Whenever there is a discussion of benefits for workers injured or killed on or by their job, I am reminded of the quote that a 1L section other than mine put on their section T shirts. It comes from a 1972 report on workers compensation and the argument proffered for lowballing benefits for disabling injuries, that workers won't be sufficiently motivated to not get hurt if they get paid adequately to compensate for injuries (https://law.resource.org/pub/us/case/reporter/F2/567/567.F2d.1385.75-2172.75-2038.html#fn8_ref). "For the dead, there are no motivational problems."
I continue to be disturbed that I seem to share a species with people who think that workers hurt themselves for fun and profit, but that there's no reason to believe employers cut corners for fun and profit, thereby creating conditions where workers are injured or killed.
Proud descendant of a coal mining family here: paternal grandfather died of black lung complications, maternal uncle killed in tunnel collapse. Solidarity!!
Ta, Erik. I'm glad to be a Union Maid, although we senselessly are stuck with the pharmacists. My dad, who was in a number of unions and professional societies, died in 1968. That was way to soon for OSHA, the existence of which might have saved his life for a few more years. He drew a picture during the Great Depression of unhappy, skinny children. He resurrected it as an oil painting. Its title was Appalachia 1966. I wish you well in 2024. Solidarity forever.
FUCK I love this site. Great story. Sadly I’m betting that there are still too many deaths around this industry. 2023 was the year of the union. I’m glad automakers, writers and actors got their due.
For more on the fight against the coal companies' corrupt abandonment of miners with black lung, read Chris Hamby's excellent book Soul Full of Coal Dust.
OT: Y’all ready for another update on TFG’s criminal trials? Of course you are!
The Special Counsel’s Office (SCO) response brief to TFG’s claims of “absolute Presidential immunity” (API) for criming while in office, and for double jeopardy (DJ), is due today, 12/30. This concerns the pending appeal before a 3-judge panel of the DC Court of Appeals on these defenses in TFG’s election interference case before Judge Chutkan, for which TFG filed his appellate brief on 12/23. The SCO’s response has not been filed yet, but I’ll post an update when it is.
MEANWHILE… there has still been some activity in the same appeal. Yesterday (12/29), the panel issued an order providing for oral arguments on 1/9 as follows: 20 minutes for TFG; 30 minutes for the SCO to respond; and 10 minutes for TFG to rebut. Basically, each side having the same amount of time for oral arguments.
Then later the same day, the panel issued a new order providing for TFG to have 20 minutes for opening arguments; 20 minutes for SCO to respond; and TFG to have 5 minutes for rebuttal.
Reading the tea leaves, I take it that reducing the SCO’s time for oral argument is a good thing - meaning the panel is inclined to rule against TFG even before it receives the SCO’s response brief. Why do I think that? Well, in the last federal case I tried, the judge put both sides on a “timing order,” meaning we both had an equal amount of time for opening statements, direct and cross examination of witnesses, and closing arguments. Plaintiff’s counsel (OC) had argued for 18 hours per side; I argued for 20; and the judge gave us each 19.
But, after all witness testimony, OC only had 23 minutes left for closing arguments, while I had over 90 minutes. OC pleaded with the judge to give him more time. After rubbing her fingers together and stating ON THE RECORD that she was playing the world’s tiniest violin, she ultimately gave OC 45 minutes for closing, and cut my time down to 60 minutes. Why? Because I think she knew, based on the evidence at trial, that I was going to win anyway, and she didn’t want to provide grounds for appeal. And she was right - the jury returned a full defense verdict in favor of my client on all counts within a few hours, which included their lunch break.
So, what happened between the panel’s 1st and 2nd orders re: timing for oral arguments? Well, just an awesome Amicus brief filed by a bunch of never-again-Trumpers, including Ty Cobb (former Special Counsel to TFG), George Conway, and others. The brief succinctly lays out why TFG’s defenses should fail:
1. The brief cites the full text of the Constitution’s impeachment clause, which notes that the remedy for impeachment by the House and conviction by the Senate is limited to removal from office, and a bar against holding future office; after which the party impeached may be criminally prosecuted and convicted. It does NOT say that conviction by the Senate is a prerequisite to criminal prosecution, as TFG has repeatedly argued.
2. It notes that other public officials - who are also subject to the impeachment clause - have been criminally prosecuted and convicted prior to impeachment & conviction, so GFY.
3. Also, TFG’s argument would allow a President to commit crimes that occur at the end of his term, or which are not discovered until after his term of office expires, to escape any liability. This is a critical point that I’ve been arguing forever.
4. The brief also argues - as Judge Chutkan explained in her order - that the higher procedural protections offered to a criminal defendant (including 5th Amendment rights against self-incrimination, and a higher burden of proof (beyond a reasonable doubt)) distinguishes this criminal prosecution from Nixon v Fitzgerald’s opinion that a POTUS is immune from civil liability for official acts.
Anyway, I’m feeling pretty good about these proceedings right now, and hopeful that the DC COA panel issues a quick ruling denying TFG’s defenses, and lifts the current stay in the trial court. LET A JURY DECIDE!
Thank you for your lucid and informative updates, which make clear the background machinations that the corporate media prefers not to speak of. It is abundantly obvious that The creep who calls himself "your favorite President" is trying to treat his trials the same way Adolf Hitler treated his trial after HIS putsch failed; as another platform for his tendentious and legally irrelevant bullshit, his meritless, unproven claims of villainy and political persecution, his grotesque attempts to put the courts, the whole US justice system and the man who beat him like a damn drum in a fair election on trial. It is not HE who is guilty of the attempted the overthrow of the government, oh heavens to Betsy not HIM, it is everybody else who is the asshole here. It is most welcome to learn that he is not being allowed to so mock the serious charges soberly and solemnly brought against him. Beclown himself all he wants, the court rooms are not HIS circus.
I may ultimately be wrong about the outcome. But, I’ve been pretty good on my predictions so far, based on decades of experience as a civil litigator, at least half of which was in federal courts. In my experience, federal judges do not mess around, and I think they are over TFG’s bullshit defenses and obvious delay tactics.
The link goes to a PDF which incorporates really beautiful use of the English language, except once when they used "importantly" instead of "important" and that grinds my gears. Otherwise a pleasure to read.
I saw hundreds of thousands, maybe millions of fireflies while camping on a gravelbar on a creek one time and it was utterly amazing. They weren't synced but it was still one of the greatest experiences of my life. I tried to take pictures with my camera but they weren't bright enough to register.
I miss fireflies here on the west coast. Last time I was home (NC) during the right season we do not see as many as we used to. Still the are amazing to behold.
OT Today is National Bacon Day I am told by BK and Wendy's and they have 1 cent Bacon Burgers with a dollar purchase on their Apps. I will be going and collecting on these deals soon. That is all.
where on earth did you find a decent tomato? granted, the bacon can partly make up for a pallid, almost tasteless grocery store winter tomato, but it still is nothing like a fat, juicy just-plucked-from the plant tomato.
When I worked at a Mickey D’s (franchise) back in the early 1970’s, my minimum wage hourly pay was about equal to the price of two Big Macs, or four gallons of gas at the station next door. Whenever I read or see a story on how minimum wage increases will make burgers cost $20 I look at that model. Big Macs are actually cheaper nowadays, about 2 1/2 to a minimum wage hour.
Always the same old story from the oligarchs. We can't raise wages and be competitive. We can't raise fuel efficiency, it will cost too much. We can't add safety features, too expensive and the public won't buy them.
And every time the state gets a little gumption up and forces these changes, the corporations do just fine, the sky does not fall, and our glorious capitalist masters do not so much as have to defer buying their next yacht, let alone miss a meal.
That old bungalow with the tree out front that Loretta is leaning on is the recording studio where they made that album. A friend of mine recorded an album there and I spent some time shooting the interior. It mostly just looked like a house populated by people who liked music and mementos.
Whenever there is a discussion of benefits for workers injured or killed on or by their job, I am reminded of the quote that a 1L section other than mine put on their section T shirts. It comes from a 1972 report on workers compensation and the argument proffered for lowballing benefits for disabling injuries, that workers won't be sufficiently motivated to not get hurt if they get paid adequately to compensate for injuries (https://law.resource.org/pub/us/case/reporter/F2/567/567.F2d.1385.75-2172.75-2038.html#fn8_ref). "For the dead, there are no motivational problems."
I continue to be disturbed that I seem to share a species with people who think that workers hurt themselves for fun and profit, but that there's no reason to believe employers cut corners for fun and profit, thereby creating conditions where workers are injured or killed.
Republicans are pro-coal mining companies. Period. They could give a rat’s ass about workers.
One of my favorite sad songs about mining:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8qhUtHqRbJk
Proud descendant of a coal mining family here: paternal grandfather died of black lung complications, maternal uncle killed in tunnel collapse. Solidarity!!
Ta, Erik. I'm glad to be a Union Maid, although we senselessly are stuck with the pharmacists. My dad, who was in a number of unions and professional societies, died in 1968. That was way to soon for OSHA, the existence of which might have saved his life for a few more years. He drew a picture during the Great Depression of unhappy, skinny children. He resurrected it as an oil painting. Its title was Appalachia 1966. I wish you well in 2024. Solidarity forever.
Thank you for sharing this and Loretta Lynn.
FUCK I love this site. Great story. Sadly I’m betting that there are still too many deaths around this industry. 2023 was the year of the union. I’m glad automakers, writers and actors got their due.
Don't forget the coffee shop workers.
For more on the fight against the coal companies' corrupt abandonment of miners with black lung, read Chris Hamby's excellent book Soul Full of Coal Dust.
OT: Y’all ready for another update on TFG’s criminal trials? Of course you are!
The Special Counsel’s Office (SCO) response brief to TFG’s claims of “absolute Presidential immunity” (API) for criming while in office, and for double jeopardy (DJ), is due today, 12/30. This concerns the pending appeal before a 3-judge panel of the DC Court of Appeals on these defenses in TFG’s election interference case before Judge Chutkan, for which TFG filed his appellate brief on 12/23. The SCO’s response has not been filed yet, but I’ll post an update when it is.
MEANWHILE… there has still been some activity in the same appeal. Yesterday (12/29), the panel issued an order providing for oral arguments on 1/9 as follows: 20 minutes for TFG; 30 minutes for the SCO to respond; and 10 minutes for TFG to rebut. Basically, each side having the same amount of time for oral arguments.
Then later the same day, the panel issued a new order providing for TFG to have 20 minutes for opening arguments; 20 minutes for SCO to respond; and TFG to have 5 minutes for rebuttal.
Reading the tea leaves, I take it that reducing the SCO’s time for oral argument is a good thing - meaning the panel is inclined to rule against TFG even before it receives the SCO’s response brief. Why do I think that? Well, in the last federal case I tried, the judge put both sides on a “timing order,” meaning we both had an equal amount of time for opening statements, direct and cross examination of witnesses, and closing arguments. Plaintiff’s counsel (OC) had argued for 18 hours per side; I argued for 20; and the judge gave us each 19.
But, after all witness testimony, OC only had 23 minutes left for closing arguments, while I had over 90 minutes. OC pleaded with the judge to give him more time. After rubbing her fingers together and stating ON THE RECORD that she was playing the world’s tiniest violin, she ultimately gave OC 45 minutes for closing, and cut my time down to 60 minutes. Why? Because I think she knew, based on the evidence at trial, that I was going to win anyway, and she didn’t want to provide grounds for appeal. And she was right - the jury returned a full defense verdict in favor of my client on all counts within a few hours, which included their lunch break.
So, what happened between the panel’s 1st and 2nd orders re: timing for oral arguments? Well, just an awesome Amicus brief filed by a bunch of never-again-Trumpers, including Ty Cobb (former Special Counsel to TFG), George Conway, and others. The brief succinctly lays out why TFG’s defenses should fail:
1. The brief cites the full text of the Constitution’s impeachment clause, which notes that the remedy for impeachment by the House and conviction by the Senate is limited to removal from office, and a bar against holding future office; after which the party impeached may be criminally prosecuted and convicted. It does NOT say that conviction by the Senate is a prerequisite to criminal prosecution, as TFG has repeatedly argued.
2. It notes that other public officials - who are also subject to the impeachment clause - have been criminally prosecuted and convicted prior to impeachment & conviction, so GFY.
3. Also, TFG’s argument would allow a President to commit crimes that occur at the end of his term, or which are not discovered until after his term of office expires, to escape any liability. This is a critical point that I’ve been arguing forever.
4. The brief also argues - as Judge Chutkan explained in her order - that the higher procedural protections offered to a criminal defendant (including 5th Amendment rights against self-incrimination, and a higher burden of proof (beyond a reasonable doubt)) distinguishes this criminal prosecution from Nixon v Fitzgerald’s opinion that a POTUS is immune from civil liability for official acts.
Anyway, I’m feeling pretty good about these proceedings right now, and hopeful that the DC COA panel issues a quick ruling denying TFG’s defenses, and lifts the current stay in the trial court. LET A JURY DECIDE!
https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.cadc.40415/gov.uscourts.cadc.40415.1208583833.0.pdf
Thank you for your lucid and informative updates, which make clear the background machinations that the corporate media prefers not to speak of. It is abundantly obvious that The creep who calls himself "your favorite President" is trying to treat his trials the same way Adolf Hitler treated his trial after HIS putsch failed; as another platform for his tendentious and legally irrelevant bullshit, his meritless, unproven claims of villainy and political persecution, his grotesque attempts to put the courts, the whole US justice system and the man who beat him like a damn drum in a fair election on trial. It is not HE who is guilty of the attempted the overthrow of the government, oh heavens to Betsy not HIM, it is everybody else who is the asshole here. It is most welcome to learn that he is not being allowed to so mock the serious charges soberly and solemnly brought against him. Beclown himself all he wants, the court rooms are not HIS circus.
Amen!
I may ultimately be wrong about the outcome. But, I’ve been pretty good on my predictions so far, based on decades of experience as a civil litigator, at least half of which was in federal courts. In my experience, federal judges do not mess around, and I think they are over TFG’s bullshit defenses and obvious delay tactics.
The link goes to a PDF which incorporates really beautiful use of the English language, except once when they used "importantly" instead of "important" and that grinds my gears. Otherwise a pleasure to read.
Thanks, I appreciate your explainers.
You’re welcome!
a couple of very good movies on the u.s. coal miners are 'matewan' and 'the molly maguires'.
It is what it is, a musical biopic from 1980, but Coal Miner's Daughter is still a very affecting movie.
great theme music as well
edit: oops i meant molly maguires
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/tens-of-thousands-of-synchronous-fireflies-will-soon-flash-in-unison-180982045/
I saw hundreds of thousands, maybe millions of fireflies while camping on a gravelbar on a creek one time and it was utterly amazing. They weren't synced but it was still one of the greatest experiences of my life. I tried to take pictures with my camera but they weren't bright enough to register.
Beautiful short film about the firefly experience in Iowa at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k72jGJTC_3o.
Like many, as a kid I found fireflies so magical that the recent simulations I've seen at botanical gardens bring me to happy tears.
I miss fireflies here on the west coast. Last time I was home (NC) during the right season we do not see as many as we used to. Still the are amazing to behold.
OT: There goes California, saving lives again:
CA expands health care coverage for low-income immigrants in the New Year
https://apnews.com/article/california-medicaid-expansion-undocumented-immigrants-34d8deb2186e9195b253f499e81a3d77
OT Today is National Bacon Day I am told by BK and Wendy's and they have 1 cent Bacon Burgers with a dollar purchase on their Apps. I will be going and collecting on these deals soon. That is all.
Himself just had a BLT with FOUR strips of bacon (made by MOI, of course)! Huzzahs all around.
where on earth did you find a decent tomato? granted, the bacon can partly make up for a pallid, almost tasteless grocery store winter tomato, but it still is nothing like a fat, juicy just-plucked-from the plant tomato.
I've been lucky, I guess--nice and juicy but not runny!
Huzzah!
MMmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
There’s a local place that makes a BLT with a 1/2 pound bacon patty. Believe it or not, that’s too much bacon!
"Harlan County USA" is a must watch on this topic.
An incredibly neat little article about state minimum wages.
Some have increased already, to a good level. Others are set to do so in '24.
Others, well, they still suck.
https://www.paycom.com/resources/blog/minimum-wage-rate-by-state/
When I worked at a Mickey D’s (franchise) back in the early 1970’s, my minimum wage hourly pay was about equal to the price of two Big Macs, or four gallons of gas at the station next door. Whenever I read or see a story on how minimum wage increases will make burgers cost $20 I look at that model. Big Macs are actually cheaper nowadays, about 2 1/2 to a minimum wage hour.
Also too, while they complained like hell about the wage increase, McD’s had record profits. So much for them not making enough $ to pay people.
Always the same old story from the oligarchs. We can't raise wages and be competitive. We can't raise fuel efficiency, it will cost too much. We can't add safety features, too expensive and the public won't buy them.
And every time the state gets a little gumption up and forces these changes, the corporations do just fine, the sky does not fall, and our glorious capitalist masters do not so much as have to defer buying their next yacht, let alone miss a meal.
Lemme guess who's running the states where they suck the worst...
In Kansas Laura Kelly faces (R) majorities in the House and Senate so she can't raise it here.
Well it *isn't* Che Guevara
That's right, Repubs!
Some of my favorite Loretta:
https://youtu.be/UkdwIiRxgIE
I will see you that and raise you her duet with Jack White of The White Stripes.
I give you: "Portland, Oregon."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=11tjR5ZflSw
That old bungalow with the tree out front that Loretta is leaning on is the recording studio where they made that album. A friend of mine recorded an album there and I spent some time shooting the interior. It mostly just looked like a house populated by people who liked music and mementos.
The whole album is excellent - White produced it and played on it.
Yeah.
I was today old when I figured out that Jack White's group with Meg was named the White Stripes after... the two of them's last names.
It was two years ago when I realized The Beatles was a play on beetles and on the beat of their music.
I am that silly.
well, you're learning, and brave enough to admit to it.
Brava, you!