Politics of Petulance (title renamed to match original post)

[Family 3,508]

Italy’s prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, has sued Luciano Canfora, an eighty-one-year-old historian, philologist, and professor emeritus at the University of Bari, for aggravated defamation (diffamazione aggravata). The preliminary hearing took place yesterday.

 

The case dates back two years, to when Meloni was an opposition parliamentarian and the leader of the Fratelli d’Italia (Brothers of Italy) party. Professor Canfora is the acclaimed author of dozens of books and a famous public figure. Invited to speak at a local high school as part of a discussion of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, he made the following comment about Meloni’s position on the political spectrum: 

Even the very terrible and always reviled, poor thing, leader of that right-wing party called Fratelli d’Italia (as if in France there was a political party called La Marseillaise)—who is usually treated as a lunatic, very dangerous, etc., because being a neo-Nazi in her soul, she immediately sided with the Ukrainian neo-Nazis [he later clarified he was referring to the far-right Azov Brigade]—has become a very important stateswoman and is more than happy of course in that role. She is not part of the current majority but is a very convenient external pawn to show that the country is united.

Meloni immediately protested that she would sue Professor Canfora for defamation—above all for having called her a “neo-Nazi,” which according to the complaint “is apt to distort and falsify her political identity.” On July 5, 2022, she did. Having become Italy’s prime minister that October, she did not withdraw her complaint, which makes this trial an unprecedented event in Western Europe’s democratic history: it is the first time that a serving prime minister has dragged a scholar to court.

https://www.nybooks.com/contributors/pierre-vesperini/

 

an opinion on her politics.

April 17, 2024

[Family 3,508]

RIP 
 

 

Man dies after setting himself on fire near Trump trial courthouse in NYC

A man who set himself on fire outside the New York City courthouse where former President Donald Trump's hush money trial is underway has died, police said. 
Although the incident took place close to the court where Trump's trial is taking place, officials said Azzarello did not appear to be targeting any particular person or group and added that he seemed to be a conspiracy theorist.

https://www.cbsnews.com/

 

 

[Family 3,508]

 

[Family 3,508]

The hearing to consider whether Trump violated rules follows a day of opening statements from both sides. It marked the first time time New York prosecutors have laid out their case against Trump. They told a story of a “criminal scheme to corrupt the 2016 presidential election.” And that “he covered up that criminal scheme by lying in his New York business records over and over and over again,” said Michael Colangelo, a lawyer with Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office.

 

Trump attorney Todd Blanche went straight to trying to tear apart the prosecution’s story. He said there was “nothing wrong with trying to influence an election.” He added, “It’s called democracy.”

 

https://www.nbcnews.com/morning-rundown-newsletter

[Family 3,508]

Who knew..?.

 

[Family 3,508]

 

[Dashinka 23,267]

21 hours ago, Family said:

The hearing to consider whether Trump violated rules follows a day of opening statements from both sides. It marked the first time time New York prosecutors have laid out their case against Trump. They told a story of a “criminal scheme to corrupt the 2016 presidential election.” And that “he covered up that criminal scheme by lying in his New York business records over and over and over again,” said Michael Colangelo, a lawyer with Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office.

 

Trump attorney Todd Blanche went straight to trying to tear apart the prosecution’s story. He said there was “nothing wrong with trying to influence an election.” He added, “It’s called democracy.”

 

https://www.nbcnews.com/morning-rundown-newsletter

This judge is a wimp.  Put Trump in Rikers!

[Dashinka 23,267]

Byron is spot on here relative the petulant left/establishment types.  Not really sure anyone would want to be on a Zoom call with Toobin, and I suspect George Conway is enabling something bad.

 

Groupthink chorus emerges at Trump trial

 

The group includes names you will recognize if you watch CNN or MSNBC a lot: Andrew Weissmann, George Conway, Bill Kristol, Norm Eisen, Laurence Tribe, Barbara McQuade, Joyce White Vance, Jennifer Rubin, Mary McCord, Harry Litman, Elliot Williams, Asha Rangappa, Norm Ornstein, Renato Mariotti, Shan Wu, Ryan Goodman, Karen Agnifilo, Jeffrey Toobin, and more. 

 

Some are famous. Weissmann was the notorious “pit bull” working for Russiagate special counsel Robert Mueller who was frustrated by the investigation that, in the end, did not get Trump. Conway is a high-end lawyer who has been dabbling in lawfare for years, most recently in offering assistance to E. Jean Carroll in her case against Trump. Kristol is a Democratic activist and fundraiser who targets his former conservative colleagues. Toobin was a longtime New Yorker and CNN legal analyst before he blew up his career by masturbating on a Zoom call with colleagues in October 2020. 

 

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/daily-memo/2975683/groupthink-chorus-emerges-trump-trial/

[Family 3,508]

SCOTUS hears immigration case today
 

Oral Argument - Audio

 

Dept. of State v. Munoz
Docket Number: 23-334
Date Argued: 04/23/24
Play Audio: 

 

Media Formats: 

MP3	Download
Transcript (PDF)	View

https://casetext.com/case/munoz-v-united-states-dept-of-state-2

[Family 3,508]

10 hours ago, Dashinka said:

Byron is spot on here relative the petulant left/establishment types.  Not really sure anyone would want to be on a Zoom call with Toobin, and I suspect George Conway is enabling something bad.

 

Groupthink chorus emerges at Trump trial

 

The group includes names you will recognize if you watch CNN or MSNBC a lot: Andrew Weissmann, George Conway, Bill Kristol, Norm Eisen, Laurence Tribe, Barbara McQuade, Joyce White Vance, Jennifer Rubin, Mary McCord, Harry Litman, Elliot Williams, Asha Rangappa, Norm Ornstein, Renato Mariotti, Shan Wu, Ryan Goodman, Karen Agnifilo, Jeffrey Toobin, and more. 

 

Some are famous. Weissmann was the notorious “pit bull” working for Russiagate special counsel Robert Mueller who was frustrated by the investigation that, in the end, did not get Trump. Conway is a high-end lawyer who has been dabbling in lawfare for years, most recently in offering assistance to E. Jean Carroll in her case against Trump. Kristol is a Democratic activist and fundraiser who targets his former conservative colleagues. Toobin was a longtime New Yorker and CNN legal analyst before he blew up his career by masturbating on a Zoom call with colleagues in October 2020. 

 

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/daily-memo/2975683/groupthink-chorus-emerges-trump-trial/

Companion piece and article cited 

Inside the Off-the-Record Calls Held by Anti-Trump Legal Pundits

Some of the country’s most prominent legal commentators are holding off-the-record sessions to hash out the latest twists and turns in Donald Trump’s legal saga.

https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2024/04/23/anti-trump-legal-pundits-calls-00153300

[Dashinka 23,267]

46 minutes ago, Family said:

Companion piece and article cited 

 

Inside the Off-the-Record Calls Held by Anti-Trump Legal Pundits

Some of the country’s most prominent legal commentators are holding off-the-record sessions to hash out the latest twists and turns in Donald Trump’s legal saga.

https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2024/04/23/anti-trump-legal-pundits-calls-00153300

It is interesting how these folks are labeled “prominent” but if it is someone like Turley, they are ignored by the establishment types and leftist media.

[Family 3,508]

….SCOTUS slow motion dodgeball 

Legal expert: July ruling will ‘practically close’ window for trial by election

It was clear from questioning that Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and other justices are concerned that the lower court was “a little too sweeping in saying there was no immunity, period,” said Randall D. Eliason, a former federal prosecutor and George Washington University law professor.

 

The word of the day is “tautology.”

A noun, “tautology” is the unnecessary repetition of an idea, statement or word. A tautological phrase is one in which the same thing is said twice using different words.

In logic, “tautology” refers to a statement that is true by virtue of its logical form alone. “Redundant” is a common synonym. Here is an example of a tautological phrase from Merriam-Webster: “A beginner who has just started.”

 

 

In the legal context, when someone calls an argument “tautological,” generally they mean it uses circular reasoning — the proposed solution to a problem leads back to the same dilemma.

It came up several times in today’s oral argument. First, Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. said it was “tautological” for the special counsel to argue that safeguards on criminal prosecution would prevent difficult questions about presidential immunity, because in his view that means the criminal justice system still has to answer those questions.

Later, Justice Sonia Sotomayor said it was a “tautology” to say, as Trump’s attorneys do, that a president can only be prosecuted for official acts after impeachment and simultaneously that laws only apply to the president’s official conduct if there is a “clear statement” from Congress saying they do. “That would pass the Senate from impeaching him for high crimes or misdemeanors, because that means that he’s not subject to the law at all,” she said.

Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson also used the word to describe the “clear statement” idea. She called it “completely tautological,” arguing that in trying to avoid one question — whether president’s are immune from prosecution — it created a similar but broader problem of figuring out which statutes require such a “clear statement.”

 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/04/25/supreme-court-trump-immunity-case/

Edited April 25 by Family

[Family 3,508]

 

[Family 3,508]

Link to New York Transcripts released daily

 

https://ww2.nycourts.gov/press/index.shtml

[Family 3,508]

BOGOTA (Reuters) -U.S. car maker General Motors will close its manufacturing operations in Colombia and Ecuador, the company said in a statement on Friday, as part of its shift towards producing next-generation vehicles.

Manufacturing will cease at company's Colmotores plant in Colombia from Friday, it said, while operations will halt at its factory in Ecuador at the end of August.

In Colombia, the company is seeking permission from the labor ministry to lay off 850 workers, a spokesperson said.

Its Colombia manufacturing plant was operating at 9% capacity, General Motors said, while its Ecuadorean operation was at 13% capacity.

 

The plant's closure comes amid a 14-year low of sales of new vehicles in 2023 versus 2022 in Colombia, according to a report released by two industry groups in January.

Despite

 

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/general-motors-shut-manufacturing-operations-154453360.html

 

Autoworkers at Volkswagen in Chattanooga just voted overwhelmingly to join the UAW. On May 13 – 17, Mercedes workers in Alabama have their union election. Non-union autoworkers across the South are getting ready to stand up and join them.

https://uaw.org