At last count, I've been in front of about thirty different federal judges across the country -- mostly in California, but also in Texas, Detroit, Delaware, Connecticut, New York and Hawaii -- and I clerked for two federal judges, both appellate. Out of this group, there is only one that I found to be wholly biased and outright unfair. As a group, some were more competent than others, but I found the great majority to act in good faith. As an overall institutional body, it is among the least corrupt imaginable.

LOL, apologies, I'm on a work conference call and typed this out really fast. Upon further review, my sister works at Chevron!

I deleted an inappropriate post. This topic gets me worked up. My apology.

This was discussed at length in the In Other News thread.

Can we excise the Donziger discussion and make it a new thread?

Edit: missed that one rococo, thanks

My apologies, I got a little tilted by your post there, not nice imo.

Yeah, nobody thinks it happens often, but everyone thinks it happens all the time if a GIANT like Texaco is involved. Money talks. It's just that easy. Why do you think Kaplan acted so weird. Let me tell you what I think, Kaplan is a ***** to the corrupt system! He will do whatever he thinks is pleasing to the million dollar law team in front of him with all the connections, which can hurt or benefit him. Call it manilulation, bribe, conciously ot not, whaywever you want! Heck if they only gave him a call and you know they did, and told him they fix his Chevy truck for free or give his family life time assistance on their trucks, upgrades.. wake up bro it's not Disneyland. We live in a world where money talks. Period. And who has the most Money? .... hmmm

Damn man, that's all I had to do to beat my case?

By the way, pro tip: Chevron and Chevrolet are different companies.

Over 200 judges filed a complaint against Kaplan for being unfair. You can look up the other news thread or google petition donziger lawyers.

Lol, if your're chevron, yes. They are all connected, no?

Yes, they all start with "Chevr".

Yes mate. Chevron Chevrolet cars didn't you know?


https://www.google.com/search?q=chev...&bih=512&dpr=3

I have seen in Twitterverse people stating there will be protests on acquittal. What cause do these protesters represent? Abolishing guns? Maybe. Black Lives Matter? Very doubtful imo. I mean how can these people that got killed be people Black Lives Matter support?

The part where KR and the Medic were legally armed for one thing.

People who have no business being armed shouldn't be. And in most civilized societies aren't.

Well, sarcasm aside, the gene pool does need some pruning now and again.

I think washoe meant (or should have meant) influence more than strictly bribe and in which case I think his view is less controversial.

I don't think it would be a shock if that judge met with influential members of the Federalist Society, who he would feel some gratitude towards for them pushing him into his position of power.

I don't think it would be a shock if that Federalist Society person got the 'Industry Position' on this matter, to indirectly lobby the Judge.

I do think it is clear that this judge was very deliberately trying to steer a very specific outcome and that is guilt thru his myriad of non standard choices and rulings (picking a Private law firm to prosecute the case in a US first, and picking the court the appeals would be heard in).

I find it very reminiscent of that woman in Texas who accidentally voted when out on parole, and who met a Prosecutor who absolutely pursued the maximum penalty and they found a judge willing to proscribe the maximum penalty (5 Years) for something that was seen as a mistake.

I am quite comfortable saying that someone up stream (maybe the Texas Governors office) made it clear that they want a Conviction and with Maximum punishment so they could finally have a case of a Democrat voter convicted for serious 'voter fraud'. The talking point the right use is the length of sentence as proof it was serious voter fraud. They don't need the pesky details of how this person was rail-roaded.

I offer that to say that I am not prepared to offer anything resembling neutral arbiters (meaning they act on law and their view only) when it comes to Prosecutors or Judges. The paths to influence may not be as direct as Politicians (here is a bribe, just call it a campaign contribution and we are all good) but they are still there.

The judge in this case is certain suspect. No reason to believe outside of some person bias that he would go to the lengths he did with the private Prosecution and hand selected appeals Court. That he was trying to steer/manufacture his case to a certain outcome that he remained hands off in those areas (as is typically the expectation) should not be taken lightly.

Any particular reason you linked to the image search rather than the regular search on those keywords?

Ah.

I think we need to careful with this sentiment.

Reality is that the vast, vast majority of Protesters will not engage in lawlessness outside of blocking an intersection, etc.

There is a small percent of protesters who bring other grievances and who may be willing to do more serious crime. But there are just a bunch of quasi-anarchist types who are drawn to these type of mass gatherings where they know emotions are high who just want to wreck **** and take out every grievance they have built out over their lives. These people may or may not give a **** about the trigger action that sparked the protest.

Right wingers want this conflation to be absolute and complete. That protesters = rioters when frustrated. thus they are all criminals or just about to become criminals if just frustrated. The Venn diagram is the same circle for both is what they want society to acccept.

I think the solution is to focus on the vigilante aspect and not argue that people in the US don't have freedom of movement.

But this mess has been carefully constructed by decades of lobbying and court rulings. And here we are.

Most of us agree that KR acted in a reckless manner. I go a bit further and say so did the victims (at least the 3 in the second wave).

But if vigilantism isn't legal maybe there's a solution for future protests. But...maybe not. The police seemed fine with KR and his buds.

The slightly inconvenient pesky detail for this narrative is that they offered her a plea deal with probation and no jail time and she declined. After she took it to trial, lost, was sentenced, and appealed she was again offered probation to drop her appeal and she again declined.

Yes, to show you it's no coincidence the names are similar.

@cuepee I just told Rococoo that I think Kaplan was and end of his career and got intimidated by the best lawyers of the country. The last thing he wants is to fight the best and most likely better connected young guns with all the money power. They could have made his life very miserable. Only a true person of character or a mad man would take them on. So he chose the path of the least resistance. I can't even blame him. It would be too stress and probably not healthy for him.

Not watching the media narratives ?

Either way people are gonna be pissed. As per the usual.

There aren't gonna be any mass protests when Rittenhouse gets acquitted. A few dudes messing about, sure, there's 7 billion humans on this planet after all, but yeah, nothing to worry about. Contrast this case with Trayvon Martin's. You had COUNTLESS right-wing freaks going on about Trayvon being "no angel", the difference in the race of the protagonists, Zimmerman's 911 call, etc. Conservatives across the internet were highly concerned with defending Zimmerman, which, of course, says quite a lot about them then and particularly now that the dust has been settled and GZ's been free to abuse his girlfriends and hang up Confederate flags and brag about how he got off.

Compare all that with this. The majority of libs/left I see don't give a flying **** about Rittenhouse. We're not poring over his twitter page looking to see if he threw up any scary gang signs. Again, there are always going to be exceptions, but yeah, this isn't 1/100th as incendiary a case as Zimmerman/Martin.

Howard, I would appreciate your view then on what I would call soft influence. And ask in full respect solely for your view from your vantage point and not as a point of conflict as it is just your view and you are entitled to it.

For instance the Federalist society has had immense success in getting judges onto circuits and elevating them in their career.

I think we all know what interests the Federalist society supports so I hope we don't need to flesh that out.

As I understand this the Federalist society is extremely active at the grass roots levels, cultivating those who want to become judges. It will be clear to those who want the jobs or to get promoted that if they want the Federalist Society push, they need to mirror the their desired position. This it to get the push in and their push for advancement (Supreme Court).


DO you think the judge, that are so inclined to want and accept such support would largely consciously or even subconsciously see their views become more simpatico with the Federalist Society positions when it was not only what helped them get their foot in the door but might be the reason they are put in contention for key promotions?


While I would agree Politicians are at the top of the 'corruptible' ranks. I think 'Police' are next, and 'judges' next then 'Prosecutors' at the bottom of the list.

It is a very minor point, probably even trivial, but Grosskreutz was not legally armed. His concealed carry permit had expired.

IF KR walks I think protests should be held by gun advocates and BLM to show their positions are not just individual person based.

The goal of the protest should be to tighten up gun laws that allowed KR to attend but BLM should see that as important as this can clearly be seen as a future flashpoint for them as these vigilante types are clearly drawn out more frequently to engage with and provoke issues that matter to POC.

For many of them this is just the end game of trolling POC and mocking the issues they care about while holding a gun and saying you can't touch me.