Laches:

A defense to an equitable action, that bars recovery by the plaintiff because of the plaintiff’s undue delay in seeking relief.

Laches is a defense to a proceeding in which a plaintiff seeks equitable relief. Cases in Equity are distinguished from cases at law by the type of remedy, or judicial relief, sought by the plaintiff. Generally, law cases involve a problem that can be solved by the payment of monetary damages. Equity cases involve remedies directed by the court against a party.

Types of equitable relief include Injunction, where the court orders a party to do or not to do something; declaratory relief, where the court declares the rights of the two parties to a controversy; and accounting, where the court orders a detailed written statement of money owed, paid, and held. Courts have complete discretion in equity, and weigh equitable principles against the facts of the case to determine whether relief is warranted. [The Free Dictionary]

Noted “Perhaps the Dumbest Argument Ever Made in Emergency Petition to the Supreme Court Appears in Pennsylvania Election Case,” Rick Hasen, Election Law Blog:

Over the weekend I wrote about the Pennsylvania’s Supreme Court decision to block a ridiculous lawsuit filed by a Republican state senator in state court which argued that the expansion of absentee voting done in 2019 by the Republican state legislature, including the plaintiff in the suit, violated the state constitution. It was a ridiculous suit for many reasons including laches: if you have a problem with an election rule, you cannot wait until after the election is run to see if you like how the election came out before suing. The state Supreme Court unanimously agreed that any kind of relief that would disenfranchise voters who voted using the system approved by the legislature would be impermissible.

That’s Republican law these days. It’s either predatory, stirring up the base, or it’s bloody incompetent.

Jennifer Rubin on business in reality vs business in the right-wing epistemic bubble:

As business leaders and the rest of the country learned in the Trump years, economic prosperity does not rely on deregulation or tax cuts for the rich, but on fundamentals such as a functioning health-care system that can confront a pandemic, a robust international trading system, the rule of law and corruption-free government. While right-wing donors and think tank ideologues may believe that supply-side tax cuts and a roll back of environmental regulations are the keys to prosperity, business leaders rarely prioritize these issues. (And in fact, having invested in green energy, businesses are now pushing back on efforts to revert to excessive carbon output.)

Likewise, the MAGA crowd may seek to demonize Black Lives Matter, but private industry, sensitive to public opinion, largely embraced the message of racial justice and reform.

Given all that, it should not be surprising that Business Roundtable chief executives (who lead companies with nearly $9 trillion in annual revenue and employ close to 19 million workers) are sounding the alarm against the obstructionism, penny pinching and covid-19 denialism that color Republicans’ outlook these days. In a statement released Monday, the Business Roundtable argued that the top priority for the next administration and Congress should be “to help American families amid the global coronavirus pandemic, as their plans and economic outlook improve from historic lows set earlier this year.” [WaPo]

Citizen’s United v. FEC has become notorious for, among other things, giving corporations many of the same rights as people, as I understand it. I think that’s silly, but that’s neither here nor there; and, given its existence, I think Rubin should have extended her argument a little further under the aegis of Corporate Personhood.

She should have called on businesses to refuse to fund right wing politicos until they reform or retire.

This is not a hard argument to make, following Rubin’s take on fertile corporate ground. Good health, educated workers, enlightened governance: while these may be anathema to supremacists of all stripes, as well as wanna-be robber barons, most corporations greatly value those conditions. While there’s many reasons for Silicon Valley’s location, one reason it isn’t located in a State with poor health and education, such as Mississippi, is because it couldn’t prosper there. Between the bad governance (which I happily grant has improved recently with reformations to the election laws) and the bad health, corporations would stumble and crash, despite the low taxes. Meanwhile, in California, land of high taxes, it continues to prosper.

On the flip side, autocracies and theocracies are notorious for their negative effects on both populace and corporations. Sure, if you’re a CEO that is personally related to one of the political or theocratic leaders, you may do extraordinarily well – if you enjoy being surrounded by intrusive 24 hour security and are enough of a narcissist that universal dislike of yourself doesn’t bother you. But most corporations will do only mediocre, and, worse, autocracies are very well known for unilateral actions which damage or destroy corporations, with no recourse to the law for recompense. And theocracies? They just accuse you of blasphemy and execute you.

Rubin cites the Business Roundtable, and that would be a fine place to start. They could compose a letter to be sent to the Republican National Committee and every single Republican elected official specifying the following:

[Official’s Name] will get no more money from the undersigned until

1. You accept Biden is the legitimately elected President, and publicly announce same. That the judiciary has rejected all charges of fraud, as well as requests for theft of Electoral Votes, should inform you that this is the proper American position to take.
2. You denounce all threats and violence emanating from right wing sources.
3. Given our business interests, Senator McConnell helps pass an economic stimulus package that keeps ourselves and our customers afloat. Your responsibility? To call McConnell and urge him to fulfill his responsibilities.
4. You call on President Trump to concede and desist from any more attempts to damage the Republic.
5. You denounce all clerics who have supported you and are attempting to raise a revolt against the legitimately elected Biden Administration. Sedition and treason are not good for business. Don’t be silent on the issue.

This letter should be published in relevant newspapers and online.

Corporations are what make this country run, whether you like it or not, and if they step up and take responsibility for their own future, that would be a big step towards telling an artificially aggrieved minority that it’s time to grow up and reassess. Nothing’s been stolen from the aggrieved.

Their candidate was simply horrible. And rejected.

Andrew Hawthorn notes an important facet of the Star Trek universe:

From the Organians of The Original Series’ “Errand of Mercy”, to Voyager’s “Caretaker”, Star Trek has no end of seemingly omnipotent beings, who could, if they wished, make a good case for godhood. Rarely upon encountering these beings do Starfleet crews fall on their faces and choose worship, so some level of skepticism even in the case of miraculous power should be observed. [StarTrek.com]

The various philosophical choices made by the creators of Star Trek are part of its charm, and part of why so many of its stories have resonated to multiple generations.

But it does make me wonder if Star Trek is popular in evangelical and other far-right-religious circles.

Distal:

anatomy
(of a muscle, bone, limb, etc) situated farthest from the centre, median line, or point of attachment or origin [Collins Dictionary]

Noted in “ROMAN CATHOLIC DIOCESE OF BROOKLYN, NEW YORK v. ANDREW M. CUOMO, GOVERNOR OF NEW YORK: ON APPLICATION FOR INJUNCTIVE RELIEF,” SCOTUS:

At the same time, the Governor has chosen to impose no capacity restrictions on certain businesses he considers “essential.” And it turns out the businesses the Governor considers essential include hardware stores, acupuncturists, and liquor stores. Bicycle repair shops, certain signage companies, accountants, lawyers, and insurance agents are all essential too. So, at least according to the Governor, it may be unsafe to go to church, but it is always fine to pick up another bottle of wine, shop for a new bike, or spend the afternoon exploring your distal points and meridians. Who knew public health would so perfectly align with secular convenience?

Certain to be discussed in law classrooms of the future as a prime example of drawing false, even ignorant, equivalencies, and the damage that can inflict on society.

I also must say that it betrays how well Justice Gorsuch has taken up the general right-wing teaching of victimhood. A little sad that he’s unable, in this instance, to step outside of that box and evaluate the scenario without reference to the emotional teachings he received as a child and young adult.

If you like your science fiction dark:

Here are a few of mine:

“Protests need to lead to change, and the only way to make real, sustainable change is voting. And that’s not an original idea. [Late congressman] John Lewis preached that all his life,” Koonin said. “What the protests said to me is that there is energy, but energy has to meet action. And the action is voting and then the people speak. We solved a problem.”

The unplanned, leaguewide strike after Blake’s shooting provided another opportunity to leverage the moment. Paul and James called Obama for advice and came away with a strategy focused on voting. In a matter of days, they saved a season, raised awareness and got 23 of the 30 teams to offer either their arenas or practice facilities as polling places. For the conference finals and NBA Finals, warmup shirts that had read “Black Lives Matter” earlier in the season’s reboot read “Vote.” [WaPo]

All of those players and franchise owners who realized they could lead and help: kudos!

Winner

A FedEx driver surprised a boy with a new basketball and hoop after she noticed him playing with a broken one

Loser

GOP plan disregards poor, prioritizes ‘three-martini-lunch’ policy

Senate Majority Leader “Moscow” Mitch McConnell (R-KY)

Mitch McConnell, the man personally responsible for Americans’ low opinion of Congress.

Why are you all floating heads? Am I in heaven?

Patterns (1956), outside of some of its cinematography, is an excellent study in how corporate behavior changes in response to changes in scale. Fred Scales has been newly promoted to a junior VP slot, reporting to senior VP Bill Briggs, who in turn reports to company President and owner Walter Ramsey. Briggs knew the founder of the company, who was the father of Ramsey, and has slowly come to loathe Walter Ramsey. In turn, Ramsey is trying to ease Briggs out.

Staples, an engineer and expert in industrial relations, proves quite competent, but refuses to take credit where credit is not due, while Ramsey would prefer that he do so. Soon, Staples finds himself in a bind, with his sense of ethics on one side, and Ramsey and even his own wife on the other. Meanwhile, Briggs, who lost his wife, is counting the cost of his own position in life: a lost wife, a son who struggles to support his decisions, and a health condition.

So when Ramsey eventually advances the next outrage, Briggs is lost and gone. But when Staples is faced with deciding if it’s up or out, things get really interesting.

Backed with excellent acting, a plot that treats everyone of importance, even Ramsey, as a human, and at least one surprise, it’s an exploration, from the time of the 1950s, of what the oncoming age of huge corporations may mean for humanity.

Both methods and soul.

In Gaza, there’s a few women who want to play like the men:

Society in the Gaza Strip sees boxing for women as an instigator to violence against their husbands in the future and has repeatedly slammed women for practicing it, in an attempt to get them to quit it.

Despite the obstacles, Gazan women have fought for their right to practice boxing in a society that keeps proving its patriarchal character first and foremost with its repeated refusal of women to participate in sports and other fields, restricting women’s roles to marriage and the home.

However, some support women’s rights to live their lives as they see fit, as long as they do not undermine traditions and norms. [AL-Monitor]

It’s not without its challenges:

Osama Ayob, 36, the coach of the girls boxing team in Gaza, decided after a tour in several European and Arab countries to create a boxing team for girls without the support of any party, at his own expense.

In early 2020, he announced through his Facebook page the launch of a boxing training program for women. The team was initially made up of 10 girls, and continued to grow until it reached 45 girls and women aged between seven and 25.

Ayob told Al-Monitor, “Forming a team of girls was difficult for me because it is the first one in Gaza, and it took personal effort without anyone’s support. There was a strong turnout of girls, and I really wished that society’s harsh view of them would change. I took it upon myself to protect them and toughen them against insulting comments that demoralize them and curb their desire to practice this sport.”

Sometimes just successfully existing can be enough to encourage something to pop into existence in another culture.

Lovely!

I was pleased to see that the House passed a bill to decriminalize marijuana nation-wide:

The House voted Friday on the Marijuana Opportunity Reinvestment and Expungement Act, or MORE Act, which decriminalizes cannabis and clears the way to erase nonviolent federal marijuana convictions. The Senate is unlikely to approve the bill.

The MORE Act also creates pathways for ownership opportunities in the emerging industry, allows veterans to obtain medical cannabis recommendations from Veteran Affairs doctors, and establishes funding sources to reinvest in communities disproportionately affected by the war on drugs.

Friday’s vote was the first time a full chamber of Congress has taken up the issue of federally decriminalizing cannabis. Of the vote count, 222 Democrats were in favor of passing the MORE Act and six were against it. Five Republicans voted in favor of it and 158 voted against passing it. [NBC News]

But beyond the obvious benefits to our penal system, it’s useful to think of the context.

The Democratic-controlled House passed this bill.

In all likelihood, the Republican-controlled Senate will not. They may not even consider it.

And the two Democrats in Georgia running for those two Senate seats being defended by the Republicans can use that latter potential fact in their campaigns. They can point at the lack of action of which I hypothesize, and say, Hey, if we were seated in that Senate for the next session, the House could pass that bill again and the Democrats could finish the deal.

This would have impact on a Black community ravaged by heavy enforcement of the drug laws, and in the political independents who happen to favor marijuana legalization. Runoff elections are notorious for being lightly attended, and this may help with attendance.

So there may be more going on here than meets the eye.

Mr. All Paper Ballots. He seems dedicated to the public weal, not to his pocketbook:

https://youtu.be/vjlZxb7fOJ4?t=303

If the video doesn’t start at the proper place, go to 5:00 or so and see Mr. Christopher Krebs answer questions concerning the recent election, and in fine form, too.

Because it’s December.

[H/T EN.]

The phrase data visualization is, at least for me, a modern phrase, often connected to computers. I suppose I exposed my technological provincialism there. Anyways, I was surprised to run across some historical research on data visualization involving … W. E. B. Du Bois, the famed Black scholar. In this presentation from October of 2019, current scholar Silas Munroe presents a study of the work of Du Bois and other Black scholars of his era in the area of data visualization. Just a couple of examples here, lifted from the presentation:

While perhaps not as impressive as Charles Minard’s classic graph of the French invasion of Russia in 1812 (right), they succeed in graphically getting their points across.

If you have an especial interest in data visualization history or W. E. B. Du Bois, it might be worth your time to look at Munroe’s presentation.

Our Arts Editor in the morning, self-described:

Or gaffe of the day:

Whoops. The latest legal filing from former Trump attorney Sidney Powell in her Georgia lawsuit accuses Dominion voting machines of flipping votes from Biden to Trump — which would mean the president gained fraudulent votes. One GOP attorney calls it an “epic fail.” #gapol pic.twitter.com/B93oTqwVQb

— Greg Bluestein (@bluestein) December 4, 2020

Which raises the question: do the incompetent flock to the Republican Party, or does joining the Party make them incompetent?

As an independent, this sort of crap just makes me sad.

You may have heard of a video purporting to show some illegal hijinks during the counting of votes in Georgia. Here’s the best way to discredit what turns out to be manipulated nonsense:

What you see in that video is Fulton County election workers arranging, sorting, and verifying ballots.

It is what they did before and after people left.

They were not unsupervised. The person in the blue shirt is a monitor from the Republican Secretary of State’s office.

What happened is at 10pm, the Fulton County Board of Elections announced they were sending most everyone home. The Republicans decided that meant everyone was leaving, but that is not what was said. The Fulton County Board of Elections and the Secretary of State both attest that it was made clear they were sending most people home, not everyone home.

The Secretary of State’s monitor stayed to observe.

Nothing nefarious was seen.

The monitor left to grab a drink and the GOP has selectively cut the video to make it look like the monitor left completely. He did not. The Secretary of State, the monitor, and the people there all confirm he was gone for only a few minutes. The Republican board member for the Fulton County Board of Elections also confirms this.

And who’s this? I know I critique and even make fun of him, but Erick Erickson was, in another lifetime, an election lawyer. So an expert and he’s on the same side as those manufacturing the uproar.

This is a believable discrediting.

I had not expected to see parrots in the snow.

Professor Robert Shapiro suggests that pre-election polls, which differ from public opinion polls, still have a future:

Hemant Mehta has a PSA about Rapid City, South Dakota:

Rapid City, South Dakota is where common sense goes to die. And this year, with COVID out of control throughout the Republican-led state, a lot of citizens are going that route too.

A couple of weeks ago, the city council voted 6-5 in favor of a local mask mandate, with the mayor breaking the tie. Good! But on Monday, they voted 9-1 to water down that ordinance to the point where it’s utterly useless.

The revised ordinance says businesses have to enforce a mandate if they want it — not law enforcement — and added an opt-out provision to the ordinance… meaning restaurants or stores don’t have to have a mask requirement at all. Which also means the least responsible people will be allowed to spread COVID and kill the elderly because the Rapid City council members don’t give a damn about their own citizens’ lives. [Friendly Atheist]

I’m repressing a shameful snark. It’s very sad to see exceptionalism in action, isn’t it?

Televangelist Mario Murillo must be sweating up a storm, now that the right-wing epistemic bubble has failed him:

Murillo, who recently proclaimed that he “will never accept” that Biden is president-elect, said that refusing to accept Biden’s election is a test of loyalty to God.

“I’m gonna say this,” Murillo announced. “That Joe Biden is president is the conspiracy theory. Not the Dominion voting, not all of the corruption that we’re uncovering. The conspiracy theory, the tinfoil cone hat theory is that Joe Biden is the legitimate president of the United States. Get that. Now, here’s what you are doing. The Bible says not to fear their conspiracy theories but to fear the Lord and then he will be a sanctuary. … If you are filled with the Holy Spirit and give into fear, God is going to judge you. God is going to correct you for that.”

“If you’re giving in and you’re one of those that voted for Biden, if you’re one of those that is kind of using cheap grace as an excuse to accept this cultural change and say, ‘Well, let’s be loving,’ God is going to judge you,” he continued. “Right now, this is a test. Ladies and gentlemen, this is a test. It’s a test of whether you are going to stand on the word or go by what you see.”

Murillo said that “it would make no sense” for President Donald Trump to lose when various prophecies supposedly foreshadowed his reelection, and thus Christians have “got to be loyal to God in this hour and not give in because God will surely bring correction.” [Right Wing Watch]

The power of magical thinking. Wave at vague prophecies, inject a bit of emotion, hang on for the ride.

Once believers go whole hog, believing what the preacher says, rather than adhering to the social conventions that we’ve built and revised and rebuilt over the centuries, then we’re on the road to perdition, we’re on the road covered in stakes and writhing figures in flame.

Or so history teaches us. Once religious mania overtakes social sanity, we get religious wars, first abolishing the old order, which is considered anti-God, then on each other, slicing all the cults into finer and finer pieces, until the survivors get together and realize there’s real wisdom in admitting doubt.

In saying, I don’t know the mind of the divinity.

In the meantime, subjective certainty of the intentions of a divine being that may not even exist can wreak tremendous havoc on both believer and unbeliever, and it’s really sad. The arrogance of pastors such as Murillo, as well as his followers, are such a curse on everyone. Besides Murillo.

There’s no real comeback to Murillo, unfortunately, except to wait for real-world consequences to inflict themselves on his followers. He’ll never apologize, never back down. But a sufficiently disillusioned follower, who either has lost everything, or finds their credulity has been stretched beyond redemption by such facile arguments as This is a test! I’m not wrong! Don’t lose your faith!, will walk away. Intellectual arguments? Theological arguments? No.

They may think their way out of their trap, but leading them out of their trap seems unlikely.

Barstool blowhards is how I characterize most of the folks associated with the Trump Administration – but it also appears a lot of the MAGA-voters also qualify. Walter Einenkel has helpfully collected a series of tweets from a fellow who was watching the action in Michigan’s legislature recently, and they’re a sort of horrifying hoot. Like this one:

This is Dave. Dave is struggling a little but to get his story out. His proof of fraud is that they stopped counting at night and in the morning when they restarted it was too quiet in the room.

— Sandwich Breathe (@TepidButterASMR) December 1, 2020

There are even better examples at the link.

This appalling – and quite probably anti-Constitutional – announcement comes from Governor Kevin Stitt (R-OK) in response to the Covid-19 pandemic:

Governor Kevin Stitt announced today he is declaring Thursday, Dec. 3 as a statewide day of prayer and fasting for all Oklahomans affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Oklahomans have always turned to prayer to guide us through trials and seasons of uncertainty, and I am asking Oklahomans of all faiths and religious backgrounds to join together with me on Thursday,”said Gov. Stitt.“I believe we must continue to ask God to heal those who are sick, comfort those who are hurting and provide renewed strength and wisdom to all who are managing the effects of COVID-19.” 

Gov. Stitt also encourages churches and other houses of worship to continue taking precautions to slow the spread of COVID-19 and to care for vulnerable members of their congregations.

“I believe our churches and faith communities have an incredible opportunity during this season to provide hope to Oklahomans who are struggling as we close a year that has been mentally, emotionally and physically draining,”said Gov. Stitt.“It’s important that we continue to find safe ways to gather as we all do our part to protect our families, neighbors and communities from this virus.”

It would be really, really interesting to see an animated geographic time-series of Oklahoma, tracing Covid-19 infection sites – a big contact trace, as it were – just to see if the religious gatherings called for by Governor Stitt become super-spreader events.

While magical thinkers can often argue their way out of binds, a graphic animation showing disease and death emanating from churches would certainly make some people think a little harder.

But one other thought came to mind as I typed this: toxoplasmosis:

The parasite du jour. I figured this was nicer than showing a cat killing a rodent.

Infection with T. gondii has been shown to alter the behavior of mice and rats in ways thought to increase the rodents’ chances of being preyed upon by cats. Infected rodents show a reduction in their innate aversion to cat odors; while uninfected mice and rats will generally avoid areas marked with cat urine or with cat body odor, this avoidance is reduced or eliminated in infected animals. Moreover, some evidence suggests this loss of aversion may be specific to feline odors: when given a choice between two predator odors (cat or mink), infected rodents show a significantly stronger preference to cat odors than do uninfected controls. [Wikipedia, citations omitted]

The cases are rather parallel, wouldn’t you say? The worse the infection of fundamentalist religion, the more likely the infected are to become, err, infected with the virus causing Covid-19.

While it sounds self-correcting, it’s the secondary and tertiary victims of the latter infection, who may not be infected with the former, that also suffer. That’s why I can’t just shake it off. Too many innocent victims.

Souk:

: a marketplace in northern Africa or the Middle East
also : a stall in such a marketplace [Merriam-Webster]

Noted in “There sure is evidence of fraud. Just not the fraud Trump is ranting about.,” David Von Drehle, WaPo:

I could go on. The Internet is a souk of cheap-jack merchandise — banners, flags, hats, bumper stickers, T-shirts — aimed at poor saps suckered into Trump’s phony war. This cynical commerce is a fitting end to an unseemly presidency: one more grand con, another monetized lie. There’s a massive fraud going on here, for sure. But not the one Trump is ranting about.