force accomplish anything here; reasons fall on deaf ears; facts that contradict one’s prejudgment simply need not be believed — in such moments the stupid person even becomes critical — and when facts are irrefutable they are just pushed aside as inconsequential, as incidental. In all this the stupid person, in contrast to the malicious one, is utterly self-satisfied and, being easily irritated, becomes dangerous by going on the attack.”

“The fact that the stupid person is often stubborn must not blind us to the fact that he is not independent. In conversation with him, one virtually feels that one is dealing not at all with a person, but with slogans, catchwords and the like that have taken possession of him. He is under a spell, blinded, misused, and abused in his very being. Having thus become a mindless tool, the stupid person will also be capable of any evil and at the same time incapable of seeing that it is evil.”

Judge Blocks Biden’s Migration Policy.  Makes sense.  The policy is similar to that of Trump, and was struck down by the judge who did the same to Trump’s policy. As she should have:

Tuesday’s decision comes in a case brought by the American Civil Liberties Union and other immigrant rights groups against the Biden administration. They argued that the rule violated asylum seekers’ rights under US law to access protection regardless of how they enter the country and that it put migrants in danger. To justify limiting eligibility for asylum based on the expansion of other means of entry or protection is to consider factors Congress did not intend to affect such eligibility,” Judge Tigar wrote. “The Rule is therefore arbitrary and capricious.”

The asylum rule was instituted in May in response to the lifting of Title 42, the pandemic-era order that summarily expelled migrants arriving at the border. The Biden administration has defended the policy as necessary to control the situation at the border by encouraging migrants to take lawful pathways and has credited it with contributing to a decrease in border crossings. But advocates say the policy essentially shuts the door on the most vulnerable asylum seekers.

Cruelty shouldn’t be the point in a Democratic administration.

The Real Sinead O’Connor, In Her Own Words.  Excerpts from interviews help paint a comprehensive picture.  Recommended.

What do you want to talk about?