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TwiceHorn

Certifiably Surly
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Posts posted by TwiceHorn

  1. 1 minute ago, Brian Fantana said:

    Kicking it down to NY takes presidential pardons off the table.

    We're still talking federal here, not state.  More I look at it, the more it seems GoLL's "taint team" theory is a strong one.  I am curious, though, that payments to hoors and campaign finance violations don't really strike me as the kind of crimes that would support such extraordinary measures.

  2. 15 minutes ago, DanTheHorn said:

    The taint team is good in theory but people talk at the water cooler and one knows that stuff will get out. Rudy Giuliani said to the Washington Post that the going after a lawyer is uncommon but not surprising. All I know is I do not like Trump or lawyers but this is still something that is hard to decide how one should feel about it.

    It may be good in theory, but it's also good in practice.  A lawyer's office is bound to be full of attorney-client privileged material.  Therefore, whoever executes the warrant and reviews the seized material is highly likely to be exposed to such material.  Those people will have to be excluded from the investigative and prosecutorial team and subjected to a protective order with stiff penalties for violation.

     

    It may not prevent leaks entirely, but there is every incentive by Mueller's team, and everyone involved, to preserve the attorney client privilege where it remains applicable.

  3. I suspect that any campaign finance violation would be tied to exceeding donation limits by hiding identity.  But, I'm not sure that's worthy of executing a search warrant on an attorneys' office.  That is a really extraordinary step that would tend to require proof of criminal conduct exceeding probable cause and an inability to obtain evidence through other means.

  4. 1 minute ago, Jhawk said:

    Thanks for the info.

    The reason I even brought this up is because we have talked about how the saying of “if you want an indictment then give me a grand jury.”  Meaning that once special counsel gets involved he can almost direct traffic as he wants. I’ve got 2 scenarios in my head. 

    1. Mueller has nothing on trump just as he stated a week ago. He is now looking to appease the powers that be and he direct traffic to trumps lawyer. Given the proof we have that the fbi and investigators have leaked various intelligence/evidence the golden ticket isn’t about being able to prosecute trump but to leak the information between him and his attorney, maybe even through wiki to protect the investigation. This kills trump in the public eye where this trial will most likely take place. 

    2. Mueller does and always has had something on trump and his comments last week were bait to try and get trump to panic in a fit of confidence. This raid was going to happen unless trump willingly handed over privileged docs. Trump might not be screwed for anything Russia/collusion related but everyone around him, or maybe even him, goes down for something completely unrelated to anything with politics. Which if he has done illegal activities then he probably should go down. 

    You misapprehend Mueller's comments about Trump.  The target of an investigation, in federal criminal parlance, is one against whom an indictment will be sought.  As a sitting President, Trump cannot (or should not) be indicted.  Thus he is not a "target."  Doesn't mean he didn't do anything wrong or isn't being investigated.

    • Like 1
  5. 3 hours ago, ShaggyBevo RIP said:

    Or the crime happened in SDNY giving SDNY jurisdiction. 

    Nah, Mueller's jurisdiction is not regional in nature.  This happened because, for one reason or another, it is outside the scope of Mueller's mandate.

     

    GoLL's explanation is highly plausible.

  6. 15 hours ago, Duckman said:

    I'm traveling to Orlando tomorrow for business and am planning on swinging by Randall Made.  I was there a few years ago but they were in the process of moving into the new museum so I didn't get to see any of that.   

    I was able to pick up a nice Model 16 - SP1 that someone had ordered but they couldn't contact - happens a lot when there is a 5 year backlog.   Hoping to make another score this time.  :)  

    Sweet.

  7. 4 minutes ago, APMP said:

    Knuth is good advice.

     

    I graduated UTCS 15 years ago. Learned be stuff on the job to do the job, but the UTCS computer science problem solving building blocks definitely helped. The on the job learning has only intensified as an IP attorney, both software and hardware wiser. Many of the innovations I'm seeing now are in deep learning, natural language processing, computer vision, vr/ar, distributed autonomous agents, and embedded/mobile hardware platforms.

     

     

    Funny story about CS that may shed a little light.  I'm an IP attorney also, with an ME undergrad.  I graduated 30 years ago.  At that time UT did not have a computer science degree per se.  About the best you could do was take a "bunch" of numerical methods courses in Math.  Baylor of all places had I believe the top CS/IS program in the state with their DPA (data processing and analytics) degree in the business school.

    Also, for several years after that, the Patent & Trademark Office would not recognize Computer Science as a degree basis for registration as a patent attorney.  A major part of that was the non-uniformity and lack of mathematical and scientific rigor in some CS degrees in those days.  Do they still require a transcript APMP?

    As indicated here, there is a wide/wild variety of subject matter and professions encompassed by "computer science."  Also, in many cases, those with an affinity for computers are simply exhibiting a technical bent that lends itself to engineering, with computers remaining a hobby.

    I might suggest that he find a CS-type degree that shares its first year curriculum with most of the engineering majors (I believe this to be true at UT).  That way, the technical degree will remain mostly open and, if he winds up hating the hell out of all of it, the hours from engineering/CS won't be lost entirely in some other major (engineering calculus, for example, is "good" for a business or economics major, but not vice versa, and the physics will count as science credit in any degree, etc.)

    • Like 1
  8. I would have to guess, because Mueller let the USA-SDNY handle this, that it is getting pretty far afield from the trumpcampaigncollusion mandate.

     

    It may simply be criminal behavior by Trump, Trumpco and Cohen that precedes the election and campaign.

  9. Finally saw it.  Enjoyed it.  Behind Hell or High Water for me, but Beau Bridges and Ben Foster is an extreme unfair advantage where I am concerned.

    Ahead of Sicario, though.  Glad he didn't get around to killing the mountain lion.

    Thoroughly enjoyed seeing those yahoos getting blasted with .45-70.  Kinda thought that last guy was going to get munched by the cougar.

  10. In case anyone is confused, the United Kingdom is not a truly free country.  Looks like one, but it isn't.

     

    Lest anyone forget, the Bill or Rights is premised on things the English government did 200 years ago and largely still retains the ability to do today.  There still is no equivalent to at least the 1st, 4th, and 5th Amendments in the UK.

  11. 2 hours ago, Ghost of LL said:

    I have to tell you--I'm powerfully uncomfortable with raiding lawyers' offices.  I recognize that in a lot of circumstances, the lawyer isn't acting as a lawyer, and so the materials aren't privileged.  But an investigator needs to be real circumspect about that kind of thing.

    Yeah, the evidence of commission of a crime would have to go way past probable cause and probably sufficient to overcome the privilege by crime-fraud exception even before it's asserted and as to any material covered by the warrant.

    I have a very healthy skepticism toward the FBI and US attorneys offices, but I have to believe that this aspect of it is being done correctly.

  12. Possibly dumb question. Who did Michael kill at the end of S4? Was it supposed to be someone we knew? 

     

    Earlier, when Marlo tells Chris to

     

    whack Bodie

    and suggests the pup,  Chris says he shouldn't do someone he knows. 

     

    Found it on a Wire wiki, it was the guy that was abusing Bubbs.  Still don't know why he was on Marlo's shitlist.

  13. An example.  I ordered something from Amazon, free shipping, not time sensitive at all.  I ordered the shit March 27.  It ships DHL global mail/ecommerce.  According to tracking, it has been "enroute to DHL distribution center" in Birmingham, AL since March 30.  Their tracking updates are also horribad.

    If true to form, it will hit USPS and be delivered in a day.

    What. The. Fuck.  Is. DHL. Doing. With. My. Socks?

  14. Odd bit of trivia that I picked up on on my second run through, Lt. Mello (Bunny Colvin's right hand man in S3 and later Western District commander) is portrayed by the real Jay Landsman.

     

    So this guy:

    dennis-mello.jpg

    Is played by this guy:

    30-02-1024.jpg

  15. On 4/4/2018 at 3:59 PM, Chewbacca said:

    Anyone notice that the lead Chechen guy is Axe's lawyer from Billions?

    That guy has played a "heavy" in quite a few things in the last 5-10 years.  I never noticed him until Billions, though, but have seen him in a number of things since noticing him.

  16. It's the concept of sovereign immunity, which holds that governmental functions would grind to a complete halt if actions of officials and officers could be subjected to suit and liability for every tortious or potentially tortious act committed in the course of carrying out their duties.

    Judges and prosecutors have complete or absolute immunity from suit for actions taken pursuant to their duties.  Cities, counties, states, and the federal government, as entities, enjoy nearly absolute immunity from suit.  There are statutory exceptions in, for example, the Federal and Texas Tort Claims Acts, that permit suit and limited recovery of damages for specific tortious acts carried out by governments and government officials.

    Cops have "qualified immunity, " which is immunity from suit (not just damages), unless and until their actions are shown to be a violation of clearly established constitutional law.  It is a wholly "common law" (judge-made, not statute) doctrine, thus it would be difficult to modify or change it by legislation at either the state or federal level.  However, special crimes and civil causes of action that waive immunity could be established by the state/federal legislatures.  

    Also one notable thing about claims against police.  The normal tort doctrine of respondent superior, whereby an employer is liable for torts committed by employees acting within the scope of their employment, does not apply.  It is also very difficult to make city/county/state police entities liable for the constitutional torts of cops (the entity must be shown to have a policy of doing whatever bad thing the cop did).  That means, in the usual case, the cop found liable for a civil rights violation under 42 USC 1983 (applies to state/county/city cops)  or Bivens (applies to federal officers) doctrine, usually has nothing but personal assets to satisfy any judgment.

  17. Baylor may truly suck big GREEN (and yellow) donkey dicks, but getting the sweep is nice.  Sustaining some timely hitting over more than one or two games is nice.  Getting more than 5 innings from a couple of starters is nice.

  18. On 3/28/2018 at 11:19 AM, Biff Tannen said:

    Yep.  Elon is a strange bird.  I love my Model 3 and think that Tesla's main purpose as a disruptive force in the energy world has been a good thing.  It will be fascinating to watch how it all plays out.  I don't think they'll ever totally go under, but I also think the big guns, in the automotive world at least, will catch up in a few years and probably take over.  Glad he poked them in the ass and got them moving though.

    Actually, I think it was the consumer that he poked in the ass more than big automakers.  Electric cars have gone from a geeky tree-hugger oddity (Prius, Volt, etc.) to a status symbol.

    • Like 1
  19. 14 minutes ago, scottsins said:

     


    Bad lineups and witness coercion could be viewed as deprivation of Due Process, but I haven’t seen any case law in that regard.

     

    Yeah, I did some quick looking and there's nothing real apparent, which would probably be necessary (like wikipedia apparent) to establish "clearly protected constitutional right."  I'll be interested to see an appellate opinion on this.  Tried to find the QI opinion, but couldn't.

  20. Since the Copyright Act of 1976 and the international Bern Convention (and the Sonny Bono subsidy to Disney) extended copyright terms to life of the author plus 70 years, the copyright to many classic works will lose protection and enter the public domain on January 1, 2019.  It will be an annual event thereafter.

    https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2018/04/copywritten-so-dont-copy-me/557420/?utm_source=feed

    • Like 1
  21. You could do better, but you could also do much worse.  For a big group of Texas fans, not much better place.  Solid texmex and they have been doing it solidly for a long, long time.

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