October 14, 2023

Frontline on AI and the Decision to Substitute Capital for Labor

Kai-Fu Lee, with other experts, offers much knowledge about AI, its history and the future uses, as the ultimate tool of wealth creation. Meanwhile, Frontline's the episode offers much to think about the meaning of an AI present and future, AI's predictive power in affecting elections and humans' emotions; the new wealth gained by collecting behavioral data, why Google has become the dominant and secretive owner of data (owned by Blackrock and Vanguard shareholders) and ways a new world surveillance capitalism is changing humans' futures.

McTaggart's talk around 1:25:40 seems particularly scary; what's good, politically, is his getting CA's Right To Know Act passed unanimously, and how users there can now know what data Big Tech has on them, and tell Big Tech whether or not it can sell their information.

October 14, 2023

Grateful for life in BidenWorld where one can still dance the pain away

Can't do this... God I can't do this...
God I can't do this anymore...






Can you stay up for the weekend
And blame God for looking too old?
Can you find all that you stand for
Has been replaced with mountains of gold?
You can untrain yourself to notice
To feel pain and swallow fear
But can you stay up for the weekend
Next year?


God, I can’t do this any more

October 14, 2023

The Secrets Hamas Knew About Israel's Military

Hamas gunmen surged into Israel in a highly organized and meticulously planned operation that suggested a deep understanding of Israel’s weaknesses. Here is how the attacks unfolded.

By Patrick Kingsley and Ronen Bergman




https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/13/world/middleeast/hamas-israel-attack-gaza.html














https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/13/world/middleeast/hamas-israel-attack-gaza.html

October 14, 2023

Ruhle Interviews Jeremy Bash, Ret. Col Jack Jacobs, Kevin Baron on Israel-Hamas War Timeline,

Realities, Tactics, Solutions

If time is tight, start 9:00 (sorry for the video ending in an ad at 30:42)

October 13, 2023

MSNBC Breaking News: The deadline to evacuate Gaza has passed.

1. This was the report this AM:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/oct/13/israel-hamas-war-latest-gaza-residents-told-move-ground-assault


2. The OP header is MSNBC'S chyron now, at 5:20 PM.

3. A report from one hour ago:

https://www.newsandsentinel.com/news/local-news/2023/10/palestinians-flee-northern-gaza-after-told-to-evacuate/

And from Stars and Stripes:
https://www.stripes.com/theaters/middle_east/2023-10-13/palestinians-fleeing-northern-gaza-strip-11693190.html


To all those who are running as far away as they can from Hamas, Godspeed.

October 13, 2023

Israel Is Walking Into a Trap -- The Atlantic

.

Storming into Gaza will fulfill Hamas’s wish.
By Hussein Ibish

https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2023/10/israel-hamas-war-iran-trap/675628/



Reading various Atlantic analysts can be helpful.

October 13, 2023

Nicolle Wallace Interviews Haviv Gur, Michael Oren, and MSNBC'S Ali Velshi

The first half hour was the most heartrending but insightful. Incalculable suffering, grief beyond description


To avoid the photo of a murdered baby, Start 4:00

October 12, 2023

The Atlantic underestimates the Middle East Axis plan to end Israel.

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2023/10/hamas-strategy-israel-gaza-war/675618/

Hamas May Not Have a Step Two

A day that started under control, with a coordinated surprise attack by literally thousands of armed men, does not appear to have ended that way.

By Graeme Wood


...Hamas fighters recorded their own crimes against civilians, letting their literal and figurative masks slip. Twitter sleuths have already identified suspects who may someday be tried for their crimes. On CNN, the non-Hamas Palestinian politician Mustafa Barghouti tried to deny that those crimes took place. Without the videos, some might have believed him...

The hostages, now human shields, seem to have been brought into Gaza in the most disorganized manner. Some were transported in golf carts, others on motorbikes. Some were filmed, and others not. The footage leaked in real time. Those who celebrated the day’s events noted that Israeli hostages (including small children) are valuable in trade for Palestinians in Israeli prisons. Hamas announced that it intends to execute hostages—who include, it bears repeating, small children and the elderly—on camera if Israel “targets civilian homes without advance warning” in its anticipated operation.

If human shields and the flesh trade were the strategic purpose of the raids, it is again noteworthy that instead of spiriting the hostages as covertly as possible into a carefully prepared network of dungeons, Hamas seems to have delivered them onto city streets before jeering mobs. Many more hostages, it appears, were taken off-camera than on. But a day that started under control, with a coordinated surprise attack by literally thousands of armed men, does not appear to have ended that way.

Step One was to infiltrate Israel and commit crimes against humanity. Step Two—well, it’s not clear what Step Two is, and even Step One is looking half-baked. Terrorists gonna terrorize. On one hand, this would be, oddly, good news for Israel in the short term. An enemy incapable of discipline and coordinated strategic thought is a weaker enemy. On the other hand, an enemy without moral boundaries, who will kill unarmed old people, but not before commandeering their cellphones to stream their murder for their grandchildren, is not a promising partner in any kind of peace process. And an absence of strategic logic is little comfort when the undisciplined psychos are still at large, holding guns to the heads of children, and hiding out among 2 million vulnerable civilians just across the border."



The Atlantic underestimates the regional plan to end Israel.
Going forward, the Middle East Axis of Evil has shown the West who it is.
It is never a mistake to err on the side of an abundance of caution and readiness when it comes to "death to Israel" enemies on Israel's border and beyond.

Hamas' Step Two is Hezbollah, with its hundred thousand of missiles buried in all of southern Lebanon. Hezbollah's trigger will be from Hamas, just as Israel is destroying it. Then the defending UK Royal Navy, and U.S. missiles off the coast will draw the U.S. in.
Step Three: draw the West and U.S. into a two-front, full time war footing.


Further Maps and Information about Hezbollah from the Jewish Virtual Library. (Anything up to the minute is probably classified or unavailable for obvious reasons.)

https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/operation-protective-edge-map-of-gaza-tunnels



https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/map-of-hezbollah-rocket-capabilities

October 12, 2023

tfg defense team: Judge Chutkan? Our client's under control, no worries, judge, we got this!

Eyes always on appeal, of course.

What's for breakfast -- ex parte.


Lauro and Singer's response to Jack Smith's motions on CIPA materials (Doc. # 101):
https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/67656604/101/united-states-v-trump/


...It would not “defeat

1
See, e.g., United States v. Stevens, 2008 WL 8743218, at *5 (D.D.C. 2008) (“[E]x parte
communications between prosecutors and the trial judge “are greatly discouraged and should only
be permitted in the rarest of circumstances.” (cleaned up)); see also United States v. Napue, 834
F.3d 1311, 1318 (7th Cir. 1987) (“[T]he district court in exercising its discretion must bear in mind
that ex parte communications are disfavored. They should be avoided whenever possible and,
even when they are appropriate, their scope should be kept to a minimum.”).
2
(See, e.g., Dkt. No. 20-3 at 7-12 ¶¶ 17-27, Judicial Watch, Inc. v. DOJ, No. 18 Civ. 2107 (TSC)
(D.D.C. Oct. 18, 2019) (publicly filed declaration explaining FBI’s application of National
Security Act in FOIA case); Dkt. No. 10-2 at 7-8, Smith v. NARA, No. 18 Civ. 2048 (TSC) (D.D.C.
Dec. 20, 2018) (publicly filed declaration explaining NARA’s Glomar response in FOIA case);
Dkt. No. 93-2, Doe v. Mattis, No. 17 Civ. 1928 (TSC) (June 1, 2018) (publicly filed redacted
declaration Defense Department official); Dkt. No. 67-2 at 10-15, ACLU, et al. v. DOJ, et al., No.
10 Civ. 436 (D.D.C. Nov. 25, 2014) (publicly filed declaration explaining CIA’s application of
National Security Act in FOIA case)).

page 3 of 7


the very purpose of the discovery rules” to grant cleared counsel access to unclassified portions of

the submission. Id. at 457. Similarly, the committee notes to Rule 16 that are quoted in Mejia

provide that prosecutors may seek a protective order authorizing the withholding of discoverable

material based on a submission that is “in whole or in part” ex parte. Id. (emphasis added).

President Trump’s position is that the “in part” portion of that language is the prudent and fair

course in this case.

Mejia itself is not to the contrary. Before addressing whether the ex parte district court

proceedings in that case constituted an abuse of discretion, the Court of Appeals “examined the

documents de novo” and found that “they are not helpful to the defense.” 448 F.3d at 457. The

Mejia court conducted that review with the benefit of a developed trial record that included the

merits arguments the defendant had presented to the court and the jury. In contrast, trial courts

have expressed concerns about resolving CIPA § 4 motions ex parte before the defendant has had

a similar opportunity to fully develop his defense. United States v. Libby, 429 F. Supp. 2d 46, 48

(D.D.C. 2006) (“n those rare situations where the government is compelled to make an ex parte

Section 4 filing containing arguments in support of immateriality, the government should fully

explain why the ex parte filing is necessary and appropriate.”); United States v. Rezaq, 899 F. Supp.

697, 707 (D.D.C. 1995). And in Mejia, only after concluding that the classified materials were not

“helpful”—i.e., not subject to Brady—did the court conclude that the ex parte proceedings were

permissible.

More recently, as we have noted, the Second Circuit handled a similar situation quite

differently, which resulted in disclosure of a classified CIPA § 4 submission to cleared defense

counsel. See United States v. Stillwell, 986 F.3d 196, 201 (2d Cir. 2021). There, as in Mejia, the

government submitted a CIPA § 4 motion to the trial court ex parte, without notice to the



3
page 4 of 7


defendants or the prosecutors responsible for the case. Whereas the Mejia panel reviewed the

filing itself and resolved the merits of the appeal, the Second Circuit ultimately remanded the case

and “ordered those [classified] documents disclosed to both parties.” United States v. Hunter, 32

F.4th 22, 25 (2d Cir. 2022). To our knowledge, no national security calamity resulted from the

decision requiring that cleared counsel be provided access to a court filing so central to the

defendants’ rights. We are seeking even less here by requesting only a redacted version of the

CIPA § 4 filing, which would be maintained under seal but permit cleared counsel to review and

respond to unclassified arguments and legal citations. The Special Counsel’s Office seemed to

invite a very similar approach with respect to one of the documents it produced in classified

discovery. (See Dkt. No. 65 at 5 & n.1 (acknowledging that the “vast majority” of a document

produced in classified discovery “is not classified” and expressing “willingness to discuss

producing the unclassified pages and portions in unclassified discovery”)). 3

While we presume that the Special Counsel’s Office has marked its CIPA § 4 motion with

a banner line indicating classification status, as well as portion marks for certain paragraphs

claiming the same, the Office is not an original classification authority under Executive Order

13526. Any classification of the Office’s submission is derivative of the classification of the

materials it discusses, and prosecutorial claims regarding sensitivity do not change that. See In re

Terrorist Attacks On Sept. 11, 2001, 523 F. Supp. 3d 478, 498 (S.D.N.Y. 2021) (“Simply saying

‘military secret,’ ‘national security’ or ‘terrorist threat’ or invoking an ethereal fear that disclosure

will threaten our nation is insufficient to support the privilege.” (cleaned up)). That is why citations

to legal authorities that would be filed publicly in almost any other setting are not deemed classified

3
By letter dated October 4, 2023, we requested that the Special Counsel’s Office produce the
unclassified portions of the document at issue in unclassified discovery.

page 5 of 7


by virtue of their inclusion in a CIPA filing. Nor would the disclosure of this non-classified

information to the defense in an attorneys-eyes-only manner cause any cognizable harm.


Relatedly, in order to obtain relief under CIPA § 4, the Office must validly invoke what has

been referred to as the “national security privilege” and the “classified information privilege”

under United States v. Reynolds, 345 U.S. 1 (1953). See, e.g., Yunis, 867 F.2d at 623; Mejia, 448

F.3d at 456; United States v. Libby, 453 F. Supp. 2d 35, 38 n.5, 40 (D.D.C. 2006). This entails

“strict requirements,” including an “affidavit of the responsible department head for the

information pertinent to its decision concerning the privilege.” Black v. Sheraton Corp. America,

564 F.2d 531, 543 (D.C. Cir. 1977). Whereas the Special Counsel is vested with authority to

exercise the “prosecutorial functions of any United States Attorney,” 28 C.F.R. § 600.6, CIPA § 14

limits the individuals capable of invoking the privilege to the Attorney General, the Deputy

Attorney General, or “an Assistant Attorney General designated by the Attorney General for such

purpose.” Only upon a valid invocation of this privilege can the Special Counsel’s Office rely on

CIPA § 4 to seek the Court’s approval for the extraordinary step of withholding otherwise-

discoverable evidence from President Trump. We respectfully submit that the Office should not




page 6 of 7


be permitted to do so under the circumstances of this case without granting President Trump access

to the non-sensitive portions of its submission.

Dated: October 11, 2023

October 12, 2023

Alex Wagner on Pres. Biden, Netanyahu, Richard Engel, Ali Velshi & Ayman Mohyeldin

Outstanding first hand information on Palestinians from MSNBC's Ayman Mohyeldin; then Millet Ben Haim's heartrending story of surviving an Hamas' attack.

Then back home, Claire McCaskill and David Plouffe weigh in on the foolishly dysfunctional rethugs occupying the people's House.