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October 2016

The New York State Attorney General's office has been on an over 10 year long jihad against former AIG CEO Maurice "Hank" Greenberg over alleged accounting fraud. Though he now is age 90, Greenberg continues to fight
Standing on principle may be partly generational. Mr. Greenberg is one of a dwindling number of “the Greatest Generation,” as Tom Brokaw called World War II veterans who grew up during the Depression and fought “because it was the right thing to do.” Mr. Greenberg spent much of his childhood on a small farm in an impoverished area of the Catskills near Liberty, N.Y. His father died when he was 6, and his mother worked as a manicurist. At age 17, he dropped out of high school and lied about his age to enlist in the Army, where he learned “discipline, focus and loyalty,” Mr. Brokaw wrote in his 1998 best seller.
The ongoing trial has the bizzarre aspect that the AG's office is trying to use Greenberg's military service against him by claiming that the military precision with which he ran the company made him culpable for the acts of underlings. The Wall Street Journal reports:

I mostly missed the Ken Bone phenomenon. I either wasn't watching or wasn't listening when he asked a question at the last presidential debate. He then became a media darling, though I'm not really sure why. Something to do with his red sweater, apparently. And the fact that after the debate he said he started off leaning towards Trump, but was impressed with and considering Hillary. It was a perfect pro-Clinton media meme, common guy journalists otherwise would mock becomes cool because he moves from Trump to Hillary; a good example for the common folk to hear about. Bone then sought to cash in, selling a version of his red sweater and doing other stuff to make a buck and promote himself.

The problem with Florida's death penalty began earlier this year when the Florida legislature rewrote the death penalty law in light of the Supreme Court ruling that its existing law was unconstitutional.  The rewrite was flawed and resulted in a challenge that resulted in today's rulings that Florida's death penalty is (still) unconstitutional. The Miami Herald reported at the time:
Lawmakers have approved a crucial rewrite of Florida’s death penalty sentencing law, hoping it passes muster after the current version was recently declared unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court. The bill, passed overwhelmingly by the state Senate Thursday, now heads to Gov. Rick Scott for his signature. . . . .  Florida’s new law requires juries to unanimously vote for every reason, known as aggravating factors, to warrant a death sentence. A trial judge must sign a written order confirming those findings.

Singer songwriter Bob Dylan (real name Robert Zimmerman) has been awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. Like him or not, he certainly qualifies to hold the title "voice of a generation." Even so, many have doubts about the award going to a musician. The New York Times reports:
Bob Dylan Awarded Nobel Prize in Literature Half a century ago, Bob Dylan shocked the music world by plugging in an electric guitar and alienating folk purists. For decades he continued to confound expectations, selling millions of records with dense, enigmatic songwriting.

There are varying levels of horrible results for conservatives in the upcoming election. Based on current polling, it certainly looks like Hillary will be the next president. You can argue whether that is better or worse than the alternative for conservatives, but there is no serious argument that losing either the House or the Senate is horrible. In the case of the Senate, it will pave the way for Hillary to push through disastrous judicial nominations. And yes, expect Majority Leader Schumer to raise the nuclear option to the Supreme Court level if Democrats control the Senate by even a single (tie-breaking) vote. The Senate could go either way at present polling. But the House is what stands between conservatives and the political abyss. Think of where we would be if in the first two years of his presidency, when Obama controlled both houses of Congress, he had focused on passing a wide-ranging legislative agenda rather than focusing on Obamacare. All of the executive orders and actions that have been questioned by the courts and can be reversed by the next president would have the force of legislation. Assuming Hillary is the next president and wins in a landslide, Republican control of the House may be the last line of defense.

NBC suspended Billy Bush after he appeared on the controversial audio with GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump, but the two will not separate nicely. Bush hired Hollywood power lawyer Marshall Grossman, who immediately when on the attack:
Bush, Grossman says, was an NBCUniversal employee interviewing an NBC star in The Apprentice's Trump, so he wasn't exactly in a position to challenge his interview subject. "If Billy had been passive or responded 'Shut the f— up' to Trump, Billy would have been out of a job the next day," Grossman, a partner at Orrick in Los Angeles, tells The Hollywood Reporter.

Green Party candidate Jill Stein is no fan of Donald Trump, but she's apparently more concerned about the prospect of a Hillary Clinton presidency. During a recent appearance on C-Span, Stein suggested that Hillary would use nuclear weapons in a war with Russia. Transcript via Real Clear Politics:
Jill Stein: Trump Is Less Dangerous Than Clinton; She Will Start Nuclear War With Russia It is important to not just look at the rhetoric but also look at the track record and the reality is the lesser people and greater people is a race to the bottom, and even Donald Trump in the right wing extremism grows out of the policies of the Clintons, in particular Nafta, which sent our jobs overseas and Wall Street deregulation, which blew 9 million jobs up into smoke.