Delusion Collusion
August 5, 2021
The Good News
- Hong Kong museum commemorating 1989 Tiananmen victims reopens online (Reuters)
- Maine bans toxic ‘forever chemicals’ under groundbreaking new law (Guardian)
“Getting rid of a delusion makes us wiser than getting hold of the truth.” — Ludwig Borne
“Democracy is a device that ensures we shall be governed no better than we deserve.” — George Bernard Shaw
Delusion Collusion
In the 1993 legal drama “Philadelphia,” Tom Hanks asks Denzel Washington, “What do you call a thousand lawyers chained together at the bottom of the ocean?” Answer: “A good start.”
All new attorneys take an oath of office. At a bare minimum, every state requires a promise to support the U.S. Constitution and state laws. Some states add that an attorney must abide by state bar rules of professional conduct; some states just want lawyers to discharge their duties to ‘the best of their ability,’ whatever that is. Attorneys generally have wide latitude in representing clients, and in the absence of truly egregious conduct, judges are reluctant to sanction them. It’s really difficult to disbar a lawyer; it’s not done often, and it almost never makes national news. Unless they’re pushing conspiracy theories and a Big Lie.
New York is a state that just asks lawyers to perform their duties as best they can. But last January, a state lawmaker began seeking Rudy Giuliani’s disbarment, after the former NYC mayor and Donald Trump’s personal attorney made inflammatory comments during a rally preceding the January 6th insurrection. Six months later, the state’s committee of Appellate Division judges found that Giuliani should have his license suspended for his months-long efforts on Trump’s behalf at overturning the settled results of November’s presidential election. The panel’s 33-page opinion said Giuliani wasn’t fit to continue practicing law after he “communicated demonstrably false and misleading statements to courts, lawmakers and the public at large in his capacity as lawyer for [Trump] and the Trump campaign in connection with Trump’s failed effort at reelection in 2020.”
In July, a Michigan federal judge held a nearly six-hour hearing during which she asked detailed and skeptical questions of several lawyers she is considering imposing sanctions against for filing a lawsuit to overturn the election results. The lawsuit itself was dismissed months earlier by another judge after it was found to be riddled with factual errors and inaccuracies. U.S. District Judge Linda Parker repeatedly pressed former Trump attorney Sidney Powell and her legal team to explain why affidavits filed to support their conspiracy-laced claims of election fraud included obvious errors, speculation, and basic misunderstandings of how elections are conducted in the state. “There’s a duty that counsel has that when you’re submitting a sworn statement . . . that you have reviewed it, that you had done some minimal due diligence,” the judge said. Parker has yet to render her final opinion, which could include hefty fines, license suspensions, or even more severe repercussions.
On Wednesday, the latest effort to hold Trump and his allies accountable played out in a federal courtroom in Colorado. Magistrate Judge N. Reid Neureiter sanctioned two attorneys who filed a huge class action lawsuit to overturn the election and sought $160 billion in damages. In a scathing 68-page opinion, the judge found the case was “frivolous,” “not warranted by existing law,” and filed “in bad faith.” Neureiter said the lawyers made scant effort to corroborate information they included in the suit, which argued there’d been a vast national conspiracy to steal the election from Trump. The case was dismissed in April, but Neureiter ruled the lawyers had violated their ethical obligations by lodging it in the first place, and peppering their motions with wild, unsubstantiated allegations. Legal rules, the judge said, prohibit attorneys from clogging the court systems with frivolous motions, or from filing untrue information. (WaPo)
Lebanon’s Economic Crisis
- Wednesday was the one-year anniversary of the massive explosion at the Port of Beirut that killed over 200 people. The blast was but another blow to Lebanon, the small Mediterranean country still haunted by a 15-year civil war that ended in 1990. Today the country suffers a widespread economic crisis, with all but the very wealthy stuck in a vice-grip of soaring inflation and devalued money.
- Government offices and most businesses closed Wednesday for a day of mourning. Large crowds gathered around the capital city to commemorate the day, and denounce their government for not determining what caused the explosion or holding anyone accountable, and for failing to address critical shortages of food, fuel, and medicine.
- In a country once billed as the Switzerland of the Middle East, banks are largely insolvent. Many teachers and professors have left to seek opportunities abroad; scores of doctors and nurses have been driven out by waves of Covid-19 and declining salaries. Covid cases are increasing, as is food poisoning caused by poor refrigeration, and alcohol overdoses. Many question whether they will survive. (NYT)
A Greece Fire
- Greece is experiencing its worst heat wave since 1987, when more than 1,000 people died. Earlier this week, temperatures soared to 115.3 degrees Fahrenheit, the country’s hottest day on record. Wildfires swept through the northern part of Athens, burning houses, severing electricity supplies, sending plumes of thick smoke into the air, and causing thousands to flee their homes.
- Emergency services sent planes to drop water from the sky. Greek officials confirmed Wednesday that at least 77 people had been hospitalized. Residents and tourists in Rhodes and Crete have been warned of “extreme fire danger.” Rescue services in nearby Turkey have battled over 100 blazes in the last week.
- At least eight people were killed in the city of Antalya and parts of the country’s Turquoise Coast, and livestock across affected areas perished before help could arrive. Climate experts blamed rising temperatures for the widespread devastation, which was also seen in Italy, where residents in Sicily were evacuated, and in Finland, which saw its worst forest fire in half a century. (WaPo)
Additional World News
- Pakistan army completes 90% of fence along Afghan border (Yahoo)
- Belarus Olympic sprinter arrives in Vienna amid safety fears (AP)
- Why the internet in Cuba has become a US political hot potato (Guardian)
- Israel will add more countries, including the U.S., to its quarantine list. (NYT, $)
- As Ethiopia’s Civil War Rages, Bodies Float Downriver Into Sudan (NYT, $)
- Three people killed and eight seriously injured in Czech train crash (CNN)
- Israel fires back after 3 rockets launched from Lebanon (ABC)
- Our Daily Pnut readers are some of the most curious people out there, but a morning newsletter isn’t always enough. Curiosity Stream is a streaming service featuring true storytelling without the reality show nonsense. With thousands of movies and shows to choose from, there’s no end to what you can learn.
- Curiosity Stream has 35 curated collections of movies and nonfiction TV shows, handpicked by experts. They have documentaries about History, Science, Technology, Music (check out the new doc on LCD Soundsystem), and more.
- Curiosity Stream works on any device, so you can start streaming anytime, anywhere, as soon as you sign up. Dive deeper into something you already love, or branch out into a new subject. The choice is yours. Use code PNUT and get one full year of Curiosity Stream for just $15!
More-A-Cori-Um
- After the federal ban on evictions lapsed Saturday night, affecting millions of Americans who had fallen behind on their rent, progressives began pressuring the Biden administration to extend the moratorium. It was Representative Cori Bush who succeeded in bravely and dramatically getting the point across.
- For three nights, the Missouri Democrat slept in a sleeping bag on the steps outside the Capitol Building. She endured rain Sunday night, struggling to keep warm and reminding her of two decades earlier, when she and her two small children were homeless and living in her car. The move drew national attention and forced the White House to respond to Bush’s demands to temporarily halt evictions, after Congress went on recess without addressing the issue.
- On Tuesday, the administration issued a new, more limited freeze that will remain in effect through October 3. The ban covers the parts of the U.S. experiencing what the CDC calls “substantial” and “high” spread of the Delta variant, which is the vast majority of U.S. counties. Democrats and civil rights activists are praising Bush for leading the protest, with some noting that by evoking her own experiences with housing insecurity, Bush forced fellow lawmakers to understand the realities of eviction. (WaPo, NPR)
Vaxxing It Up
- On Tuesday, President Biden encouraged cities and states to require that individuals show proof of vaccination to visit restaurants and other public spaces. His message notably tougher than before, Biden denounced Republican officials who have blocked efforts to mandate vaccines and called out Republican governors who’ve banned businesses and universities from requiring vaccines, or defied masking guidance from the CDC.
- “I say to these governors: Please help. But if you aren’t going to help, at least get out of the way,” Biden said. Asked specifically about Republican Governors Ron DeSantis of Florida and Greg Abbott of Texas, Biden said “their decisions are not good for their constituents.” DeSantis has blamed media “hysteria” for making conditions in Florida seem worse than they are.
- Biden still has an uphill battle to convince many Americans to get vaccinated. A new poll released Wednesday by the Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) shows more unvaccinated adults in the U.S. — 53% — view the coronavirus vaccine as a greater risk to their health than the disease itself. Contrastingly, 88% of vaccinated adults said getting infected with COVID-19 is a bigger risk to their health than the vaccine.
- Unvaccinated adults were much less worried about the more transmissible Delta variant and had less confidence in the safety and effectiveness of the vaccines compared with those who got the shots. 57% of unvaccinated adults also said they thought the news media had “generally exaggerated” the seriousness of the pandemic, compared with 17% of vaccinated adults. (WaPo, Guardian)
Additional USA News
- Arkansas governor wants to allow school district mask mandates (WaPo, $)
- Obama scales back big birthday bash amid Covid worries (CNN)
- ‘Literally losing our workforce’: Florida schools defy DeSantis’ anti-mask order (Politico)
- Ohio Democratic primary election: Shontel Brown defeats progressive Nina Turner (Guardian)
- Police officer dies following shooting outside the Pentagon building (CNN)
- Judge temporarily blocks Texas order targeting transport of migrants (CNN)
Well, Isn’t This Rich?
Experts are noticing something different about 2021’s summer of extreme weather: the onslaught is hitting harder and in places that in the past have mostly been spared from global warming’s wrath. Wealthy nations like America, Canada, Germany, and Belgium are joining poorer and more vulnerable countries on a growing list of extreme weather events that scientists say have connections to human-caused climate change.
True, devastating floods have hit China, but hundreds of people have also drowned in parts of Germany and Belgium not used to being inundated. Canada and America’s Pacific Northwest have experienced overwhelming, record-shattering heat that has soared well past triple digits in Fahrenheit and into the high 40s in Celsius and is accompanied by unusual wildfires. Southern Europe is now seeing unprecedented heat and fire. And peak Atlantic hurricane and U.S. wildfire seasons, to quote the Carpenters, have “only just begun.” (AP News)
Additional Reads
- The “degrowth” movement to fight climate change, explained (Vox)
- Starliner delayed again, and its launch window may close soon (Ars Technica)
- How the earth’s rotation helped the earliest forms of life to diversify (CNN)
- Missouri governor pardons couple who pointed guns at protesters (BBC)
- Facebook shuts out NYU academics’ research on political ads (AP)
- Black Hole Size Comparison Chart Gives New View of Universe (Yahoo)