DL Open Thread: Sunday, November 5, 2023

BTW, pretty shitty time to have your support tank, with key elections on Tuesday.  It’s not as if Trump’s criminality is lost on the American people, either.

No More Plausible Deniability: Judge Cannon’s In The Tank For Trump. ‘Well, she’s inexperienced.’ ‘Well, she’ll learn from having her ruling overturned.’ Nope:

The Florida federal judge overseeing the Mar-a-Lago case seemingly shot back at federal prosecutors on Friday. After they warned the judge that Trump was trying to “manipulate” her by seeking further delay, she came back with a curt response: their warning was too long.

U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon for the Southern District of Florida reportedly signaled at a Wednesday hearing that she would likely add another delay to Trump’s Mar-a-Lago classified documents trial, currently scheduled to be held in May.

Federal prosecutors have sought to keep the May 2024 trial date in the Mar-a-Lago case in place. One prosecutor told Cannon at the hearing that the D.C. trial date could also shift; pushing back the Florida trial on that basis could only open the case up to more delays, prosecutors argued.

Hours after the hearing ended, Trump did exactly what he’s signaled he would do: he asked the judge in the D.C. case to halt the prosecution until the judiciary resolves his motion to dismiss the case on the grounds of presidential immunity. That request could take months to work its way through multiple appeals.

Now check this out:

That’s a stark warning. Cannon has yet to issue her new scheduling order in the Mar-a-Lago case. Instead, she suggested in a terse Friday order, seemingly in response to the government’s notice, that the filing exceeded the 200 word limit.

She construed the government’s notice as a “notice of supplemental authority,” which, she said, is limited by local rules to stay under 200 words.

Now, Smith categorized his Thursday filing as a “notice,” so there’s at least a question here if the local rule that Cannon cites applies here. The notice clocked in at a whopping 237 words.

“Future non-compliant notices or unauthorized filings will be stricken without further notice,” she wrote.

I see Supreme Court Justice in her future.

Uber And Lyft Will Pay Out $328 Mill To New York Drivers.  Letitia James, progressive hero:

Uber will pay the lion’s share of the settlement funds—$290 million—after taking sales taxes and fees for the Black Car Fund, a nonprofit that provides workers’ compensation insurance and health and safety programs, from drivers’ payments from 2014 to 2017 when those fees should’ve been paid by passengers, James’ office said. Lyft will pay the rest—$38 million—after doing the same thing but from 2015 to 2017.

Both companies also failed to provide drivers with the paid sick leave they had been entitled to under city and state law. Now, as part of the settlement drivers will receive paid sick leave of up to 56 hours of paid sick leave annually. The companies also agreed to pay drivers outside of New York City a minimum guaranteed hourly pay of $26 (drivers in the city already receive guaranteed minimum pay established by the Taxi and Limousine Commission). Drivers will also be able to appeal if they get deactivated from either app and will have access to in-app chat support in multiple languages by next year. Both companies officially deny any wrongdoing.

Stoopid Billionaire Trix.   Can’t make this up:

Mark Zuckerberg’s latest martial arts sparring session sent him to the operating table.

The Meta Platforms CEO and mixed martial arts enthusiast posted on social media on Friday that he tore one of his anterior cruciate ligaments, or ACLs, while training for a fight early next year.

“Tore my ACL sparring and just got out of surgery to replace it,” Zuckerberg posted on Instagram. “Grateful for the doctors and team taking care of me. I was training for a competitive MMA fight early next year, but now that’s delayed a bit. Still looking forward to doing it after I recover. Thanks to everyone for the love and support.”

“Thanks to everyone for the love and support”?  Eight-Ball sez: ‘Signs point to No’.

40% Of War Dead In Gaza Are Children.   There is no justification for this.  We should not be sending anything other than humanitarian supplies to address this one-sided conflict:

The UN has warned of a “catastrophic” situation for children in Gaza, as Israeli bombs hit a school being used as a shelter and landed outside a hospital, and Israel came under mounting pressure over the civilian suffering caused by its campaign.

More than 40% of the dead in Gaza after nearly four weeks of war were children, the UN said, with 3,900 reported child victims, and another 1,250 missing and presumed buried under bombed buildings. With little rescue machinery, and hospitals overcrowded and running out of supplies, the chances of survival for those trapped in rubble are painfully low.

“Women, children and newborns in Gaza are disproportionately bearing the burden” of a month of fighting in the tiny territory, agencies supporting children, women, health services and Palestinian refugees said in a joint statement.

Tell me again why this isn’t genocide.

What do you want to talk about?