Trial lawyer, constitutionalist, economist, widower, not looking, but not dead either. No investments: I don’t even buy green bananas. Opinions my own. Resist.
May 10 • 10 tweets • 2 min read
The questioning of Stephanie Clifford demonstrated (to me) inadequate preparation that may have been prompted by underestimating her talent as a witness. As briefly as I can put it, attorneys are to ask open-ended questions on direct examination. Well-prepared counsel will phrase
each question in journalistic form — who, what, when, where, why, and how. This allows counsel to “lead” the witness’s testimony without being accused of classic leading — asking questions to which the possible answers are yes and no. It also prevents the witness from adding
Apr 28 • 7 tweets • 2 min read
If I seem a bit more strident this weekend, it’s because something important happened Thursday. I had the opportunity to listen to a two-and-one-half hour academic circle-jerk performed by our so-called Supreme Court, ignoring (a) facts in the record of the case before it, and
(b) the well-established law applicable to those facts. Instead, the Court wasted my time and yours debating a question that is unworthy of debate: should the laws of the United States apply equally to its citizens?
Worse, a majority of the Court appears to believe that this
Sep 24, 2022 • 5 tweets • 1 min read
Before Reagan, Congress was prohibited from “borrowing” from the Social Security Trust Fund (“SSTF”). By the end of his administration, SSTF consisted of almost nothing but Treasury debt. When Bush and Trump crashed the economy, Treasury yields were near zero. Soon, the debt to
SSTF will have to be repaid (at least in part) from the General Budget. The national debt as %age of GDP is at its highest level since the Civil War, so borrowing more is irresponsible. The GOP doesn’t believe in repaying debt it incurred to make its donors even richer, but the
May 3, 2022 • 5 tweets • 1 min read
The bottom line with modern “conservatives” is that the votes of white men should count for more than anyone else. We no longer live in the 18th Century. Votes of women and minorities BY LAW count as much as those of white men, which is unacceptable to “conservatives.”
This is why we see a concerted effort to make it more difficult for women and minorities to vote. When they do that, we are no longer talking about even a democratic republic — we are talking about a fascist state. Well, “original intent” is bankrupt after the 14th Amendment.
