Listening in to the Peter Harding arraignment. (THREAD)

Magistrate Judge Jeremiah McCarthy is presiding.

Criminal complaint against Harding is from DC District Court dated 1/11/21.

Harding is charged in a 2 count complaint from DC District - violating 18 usc 1752 (a)(1) and (a)(2) unlawfully being on federal grounds.

Second count is Title 40 USC 5104(e)(2)(c) violent entry and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds. Max for both is 1.5 years and a fine.

Short thread on communication, teaching and selling ideas:

When I finished school I went to study in Israel in a "Yeshiva" - these are like HE academies where you just study Jew stuff: philosophy, bible, history, law. And, lots of talmud. 1/

The Talmud is really hard at the best of times. It's very confusing, varies in style from page to page, the content itself is very demanding and it's in a weird Aramaic-Hebrew hybrid. 2/

Everyone in the Yeshiva studied the same tractate (like a book of the talmud) but there were lots of different classes, with each rabbi having a very different style and approach. 3/

One rabbi took a highly abstract and conceptual approach. He used very complicated ideas and words and did a lot of monologuing. Everybody used to rave about how amazing his classes were. So, one day, I decided to go. 4/

I confess that I didn't understand a damn thing. It all just felt very...like...nothingness. Like things were being overcomplicated and overdramatised and ideas and lenses were being added that didn't really add much at all. It was just confusing. 5/

"Is our judiciary delivering on its role as a sentinel on the qui vive in these changing times?"

Former CJI MN Venkatchaliah to deliver lecture shortly as part of Moneylife Foundation’s 3rd Annual RTI Lecture.

@MoneylifeF

The talk will be followed by a panel discussion with Former Supreme Court Judge, Justice AK Sikri and Senior Advocate Indira Jaising.

The session will be presided by TS Krishnamurthy, Former Chief Election Commissioner and Trustee Moneylife Foundation

@IJaising
@MoneylifeF

Event begins. Sucheta Dalal renders the introductory address.

@suchetadalal

TS Krishnamurthy welcomes the gathering

"I have never seen a more humble person than Justice Venkatchaliah", he adds as part of his introductory remarks.

Former Chief Justice of India MN Venkatchaliah begins his lecture on "Is our judiciary delivering on its role as a sentinel on the qui vive in these changing times?'

@MoneylifeIndia

@JusticeRobers_CJ & @SCOTUSblog can the #American people trust you?

Let's peel back the surface layer and show the people...

We the people are the power.

1. Abuse of power
2. Dereliction of Duties
3. You ignored the information, to hide corruption!
4. Doc Citation

Comment???

Where were we: Boaz Barak proposed a “law of nature” that if there is a physical device that can make a certain computation C, then there is a quantum circuit that computes C. 1/11

@boazbaraktcs @quantum_aram @AspectStalence @RosenblumSerge

Aram remarked that Boaz's proposed law is a variant of the strong Church Turing thesis. Correct! 2/11

I proposed a refinement of the general law. There are cases where we can analyse classes of devices (or natural processes) and can conclude that for them there is even a classical circuit that computes what they compute. 3/11

I gave a few examples 1) Computations that take place in Boaz's laptop can be carried out by a classical circuit.
4/11

2) Computations carried out by Boaz's brain can be carried out by a classical circuit. 5/11

Not a single word

from any of you

about anyone

charging speaking fees

At all. Keep your arid thoughts to yourselves.

There have been so many White folks who’ve asked me how they can be allies in the fight for racial justice. In the words of @BLoveSoulPower, we need co-conspirators and comrades willing to put something on the line and take risks. Use your Whiteness to advocate for BIPOC lives...

White parents in @ChiPubSchools , you have an opportunity to leverage your Whiteness by refusing to send your children to school without a safe, well-researched, and realistic plan that is created with @CTULocal1, school staff, parents and youth

You may feel that your children’s schools ARE safe. And that may be true. Because White students, while only 10% of the student body, more likely attend selective enrollment and/or more fully resourced schools in CPS.

But the overwhelming majority of children in CPS do not attend well-resourced schools. They attend schls that lack proper ventilation, hot water, nurses or the classroom space needed for social distancing.

The children who attend these under-resourced schools are overwhelmingly Black and Brown. They come from communities where COVID positivity is dangerously high. And they are the children who are dying disproportionately from this virus.

It took decades after the passage of America's landmark antitrust laws - the Sherman Act and the Clayton Act - for trustbusting to occur in earnest, and what spurred the action wasn't mere corporate bullying, not just price hikes and labor abuses.

1/

What tipped America over into a state where a leader (FDR) who told activists "I want to do it, now make me do it" found the political will to "do it" was the corruption that attended the extreme concentration of wealth.

2/

Monopoly was never merely an issue of economics - it's fundamentally an issue about POLITICS. Yes, the monopolist bleeds workers and suppliers, sucks them dry and amasses a tremendous fortune, but that's just accumulating ammunition.

3/

What the monopolist does with that ammunition is far more consequential: when the powerful are small in number and command vast fortunes, they can come to a consensus about how to deploy their fortunes to corrupt the political process.

4/

The economic harms are just a warmup, the political harms are the real deal.

Hoover was beholden to plutes, had a cabinet full of them, turned over the nation's treasury to a sociopathic monster called Andrew Mellon whose stated ambition was to own all the world's aluminum.

5/

We at @GoodLawProject have a paralegal attending the case management hearing in the Tavistock's appeal in the Bell case on behalf of our trans defence fund. Occasional updates from them as the hearing progresses...

The 'stay' - effectively a suspension of the legal effect of the first instance decision - will continue. That has been agreed between the parties.

Judge doesn't want oral submissions from any of the would-be intervenors at the case management hearing. (I wouldn't read anything in to that.)

Tavistock supports the intervention by @stonewalluk, @BrookCharity, @TheEndoSociety and @Genderintell, is neutral on those from @libertyhq and @TheBMA and opposes those from Transgender Trend and Dr Bell and a 'parents' group'.

Counsel for Bell opposes - I hope I have that right - the joint intervention.

Documents dropped in US V #GhislaineMaxwell
45 pages plus exhibits which included redacted references, some of which we read out in today's podcast.

Table of contents gives a quick over view of her arguments - devoted to splice!

And those redacted references.
@lisapodcasts @pinkPeptobismol @bobby_capucci @tinkeringhalo10

Why redact Scott Borgerson's name we all know.
He is prepared to forfeit all if she disappears!

Two other US citizens have also offered $ - wonder if that was one of referees I spoke about in today's pod?

As more folks are arrested for the insurrection we are going to see high rate of people with records of intimate partner violence, stalking, and harassment. 1/

Terrorizing women and girls and internet trolling is directly correlated to being violent and unreasonable in other facets. including work, friendships, school, family, AND POLITICS. 2/

As my colleague, Caroline said, "Violence against women and girls on the micro level of interpersonal IS TERRORISM designed to uphold patriarchy/male supremacy on the macro level. 3/

Some insurrectionists have reported histories of being abusers.
Some in the news have histories of abuse. We know Ashli Babbitt, who was shot dead, trying to climb through the window 4/

into the congressional chambers, had multiple restraining orders for attacking her then-boyfriend’s ex, filing false police reports, rear ending her car, and harassing her with phone calls. 5/

Vidhi Centre for Law and Policy will be organizing a talk on "Free Speech and its (Un)Lawful Restriction" shortly.

@Vidhi_India

The event begins.

HR Venkatesh: We dont think too about about Supreme Court or censorship. You dont worry about contempt or so.

Journalism in the digital space is a little freer compared print media, in the past few years.

Venkatesh: We feel that entire atmosphere in Judiciary for journalism is bit restrictive. We are little "hemmed"

Off late, the restriction is spreading to the digital space as well.

@Vidhi_India

Prashant Iyengar: What do we make of digital speech and the law?

The Supreme Court has the image of being completely neutral. This is untrue. It has an extremely reactionary attitude. This is true for all Courts in the world.

1. Going with a space/alien narrative today. I've put a thread together on the topic based off my favorite Patreon/ YT @ShowCasanova & "V". If you have never heard any of their discussions, you are missing out!

American Law enforcement and military appears to be fully compromised at this time. At the rate things are developing, there may not be a peaceful transition of power on the 20th. Underestimating the threat we are facing will have dire consequences. #RemoveTheTraitors

Trump may already be a military dictator, we just haven't realized it yet, because we have not seen anything like this unfold on American soil, & we think things like this can't happen here, and happens only overseas. That is exact what they want us to believe. #RemoveTheTraitors

I remain unconvinced at this time about the loyalty of some of the troops already deployed at the Capitol and being national guard being mobilized at state capitols even. I remain concerns for the safety of Democratic lawmakers at DC and elected officials at all 50 states.

Meanwhile Trump supporters are playing dumb or sounding ridiculous in the narratives, I suspect intentionally because it makes it easier for the public dismiss the actual threat faced because the public believes they are incompetent and fools. #RemoveTheTraitors

I think at this time, that is what they want us to believe. It gives then a cover, & can carry on with their nefarious plans. The longer it goes without putting a stop to this, the harder it will be for the American people to stop what they are planning to do. #RemoveTheTraitors

1/11🚔John M. Pierce🚔
- Lawyer Accountability
- Rudy Giuliani, George Papadopoulos, Lin Wood, Tulsi Gabbard, Russian Oligarch, Marc Mukasey, Harmeet Dhillon, Robert J. Costello, Carter Page all have/had direct ties w/ JP
- JP suggested he should rep Trump
#Whistleblower

2/11🚔John M. Pierce🚔
- JP is handling matters for Wendy Rittenhouse's child.
- JP breached child support obligs
- JP could not visit kids b/c failed to comply w/ drug testing
- Did JP do a good job raising his children?
- Ask JP that question, if he lies, we can look it up.

3/11 🚔John M. Pierce🚔
- JP's had problems with cocaine and booze
- JP owed @Citibank $90K as of 11/19
- JP owed ex-wife's mom $27K as of 11/19
- JP owed over $1M in taxes as of 11/19
- JP said in 2016: "I never grew up."
- JP lost his job at @KLGates after a physical assault

4/11🚔John M. Pierce🚔
- JP repledged the same collateral several times in exchange for millions, lawsuits followed
- JP pilfered $2.5M from a payday lender
- JP has a $4M money judgment against him
- JP been subject of default judgment requests
- JP owes money all over town

5/11🚔John M. Pierce🚔
-JP been supported over yrs by
- Virage Capital Management - $65M in capital
- David L. Hecht (Hecht Partners)
- Carolynn K. Beck (Goldstein & McClintock)
- Denver G. Edwards (Bradford Edwards & Varlack)
- Christopher N. LaVigne (Withers Bergman)
- & Others

Of all the things that confuse me (there are easily 3k this morning) this stumps me most: When did we decide that saving an 80-year-old's life is worth sacrificing a child's? Or that the value of their lives are exactly comparable? I could've sworn we'd agreed to something else.

We have special provisions for children. In court, they're treated differently. We've agreed they shouldn't have to work. They need public school (or so I thought). They cannot consent to sex. We have a set of laws that protects them.

I thought this was understood, and enacted by the thousands of examples we can gin up of adults running into traffic to save a child - not necessarily their own - or stopping a bullet. Remember those heroic teachers in Newtown in Parkland who shielded their students? That.

And we derided adults who USED children as shields, or failed to protect them. The mother who lets her husband beat her child because otherwise he'd turn on her. Society abjures such a person. The guard who hid instead of rushing the shooter in Parkland? Hated.

But now, with Covid is is simply disallowed to claim that we should prioritize, say, a 10-year-old school child over an 84-year-old in assisted living. Where the hell did this attitude come from and why does half of my social circle seem to believe it's right?

Lawyers - does Tanzin v. Tanvir set precedent for suing federal health officials for violating our rights?

SCOTUS has unanimously ruled that federal agents can be sued when they violate your rights. Now do qualified immunity. https://t.co/Gec47ZMEg0 via @reason

Short thread on impeachment witnesses:

First, let’s remember that this case had unusual and powerful evidence in the public record. If you are prosecuting a bank robbery and you have the surveillance camera footage, you don’t need witnesses to tell you what happened.

1/

Second, the only areas where witnesses could help was confirming what the circumstantial evidence already showed about Trump’s knowledge and intent, both before and after the riot. Mgrs did great job of using his own tweets to show his knowledge but witnesses could confirm.

2/

The case was really strong as is but new witness testimony would very likely become the sole focus of the media and the public. For that reason, it is especially important to avoid taking risks with witnesses a) who are adverse to you and b) whose testimony is unknown.

3/

Since the only witnesses that would be helpful are ones close to Trump, executive privilege would invariably be an issue. If a witness is not cooperative, s/he would likely fall back on EP to avoid testifying. Hashing that out would take months.

4/

The reality is that Trump has created a dynamic through the Ukraine whistleblower and Ukraine witnesses where his domestic terrorist supporters threaten violence against witnesses against him. This fear is real and it is a huge problem. This should be everyone’s focus.

5/