34 thoughts on “OK, TODAY I’M A LITTLE EMBARRASSED TO BE A LAWYER”

1. pogo, thank you.  agree with you hoping the mouthpiece is on contingency and in addition that the court & ultimately the bar explain to him about clogging the system with specious, frivolous lawsuits.

2. 

   dana milbank at wapo:

   Devin Nunes is having a cow

   It is rare that a leader takes the bull by the horns and corrals support for a cause in which all Americans have a steak.

    

   I’m not referring to Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang’s cutting-edge decision to oppose circumcision, though voters may reward his foresight in defense of foreskin.

    

   No, today I celebrate Rep. Devin Nunes of California, top Republican on the Intelligence Committee and close Trump ally, who has just shown the world that he has the chops to sue a cow.

    

   Not just any cow: Nunes’s defamation lawsuit names his own cow — “Devin Nunes’ cow” is its name on Twitter — and a couple of other Twitter users, as well as Twitter itself, seeking $250 million in compensation because mean things were said about him on Twitter.

    

   Nunes tells Sean Hannity this is “the first of many” lawsuits to come, and Trump signaled support by tweeting about it Monday night. We must hope that Nunes’s bovine broadside won’t end until he sues cows into extinction.

   My friend Jonathan Chait at New York Magazine calls this “bonkers,” and The Post’s Aaron Blake sees “ridiculousness” in the lawsuit, particularly given Nunes’s co-sponsorship of a bill called the Discouraging Frivolous Lawsuits Act.

   That’s a bunch of bull! Nunes’s naming of a cow as a “defamer” in his lawsuit substantially beefs up the GOP policy stable in otherwise lean times.

    

   People are only beginning to understand the threat posed by cattle, a docile-looking but murderous beast that tramples, gores or otherwise kills, in cold blood, 20 people a year, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found — way more than are killed in shark attacks. Cattle burps and flatulence are the largest component of livestock’s 14.5 percent share of global greenhouse-gas emissions, according to the United Nations — as much as the entire transport sector. And then there are all the dangerous illnesses cows spread, such as lactose intolerance.

   These animals — yes, I am not afraid to call them animals — invade our country from Asia (“wagyu,” they are called) and from Mexico in menacing herds. This is why we need to build a wall, or at least a 1,500-mile emergency cattle guard.

    

   Some suppose that Devin Nunes’ cow is not really a cow, in the same way they suppose another account the congressman sued, “Devin Nunes’ Mom,” is not his real mom. No? Anybody who has read Doreen Cronin’s illustrated work “Click, Clack, Moo: Cows That Type” knows that cows used a typewriter to organize a socialist collective, forcing Farmer Brown to give them electric blankets.

    

   Ruminate on that for a moment.

    

   The Nunes lawsuit states: “Like Devin Nunes’ Mom, Devin Nunes’ cow engaged a vicious defamation campaign against Nunes that lasted over a year. Devin Nunes’ cow has made, published and republished hundreds of false and defamatory statements of and concerning Nunes, including the following: Nunes is a ‘treasonous cowpoke’ . . . ‘Devin’s boots are full of manure. He’s udder-ly worthless and its pasture time to move him to prison.’ ” (The cow, revealing its true species, spelled “move” as “mooove.”)

   [continues in same bovine vein]

3. also from wapo today:

   Prosecutors with special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s team on Tuesday cited the “press of other work” in asking a judge to give them until April 1 to respond to the court about a request from The Washington Post to unseal records in Paul Manafort’s criminal case.

    

   In a two-page filing, Deputy Solicitor General Michael R. Dreeben and prosecutor Adam C. Jed wrote, “Counsel responsible for preparing the response face the press of other work and require additional time to consult within the government.”

    

   A response had been due March 21. The filing did not detail the nature of the consultation.

    

   The Post has objected to the abundance of sealed and redacted records in Manafort’s Washington case and petitioned the judge in his case, Amy Berman Jackson, to open them to public view.

   [continues]

4. 

   Poll: Half of Americans say Trump is victim of a ‘witch hunt’ as trust in Mueller erodes

   https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2019/03/18/trust-mueller-investigation-falls-half-americans-say-trump-victim-witch-hunt/3194049002/

5. 

   great hunting so far… bagged a lot of witches

6. Patd, Nunes knows how to pick them. Chooses a guy named Steven Biss who sues two Twitter users named Devin Nunes’ Cow and Devin Nunes’ Mom. Well, turns out Mr. Biss may not be the best and brightest in the Virginia bar. 

   http://www.vsb.org/docs/Biss_11-26-08.final.pdf

   https://www.progress-index.com/progress-index/news/1.416792/archive

   In ruling against Biss’ client in the case that led to Biss’ additional suspension:

   In making that ruling, U.S. District Judge William H. Pauley III sharply rebuked both sides: “This case presents a cautionary tale about the potential for advocates to obscure the issues and impose needless burdens on busy courts. … Even on remand, the lawyers continued to obfuscate, leaving this court to grope down a dimly lit corridor. Time will tell whether this memorandum and order finally puts an end to the madness.”

   We’re seeing a perfect storm in Virginia – a joke of a lawyer representing a joke of a client in a joke of a case against two literal joke defendants. In Virginia the legal system provides humor for the masses.

   That was in a case over an attempted stock purchase. ~~Good to see he’s not bringing frivolous cases any longer.~~
    

7. pogo, had a chuckle over your very lawyerly hedging with “i’m …embarrassed” followed immediately by “I may be… embarrassed”. 

   as to mr. biss, seems lessons are lost on him.  but give him credit for consistency.

8. The captain of the Donald Trump fan club, Republican Congressman Devin Nunes is suing Twitter and two anonymous twitter accounts for $250 million. He is suing @DevinNunesMom & @DevinCow. The @DevinNunesMom account was suspended yesterday, but @DevinCow is still going and we can’t have that. We cannot have livestock insulting our esteemed elected officials! So please in the interest of civility we’re asking you, please do NOT follow @DevinCow.

9. trevor noah also had some observations on nunes

   http://www.cc.com/video-clips/6hkbkx/the-daily-show-with-trevor-noah-devin-nunes-s-twitter-lawsuit–robert-kraft-s-sweetheart-legal-deal—the-1-4-million-dollar-pigeon

10. Ahhhhhh….   Devin Nunes…  the late night comics and their viewers thank you for providing the comedic wit that we all udderly love.  And as in the old Irish proverb…   may your pastures always be green, your cud always be chewed, and the patties always be wet and flat.
    I raise a glass of milk to you!

11. and Colbert last night covered both conway and the nunes stories

12. patd – my hedging was less than lawyerly – it was simply a result of inattention and doing things in reverse order.  The “I may be” in the body of the post was written before the “I am” in the title.  I’ve been known to follow Billy Pilgrim and get unstuck in time from time to time.

    WaPo posted a piece discussing the merits (or rather lack of merit) of Nunes’ lawsuit.

    Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.)filed a lawsuitTuesday claiming that Twitter, two parody Twitter accounts and a Republican political consultant violated the First Amendment and defamed him. In addition to $250 million in damages, Nunes is demanding that the social media platform disclose the identities behind the anonymous accounts that have caused him particular suffering, according to the suit: “Devin Nunes’ Mom” and “Devin Nunes’ Cow.”
     
    The suit, filed in state court, alleged violations of Virginia’s law against insults. It also brought claims against Twitter for conspiracy and negligence. The tech company, Nunes said, “intended to generate and proliferate false and defamatory statements” about him. Its failure to police mean tweets, puns and memes posted by accounts purporting to be his mother and cow caused him “extreme pain and suffering.”
     
    Since filing, Nunes has been ridiculed, and the case has been labeled by experts who spoke to The Washington Post as, in all likelihood, doomed to fail. But others believe there is more to the lawsuit than any desire by Nunes to create a spectacle.
     
    [continues – and knocks down almost every potential basis for the suit]

    There are certainly times when the law provides entertainment – albeit they are few and far between.  Now I need to go to my twitter account and follow Devin Nunes’ Mom and Devin Nunes’ Cow.  

13. the hill:

    President Trump blasted George Conway, the husband of White House counselor Kellyanne Conway, as a “stone cold loser” on Wednesday who is jealous of his wife’s success.

    George Conway, who questioned the president’s mental fitness for office this week, is a “husband from hell,” Trump said in a morning tweet that took the internal family feud to new heights.

    Trump said he barely knows Conway, who has become well-known for his tweets ripping apart the president. Conway once lived in Trump World Tower in New York with his wife, who served on the condo’s board.

    The D.C.-based attorney also was considered for a job at the Justice Department before withdrawing from consideration, which he has said was because of his opposition to Trump.

    “George Conway, often referred to as Mr. Kellyanne Conway by those who know him, is VERY jealous of his wife’s success & angry that I, with her help, didn’t give him the job he so desperately wanted,” the president wrote.

    “I barely know him but just take a look, a stone cold LOSER & husband from hell!” Trump added.

    Conway’s criticism of the Trump administration began shortly after his wife joined the White House and has continued largely unabated in recent weeks.

    A day earlier, the president had briefly mentioned Conway in a tweet calling the attorney a “total loser,” but Wednesday’s comments are Trump’s most direct aimed at Conway, who he has largely avoided mentioning by name previously.

     

    Conway responded to the previous attack on Tuesday in his own tweet, accusing Trump of being obsessed with his critics.

     

    “I thought it was a perfect example of the point I was making,” George Conway told The Washington Post in an interview. “He can’t concern himself with affairs of state. He’s more concerned about what people say about him and waging little battles with everyone and everything.” 

     

     

    also from george according to the hill:

    “You. Are. Nuts,” Conway wrote in one of two quick tweets responding to the president’s early Wednesday morning insults. 

     

14. pogo, given the above (if one can overlook the public figure element) wouldn’t the twit have a better case against mr. kellyanne than devin does against his cow and mom?  

    of course there’s that pesky thing called the truth defense that will hinder him in a libel suit.

15. On the anti-circumcision bill, I had to make sure that it wasn’t a misnamed prohibition of female genital mutilation practiced on youngsters, a bill that would deserve wholehearted support. It wasn’t.

16. So much for trump’s alleged accomplishments
    https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/the-real-reason-the-trump-administration-is-constantly-losing-in-court/ar-BBUXTbn?ocid=spartanntp
    He got 2 Supremes – until they’re removed.

17. Patd,  maybe, but it would not survive a motion to dismiss. The statement complained of must (a) be false and (b) the person publishing it has to know it’s false…  and there’s an intent to harm element as well. SFB could never prove the first element. I’d rather represent Conway in his counter claim for libel. I think it would have legs. 

18. A suit against Conway by trump would open him the latter to discovery and psychiatric exams. trump couldn’t have that.

19. wonderful decision… with current Nebraska iowa Dakotas flooding perhaps the pipeline will also have to be reconsidered.

    wapo:

    A federal judge ruled late Tuesday that the Interior Department violated federal law by failing to take into account the climate impact of its oil and gas leasing in the West.

     

    The decision by U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia Judge Rudolph Contreras marks the first time the Trump administration has been held to account for the climate impact of its energy-dominance agenda, and it could have sweeping implications for the president’s plan to boost fossil fuel production across the country. Contreras concluded that Interior’s Bureau of Land Management “did not sufficiently consider climate change” when making decisions to auction off federal land in Wyoming to oil and gas drilling. The judge temporarily blocked drilling on roughly 300,000 acres of land in the state.

     

    The initial ruling in the case brought by two advocacy groups, WildEarth Guardians and Physicians for Social Responsibility, has implications for oil and gas drilling on federal land throughout the West. In the decision, Contreras—a Barack Obama appointee — faulted the agency’s environmental assessments as inadequate because it did not detail how individual drilling projects contributed to the nation’s overall carbon output. Since greenhouse gas emissions are driving climate change, the judge wrote, these analyses did not provide policymakers and the public with a sufficient understanding of drilling’s impact, as required under the National Environmental Policy Act.

     

     

    ADVERTISING

     

    “Given the national, cumulative nature of climate change, considering each individual drilling project in a vacuum deprives the agency and the public of the context necessary to evaluate oil and gas drilling on federal land before irretrievably committing to that drilling,” he wrote.

     

    Contreras did not void the leases outright, but instead ordered BLM to redo its analysis of hundreds of projects in Wyoming.

     

    [continues]

20. The Conway kerfuffle is a much needed distraction from trump’s tax, bank, election, wire, and postal frauds.

21. well, what do you know, a goper speaks up. at last.

    wapo:

    It’s all too much for Sen. Johnny Isakson to take. The Georgia Republican could not stand the “unthinkable” last year when the White House flag lowered — and then soon raised — its flag from half-staff to recognize the death of Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.).

     

    That was one moment among others that Isakson has said is a pattern of President Trump’s attacks on McCain that “drive me crazy.” And after an escalation of bitter words from the president this week, Isakson is ready to deliver what he calls a whipping on Wednesday.

     

    “I just want to lay it on the line, that the country deserves better, the McCain family deserves better. I don’t care if he’s president of United States, owns all the real estate in New York, or is building the greatest immigration system in the world,” Isakson told the Bulwark, a conservative news website.

     

    “Nothing is more important than the integrity of the country and those who fought and risked their lives for all of us.”

    [continues]

22. The nunes kerfuffle is a much needed distraction from trump’s tax, bank, election, wire, and postal frauds. He’s milking it for all it’s worth. That is, what it’s worth as a distraction.

23. Elijah Cummings:

    n November, the American people voted overwhelmingly to put Democrats in charge of the House of Representatives to start serving as a truly independent check and balance on the executive branch. Since then, President Trump and his allies have complainedof “Presidential Harassment,” decrying Democrats for having the audacity to request documents and witnesses to fulfill our constitutional responsibilities.
     
    The problem is that the White House is engaged in an unprecedented level of stonewalling, delay and obstruction.
     
    I serve as chairman of the Oversight and Reform Committee, the primary investigative body in the House of Representatives. I have sent 12 letters to the White House on a half-dozen topics — some routine and some relating to our core national security interests. In response, the White House has refused to hand over any documents or produce any witnesses for interviews.
     
    Let me underscore that point: The White House has not turned over a single piece of paper to our committee or made a single official available for testimony during the 116th Congress.
    * * * 
    As a reminder of what used to be “normal,” previous presidential administrations turned over tens of thousands of pages of documents in response to Oversight Committee investigations under both parties just a few years ago. The George W. Bush White House gave us more than 20,000 pages relating to Hurricane Katrina; numerous documents and witnesses relating to the leak of covert CIA agent Valerie Plame’s identity; and nearly 1,500 pages of emails between senior White House officials about the death of Pat Tillman. Similarly, the Obama White House produced many documents and emails relating to the Solyndra controversy, as well as witnesses and documents regarding the Benghazi, Libya, attacks, including communication betweentop White House officials and National Security Council staff.
     
    By contrast, the complete refusal by the Trump White House to produce any documents or witnesses to the primary investigative committee in the House reflects a decision at the highest levels to deny congressional oversight altogether. The president dictated this approach the day after the election when he threateneda “warlike posture” against Democrats and then vowedthat, at the end of two years, “I’m just going to blame them.”
     
    President Trump’s actions violate our Constitution’s fundamental principle of checks and balances. If our committee must resort to issuing subpoenas, there should be no doubt about why. This has nothing to do with presidential harassment and everything to do with unprecedented obstruction.

    Let the subpoenas fly.

24. Trump’s an idiot and everyone who supports him is too

25. Well said, KC.  

26. some wag just opined on cable that the nunes suit is more than just a useful distraction but also a ploy to get a ruling (and broad acceptance by general populace as well as left & rt fringe) that allows the very thing he’s railing against.  they want to assure unfettered twitter/social media so their own trolls, bots and fake folk can continue to spread venom, lies and fear.

27. so I wonder if this too is a shiny new distraction to keep us otherwise occupied from talking about the cohen trove, the new javanka book, deutche bank etc. :

    politico:

    Kellyanne Conway on Wednesday defended President Donald Trump’s attacks on her husband George Conway saying he’s “a counterpuncher” and asserting that the president is free to respond when he’s accused of having a mental illness.

    “He left it alone for months out of respect for me,” Conway, a senior Trump aide, told POLITICO in a brief telephone interview. “But you think he shouldn’t respond when somebody, a non-medical professional accuses him of having a mental disorder? You think he should just take that sitting down?”

    [….]

    The vicious back-and-forth has grabbed headlines during an otherwise tense week. The White House is anticipating the release of special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation, and the president has vented about everything from late Sen. John McCain to Saturday Night Live to Fox News.

     

    In the interview with POLITICO on Wednesday, Kellyanne Conway said Trump has treated her with the utmost respect.

    “The president is obviously defending me,” she said. “He could privately say to me, ‘Honey you’re a distraction. We love you. You’ll always be a part of the family but go be with your kids. They need you. Go make a million dollars an hour. Go do that honey.’ It’s the opposite.”

     

    Conway said she’s talked about Trump’s criticism of her husband to the president “in passing” but such talk is not dominating their discussions with him but is rather something that the media wants to focus on. She declined to comment on whether she wants Trump to stop tweeting against her husband.

    [continues]

28. 

    the guardian had this bit of fluff about the conways today:

    Name: George T Conway III.

     

    Age: 55.

     

    Appearance: A teddy bear in a suit.

     

    Aw, how sweet. Don’t get too mushy. He’s a distinguished lawyer who was once in the running to be either US solicitor general, or assistant attorney general of the justice department’s civil division.

     

    What went wrong? He pulled out, saying that the Trump administration is “like a shitshow in a dumpster fire”.

     

    I’m having trouble imagining one of those. I guess it’s something bad. Yes. Conway has called Trump “witless” and his actions illegal. He formed a group of lawyers called Checks and Balances to defend the US legal system from the president’s attacks.

    OK, that sounds sensible. It is! On Tuesday, Conway tweeted the symptoms of narcissistic personality disorder, and suggested Trump should be diagnosed with it.

     

    You mean he hasn’t been? Not so far. The president’s 2020 campaign manager Brad Parscale responded that Conway was simply bitter about not getting a top job in the justice department, and claimed he was jealous of his successful wife. Trump himself called Conway: “A total loser!”

     

    Listen, this sounds fun, but there are already quite a lot people who don’t like Trump. What makes this guy special? Look at his surname.

     

    Wait … is he related to Gerry Conway, the drummer with Fairport Convention? No.

    Rob Conway, the wrestler?Wrong again. The successful wife that Parscale mentioned is … Kellyanne Conway, Trump’s own senior adviser, and the campaign manager who got him elected in 2016.

     

    You mean she’s George’s ex-wife? That might explain it. Nope. They’re still married. You may remember Kellyanne as the fabricator of the “Bowling Green Massacre” and inventor of the euphemism of the century, “alternative facts”.

     

    That must be, um … an interesting marriage. Yeah. I guess you could say they’re working through their issues.

     

    Do they ever talk about it? Oh, yes. The Conways spoke to the Washington Post last year, when Kellyanne said of George’s attacks on her boss: “I think it disrespects his wife.”

     

    Yup, I think it does. For his part, George said: “If there’s an issue, it’s because she’s in that job, for that man.”

     

    Well, at least they’re communicating. Yeah. I think it would be difficult not to. “It’s so maddening to watch,” George told CNN yesterday, speaking about Trump’s behaviour. “The mendacity, the incompetence … [I tweet] so I can get it off my chest and move on with my life that day … Frankly, it’s so I don’t end up screaming at her about it.”

     

    Do say: “George! You said you would fill up the car!”

     

    Don’t say: “Sorry, sweetie. That was an alternative fact.”

29. George  divorce the Condom

30. This would be a good time for some big Democratic Pac to make ads challenging  SFB’s lies about Mueller.
    I think the ads should show a Trump voter having an awakening and realizing he’s a big fat liar

31. Interesting thing about the Devin, the steer (no balls), Nunes filing in Virginia looks like court shopping.  He is from California and should have filed there.  But, he would have to appeal to the “infamous liberal” 9th District when a judge laughed him and his shyster out of her court.  I may spend some time looking it up, but the 9th is no more liberal than any of the other appeals courts. 
     
    SFB is having a serious meltdown.  He should probably stroke out in a few days the way he is going.  I will happily state that I had almost complete dislike of Sen. McCain’s voting, but the man served in a way most men or women would never have been able to.  To have a slime bastard like SFB denigrate an honorable officer in this manner is beyond despicable, it is bordering on insane and should put cadet bone spurs in a padded room.

32. Just to add to the Nunes ignorance, it is obvious that he doesn’t have a clue how Twitter works.  You can have a million “followers” who don’t really exist excepts a trolls and bots.  If Twitter does a purge of phony accounts, all your followers can go “poof” overnight.  Then people have to actually follow you to see majority of your tweets.  Unless you have a created list with them on it, you still don’t see all of them.  Otherwise, the only other way you see them is if someone who does follows them forward a tweet to you.

    In this case this is dangerous ignorance because Nunes is in a totally violation of the First Amendment and is selling this swill to a large percentage of the public too uneducated to know what they are swallowing.

     

33. The bijan kian (general flynn’s partner in crime) trial begins in July. 

    Don’t know about Kamil Ekim Alptekin of Istanbul, who was indicted at the same time.

34. new thread

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