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From Roger Fitch and Our Friends Down under at Justinian

Struggling out of the quagmire

ROGER FITCH ESQ • THURSDAY, AUGUST 12, 2021

The Roberts Supreme Court Court and its obstructions ... Gerrymanders could see the Republicans take back the House ... Members of the "sedition caucus" to testify before January 6 committee ... Big money behind the claims of election fraud ... Trouble ahead for Trump lawyers ... Roger Fitch, Our Man in Washington, reports 

An "impulsive, mentally unstable and unbalanced individual who suffers from an inferiority complex" -  psychological assessment of Donald Trump provided to Vladimir Putin in January 2015.

"Rating Outlook is Negative ... The failure of the former president to concede the election and the events surrounding the certification of the results of the presidential election in Congress in January, have no recent parallels in other very highly rated sovereigns. The redrafting of election laws in some states could weaken the political system, increasing divergence between votes cast and party representation. These developments underline an ongoing risk of … difficulty in formulating policy and passing laws in Congress…" - Fitch Ratings, July 2021.

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As expected, senate Republicans filibustered the Democrats' signature voting rights act for the usual (racist) reasons, and because of their well-founded expectation that stonewalling reforms will produce enduring one-party government at the next election.

If only the Democrats could carve out an exception for the filibuster, limited to constitutional issues, but that's difficult, due to rats in Democrat ranks. 

Filibusters aside, Biden and his party - with the vice-president's vote - have a working majority in the upper house, but they suffer from two backsliders, West Virginia's plutocrat senator Joe Manchin, and the slippery Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona. Sinema is so conservative that an Arizona Republic writer queried why she hasn't joined the Republican Party.

Senate Democrats have additional ideas for getting voting laws through the upper house, but a determined and mischievous conservative majority on the supreme court might still strike down new voting rights laws. 

Since the ascension of Chief Justice John Roberts, the decisions of the court's right-wing majority have increasingly aligned with the agenda of the Republicans who appointed them, in "total war" on congress, evident in Brnovich v DNC, the latest judicial attack on voting rights in the supreme court. 

There's a new book out on the groundwork that the Roberts Court laid for the current Republican assault on voting rights - obstructed throughout American history by the  court - and a vast suite of civil rights laws. A Progressive writer has a damning list of the worst decisions of the Roberts Court since the chief justice's appointment in 2005. 

The supreme court has been blessing gerrymanders since at least the notorious "second" decennial Texas redistricting of 2003 (heard and decided by the court in 2006). 

That was preceded by a Texas Democrat walkout, a tactic deployed again this year. It's a shame Obama didn't act in January 2009 - the last time  Democrats had a filibuster-proof congress - to pass laws preventing such shocking gerrymanders as that of Texas in 2003. 

Now Republicans are on the brink of retaking the house of representatives through gerrymanders that the supreme court effectively approved. Only four Republican-controlled southern states are needed to do it. One hopes that Biden's AG will meanwhile vigorously enforce existing laws abandoned by Trump's AG.

The only place safe for voting rights legislation now is in the state houses, where a newly-blue Virginia has gone from nearly worst, to one of the best.

READ THE REST HERE.

Update from detainee Nasser who was released to Morrocco and is now home with family

 

"I was born again on July 19. My birthday is no longer March 4. I was born yesterday on July 19." Nasser added, "I have no words to describe my overwhelming sense of happiness and joy. It is like a miracle after 20 years to be home and celebrate Eid together with my family. I want to thank everyone, all the people who worked very hard and spared no efforts to make this possible."

Abdul Latif Nasser prior to his capture (on the left), and, in the center and on the right, during his 19-year imprisonment without charge or trial at Guantánamo. Image via his lawyers at Reprieve. More on his case is available in the NPR podcast The Other Latif by Radiolab.

h/o to world can't wait for the quote and photos.

Detainee transferred to his homeland- Morrocco

 It has been years many since I have been able to report a detainee being transferred. Congrat's to fellow Chicago attorney Tom Durkin who has worked long and hard on Mr. Nasser's case. And big congrats to Mr. Nasser. I am sorry to report that his sister recently died - she worked so very hard on his release.

Read more here.

But...

 As per the ealier blog post from today the Biden administration is inching towards closure of Guantanamo with its proposed military budget. However, in a filing on friday the government missed its best opportunity to have the place closed forever. The brief failed to even address the main issue- Does the due process clause apply to the men at Guantanamo. This of course is frustrating but not surprising. Several of the attorneys who have been working on Guantanamo from the justice department have been there since the Bush days. This of course is one of my many complaints about Obama -- he left all the Bushies in place. 

Anyway, you can read more here.

inching towards closure...

 tiny steps but steps...

House panel advances $706 billion Pentagon bill: The House Appropriations Committee on Tuesday voted to advance a $706 billion Pentagon spending bill to the House floor. Combined with a separate military construction spending bill, the committee’s bill closely follows President Biden’s request for a $715 billion Defense Department budget in 2022. The bill seeks to close the Guantánamo Bay detention facility by prohibiting funds from being used to operate the prison after September 30, 2022, and would block funds from being used to support or facilitate offensive military operations conducted by the Saudi Arabia-led coalition in Yemen. The Appropriations Committee also rejected an amendment from Representative Mario Díaz-Balart (R-FL) to add language blocking transfers of detainees from Guantánamo to facilities in the United States, a provision that has been law for years but was dropped from the panel’s bill this year. The panel also approved a pair of amendments from Representative Barbara Lee (D-CA) to repeal the 2001 and 2002 authorizations for the use of military force approved following the 9/11 terrorist attacks. The Hill

h/o to Eric

Take 6 minutes aside and watch this....

                          A ship from Guantanamo.

( sorry -- I don't know how to avoid the commercial...)

FROM ROGER FITCH AND OUR FRIENDS DOWN UNDER AT JUSTINIAN

There is not enough disparaging comments that we can make in regards to the finally dead Donald Rumsfeld.... But Fitch does a good job of filling in the gap from my posts!

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Rumsfeld: The Butcher of Baghdad

As Le Monde politely reported, "Donald Rumsfeld, ancien secrétaire à la défense américain et architecte des guerres d'Irak et d'Afghanistan, est mort". 

Or, as less respectful American opinion put it, "War Criminal Found Dead at 88"; "He Played a Leading Role in Mass Murder"; "Rumsfeld represented the very worst of American arrogance and violence toward the rest of the world"; "a tragedy that Rumsfeld died before he could be put on trial for crimes against humanity"; and "worst secretary of defence in American history". 

The Machiavellian Rumsfeld escaped the hangman's noose; under Nuremberg principles, he'd have gone to prison if not the gallows. Instead, the disgraced former secretary of defence outlasted the Abu Ghraib scandal, the ACLU's Ali v Rumsfeld, multiple European criminal proceedings, and dozens of cases involving Pentagon actions in Afghanistan, Iraq and Guantánamo.

He escaped thanks to the protection and stonewalling of successive US governments, including the repeated bad-faith invocation of the "state secrets" privilege. 

It's a sad chapter in American legal history.

READ THE REST OF FITCH HERE.

july 4 2021 musical interlude 4

 And that is it for today...

july 4 2021 musical interlude 3

 

july 4 2021 musical interlude 2

 

July 4 2021 -- musical interlude 1

 

War Criminal - the musical version

 

One war criminal dead.... too many still alive. (updated with yet another link.)

 Rumsfeld is finally dead. He is responsible for the deaths of so many innocent people and he never showed a tinch of remorse. 

I won't waste further words on that monster but I will share some:

start with this one.

and then go here.

and if pictures are more your thing try this.

Oh and this is really on point too.

NYT updates the Gitmo database.

 This database has been a go-to for everyone looking for information about Guantanamo and the men/boys that have been held there -- or in the case of my client and 39 other men -- are still being held there.

They have now updated that database. (Click here) I have not reviewed what they have to say about either of my clients - the one who was released (Mr. Al-Ghizzawi) or the one that remains (Razak Ali) (I will do that in the coming days). 

h/o to Don for sending the link.