A few thoughts on the Prarieland sentences — and on Klippenstein's framing

This is a tweaked, mildly tweaked, version of what I posted at Substack on Monday.

Per the header, the second half of the header is my concern as much as anything.

This is an expanded version of a long, multi-link restack note I had to Ken Klippenstein’s piece on the sentencing.

Maybe Ken didn’t mean to come off as whitewashing one of the two judges presiding over the case with this:

Even the presiding judge, Trump appointee Mark Pittman, seemed to grasp the danger of treating belief as evidence. He asked Shideler whether owning a copy of Mein Kampf made him a fascist, or Das Kapital a communist. “Not unless it’s consistent with your other behavior,” Shideler answered each time. When the judge noted he himself owned “quite a bit” of Antifa literature, the room got the point.

But, without further context, it sure feels that way.

Speaking here from Tex-ass, yes, this is a fucked-up verdict. That said, the “Prairieland Eight” maybe didn’t have the best of legal representation? I don’t know.

That said, Ken omits two important details.

First, per an Associated Press story, Pittman was not the only judge presiding over the case. That’s a serious omission, as AP details what the other judge said:

U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor, one of two judges overseeing the proceedings, said what happened wasn’t a protest but “an assault on democracy.” All but one of the eight defendants sentenced Tuesday were convicted on terrorism charges.

Also, also, Judge Pittman wasn’t as non-biased as Ken makes it look. See here.

After spending over seven months in multiple jails across North Texas, the Prairieland Defendants finally had their federal trial start on Tuesday, February 17. But then, as soon as the first defense attorney started asking questions to the prospective jurors, presiding Judge Mark Pittman declared a mistrial. Why? Because attorney MarQuetta Clayton, the only Black woman among the defense lawyers and counsel for defendant Maricela Rueda, was wearing a t-shirt featuring civil rights leaders of the past. Judge Pitman also took issue with Ms. Clayton’s voir dire questions, which reasonably probed jurors’ feelings about protest.

As experienced defense attorneys, we can attest that Ms. Clayton did nothing wrong. Despite both the prosecution and the defense opposing more delays, Judge Pittman nevertheless declared a mistrial and dismissed the entire jury pool. Significantly, immediately before the judge’s decision, prospective jurors had overwhelmingly expressed criticism of ICE, and several took the position that the Second Amendment extends to protests – opinions with which the judge appeared to take issue.

That’s just the beginning of a whole shitload of shit from Pittman. Sorry, Ken, but I got that link after 30 seconds of search.

LOTS more about Pittman at the same link:

• Judge Pittman refused to allow local counsel, George Lobb, to represent defendant Maricela Rueda, threatening to hold him in contempt for 90 days if he did not withdraw from his role as her attorney. This led Rueda to hire Ms. Clayton as her attorney.

• Judge Pittman attempted to place limits on defense objections, allowing only one defendant’s lawyer to object during the prosecution’s case. After a motion from attorney Leigh W. Davis, counsel for defendant Ines Soto, the judge is now limiting duplicative objections which, practically, will still limit defendant-specific arguments.

• In a pretrial hearing, Judge Pittman fined attorneys Patrick McLain, Brian Bouffard and Bradley Sauer, counsel for defendant Zachary Evetts, $500 each for filing a discovery motion, effectively discouraging other defense attorneys from filing motions in the case. It is not only the right of counsel to file pre-trial motions; attorneys are obligated by the Rules of Professional Conduct to competently and diligently represent their clients. This ruling by Judge Pittman arguably violates defendants’ Sixth Amendment rights and puts counsel in an untenable position with respect to their independent professional ethical duties.

• Defense attorneys have been allotted only eight minutes each for their opening statements, and 35 hours total across nine defendants to put up witnesses. Judge Pittman has justified these time limit restrictions in a case where several defendants are facing life in prison by citing “other pressing matters on the court’s docket.”

• Since the mistrial, Judge Pittman has moved the trial to a smaller room in the Federal Courthouse in Fort Worth, and assigned an overflow room for the public to observe in Dallas, more than 30 minutes drive away.

• Most recently, Judge Pittman ordered that only the Court will be allowed to ask questions to the jury during voir dire.

Ken notes Pittman is a Trump appointee. Reed O’Connor? Shrub Bush, in one of his worst picks, and known as a wingnut-desired judge in venue shopping.

That said, an even bigger background problem is that the federal court system ONLY has judicial sentencing. Unlike most state courts, a jury has no part in sentencing. Many “John Doe” readers may not know that.

"There ought to be a law," indeed, changing that. 

 That said, to expand more beyond my quick hit?

I totally don't like the attempt to criminalize protesting. Totally.

And, I'm not using the word "but" to invite the cheap psychology hot take.

"That said" ....

I've been on record in this space since Trump 1.0 that "antifa" often sounds pretentious, often just by the word itself.

I've also been on record in this space that "antifa" often seems to be an excuse for Black Bloc type "wilding." I called them out for the first time just seven months into Trump's first term. Before COVID. Before the worse Trump 2.0. I said they were the Black Bloc rebranded and I refused to use the cutesy word. I said no again to violence vis-a-vis Andy Ngo in summer 2019. About 15 months later, I called out their ignorance of local neighborhoods, especially when being nearly all-white marchers. I called out the anarchist angle of many of them (probably actually pseudo-anarchist) in 2023. Last year, per the point of contention that started this piece, I mildly called out Ken over his take on on the cancellation of a No Kings protest in Minnesota after the Vance Boelter shootings. And, I called out Ken a bit more last fall for his framing of this "movement" as unorganized. 

Related? Some of the arrestees were in the left-wing gunz world. As I said nearly six years ago about Garrett Foster being killed? I'll take a pass on that, too. 

I won't let you have your cake and eat it too. You're either a movement, which implies at least attempts at organization, or you're 100 percent cosplaying. 

Let's go further. 

First, if you're going to be serious protestors, not play-actors, or to use the modern term, cosplayers, know who you're playing with.

And I said playing "with" not "against."

If you don't know that someone will not only pack heat to a protest site but use it, like top defendant Benjamin Hanil Song did, you'd better make yourself better informed before the moment of truth. Even with over-the-top sentencing set aside, you're still going to be tried as an accessory to any actual gun-related crimes. And, per KERA, Song was one of the core/original six. 

As for the other defendants' claims in the case? Vandalizing property is itself NOT a "noise protest," per the Wikipedia page. I don't like it when Earth First does it, even just to logging equipment and definitely don't like it when it spikes trees. And, on the fireworks? Shooting them in the air? One thing. At the facility and at a guard tower, another. 

Also from there? If you don't know that people in your group are likely to easily cop a plea, you'd better find that out in advance, too. 

The link about O'Connor was from the National Lawyers Guild. Per Wiki, it objected to the arrests.

Wrong. I'll agree if you object to some of the specific charges, but not the arrests per se. 

I'm not a "law and order" leftist. I am a skeptical leftist who has a brain. And a lot of people here did not. 

And, with a long history here on Blogger, that's why it will remain my primary commentary platform for now. 

Kendall Scudder elected to head Texas Dems

The formerly appointed party jefe got elected to a full term at the Texas Dems state convention, as noted by the Trib. In the face of opposition, unsurprising since I wrote in April about a letter from select staffers wanting him gone, but, "eventually." That, in turn, followed him cheesing off many staffers last fall with the decision to move state HQ out of Austin.

Details:

The party’s delegates overwhelmingly chose Scudder to continue on as chair over former TDP staffers Monique Alcala and Marco Orrantia, ending a bitter race centered on how the party should be organized and whether it was building enough infrastructure to capitalize on this cycle’s political tailwinds and lay the groundwork for long-term Democratic gains.

Sad part from the Trib story is that, while it talks about Scudder getting a landslide from the rank and file, actual vote numbers aren't reported. Of course, that's because the TDP ain't reporting them yet.

It should be noted that on the ballot to an interim term a year ago March, he took just 65 of 121 votes. OTOH, that was in the first round of a seven-person race.

Barak Ravid is MOU-whispering

Is the MOU indeed in danger? At the middle of last week, it and initial technical discussions looked to be going swimmingly. Now, after the weekend, not at all. So, perhaps, per my thoughts 10 days ago that the MOU was looking MIA, I was more right than wrong.

First, on the Iranian side, who's doing the attacks? The government? The Revolutionary Guards, who claim responsibility? A subset of them?

Second, per the MOU, and per the status before the Iran war started, while Gulf Arab states may want a closer relationship with Tehran, including loosening ties with Washington, an Iran-only, not Iran-Oman, Hormuz, will never be accepted.

The global community has long considered the strait an international passageway, despite its location in Iran and Oman’s territorial waters. In recent days, Iran has twice attacked vessels going through a route on the Omani side in an evacuation effort backed by a United Nations agency. 

Iran insists that it alone must govern the strait, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf that once carried a fifth of the world’s oil and natural gas. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi reiterated the claim on Sunday.

Period. (Also, per my analysis, Point 2 of the MOU supports the status antebellum.) Now, per two paragraphs above? Is Araghchi officially representing President Masoud Pezeshkian? Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei? The Revolutionary Guards?

Now, Barak Ravid. Beyond him being a Trump whisperer and a Satanyahu whisperer, this new piece about an Israel-Lebanon deal only extends the trend. How do sources outside the current government of Lebanon feel? Not told. Is Iran actually worried? Not told. Gulf Arab states? Not told. (That's beyond his Captain Obvious piece about MOU troubles, where the paywall came too soon for me to see his "angle.")

THAT said, a non-walled version of the piece indicated Ravik may be overselling it, and not commenting on one key angle: an Israel pullback, even if but a small one. On the other hand? The Dissident notes that Israeli pullback is contingent on Lebanon disarming Hezbollah. Ain't happening. 

THAT that said, going back to Hormuz? Mearsheimer notes that Iran still holds all the trumps in the deck. (I see what I did.) 

A couple of Texas political items of note

First, via Independent Political Report, with link there to original story by Ballot Access News, former Democratic lite gov candidate Michael Collier, trying to get on the ballot this year for the same spot as an independent, is suing the state over the petition signature gathering window, and is now backed by the Forward Party.

Kuff, of course, hates this. He hates it to the point that in his last graf, he pulls out the old left hand of the duopoly line, state-level version, to essentially say that a vote for Collier is "really" a vote for Patrick. I told him he had better not ever say that to my online face.

Also, the Trib piece he links to writes Green Kevin McCormick and Libertarian Anthony Castro out of the election. Shock me. (And, it's useless to get. the Trib, or the Monthly, to ever admit wrongness.)

Second, also via IPR, the Texas Libertarian Party is rejecting AIPAC-funded candidates. Yes, it's highly unlikely that's happening anyway, but still nice to see that for the record. 

Birding lifers on spring vacation

I had an incredible vacation this spring, as attested by my posts about my time at Death Valley and Sequoia.

While the three national wildlife refuges I hit weren't scenic, between them and parkland in Las Vegas, I saw nine lifer and three semi-lifer birds. (By semi-lifer, I mean I had seen it before, but had either no photo or else a crappy one.) As I said on Reddit's r/birding, I'm not counting the magpie duck I saw, because they're a domestic AND they're non-native.

Let's go in order.

The first was at Red Rock Canyon, a Woodhouse's scrub jay:

Full album is here.

Next, Clark County Wetlands Park plus a city park on the north side.

We first have a common gallinule:

Then a ruddy duck:

I saw more ruddy ducks, many, at Kern National Wildlife Refuge, but this was the closest I got to one as well as being the first I saw.

Full album here.

Desert National Wildlife Refuge, just a little bit further north?

I heard the Lucy's warblers, which I knew nothing about before getting there. They're basically the one US warbler that lives entirely in desert and semidesert. They're hard to shoot, even for warblers, in mesquite shrub.

I also saw what I puzzled out to be a Nashville warbler:

I kept both of these smaller as they're lower-grade photos.

Full album, including some cool spiny lizard photos, here.

Next, at Death Valley, my first semi-lifer, an American pipit.

Showing the suckitude of Google's own AI-bot search through Google Photos, "pipit" returned nothing; I had to go into the individual album for Salt Creek.

I had seen one before at Bombay Beach, which I didn't realize at the time, but with a crappy photo. I saw one at Pixley NWR after Sequoia.

After that, in an area where I was just putzing around, some national forest land near Lake Isabella, I spotted a new member of the wren group, a northern house wren.

Full album is here. Again, a low-resolution photo that I'm keeping smaller.

Next, in what Google Images first tried to tell me was a golden eagle, a Swainson's hawk from Pixley NWR.

They don't normally come as far east in Texas as where I am. And Google Photos is teh suck again, not returning photos for "Swainson."

Next? The second semi-lifer, a Bullock's oriole.  I had seen one before in Salida, Colorado, but no photos. They do semi-regularly come this far east in Texas, but I've never seen one locally.

Full Pixley album here.

Next, an eared grebe at the other wildlife refuge, Kern.

Google was again teh suck on searching my albums, so I had to search by file name on my computer to remember where I had seen it. Again, this is a kind of ragged photo so keeping it smaller.

Also at Kern, but much better? Greater white-fronted goose:

I was pretty sure this was a new bird when I saw it, and knew it was not a grebe and pretty sure not a duck, even at distance, though it was mixed in with shovelers and other ducks. Full album, with many other birds, is here.

Screwy about screwworms

The Texas Observer semi-laughingly hopes for a quick end to screwworm, without mentioning climate change, and also without interviewing a representative of the Texas Farmers Union, like you know, Democrats' candidate for Ag Commish. Bernard Rapoport is turning over in his grave again. 

Laugh my ass off that auctioneers and ranchers are talking about the New World screwworm ultimately being good for cattle cuz "survival of the fittest."  

Most ranchers and auctioneers claiming this ignore that climate change allows the fittest screwworms to overwinter ever further north, which is why I said "semi-laughingly" about the Observer. What if it crosses the Red and stays across the border in a mild, wet El Niño winter? Oooopppsssss.

And, the typical rancher probably rejects the broader theory of evolution by natural selection. Many ranchers, and even more, farmers, admit something about climate change while still being in a degree of denial about how bad it's going to get. 

(That said, TFU's parent, the National Farmers' Union, is bad on climate with its support of E15 fuel.)