#[ Incident Report - Dash Commentary ]

[timelostobserver]

"Lucifer and Paimon fighting? .. Eh.. what else is new.." He sighs.. Hell never seems to go quiet for long.

[ingek73]

We didn’t ask for Lady Hussey to resign. But, really, the monarchy must do better on race

Mandu Reid

I witnessed the racist remarks, but blaming one person alone distracts from the depth and breadth of racism in that institution

Published: 19:31 Thursday, 01 December 2022

I generally avoid news about the royals. So it was a real eye-opener to find myself at the centre of a royal story. At a reception on Tuesday to honour those working to end violence against women and girls, I witnessed racist remarks from a member of the royal household directed at my friend and fellow activist, Ngozi Fulani. Lady Hussey’s prolonged interrogation about where Ngozi was really from, what her nationality was and where her people were from, was not – as many people have insisted to me over the past 24 hours – the kind of well-meaning curiosity that all of us experience from time to time (though it’s possible that Hussey believed that it was).

“Hackney” was Ngozi’s answer, but Hussey refused to accept this. Her response implied that Black and brown people couldn’t really be British. It implied that we were trespassing – and it made me reflect on the increasingly hostile environment of this disunited kingdom.

Even so, the media furore feels disproportionate, given the avalanche of huge stories you might expect to be dominating the news cycle. It’s not that this one isn’t serious. Racism always is, which is why I’ve spoken out. But something about this media frenzy feels … off. Even as I write this, interview requests are coming in faster than I can say no to (in one case my refusal was countered with the offer of a huge fee). If you have seen the emergency appeal that the Women’s Equality party launched this week, you will understand how hard that particular refusal was, though it confirmed why my decision had been right in the first place.

The initial calls I received were from journalists not looking for my account, but my corroboration. It took some time to realise that it was the very fact that the incident had been “witnessed” that made it significant, and forced the palace to respond swiftly (and in my view, unsatisfactorily). Unlike when the Duchess of Sussex made her accounts of royal racism, such as the “concerns” that were expressed over how dark her son’s skin might be, the palace wasn’t able to deny or deflect this time. It couldn’t rerun the famous line that “recollections may vary”, because three of us have identical, and identically uncomfortable, recollections of that encounter.

Soon after the first media reports were published, the palace announced that Hussey had resigned. This is a gambit that I have become increasingly familiar with since the Women’s Equality party started campaigning against police misogyny. What I’ve learned is that the “bad apple” narrative is potent not only because it masquerades as taking responsibility without the institution having to do any such thing, but also because it often helps drive a backlash against the “woke brigade” for cancelling yet another innocent. I see that “She’s 83” is now trending on Twitter, imploring us to leave this nice old lady alone, a stance that adds a dash of ageism to the racism that has pervaded much of the commentary.

The funny thing is, neither Ngozi nor I wanted Hussey to receive the grand order of the boot. Ngozi didn’t even name her publicly; it was social media that did this, immediately seizing on the story as another chance to form into polarised rival camps. Instead of stepping down, Hussey should be encouraged to step up, along with senior members of the royal household. This is much bigger than one individual: blaming Hussey risks minimising and distracting from the depth and breadth of racism that is enshrined in an institution that carries the heritage of empire, slavery and inequality (we are their subjects, after all).

Buckingham Palace trumpets its commitment to diversity and inclusion on its website. In a statement on Wednesday, it promised to remind staff of its policies. That’s a big ask when its own annual reports show a lack of diversity among the upper echelons of its staff. The palace’s history is dotted with failures of inclusion. Still, it’s not the worst of the royal courts. Anecdotal evidence suggests that honour falls to Kensington Palace, which didn’t even release this data in its last annual report.

Perhaps a starting point for an institution where staff think it’s OK to touch a Black woman’s hair or question her belonging would be signing up to cultural competence training. I know just the organisation to provide that. Sistah Space, the charity Ngozi runs to support African and Caribbean heritage women affected by domestic and sexual abuse, offers such courses to institutions that don’t know where to begin.

Wouldn’t it be something if Buckingham Palace asked for their help? It would certainly chime with the Queen Consort’s speech at the reception, in which she said that the starting point for responding to survivors of abuse was listening to them and believing them. Perhaps, one day, that principle could extend to Meghan too.

Mandu Reid is leader of the Women’s Equality party

[heartofstanding]

I'm writing a companion/alternate POV fic of but it is my knife and my heart too, this is the fic where at the height of the quarrel between Henry IV and the future Henry V (Hal), Hal turned up at court and gave his father a knife to kill him, so I thought it might be fun to do a commentary on that fic.

This is one of those fics that are frustrating to re-read because I see all the flaws and all the things I don't like, when before I thought it was a pretty solid fic. It seems all a bit too slapdash to me now. The voice doesn't seem quite right, various elements seem undeveloped. The first three scenes feel underworked. I read them now and feel like I dashed them off because I was setting things up to get to the scenes where Henry and Hal meet. They could be so much better - now that I'm writing Hal's POV of the same scene, I've got a lot meat there that sells the tense, claustrophobic atmosphere before Hal meets Henry (or at least that's what I think it's doing!) and I feel like that the scenes in but it is my knife and my heart too don't have a similar atmosphere to sell us Henry's fear and paranoia. It's there but it's more just telling than showing, it's not embedded into the narrative voice and atmosphere.

Let's start with the notes.

I'm pretty sure I edited the notes to reflect how my understanding of the dagger incident has changed since I wrote it The source of the story is The First English Life of Henry V, which itself cites the "report" of the Earl of Ormond. When I posted this, I didn't know that the Earl of Ormond in question was Henry V's contemporary rather than his 16th century descendent but I do now. Another fun fact I've since learned is Ormond (Henry V's contemporary) was in the retinue for Thomas, Duke of Clarence so it seems likely that not only was he well-placed to be a reliable source but also that Thomas knew about it.

Was Thomas present for the meeting? The account says:

Then the Kinge caused himselfe to be borne in his chaire, (because he was diseased and might not goe) into his secrett chamber ; where in the presence of three or foure persons in whome the Kinge had his most confidence he commaunded the Prince to shewe the effect of his minde.

So possibly? I didn't put Thomas in the scene because Henry doesn't want him there. He knows Thomas will likely be a disruptive, emotional presence in any meeting he has with Hal, that Thomas is not yet a stage where he'll be accepting of how Henry treats with Hal, particularly if Henry opts to punish Hal. He also is paranoid enough that he doubts whether, if push came to shove, whether Thomas would pick him over Hal.

(Maybe once I've finished writing Hal's POV, I'll have to write Thomas's because oh boy he's not a happy camper. He's probably just Team Please Can't We Just Hug It Out.)

Knowing that Thomas possibly was there now, I still wouldn't put him there because the way I write him means it would end with him tackling Hal to the ground, yeeting the dagger in the Thames and then hugging Hal into submission.

Onto the fic proper.

The first scene is really just exposition to set up the conflict between them and Henry's emotional state, his fear and paranoia, the sense of decay - he had once been a great man but now he's weak and sick, maybe dying. Upon reflection, I don't know if Henry is as accepting of his slow descent into inevitable death as I wrote him here - historically, he seems to have had a tendency to declare he was going to campaign here or go on pilgrimage there only to call the whole thing off at the last minute because he's not well enough. IIRC, he was talking about leading the French campaign that Thomas is going to lead but his health wouldn't allow for it.

Oh look, it's one of my favourite passages:

He has found that when Harry is not with him, Harry becomes a construct other men’s desires and sins and not himself. His flesh is pliable, weak – Henry had the impression that whoever set their hands on Harry’s shoulders would feel their fingers sink deep into clay-like flesh and then would mould Harry into whatever they wanted him to be.

Hal, as Henry V, was sort of this perfect king and it's interesting to speculate how he did that. It's a strength, really - that Hal can appear or be whoever and whatever he needs to be - but Henry sees it as a threat to himself and to Harry. Harry should be the construct of his desires, not his own person or someone else's creature.

(sidenote: I really want to explore this quality of Hal more, especially from his perspective and maybe in relation to sex too.)

Enter Thomas.

This scene could be stronger but I like the bare bones behind it. Thomas wants to confront the problem; Henry doesn't. Henry wants to live through Thomas.

There's something terribly gothic and Cronus-like about the way that Henry sees and uses his eldest sons. Thomas is the one Henry wishes he was like, the one who carries off the chivalric bravado with the ease that Henry never really had (Thomas doesn't really care, I think, and in not caring carries it off). Henry uses him to do the things he could never be brave enough to do and the things he can no longer do. In a way, Thomas represents Henry's desired object, the person he wishes he could be and so seeks to act through. Hal, on the other hand, is the repository for all Henry's shame and fear - they're a lot alike in ways that only alienate them from each other but Henry also projects things onto Hal that aren't there, cf. the comment about Hal hating him as a baby. Hal, in a lot of ways, is someone who Henry views as a figure of abjection to exorcise his own flaws. Cast Hal out and Henry will be perfected by his absence. I think, too, that there's a neat parallel in that Henry sees Hal acting in a way that Henry himself acted in 1399 - a usurper of kings - but really, at this moment, Hal is more like Richard in 1399 - a victim of Henry. Which was a sort of accidental inversion of the theme in Shakespeare's Henry IV where Henry sees Hal as Richard but really Hal is more like Henry. Henry can never see his son as having a self of his own but always as a projection of someone else (himself, Richard, Mary).

This scene is also the first scene that references Mary. I didn't know it at the time but Hal actually met Henry either on the day of her anniversary or the day after (Mary died 1 July, Hal probably met Henry on 1 or 2 July). I can't kick my past self's butt for not including that, since I didn't know (and no historian knew then either! and most still don't! 🤫), but I should kick my past self's butt for not making more of the fact that Mary had died around this time.

Enter Joanna of Navarre.

When I wrote this scene, I wanted a sense of "aw, they both have atrocious taste in clothing, #couplegoals" since I have a running gag that Henry has no fashion sense, cf. his gigantic hat and toad gown. But I wonder now if that comes across as a bit mean to Joanna now though I do handwave it with a "well, he wouldn't know what good fashion sense looked like so his opinion on her fashion sense means nothing".

Joanna here is behaving as a queen "ought" to - acting as an intermediary between Henry and Hal, gently checking Henry's unfounded assertions to urge a reconciliation, and when Henry still seems reluctant, offering to deal with Hal herself. I think I'd emphasise this more in a rewrite (and am in Hal's POV). Even though it's Mary's memory that ultimately convinces Henry to see Hal (and I think if I were writing it again, I'd have Joanna invoke her deliberately since in the rewrite Hal invokes Mary when he talks to Joanna), this comes after the intercession/advocation of both Joanna and Thomas.

Finally, enter Hal.

I've talked about the gown Hal wears a bit over here already; I don't think I have much more to add to that beyond saying that I put Hal in the red undergown to emphasise the sense of wounded-ness.

The impression Henry has of his son is one of youthful vigour and maturity - the Hal he is most familiar with was Hal before he was Hal, really; his son before he went into exile and lost that skittish shyness (and the reality is that Hal wasn't so shy so much as intimidated by Henry). Now Hal is confident, young and fit - everything Henry wishes he was.

Henry's reaction to that youthful vigour is to try and claw back the appearance of himself as a strong, fit man and to demonstrate his power as king. And because he's Henry, he tells himself that asserting his power and control over his son is not the same as Richard asserting his power and control over his subjects. One thing I wish I had done more of is having Richard haunting Henry - I wanted something a bit like the vibe in this constant forsaking, where Henry's subconscious is always Richard but when I was writing it, I never seemed to find the space to add Richard's voice in. However, I kinda dig the fact that in this fic, Henry has made himself so lonely and cut-off that his ghosts no longer haunt him, he has to conjure them and he can't really do that. He's so damned that he's been abandoned even by those who really ought to be haunting him.

Arundel is a creep. I do think that a lot of the downright nastiness in this period is down to Arundel. I suspect he was a bigger driver in the tension between father and son.

So the fun part of this is not knowing whether Hal intended to pull the dagger incident in front of everyone in the hall (which includes two of his brothers) or has just worked himself up enough that he starts on the speech as soon as he gets to speak to Henry. Though it doesn't matter because Henry cuts Hal off in another display of control and fear(!) and moves them to somewhere much more private.

One of the hard things for me is knowing whether the dagger incident was "real" in the sense that Hal thought Henry could do it or whether it was "fake" in the sense of, well, giving your father a knife and telling him to murder you is probably going to not result in your father murdering you. Henry already considers Hal's death a possible outcome of the crisis they're in but if Hal is to die, he wants distance and plausible deniability - an execution or an assassin, not a murder committed with his own hands and without any kind of trial to add legitimacy to his actions. Hal coming to him and saying, "if you don't trust me, kill me, here's a dagger, go on, do it, I forgive you my murder" makes it all the more impossible to act. If he accepts Hal's offer, there's no plausible deniability or legitimacy to his actions. He's killed his own son - who has just submitted to him, If he doesn't accept Hal's offer, it makes it harder for Henry to kill Hal through execution or assassin, because Hal has just literally laid in his life in Henry's hands in a show of loyalty and submission to his king and father and Henry has accepted his son's loyalty and submission, and refused to take his life. So, yeah, cards on table, I think it's very likely that Hal knew the dagger incident was very unlikely to result in his actual death.

But I want that sweet, sweet angst.

Hal does think it's a distinct possibility that Henry will kill him (and we'll find out what he thinks about that in the fic I'm writing). Rationally, he probably knows Henry won't but emotionally? That boy is a mess and he has a shitastic relationship with his father so he still feels that Henry might very well kill him.

The actual dialogue of the dagger incident scene was pretty tricky because there was actually dialogue, quite a lot of it, in the source. I used A. R. Meyer's modernised but condensed text (which I've posted here) and then dipped into the full Early Modern English text as published in The First Life of Henry the Fifth. I didn't feel confident with my ability to read early modern English to deal with the full text in of itself though nowadays I would give it a go.

(The thing about writing a POV shift some years on is the debates on whether to stick with the version of the story you wrote or adapting it to fit new knowledge and understandings.)

Even in Meyer's modernised English, the dialogue didn't really work. It was jarring, too stiff and formal, too wordy. It was so obviously not my dialogue. So I had to adapt it and, in doing so, gained some sympathy for the people who write those godawful No Fear Shakespeare modernisations. The first pass was godawful. Clunky, stiff, unnatural. Overly literal, just snipping out a few words here and there. So I did it again and ended up much happier. Reading it now... yeah, I think I'm going to take a fresh stab at it in this POV-switch.

I had fun writing the stuff around the dialogue - if it was a play, I'd guess you'd call it the stage directions but it's not a play. It'd be fun to play with splitting it up in different ways.

Hal wrapping his hand around Henry's to push Henry into action and place the dagger where it needs to be to kill him is actually stolen from a pretty horrible novel about Henry V I read because that idea was cool.

‘I would forgive you my murder,’ Harry says and closes his terrible eyes. ‘I would, I do.’

Fun fact about me: I love echoing Hal's "I do, I will" in Henry IV, Part 1, Act 2, Scene IV in my dialogue, though obviously the tense shift is reversed here because Hal's shifting from saying "if you did it, I would forgive you" to saying "you're doing it, I forgive you".

Henry refuses and Hal basically shuts down. Which we will see more of in Hal's POV, I promise.

I've had a comment about how Henry sends Hal away to be looked after by other people and how he should've been the one looking after Hal. I actually think this is the one actual decent moment of parenting Henry does in the fic. Yes, his son's in a bad way but Henry knows that he can't fix it. He knows their relationship is so wrecked that he is the wrong person to look after Hal. Hal doesn't trust him, Henry doesn't really know his son to know what he needs as much as he loves him. So the best thing to do is to send Hal to the people who Hal trusts to look after him (and by "people", I usually mean "Richard Courtenay" because I'm nothing if not cliche).

Of course Henry undercuts his Actually Decent Parenting by going, "oh, the things you're worried about? They'll be dealt with in due course." So Hal really wins nothing but his own skin for the time being - Henry's still holding the charges over him. And Henry is right, to a degree, that the charges need to be examined and justice be seen to be done. But it's not really a reconciliation if you're holding charges over your son's head, Henry. And that was a choice dictated by historical record, not me seeking the sweet, sweet angst. Great job, Henry.

I said in the ao3 tags that "Everything is terrible but it's all uphill from here (isn't it?)" and I did mean it at the time. I had the visual that Henry was really going to try to be a better father. He'd go and talk to Hal's buddies, try to make an effort but... then I wrote "when this kingdom comes" and yeah, things haven't improved at all from Hal's side of things.

Maybe Arundel gets at Henry before he can put into place Operation Become A Good Father, maybe Henry's just too sick and dying to really have the time and energy to spare, maybe there's just too much mistrust on both sides, maybe Henry's damaged their relationship too much for Hal to come back to him...

Henry does love Hal, though.

[mariacallous]

I generally avoid news about the royals. So it was a real eye-opener to find myself at the centre of a royal story. At a reception on Tuesday to honour those working to end violence against women and girls, I witnessed racist remarks from a member of the royal household directed at my friend and fellow activist, Ngozi Fulani. Lady Hussey’s prolonged interrogation about where Ngozi was really from, what her nationality was and where her people were from, was not – as many people have insisted to me over the past 24 hours – the kind of well-meaning curiosity that all of us experience from time to time (though it’s possible that Hussey believed that it was).

“Hackney” was Ngozi’s answer, but Hussey refused to accept this. Her response implied that Black and brown people couldn’t really be British. It implied that we were trespassing – and it made me reflect on the increasingly hostile environment of this disunited kingdom.

Even so, the media furore feels disproportionate, given the avalanche of huge stories you might expect to be dominating the news cycle. It’s not that this one isn’t serious. Racism always is, which is why I’ve spoken out. But something about this media frenzy feels … off. Even as I write this, interview requests are coming in faster than I can say no to (in one case my refusal was countered with the offer of a huge fee). If you have seen the emergency appeal that the Women’s Equality party launched this week, you will understand how hard that particular refusal was, though it confirmed why my decision had been right in the first place.

The initial calls I received were from journalists not looking for my account, but my corroboration. It took some time to realise that it was the very fact that the incident had been “witnessed” that made it significant, and forced the palace to respond swiftly (and in my view, unsatisfactorily). Unlike when the Duchess of Sussex made her accounts of royal racism, such as the “concerns” that were expressed over how dark her son’s skin might be, the palace wasn’t able to deny or deflect this time. It couldn’t rerun the famous line that “recollections may vary”, because three of us have identical, and identically uncomfortable, recollections of that encounter.

Soon after the first media reports were published, the palace announced that Hussey had resigned. This is a gambit that I have become increasingly familiar with since the Women’s Equality party started campaigning against police misogyny. What I’ve learned is that the “bad apple” narrative is potent not only because it masquerades as taking responsibility without the institution having to do any such thing, but also because it often helps drive a backlash against the “woke brigade” for cancelling yet another innocent. I see that “She’s 83” is now trending on Twitter, imploring us to leave this nice old lady alone, a stance that adds a dash of ageism to the racism that has pervaded much of the commentary.

The funny thing is, neither Ngozi nor I wanted Hussey to receive the grand order of the boot. Ngozi didn’t even name her publicly; it was social media that did this, immediately seizing on the story as another chance to form into polarised rival camps. Instead of stepping down, Hussey should be encouraged to step up, along with senior members of the royal household. This is much bigger than one individual: blaming Hussey risks minimising and distracting from the depth and breadth of racism that is enshrined in an institution that carries the heritage of empire, slavery and inequality (we are their subjects, after all).

Buckingham Palace trumpets its commitment to diversity and inclusion on its website. In a statement on Wednesday, it promised to remind staff of its policies. That’s a big ask when its own annual reports show a lack of diversity among the upper echelons of its staff. The palace’s history is dotted with failures of inclusion. Still, it’s not the worst of the royal courts. Anecdotal evidence suggests that honour falls to Kensington Palace, which didn’t even release this data in its last annual report.

Perhaps a starting point for an institution where staff think it’s OK to touch a Black woman’s hair or question her belonging would be signing up to cultural competence training. I know just the organisation to provide that. Sistah Space, the charity Ngozi runs to support African and Caribbean heritage women affected by domestic and sexual abuse, offers such courses to institutions that don’t know where to begin.

Wouldn’t it be something if Buckingham Palace asked for their help? It would certainly chime with the Queen Consort’s speech at the reception, in which she said that the starting point for responding to survivors of abuse was listening to them and believing them. Perhaps, one day, that principle could extend to Meghan too.

[toomanysweaters-moved]

... slowly puts her phone down after trudging through spam posts only to find out Susie apparently got into a fist fight with the officer Undyne... Didn’t sound like she won, either.

[cinema-tv-etc]

‘The Crown’ Stokes an Uproar Over Fact vs. Entertainment

Dramatic liberties in the latest season of the Netflix series, covering the turbulent 1980s, are annoying Britons who wrote of that period, even among those who disparage the royals.

By Mark Landler Nov. 27, 2020 LONDON — On a Saturday night in July 1986, a band of bureaucrats in raincoats — one contingent from Buckingham Palace, the other from 10 Downing Street — converged on a newsstand in a train station to snap up The Sunday Times, fresh off the presses with a bombshell headline: “Queen dismayed by ‘uncaring’ Thatcher.”

It’s a dramatic flourish from the latest season of the “The Crown” — except, according to Andrew Neil, the paper’s editor at the time, it never happened. “Nonsense,” he said. “All first editions are delivered to both” the palace and the prime minister’s residence, making a late-night dash to buy the paper superfluous.

Mr. Neil, who published the famous scoop about tensions between Queen Elizabeth II and Margaret Thatcher, said the invented scene had allowed Peter Morgan, the creator of the hugely popular Netflix series about the British royal family, to depict 1980s London as a place of “squalor and vagabonds.”

Through four vivid seasons of “The Crown,” Mr. Morgan has never denied taking artistic license with the saga of the royals, playing out their private joys and sorrows against the pageant of 20th-century British history.

Yet “The Crown” is now colliding with the people who wrote the first draft of that history.

That has spun up a tempest in the British news media, even among those who ordinarily profess not to care much about the monarchy. Newspapers and television programs have been full of starchy commentary about how “The Crown” distorts history in its account of the turbulent decade in which Prince Charles married Lady Diana Spencer and Mrs. Thatcher wrought a free-market revolution in British society.

The objections range from the personal (the queen’s brittle, coldhearted treatment of her emotionally fragile daughter-in-law, which the critics claim is unfair) to the political (the show’s portrait of Thatcher-era Britain as a right-wing dystopia, in the grip of a zealous leader who dares to lecture her sovereign during their weekly audiences). Historians say that is utterly inconceivable.

“There has been such a reaction because Peter Morgan is now writing about events many of us lived through and some of us were at the center of,” said Mr. Neil, who edited The Sunday Times from 1983 to 1994.

Mr. Neil, who went on to be a broadcaster and publisher, is no reflexive defender of the royal family. Suspicious of Britain’s class system, he said he had sympathies for the republican movement in the 1980s. But he grew to admire how the queen modernized the monarchy after the upheaval of those years, and has been critical of renegade royals, like Prince Harry and his wife, Meghan.

The events involving Mr. Neil did happen: The queen became frustrated with Mrs. Thatcher when she refused to join the 48 other members of the British Commonwealth in backing sanctions against the apartheid regime in South Africa. This highly unusual clash spilled into public when The Sunday Times published its front-page report, attributed to palace officials, which said the royal family viewed Mrs. Thatcher as “uncaring, confrontational and socially divisive.”

But Mr. Neil disputed several elements of “The Crown’s” retelling, not least that Buckingham Palace made the queen’s press secretary, Michael Shea, the scapegoat for the incident. The show depicts his being fired for having leaked the story, even though it suggests that he did so at the queen’s behest. There is no evidence of this, Mr. Neil said, but it fits Mr. Morgan’s “left-wing agenda.”

“He gets to depict Thatcher as pretty much an ally of apartheid while the queen is the sort of person who junks loyal flunkies when things go wrong, even when they are just doing her bidding,” Mr. Neil said.

The brickbats are not just from the right.

Simon Jenkins, a columnist for the left-leaning Guardian, regards members of the royal family as artifacts of celebrity culture irrelevant to a country grappling with real-world challenges like Brexit. “They are practically defunct,” he said. “They are like anthropomorphized figures of a head of state.”

Yet he, too, is angered by how “The Crown” portrayed the events of the 1980s, when, as political editor of The Economist, he wrote about how Prince Charles had been drawn to the now-defunct Social Democratic Party. (He based the report on an off-the-record interview with the prince.) Mr. Jenkins said that because this season of “The Crown” deals with contemporary history and people who are still alive, its liberties with the facts are less a case of artistic license than an example of “fake news.”

“I find it offensive when people dump standards of veracity in relating contemporary history,” Mr. Jenkins said. “If I did that as a journalist, I’d be hauled up before the press council while these people get prizes.”

Like others, Mr. Jenkins pointed to an episode-by-episode analysis by Hugo Vickers, a royal historian, which found whoppers large and small in the series and has become Exhibit A for its prevarications.

Not everybody faults Mr. Morgan for filling in the missing pieces with conjured scenes, even if he jumbles the facts in the process. (Mrs. Thatcher’s son, Mark, was not lost in the desert during the Paris-Dakar auto rally just as his mother was preparing to go to war with Argentina over the Falkland Islands; hostilities broke out a few months after he was found.)

Charles Moore, a former editor of The Daily Telegraph who wrote a three-volume biography of Mrs. Thatcher, praised Gillian Anderson’s performance as the prime minister, putting it on a par with Meryl Streep’s Oscar-winning turn in the 2011 film “The Iron Lady.” Even a much-criticized episode in which a snobbish queen plays host to a fish-out-of-water prime minister and her husband, Denis, at Balmoral Castle in Scotland, struck him as having “the ring of truth,” despite some embellishments.

Charles Moore, a former editor of The Daily Telegraph who wrote a three-volume biography of Mrs. Thatcher, praised Gillian Anderson’s performance as the prime minister, putting it on a par with Meryl Streep’s Oscar-winning turn in the 2011 film “The Iron Lady.” Even a much-criticized episode in which a snobbish queen plays host to a fish-out-of-water prime minister and her husband, Denis, at Balmoral Castle in Scotland, struck him as having “the ring of truth,” despite some embellishments. 

“The Crown,” Mr. Moore said, is trying to have it both ways, selling itself to audiences as a true story while clearing out the extraneous debris of facts that would gum up its dramatic narrative. “There is this thing called the tyranny of fact,” he said. “But as we get to modern times, it gets harder to avoid.”

Mr. Morgan declined to respond to the criticisms, though he told The New York Times this month that he was mindful that this season would be held to closer scrutiny. The producers mined the copious news reports of the period, as well as biographies of Charles and Diana, which contained firsthand accounts of their misbegotten union.

What is depicted in the family’s private moments, however, is “an act of creative imagination,” Mr. Morgan has said.

Behind the frustration with “The Crown” is a recognition that, right or wrong, its version of the royal family is likely to serve as the go-to narrative for a generation of viewers, particularly young ones, who do not remember the 1980s, let alone the more distant events covered in earlier seasons.

“They’ll watch it and think this is the way it was,” said Dickie Arbiter, who served as a press secretary to the queen from 1988 to 2000. He took issue with parts of the plot, including a scene in which aides to Charles question Diana about whether she is mentally stable enough to travel alone to New York City.

“I was actually at that meeting,” Mr. Arbiter said. “No courtier would ever say that in a million years.”

The biggest problem, said Penny Junor, who has written biographies of Charles, Diana and Mrs. Thatcher, is that “The Crown” is a prodigiously effective piece of entertainment. That, she says, poses a particular threat to Charles, who arguably comes off worst in the series and who is likely to ascend the throne before memories of his grim, hunched portrayal have completely faded.

“It is wonderful television,” Ms. Junor said. “It is beautifully acted — the mannerisms are perfect. But it is fiction, and it is very destructive.”

Royal Skulduggery and Palace Intrigue

‘The Crown’ Has Had Its Scandals, but There’s Nothing Like DianaNov. 12, 2020

Companies Abandon Prince Andrew After Calamitous Epstein InterviewNov. 19, 2019

Prince Andrew’s Friendship With Epstein Joins a List of Royal ScandalsNov. 21, 2019

Harry and Meghan’s Hard ExitJan. 19, 2020

Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, Shares Her Miscarriage GriefNov. 25, 2020

Mark Landler is the London bureau chief. In 27 years at The Times, he has been bureau chief in Hong Kong and Frankfurt, White House correspondent, diplomatic correspondent, European economic correspondent, and a business reporter in New York.  @MarkLandler

A version of this article appears in print on Nov. 27, 2020, Section A, Page 12 of the New York edition with the headline: ‘Nonsense’: Witnesses to the Actual Events of ‘The Crown’ Have Some Criticisms.

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https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/26/world/europe/Crown-Royals-Fact-Fiction.html

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Uganda – where security forces may be more deadly than coronavirus

Image caption Eric Mutasiga’s mother, Joyce Namugalu Mutasiga, has to beef up his family after he used to be killed by police

In Uganda, no much less than 12 folks own allegedly been killed by security officers enforcing measures to limit the spread of coronavirus, whereas no-one has been killed by the virus itself. Persistence Atuhaire has been meeting about a of these tormented by the violence.

Joyce Namugalu Mutasiga speaks to me as she fries tiny pancakes, is thought as kabalagala, over a woodfire, her words popping out in short, crisp sentences punctuated with lengthy silences.

“Any person is fascinating a ways from you and then you shoot him? Not no longer up to they would own said sorry, as a result of his existence will by no method be aid, and now I plod to struggle with the kids,” she says, straining to bottle up her emotions.

The 65-365 days-mature is now the principle bread-winner for a family of eight.

Image caption Mrs Mutasiga desires the police to apologise over the loss of life of her son

Two of her grandchildren, used three and 5, too young to secure the beefy scale of what has befallen them, speed throughout the yard pointing to a car in the yard: “Make a selection a portray of daddy’s car!”

In June, almost three weeks after he used to be reportedly shot in the leg by a Ugandan policeman, Eric Mutasiga died from his wounds. His final moments had been in an running theatre in the country’s Mulago Health center, in step with his mother.

The 30-365 days-mature headteacher used to be a form of allegedly killed by security forces enforcing a coronavirus lockdown.

Image copyright Getty Photos

Image caption Members of the safety forces had been enforcing the lockdown measures

The killings are believed to had been by the arms of policemen, squaddies and people of an armed civilian drive known as the Native Defence Unit (LDU).

Since March, they’ve been jointly manning roadblocks to make certain that folks follow the adjust measures, including a ban on bike taxis (known regionally as boda bodas) and a dusk-to-morning time curfew.

Many Ugandans are cautious as they method these roadblocks no longer lustrous what would possibly well happen, but on 13 Can also disaster came to Mr Mutasiga’s dwelling.

As wisely as running the Merrytime Predominant college, the father of three had a tiny store next to his dwelling on the fringe of Mukono, about an hour’s drive east of the capital, Kampala.

On that Wednesday, policemen and people of the LDU had been inspiring folks realized breaking the lockdown tips by working after 19: 00.

‘You did no longer prepare me’

Mr Mutasiga’s employee, a young man working at the chapati stall out of doorways the store, had upright been detained.

“I begged [the policemen] to forgive him. The 2 officers debated amongst themselves whether or to no longer let him plod,” the headteacher later outlined to native journalists.

Then, as folks gathered spherical, issues obtained heated.

“Regarded as some of the policemen began to claim I wasn’t the one who educated him. He said he would possibly well even shoot me.

“As I grew to alter into to depart, [one policeman] shot in the air. I grew to alter into to glance what came about, and noticed him goal at once at me.

“The bullet went true into my left leg and I fell. They obtained on their bike no doubt rapidly and rode away.”

He made these comments as he used to be being wheeled into hospital – the police haven’t verified his account.

BBC

Some relatives own instructed we plod to court docket. But the police haven’t published the shooter’s identify, so who would I sue?”

His family had hoped that he would secure a beefy recovery.

“We stayed in hospital anticipating surgical operation, but each time we asked, the health workers educated us that the anxiety used to be injurious, they couldn’t operate,” his mother says.

Mr Mutasiga used to be at final taken to the running theatre on 8 June where he died, she adds.

The loss of life certificate shows that he died at once from gunshot wounds.

Mrs Mutasiga stares at the bottom, taking a second to originate herself.

She feels let down by all the authorities device, announcing: “Some relatives own instructed we plod to court docket. But the police haven’t published the shooter’s identify, so who would I sue?”

Farida Nanyonjo is offended.

Her brother, Robert Senyonga, died after being overwhelmed.

Round noon on 7 July, she bought a name from his employer. She used to be educated that she had to secure to the eastern metropolis of Jinja like a flash, as Mr Senyonga had been many times struck by the butt of a gun wielded by any person believed to be from the LDU for driving a bike.

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The beating left the 20-365 days-mature, who worked as a farm supervisor with more than one fractures to the cranium.

Ms Nanyonjo obtained to him dull at night and then returned with him to the capital, where he used to be referred to hospital.

“We made it to Mulago at about 2am, and spent the the rest of the night on the ward floor. I approached a medical worker for relieve, but used to be asked for money. He used to be finally given a mattress in the morning,” she says.

It took a big selection of haggling, and a couple of days, before Mr Senyonga would possibly well also very wisely be scheduled for surgical operation. And by then, it used to be too dull.

‘Died in my arms’

“I’m extraordinarily offended. They beat him, but even the head hospital in the country would possibly well no longer give him upright hospital treatment,” Ms Nanyonjo says.

“My brother died in my arms.”

For this family, the void left by their departed will probably be no longer doable to fill.

The LDU earned notoriety in the early 2000s when it used to be first created. Its personnel had been accused of carrying out extrajudicial killings or of becoming gunmen for hire.

In the close it used to be demobilised. Ugandans had been subsequently anxious when it used to be revived in 2018.

Image copyright Allan Atulinda

Image caption Recruitment for the Native Defence Unit attracted colossal hobby in 2018

Critics declare the drive locations guns in the arms of young, poorly educated folks which would possibly well be unable to lower the stress in a confrontation.

The army has now withdrawn all LDU personnel from deployment, for retraining.

President Yoweri Museveni and other senior officers own condemned the reported assaults but when the BBC contacted the many security companies implicated, none of them wished to give us a assertion in conserving with the allegations.

Rights groups argue that the say is systemic.

“We own realized that security forces had been the employ of Covid-19 and the measures build in secure 22 situation to forestall its spread as an excuse to violate human rights,” says Oryem Nyeko, a researcher for Human Rights Explore.

But these problems had been known for a big selection of years, he says, and “now we need to explore reforming a device that emboldens folks to commit abuses”.

Households declare the judicial process is in most cases too convoluted to navigate, but there had been successful prosecutions in two instances in the final 5 months. One racy a soldier and the opposite a member of the LDU.

The soldier who killed Allen Musiimenta’s husband used to be jailed by a military court docket for 35 years after being realized responsible of kill four days after the incident.

But she is no longer overjoyed.

“The soldier obtained his punishment, but I gained’t secure my husband aid,” Ms Musiimenta says.

Coronavirus in Uganda

Total form of instances

Benon Nsimenta, who used to be as a consequence of be ordained as a reverend in November, used to be gunned down on a dual carriageway in the western town of Kasese on 24 June.

He and his wife had secure 22 situation off for their village dwelling on a bike. They had a file from a local councillor indicating that the car used to be theirs and never a bike taxi.

“The squaddies who stopped us did no longer even capture a minute to inquire of questions. Regarded as one of them crossed the dual carriageway, raised his gun and shot my husband in the neck,” Ms Musiimenta says.

“We did our family initiatives together, talked through all the pieces. We made plans for our kid’s future. How I’m speculated to pay for their training by working our tiny farm?” she trails off, overcome with emotion.

Soccer coach Nelly Julius Kalema survived his alleged brush with the safety forces – but simplest upright.

On 8 July he used to be dashing a pal’s sick girlfriend, Esther, to a sanatorium on a bike. It used to be already curfew time.

You would also moreover need to stare:

Media playback is unsupported in your machine

Media caption‘The police are killing us, no longer coronavirus’

They had been allowed through a roadblock, but then some folks on a bike, who he says had been policemen, waved them down.

Mr Kalema says he asked if he would possibly well web a safer secure 22 situation to stop upright ahead. He says one man took out a baton and hit Esther laborious on the neck. She screamed, and fell.

“I misplaced steadiness and rammed into a concrete slab, on which I hit my head,” he says, lying in a hospital mattress.

The accident left him with a deep lower on the head, the scalp placing by about a inches, that had to be stitched aid. Esther survived with a broken leg and had to endure surgical operation.

Image caption Nelly Julius Kalema’s anxiety on his cranium would possibly well be clearly viewed

The police declined to commentary on his allegations.

After we met, Mr Kalema had been in hospital for nearly a week, his head continuously throbbing.

“I had been lying right here thinking I effect no longer need to feel fortunate, as a result of I had no fault in the accident. How many of us need to die or be maimed before the safety forces change their methods?” he wonders.

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Usa today Donald Trump blames Iran for insurgents storming of US Embassy in Iraq - USA TODAY

Usa today

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WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. – Amid renewed tensions in the Heart East, President Donald Trump on Tuesday blamed Iran for insurgents storming the U.S. Embassy in Iraq and threatened Tehran over the incident.

"Iran shall be held entirely to blame for lives lost, or damage incurred, at any of our services," Trump tweeted dreary in the day. "They'll pay a truly BIG PRICE! Here's no longer a Warning, it's miles a Risk. Jubilant New Year!"

He also said the U.S. embassy in Baghdad is dependable and "has been for hours," and he thanked Iraqi leaders for their assistance.

Earlier in the day, Trump said Iran would be held "entirely to blame" for violence focused on Americans.

"Iran killed an American contractor, wounding many," Trump said in his morning tweet. "We strongly answered, and consistently will. Now Iran is orchestrating an assault on the U.S. Embassy in Iraq."

The U.S. Embassy in Iraq is, & has been for hours, SAFE! Numerous our colossal Warfighters, along with essentially the most lethal protection power instruments in the sphere, was once in the present day rushed to the location. Thank you to the President & High Minister of Iraq for their hasty response upon question....

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 31, 2019

Supporters of the Iraq Shiite militia, which is backed by Iran, broke into the U.S. Embassy compound in Baghdad earlier Tuesday, setting fire to a reception house amid plod gasoline and gunfire.

As protesters massed outdoor the U.S. compound in Baghdad, Protection Secretary Mark Esper said in a assertion that "we are sending extra forces to enhance our personnel at the Embassy."

The episode hearkened to the 2012 assault on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, in which four Americans were killed, along with the U.S. Ambassador to Libya Christopher Stevens. Republicans were closely serious of the Obama administration’s response to that assault, and that criticism became a central GOP speaking level in opposition to Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, who was once the Secretary of Whisper at the time of the assault.

Trump sought to transfer off these comparisons by tweeting at one level that the U.S. response to this incident was once "The Anti-Benghazi!"

Some lawmakers feared the escalating violence in Iraq could perhaps perhaps result in protection power struggle with Iran.

Sen. Tom Udall, D-N.M., said "the predictable result of the Trump administration’s reckless bluster, escalation and miscalculation in the Heart East is that we are now hurtling nearer to an unauthorized struggle with Iran that the American folks make no longer enhance."

The embassy assault in Baghdad followed U.S. airstrikes on Sunday that killed 25 fighters from the Iranian-backed militia. The U.S. described these strikes as retaliation for last week’s killing of an American contractor in a rocket assault on a protection power nasty in Iraq.

In defending the U.S.-led airstrikes, Trump tweeted that Iran "shall be held entirely to blame."

Iran killed an American contractor, wounding many. We strongly answered, and consistently will. Now Iran is orchestrating an assault on the U.S. Embassy in Iraq. They'll be held entirely to blame. Besides, we question Iraq to spend its forces to guard the Embassy, and so notified!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 31, 2019

It was once Trump's first public commentary on Sunday's airstrikes.

As for the embassy assault, Trump said that "we question Iraq to spend its forces to guard the Embassy, and so notified!"

The president, who's spending the holidays at his resort in Palm Seaside, Fla., has been largely out of seek since taking questions from reporters on Christmas Eve. Trump in brief traveled to his golf course arrangement the resort, but stayed for below an hour, breaking his normal routine of spending several hours at the membership.

In a later tweet, the president said he had a "very factual meeting on the Heart East" and was once returning to his Mar-a-Lago resort. He promised to invent "updates true thru the day" on the space in Baghdad.   

Talking to U.S. troopers by video name on Dec. 24, he thanked the protection power for its effort to gain rid of the last remnants of the Islamic Whisper’s territory and for the killing of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. However on Tuesday the president remained largely out of seek and had no public events listed on his time desk. 

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Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., a member of the Senate Armed Companies Committee, echoed the president and blamed Iran for the confrontation at the embassy and for escalating tensions.

“When an Iran-backed militia killed an American in Iraq last week, it met with a firm response. Now our embassy in Baghdad — sovereign U.S. territory — has been attacked in yet one other reckless escalation,” Cotton said in a assertion. “Because the president notes, Iran needs to be held to blame.” 

In describing the invasion of the U.S. embassy in Iraq, the Associated Press said its reporter "noticed flames rising from within the compound and at least three U.S. troopers on the roof of the predominant constructing within the embassy."

The AP added: "There was once a hearth at the reception house arrangement the automobile car parking zone of the compound but it was once unclear what had induced it. A man on a loudspeaker told the mob now to now not enter the compound, announcing: 'The message was once delivered.'”

Critics said Trump's policy in direction of Iran is unsuitable, beginning along with his resolution to withdraw from the multi-nationwide nuclear settlement with the regime in Tehran. Because the U.S. renews economic sanctions on Iran, its executive is threatening to revive applications that can perhaps perhaps well very successfully be former to accomplish nuclear weapons.

"It’s onerous to overstate what a whole failure Trump’s Iran policy has been," tweeted Ben Rhodes, a foreign policy aide to President Barack Obama. "Nuclear program resumed. Regional provocations escalated. US isolated."

Read or Piece this myth: https://www.usatoday.com/myth/news/2019/12/31/donald-trump-blames-iran-storming-usaembassy-iraq/2781884001/

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Pakistan rail accident: 9 killed, 70 injured after passenger prepare crashes into freight carriage in Punjab province

http://tinyurl.com/y38xq26c Lahore: A dashing passenger prepare on Thursday rammed right into a freight prepare in Pakistan’s japanese Punjab province, killing at the very least eleven individuals and injuring 60 others, in line with media reviews. Pakistan Railways. Reuters The Quetta certain Akbar Categorical collided with a stationary freight prepare on the Walhar Railway Station in Sadiqabad Tehsil of the Punjab province, Radio Pakistan reported. The freight prepare was standing on the loop line when the dashing passenger prepare as a substitute of operating on the mainline went on the incorrect observe. District Police Officer (DPO) Rahim Yar Khan Umar Salamat mentioned the deceased embody one girl and eight males, whereas the injured embody 9 ladies and 11 kids. No less than eleven individuals have been killed and 60 others have been injured when the dashing Akbar Categorical collided with the stationary items prepare, the Dunya Information reported. The engine of the Akbar Categorical was fully destroyed within the accident whereas three bogies have been additionally broken, police mentioned. The injured have been shifted to close by hospitals of Sadiqabad and Rahim Yar Khan for therapy the place an emergency has been declared, Geo information reported. A toddler and a person have been rescued from the prepare, the report mentioned. The DPO additional mentioned rescue operation is underway and hydraulic cutters have been known as on the web site to retrieve lifeless our bodies, it added. Officers say they worry extra casualties within the accident. Prime Minister Imran Khan and President Arif Alvi have expressed deep grief and sorrow over the lack of treasured lives within the prepare accident. Saddened to be taught of prepare accident in Sadiqabad. My condolences to the victims households and prayers for the speedy restoration of the injured. Have requested Railways Minister to take emergency steps to counter a long time of neglect of railway infrastructure & guarantee security requirements. — Imran Khan (@ImranKhanPTI) July 11, 2019 Railways Minister Sheikh Rasheed Ahmed has expressed deep grief and sorrow over the lack of treasured lives within the accident. He has additionally ordered an investigation into the incident. Your information to the newest cricket World Cup tales, evaluation, reviews, opinions, reside updates and scores on https://www.firstpost.com/firstcricket/series/icc-cricket-world-cup-2019.html. Observe us on Twitter and Instagram or like our Facebook web page for updates all through the continued occasion in England and Wales. !function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s) {if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function() {n.callMethod? n.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments)} ; if(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n;n.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version='2.0'; n.queue=[];t=b.createElement(e);t.async=!0; t.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s)}(window,document,'script', 'https://connect.facebook.net/en_US/fbevents.js'); fbq('init', '259288058299626'); fbq('track', 'PageView'); (function(d, s, id) { var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0]; if (d.getElementById(id)) return; js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id; js.src = "http://connect.facebook.net/en_GB/all.js#xfbml=1&version=v2.9&appId=1117108234997285"; fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs); }(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk')); window.fbAsyncInit = function () { FB.init({appId: '1117108234997285', version: 2.4, xfbml: true}); // *** here is my code *** if (typeof facebookInit == 'function') { facebookInit(); } }; (function () { var e = document.createElement('script'); e.src = document.location.protocol + '//connect.facebook.net/en_US/all.js'; e.async = true; document.getElementById('fb-root').appendChild(e); }()); function facebookInit() { console.log('Found FB: Loading comments.'); FB.XFBML.parse(); } Source link

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RT News Reports on Dash and Cryptocurrency Support for Wikileaks Following Assange Arrest

RT News Reports on Dash and Cryptocurrency Support for Wikileaks Following Assange Arrest

RT News recently covered the role of cryptocurrency for WikiLeaks, particularly in the recent incident of its founder’s arrest, including mentioning the Dash community’s recent support.

During a recent segment on the alternative news network, RT News featured commentary by independent journalist (formerly sponsored by Dash) Ben Swann, a well-known award-winning journalist who himself has…

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"Just one Sunday.. just.. ONE SUNDAY I would like to have my afternoon coffee in PEACE!"

[nancyedimick]

Short Circuit: A roundup of recent federal court decisions

(Here is the latest edition of the Institute for Justice’s weekly Short Circuit newsletter, written by John Ross.)

This term, the Supreme Court can — and should — strike down Missouri’s Blaine Amendment, argues IJ litigator Erica Smith. Many states enacted Blaine Amendments in the 1800s to discriminate against Catholics, and today they remain the biggest legal obstacle to school choice. Click here for more.

The Park Service’s installation of bleachers on Freedom Plaza during the Inaugural Parade precludes the use of the plaza by protestors. A First Amendment violation? The D.C. Circuit says no.

Part of New York City’s water supply travels from a reservoir 110 miles upstate through a series of reservoirs, tunnels, and more. Pollutants can travel from one body of water to the next, but the EPA has not required NYC to obtain a pollutant-discharge permit (as parties that pollute U.S. waters normally must). Second Circuit (over a dissent): The Clean Water Act is ambiguous as to whether that’s acceptable, and the EPA’s interpretation of the law is entitled to Chevron deference.

A jury finds that a Nassau County, N.Y. detective, among other things, planted a murder victim’s hair in a suspect’s van, leading to the conviction of three innocent men. They spend 18 years in prison before DNA evidence exonerates them. Second Circuit: No need to reconsider the $18 million awarded to two of them.

Cambridge, Md. police find pot residue in trash, send SWAT into apartment at 4:30 a.m. Officers say they clearly identified themselves (which a jury does not believe) and that the resident charged them. They shoot him in the head, killing him. Fourth Circuit (2015): The city need not pay $250,000 the jury awarded to the resident’s father. Fourth Circuit (2017): Or $25,000 for his attorneys’ fees.

Accident in Montcoal, W. Va. mine claims the lives of 29 miners. A jury convicts the company’s CEO of disregarding safety regulations, which he views as cheaper to violate (and pay the fines) than to comply with. He receives the maximum sentence: one year in prison and a $250,000 fine. Fourth Circuit: Conviction affirmed.

Teenage carjacking suspect chooses to represent himself after his appointed counsel admits to being unprepared on day of trial. (Alibi witnesses had not been tracked down, for instance.) He’s convicted, sentenced to at least 87 years. Was his waiver of counsel voluntary? Two-thirds of a Sixth Circuit panel says yes.

Garfield Heights, Ohio man puts up large lawn sign criticizing elected official. Officials: Signs criticizing officials must be smaller. Take it down or pay $1k per day in fines. Sixth Circuit: The city’s sign ordinance, which permits some large signs but not large political signs, is unconstitutional.

After Chicago’s ban on firing ranges was struck down in 2011, officials rewrote the law, restricting them to two percent of the city’s acreage, where they are not commercially viable. Seventh Circuit: Which is also unconstitutional, as is another rule that no one under 18 may enter a firing range.

Illegal immigrant argues that Hondurans will assume he’s gay because he is a middle-aged, HIV-positive bachelor, so deporting him would put him in grave danger given the violence LGBTQ individuals are subjected to there. Seventh Circuit (over a dissent): He shouldn’t be deported.

At least once a week, pretrial detainees and convicted inmates at Cole County, Mo. jail must cover themselves in sheets and blankets or go naked while their jail-issued garb is laundered, as officials only allow them one set of clothes. Eighth Circuit: Could be an Eighth Amendment violation.

Many of Missouri’s alcohol advertising restrictions “make no rational sense,” says the Eighth Circuit; so a challenge to the rules, which, for instance, forbid retailers from advertising specific deals (like a two-for-one beer special) but permit general promotions (like happy hour), should not have been dismissed.

Portland, Ore., woman accuses her soon-to-be ex-husband of rape. He’s arrested but not charged. News of the arrest sparks much commentary online, harming his professional reputation. Can he sue her estate (she has since passed away) over the allegedly defamatory accusation? Ninth Circuit: Evidence that she spoke to the online commenters (whose comments were based on public arrest records) is lacking, so no.

CEO publicly lauds his company’s ethical standards, violates them by altering expense reports to cover up his pursuit of former adult actress working as hostess at company events. (His deception comes to light; he resigns; the company’s stock tanks.) Securities fraud? The Ninth Circuit says no.

Does the doctrine of equitable estoppel permit litigants, as a matter of Florida law, to enforce an arbitration agreement even if they are not a party to the agreement? Not in this case, says the Eleventh Circuit, dashing the hopes of the Kardashian sisters, who are famous.

Man pulls over after accident, exits his vehicle holding his wallet. An Opelika, Ala. officer orders him to show his hands. He does, but video shows he brings his hands together and extends them toward the officer with his wallet visible. The officer shoots him in the gut just as he separates his hands and raises them above his shoulders. The entire incident lasts three seconds. Eleventh Circuit: It wasn’t unreasonable for the officer to exit his cruiser with his gun drawn and then mistake the wallet for a gun.

In effort to persuade tailgater to follow at a more reasonable distance, motorist displays a handgun. He pleads guilty to disorderly conduct and pays a $200 fine. Can officials forfeit the gun? Pennsylvania court: No statute authorizes it, and common law forfeiture does not exist in the state. So no.

Maryland has decriminalized marijuana; possession of a small amount means a ticket and substance-abuse education rather than jail time. Does this mean that an officer, on detecting the odor of marijuana, no longer has probable cause to search a vehicle? Maryland high court: It does not.

Correction: Friends, it was misleading to say that the forfeiture claim in this Ninth Circuit case was filed three minutes late. It arrived at 9:03 a.m. on the day after it was due. The staff wholeheartedly regrets the error.

Every year, law enforcement agencies forfeit billions of dollars in cash, cars, homes, and other property — often without securing a criminal conviction. How often? And what do agencies spend the money on? In a new report, IJ grades the states and the federal government on the transparency and accountability of their forfeiture programs. Click here to read the report. Separately, we’re also suing two federal agencies that refused to turn over forfeiture data as required by the Freedom of Information Act. More on that here.

Originally Found On: http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/volokh-conspiracy/wp/2017/01/23/short-circuit-a-roundup-of-recent-federal-court-decisions-39/

[wolfandpravato]

Short Circuit: A roundup of recent federal court decisions

(Here is the latest edition of the Institute for Justice’s weekly Short Circuit newsletter, written by John Ross.)

This term, the Supreme Court can — and should — strike down Missouri’s Blaine Amendment, argues IJ litigator Erica Smith. Many states enacted Blaine Amendments in the 1800s to discriminate against Catholics, and today they remain the biggest legal obstacle to school choice. Click here for more.

The Park Service’s installation of bleachers on Freedom Plaza during the Inaugural Parade precludes the use of the plaza by protestors. A First Amendment violation? The D.C. Circuit says no.

Part of New York City’s water supply travels from a reservoir 110 miles upstate through a series of reservoirs, tunnels, and more. Pollutants can travel from one body of water to the next, but the EPA has not required NYC to obtain a pollutant-discharge permit (as parties that pollute U.S. waters normally must). Second Circuit (over a dissent): The Clean Water Act is ambiguous as to whether that’s acceptable, and the EPA’s interpretation of the law is entitled to Chevron deference.

A jury finds that a Nassau County, N.Y. detective, among other things, planted a murder victim’s hair in a suspect’s van, leading to the conviction of three innocent men. They spend 18 years in prison before DNA evidence exonerates them. Second Circuit: No need to reconsider the $18 million awarded to two of them.

Cambridge, Md. police find pot residue in trash, send SWAT into apartment at 4:30 a.m. Officers say they clearly identified themselves (which a jury does not believe) and that the resident charged them. They shoot him in the head, killing him. Fourth Circuit (2015): The city need not pay $250,000 the jury awarded to the resident’s father. Fourth Circuit (2017): Or $25,000 for his attorneys’ fees.

Accident in Montcoal, W. Va. mine claims the lives of 29 miners. A jury convicts the company’s CEO of disregarding safety regulations, which he views as cheaper to violate (and pay the fines) than to comply with. He receives the maximum sentence: one year in prison and a $250,000 fine. Fourth Circuit: Conviction affirmed.

Teenage carjacking suspect chooses to represent himself after his appointed counsel admits to being unprepared on day of trial. (Alibi witnesses had not been tracked down, for instance.) He’s convicted, sentenced to at least 87 years. Was his waiver of counsel voluntary? Two-thirds of a Sixth Circuit panel says yes.

Garfield Heights, Ohio man puts up large lawn sign criticizing elected official. Officials: Signs criticizing officials must be smaller. Take it down or pay $1k per day in fines. Sixth Circuit: The city’s sign ordinance, which permits some large signs but not large political signs, is unconstitutional.

After Chicago’s ban on firing ranges was struck down in 2011, officials rewrote the law, restricting them to two percent of the city’s acreage, where they are not commercially viable. Seventh Circuit: Which is also unconstitutional, as is another rule that no one under 18 may enter a firing range.

Illegal immigrant argues that Hondurans will assume he’s gay because he is a middle-aged, HIV-positive bachelor, so deporting him would put him in grave danger given the violence LGBTQ individuals are subjected to there. Seventh Circuit (over a dissent): He shouldn’t be deported.

At least once a week, pretrial detainees and convicted inmates at Cole County, Mo. jail must cover themselves in sheets and blankets or go naked while their jail-issued garb is laundered, as officials only allow them one set of clothes. Eighth Circuit: Could be an Eighth Amendment violation.

Many of Missouri’s alcohol advertising restrictions “make no rational sense,” says the Eighth Circuit; so a challenge to the rules, which, for instance, forbid retailers from advertising specific deals (like a two-for-one beer special) but permit general promotions (like happy hour), should not have been dismissed.

Portland, Ore., woman accuses her soon-to-be ex-husband of rape. He’s arrested but not charged. News of the arrest sparks much commentary online, harming his professional reputation. Can he sue her estate (she has since passed away) over the allegedly defamatory accusation? Ninth Circuit: Evidence that she spoke to the online commenters (whose comments were based on public arrest records) is lacking, so no.

CEO publicly lauds his company’s ethical standards, violates them by altering expense reports to cover up his pursuit of former adult actress working as hostess at company events. (His deception comes to light; he resigns; the company’s stock tanks.) Securities fraud? The Ninth Circuit says no.

Does the doctrine of equitable estoppel permit litigants, as a matter of Florida law, to enforce an arbitration agreement even if they are not a party to the agreement? Not in this case, says the Eleventh Circuit, dashing the hopes of the Kardashian sisters, who are famous.

Man pulls over after accident, exits his vehicle holding his wallet. An Opelika, Ala. officer orders him to show his hands. He does, but video shows he brings his hands together and extends them toward the officer with his wallet visible. The officer shoots him in the gut just as he separates his hands and raises them above his shoulders. The entire incident lasts three seconds. Eleventh Circuit: It wasn’t unreasonable for the officer to exit his cruiser with his gun drawn and then mistake the wallet for a gun.

In effort to persuade tailgater to follow at a more reasonable distance, motorist displays a handgun. He pleads guilty to disorderly conduct and pays a $200 fine. Can officials forfeit the gun? Pennsylvania court: No statute authorizes it, and common law forfeiture does not exist in the state. So no.

Maryland has decriminalized marijuana; possession of a small amount means a ticket and substance-abuse education rather than jail time. Does this mean that an officer, on detecting the odor of marijuana, no longer has probable cause to search a vehicle? Maryland high court: It does not.

Correction: Friends, it was misleading to say that the forfeiture claim in this Ninth Circuit case was filed three minutes late. It arrived at 9:03 a.m. on the day after it was due. The staff wholeheartedly regrets the error.

Every year, law enforcement agencies forfeit billions of dollars in cash, cars, homes, and other property — often without securing a criminal conviction. How often? And what do agencies spend the money on? In a new report, IJ grades the states and the federal government on the transparency and accountability of their forfeiture programs. Click here to read the report. Separately, we’re also suing two federal agencies that refused to turn over forfeiture data as required by the Freedom of Information Act. More on that here.

Originally Found On: http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/volokh-conspiracy/wp/2017/01/23/short-circuit-a-roundup-of-recent-federal-court-decisions-39/

[timelostobserver]

"Ohhh... do I hear through the grape vine that Public Executions will be coming back!? OHOHOHO! Ohhh! I can't wait! I love watching them SQUIRM!" He claps, all too happy.

[timelostobserver]

"Oh.. are we making human souls cringe from eating foods 'correctly'?" He says while taking a bite out of the CENTER of a burrito.

[timelostobserver]

".. What the fuck does 'Sun... dear-ere' mean!?" Old angel of death 'boomer' doesn't understand weird lingo.

More at 11.