Tag Archives: lawyer

Business, Climate Solutions, Earth and Ecology, News, Observation, Politics

Six-Month Sentence for Lawyer Who Took on Chevron Denounced as ‘International Outrage’

Above: Photo Collage / Lynxotic

Conviction of Steven Donziger, said one critic, “perfectly encapsulates how corporate power has twisted the U.S. justice system to protect corporate interests and punish their enemies.”

Environmental justice advocates and other progressives on Friday condemned a federal judge’s decision Friday to sentence human rights lawyer Steven Donziger to six months in prison—following more than two years of house arrest related to a lawsuit he filed decades ago against oil giant Chevron.

The sentence, delivered by U.S. District Judge Loretta Preska in New York City, represents “an international outrage,” tweeted journalist Emma Vigeland following its announcement.

Donziger’s sentence came a day after the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention said it was “appalled” by the U.S. legal system’s treatment of the former environmental lawyer and demanded the U.S. government “remedy the situation of Mr. Steven Donziger without delay and bring it in conformity with the relevant international norms” by immediately releasing him.

Donziger represented a group of farmers and Indigenous people in the Lago Agrio region of Ecuador in the 1990s in a lawsuit against Texaco—since acquired by Chevron—in which the company was accused of contaminating soil and water with its “deliberate dumping of billions of gallons of cancer-causing waste into the Amazon.”

An Ecuadorian court awarded the plaintiffs a $9.5 billion judgment in 2011—a decision upheld by multiple courts in Ecuador—only to have a U.S. judge reject the ruling, accusing Donziger of bribery and evidence tampering. Chevron also countersued Donziger in 2011. 

In 2019, U.S. District Judge Lewis A. Kaplan of the Southern District of New York—a former corporate lawyer with investments in Chevron—held Donziger in contempt of court after he refused to disclose privileged information about his clients to the fossil fuel industry. Kaplan placed Donziger under house arrest, where he has remained under strict court monitoring for 787 days.

In addition to Kaplan’s own connections to Chevron, the judge appointed private attorneys to prosecute the case, including one who had worked for a firm that represented the oil giant.

Preska, who found Donziger guilty of the contempt charges in July, is a leader of the right-wing Federalist Society, which counts Chevron among its financial backers.

“As I face sentencing on Day 787 of house arrest, never forget what this case is really about,” tweeted Donziger on Friday morning, as he awaited the sentencing. “Chevron caused a mass industrial poisoning in the Amazon that crushed the lives of Indigenous peoples. Six courts and 28 appellate judges found the company guilty.”

https://twitter.com/SDonziger/status/1443900016859430916?s=20

Donziger indicated Friday afternoon that he plans to appeal the sentence.

“Stay strong,” he tweeted along with a photo from a rally attended by his supporters Friday.

350.org co-founder and author Bill McKibben said on social media that Donziger “deserves our thanks and support” for “daring to point out that Big Oil had poisoned the rainforest.”Rick Claypool, research director for Public Citizen, tweeted that Donziger’s case “perfectly encapsulates how corporate power has twisted the U.S. justice system to protect corporate interests and punish their enemies”—noting that as Donziger is ordered to prison for six months, members of the Sackler family recently won immunity from opioid lawsuits targeting their private company, Purdue Pharma.

“This ruling was done to deter ANYONE from crossing corporate special interests,” said progressive former congressional candidate Jen Perelman.

Originally published on Common Dreams by JULIA CONLEY and republished under a Creative Commons License (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).

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Entertainment, Movies, Videos

‘Nobody’ is the logical next step after ‘Better Call Saul’ for Bob Odenkirk

Video

Above:Bob Odenkirk in ‘Nobody’ Credit: Universal

John Wick with a milquetoast twist? No, much better than that…

Are you, like me, someone who just has to watch any movie with Liam Neeson after “Taken” where he plays an underestimated character doing mega damage to the bad guys? Was “John Wick” (and 2 and 3 etc) a worthwhile experience but you could imagine a bit of Bob Odenkirk à la mode mixed in? You’re in luck (seriously).

The official blurb from Universal goes like this: Emmy winner Bob Odenkirk (Better Call Saul, The Post, Nebraska, Breaking Bad) stars as Hutch Mansell, an underestimated and overlooked dad and husband, taking life’s indignities on the chin and never pushing back. A nobody.

Add to this his “particular set of skills” and ominous past and you have an inspired next step in this now established feel-good as the blood-flows genre. (trailer below)

At a time when, metaphorically, perhaps all of us feel like we are bullied once too many times, and when the vagaries of trying to live in peace have us at wits end, watching this could be the antidote to all those pent-up feelings.

However, if going to see it live in a movie theater still seems too dangerous, you will soon be able to stream – if you are willing to pay for video-on-demand.

As of Friday, April 16th you will be able to purchase to stream at the usual VOD outlets (most likely, Apple, Amazon and others) and there’s even a blu-ray disk in the offing which has pre-order options already.

Directed by Ilya Naishuller (Hardcore Henry), and written by Derek Kolstad (John Wick), a great cast that includes Bob Odenkirk (Better Call Saul, The Post, Nebraska) and co-stars legendary Emmy winner Christopher Lloyd as Hutch’s father, musician-actor RZA as Hutch’s brother, whose own hidden talents aid Hutch in his quest for vengeance.

Here is the description provided on the official web site by Universal Pictures:

Sometimes the man you don’t notice is the most dangerous of all.
Emmy winner Bob Odenkirk (Better Call Saul, The Post, Nebraska) stars as Hutch Mansell, an underestimated and overlooked dad and husband, taking life’s indignities on the chin and never pushing back. A nobody.

When two thieves break into his suburban home one night, Hutch declines to defend himself or his family, hoping to prevent serious violence. His teenage son, Blake (Gage Munroe, The Shack), is disappointed in him and his wife, Becca (Connie Nielsen, Wonder Woman), seems to pull only further away.

The aftermath of the incident strikes a match to Hutch’s long-simmering rage, triggering dormant instincts and propelling him on a brutal path that will surface dark secrets and lethal skills. In a barrage of fists, gunfire and squealing tires, Hutch must save his family from a dangerous adversary (famed Russian actor Aleksey Serebryakov, Amazon’s McMafia)—and ensure that he will never be underestimated as a nobody again.

Nobody is directed by acclaimed filmmaker Ilya Naishuller (Hardcore Henry), from a script by Derek Kolstad, the narrative architect of the John Wick franchise, and co-stars legendary Emmy winner Christopher Lloyd as Hutch’s father and multi-hyphenate musician-actor RZA as Hutch’s brother, whose own hidden talents aid Hutch in his quest for vengeance.

The film is produced by Kelly McCormick, p.g.a, and David Leitch, p.g.a., the filmmakers of Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw, Deadpool 2 and Atomic Blonde, for their company 87North, by Braden Aftergood, p.g.a. (Hell or High Water, Wind River), for his Eighty Two Films, and by Bob Odenkirk and Marc Provissiero (Hulu’s PEN15) for Odenkirk Provissiero Entertainment. The film is executive produced by Derek Kolstad, Marc S. Fischer, Annie Marter and Tobey Maguire.

Above:”Nobody” official trailer Credit: Universal

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Breaking News, Observation, Politics

Trump is Guilty of High Crimes but 43 vote to Acquit

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Opinion and observation:

The meaning of this ongoing assault on the truth

One thing that was unavoidable during this unprecedented 2nd impeachment process was the sense that the facts and evidence of a heinous series of crimes left any sane individual utterly devoid of any doubt that Trump was guilty. And yet, in the face of so many facts and so many public acts, a minority of 43 Republicans voted to acquit and stood up to say, with that vote, that they do not care about the law, the constitution or even this country.

Read more: Trump’s Best Impeachment Defense: ‘I’m a Buffoon and it was all a Joke’

What that means going forward is only clear in a few, but very important, respects. It is clear that the majority in this country – demonstrably sane Republicans like the seven that did vote to convict, and the roughly 259 million that do not support Trump’s insanity – will have to continue to fight for what they believe in – even if opinions are diverse, and fight as much as necessary for the basic understanding that we will never follow a wannabe dictator and criminal.

Again, what is clearer today than before the trial, is that the forces that propelled Trump into power and, even to this day, seek to maintain some kind of grip on the poison political tribalism he stands for, will attempt to use it to regain power again and try to use it to terrorize the rest of us.

Read more: Georgia initiates Criminal Investigation into Trump’s call

No muddy waters, no reasonable doubt, just complicit co-conspirators

The inescapable takeaway from the entire fiasco of the so-called “Trump-era” is that, without some kind of active and confrontational prevention from those that believe in democracy and democratic values, there will be a continue to be a force from the far right that will fill any void and seek to destroy this country and potentially the world.

Because, in the end, political disagreements over tax policy, immigration, and so many other admittedly important concerns, it is the pro-oil, anti-environmental, climate change-denying racist and corrupt evil that must be prevented, from this moment forward, from ever wielding power in this country again.

There is no reconciliation with a coalition that seeks to destroy the world in the name of religious fantasies and lust for a racist reckoning or misanthropic judgement day.

No Justice, no Peace

The future will, quite simply, not exist if neanderthal bigots (sorry neanderthals, you deserve better) with zero moral consciousness are permitted any say in government. This is not a political disagreement or lack of consensus. This is dangerous criminal terrorist elements that believe they have the right to decide the future of this country for all of us, against any person that holds views that would prevent Trump or any person with his destructive and worthless character.

Trump’s hyperbolic call to arms: “If you don’t fight, you won’t have a country” is, in reality, some kind of perverse projection, as it is us, those that have been terrorized by this malignant clown, that must listen and realize that he is right, not about the duped and manipulated followers he was lying to, but about us: we are the ones that almost lost our country.

And who should be the judge of the character of would be “leaders”? That is, and must be, we the people. If there are, in reality, 74 million people who are either brainwashed or simply ignorant enough to support a criminal like Trump, then the will of the majority, of the 259 million with the better sense not to support such a person, must be the arbiter of what is right.

The next chapter in the ugly and disgusting Trump saga will be private and legal efforts to stop him or anyone descending from his corrupt and bankrupt “cause” from re-entering the political arena.

This must not be seen as petty vengeance but as a sacred quest to protect, not only this country, but the entire world from the plague that we have all witnessed and endured other the last 5 years.

The losses must be recovered and the wrongs set right

The poisoning of the national discourse, the destruction of institutions, the loss of lives in the insurrection and the nearly half a million dead, in part, due to maladministration of the government response to the pandemic, all of this and so much more might not have happened if Trump had been stopped sooner.

There is no clearer course, and no outcome more important to prevent, than any return to the horrors that were perpetrated with this demented and dangerous man at the helm of our country.

And the proof today is in the bogus acquittal by 43 ,who share his guilt, proof of the absolute necessity to actively prevent any reemergence of his poisonous reign, or that of any acolyte that may attempt to rise carrying his diseased, corrupt mantel.

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Politics

Trump’s Lawyers submit Legal Docs: Misspelling ‘United States’ – Twice

Downhill from the start, with proofreading as optional

The defense team for Trump issued a response for his upcoming impeachment trial to the House of Representatives last week.  The document was widely mocked because the article, besides having questionable content, had egregious grammatical and spelling errors (within the first page).

The major spelling error, on the first page, addressed members of the “Unites” (instead of United) State Senate. 

The same mistake! Again! “Unites” States: (fix your spell checker and proofread?)

Less than a week after submitting their initial legal brief, the 78-page brief, again referred to the country Trump used to be a President as “Unites States”.

Within the initial filings, the newly installed attorneys to lead the impeachment trail: Bruce Castor and David Schoen argued that former president Trump should not face impeachment relating to the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection because he is out of office. 

From the Independent: They’re also reminiscent of the president and his allies’ chaotic legal effort to overturn the legitimate election results, where lawyers backing the president bungled basic composition somewhat regularly, once writing “DISTRCOICT” instead of “district,” and submitting another lawsuit with a promise it contained “plenty of perjury.”

The legal team continued using Trump’s unsubstantiated claims that the 2020 presidential election was “suspect”.

https://twitter.com/marceelias/status/1356698300406239239?s=20

Another element that Trump’s defense is using is that the his freedom of speech was protected under the First Amendment. 

“The actions by the House make clear that in their opinion the 45th President does not enjoy the protections of liberty upon which this great Nation was founded, where free speech, and indeed, free political speech form the backbone of all American liberties,” the legal memo says. 

Twitter users were quick to respond back that someone’s rights to the First Amendment does have limits, one of which is a violent insurrection. 

https://twitter.com/MollyJongFast/status/1356657925574586375?s=20
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