The Portia of our Chambers

adding an imaginative tone to what would otherwise be a dusty, dreary little clerks' office full of barristers, biscuits, and briefs.

[terminaldumbbitchdisease]

The *audacity* of Izzy to just list out numbers and wait for other people to do the math. Truly no one is doing it like her.

[portiaofourchambers]

also how I play dnd with my husband.

[thewindowofthesummerhouse]

[blackwoolncrown]

The great British Brexit robbery: how our democracy was hijacked

A shadowy operation involving big data, billionaire friends of Trump and the disparate forces of the Leave campaign heavily influenced the result of the EU referendum. Is our electoral process still fit for purpose?

Okay.

It took me days to get time together to read this whole thing, but I have finally done it. This is it. This is the one article you need to read to understand just what is going on in Britain, America, and Russia.

This is the one piece of writing you need and can use to reference the very chilling reality that these countries have been tied together in the machinations  of just a few billionaires, and how Facebook and Google tie in insidiouslyi.

I keep telling y’all to stop fucking with facebook but that’s moot now. It’s so much bigger than this.

“Was that really what you called it, I ask him. Psychological warfare? “Totally. That’s what it is. Psyops. Psychological operations – the same methods the military use to effect mass sentiment change. It’s what they mean by winning ‘hearts and minds’. We were just doing it to win elections in the kind of developing countries that don’t have many rules.”Why would anyone want to intern with a psychological warfare firm, I ask him. And he looks at me like I am mad. “It was like working for MI6. Only it’s MI6 for hire. It was very posh, very English, run by an old Etonian and you got to do some really cool things. Fly all over the world. You were working with the president of Kenya or Ghana or wherever. It’s not like election campaigns in the west. You got to do all sorts of crazy shit.”“

This is not just a story about social psychology and data analytics.

 It has to be understood in terms of a military contractor using military strategies on a civilian population. 

Us. David Miller, a professor of sociology at Bath University and an authority in psyops and propaganda, says it is “an extraordinary scandal that this should be anywhere near a democracy. It should be clear to voters where information is coming from, and if it’s not transparent or open where it’s coming from, it raises the question of whether we are actually living in a democracy or not.”

“And it was Facebook that made it possible. It was from Facebook that Cambridge Analytica obtained its vast dataset in the first place. Earlier, psychologists at Cambridge University harvested Facebook data (legally) for research purposes and published pioneering peer-reviewed work about determining personality traits, political partisanship, sexuality and much more from people’s Facebook “likes”. And SCL/Cambridge Analytica contracted a scientist at the university, Dr Aleksandr Kogan, to harvest new Facebook data. And he did so by paying people to take a personality quiz which also allowed not just their own Facebook profiles to be harvested, but also those of their friends – a process then allowed by the social network.”

Read this. Read the entire thing. It will take you a while and it’s a lot to digest but you need to know. Signal boost.

@sunderlorn we’re finally completely united in propaganda, isn’t that nice!?

[that-fabulousbastard]

Morning reading.

[blackwoolncrown]

just so you know I’m gonna reblog this until y'all give it the attention it deserves you wanna see journalists to REAL journalism? This is it. You want someone to speak out about the high and complex levels of corruption? This is it. You want to know just what the fuck is actually going on with America, USA and Russia? THIS IS IT GUYS. Read it.

[afloweroutofstone]

If you believe in a massive and active military, militarized borders and restrictive immigration policies, support for law enforcement as they currently exist, traditional family values, and the need to preserve a national culture, you’re not a libertarian. You’re not fooling anyone. You want a highly ordered and hierarchical society enforced by state coercion, just give us all a break and stop pretending like your beliefs about taxes and firearms make you a freedom fighter

[yourloverevivesmysoul-blog]

does no one realize that robin hood was a terrible role model for young kids? i mean you are stealing from people (illegal) and those people (usually) worked hard to get their wealth. it really demotivates people to succeed when they know they can get something someone else worked for.

[lilacbreastedroller]

is this what rich people worry about lmao

[sunbeargirl-deactivated20190401]

who knew the sheriff of nottingham had a blog

[jas720]

How does someone read Robin Hood and miss the part where it’s set in feudal England. He stole from people who got their wealth by exploiting the poor, incidentally that’s all rich people to this very day.

[impuretale]

Tune in next week when they tell you the story of Ebeneezer Scrooge, a benevolent job creator, harassed during his sleeping hours by the hellish socialist dead. 

[maddie-grove]

It’s also pretty demotivating when you’re a widowed rabbit-woman and you save up all year to give one of your children one (1) coin for his birthday but the Sheriff of Nottingham (a wolf) takes it just so the king (a lion) can have an even fancier crown and then distressingly steals from an apparently blind beggar (a fox) in front of your children. Just saying.

[chrisweedpiano]

[earlgreytea68]

…what is…what is happening here??? I mean this genuinely. Are these people all such complete hypocritical idiots that they refuse to admit this is wrong???? Like, this is not private property like “this guy walked into my house, sat in a seat, and refused to leave.” This man paid LITERALLY HUNDREDS OF DOLLARS TO BE TAKEN SOMEWHERE, and this company said, “Nope, never mind, not doing it,” and he said reasonably in his brain, “Well, wait, no, I paid LITERALLY HUNDREDS OF DOLLARS and in exchange you said you would take me where I wanted to go,” and this company said, “Nope, in fact, let us now drag you around and bash your head in.” 

Like…it is never okay to treat anyone like this and I do not mean to imply that at all, but especially in this circumstance: HE PAID LITERALLY HUNDREDS OF DOLLARS FOR THIS. 

I am glad all of these people now live in sewers so I won’t have to worry about ever being in their immediate vicinity since apparently their first kneejerk reaction to every situation is “GRAB THAT PERSON AND THROW THEM AROUND AND BASH THEIR HEAD IN. TOTALLY PRAGMATIC.” 

/end rant, sorry for diversion into how horrible so many human beings on this planet are let us not even discuss all the rest of it uuuugggghhhh

[earlgreytea68]

I’m reblogging this because I saw these tags: 

#APPARENTLY YOU SIGN UP FOR THIS WHEN YOU AGREE TO THE TERMS AND CONDITIONS I SHIT YOU NOT#so he can’t even sue them?!#they’re complete trash#never flying with them again

And I wanted to clarify this, since I am a lawyer and I teach Contracts so I figured I could add a little bit of clarity. 

First, just so you know, there is a contract doctrine called unconscionability that, in most states, will protect you from contract terms that “shock the conscience.” Now, apparently, nothing shocks consciences in this country anymore, but if you are required to enter into a contract with no ability to negotiate (e.g., the contract of carriage of an airline), chances are good that if there was some crazy contractual term like “WE CAN DRAG YOU OFF THE PLANE BY KNOCKING YOU UNCONSCIOUS,” a court is going to be like, “Uhhhhhh, no.” Like, you can agree to pretty typical contract clauses that way, not off-the-wall things like that. 

So that’s the first thing. The second thing is I’m sure the tags really meant that your Contract of Carriage with United Airlines agrees that you can be bumped off of a flight involuntarily. This is true: you can be. (This is because AIRLINES ARE THE WORST AND FEEL NO OBLIGATION TO PROVIDE YOU WITH THE SERVICE YOU PAID FOR but wait, that is a rant for another day and that my friends get to heard from me all too often because I fly waaaaaay too much.) However, when you look at the Contract of Carriage, it says this: 

“If there are not enough volunteers, other Passengers may be denied boarding involuntarily in accordance with UA’s boarding priority”

(source, Rule 25.A.2)

This passenger was not denied boarding. This passenger was on the plane. So, sorry, United, by your own contractual terms THAT YOU GOT TO WRITE TO GIVE YOU ALL THE POWER, you were *still* in violation, because all you gave yourself was permission to deny boarding, not permission to drag off the plane involuntarily once boarding has happened. 

But even if you think my reading of the clause is too technical and you think United has the right by contract to remove you from a flight after you have boarded, that does not mean that they can use any means necessary. This is an important point that I think people in this country these days keep forgetting. When someone does something to you that you think is wrong, YOU ARE NOT ALLOWED TO HIT THEM. Like, do we have to go back to kindergarten, everyone???? You GO TO COURT, and a court says, “Yeah, buddy, not cool, you hurt United, pay them some money.” THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS IN A CIVILIZATION. THIS. Now sometimes you might be like, “Wow, going to court is expensive and time-consuming, that hardly seems fair.” I agree with this, except if we should make anybody go to court, it should definitely be the huge corporation and not the little person, so no sympathy for United here. If there was a problem here, they should have said, “You’re in breach of contract, we’re going to sue you,” and then moved on until they found someone who agreed to leave. Take him to court, get your money for whatever the heck that cost you. (Tbh, I would have offered money until someone accepted and asked for recovery of that.) Now, would this have resulted in attorneys’ fees, so United still wouldn’t be evened up? Yeah. I can’t actually fix all of our legal system right now, but we could definitely make attorneys’ fees more readily available for victorious parties. You know why we could do that? BECAUSE THE LEGAL SYSTEM EXISTS FOR US. WE CAN ASK OUR LAWMAKERS TO DO THIS FOR US. (If the system functions.)

Okay, so, additional complication here: The United employees did not perform the act of violence, they called the police who then performed it. This is a whole other issue. Tbh, whether United should be held liable for that is a complicated question beyond the scope of this Tumblr entry, but just because the police did this doesn’t mean it was justified. Of course, this country no longer believes that police should be held responsible for anything done to minorities, apparently, but there should theoretically be a check there. 

And you might say, “Wasn’t the police man justified because the man wasn’t leaving the plane?” Well, no. I don’t think that was a crime? I guess you could say it’s a crime because it’s a crime not to obey a flight attendant? I don’t know enough about that. So, were they trying to arrest this man and he was resisting arrest? I am unclear on that. What I do know is that police do not enforce contract breaches without court orders. Police can, at best, preserve status quo while the parties go to court. This was definitely not the status quo. 

So, anyway, that was a really, really long there, but yeah, every once in a while I think everyone should listen to me babble about law. :-) 

[portiaofourchambers]

Yet the lawyer knew she’d need much more than proof of innocence to free her clients. In Illinois, innocence alone isn’t enough to overturn a conviction. She’d need new evidence that couldn’t have been reasonably discovered before her clients’ convictions. In short, she needed proof that Guevara routinely, systematically, and knowingly framed innocent people.

BuzzFeed News investigates Chicago Police Detective Reynaldo Guevara, who is accused of framing at least 51 people for murder. When a group of mothers, aunts and sisters found that no officials — not the state’s attorney’s office, not the mayor’s office — wanted to take up their cause, the women went in search of justice themselves.

[portiaofourchambers]

No License Plates Here: Using Art to Transcend Prison Walls

A mural class is part of an initiative by the State of California to bring the arts to all 35 of its adult prisons.

“In the prison yard, men have a certain hypermasculine image to uphold, but in the studio they can drop their guard.

“The criteria of being a good artist is different than being a good prisoner,” Ms. Pecenco continued. “Being a good artist requires vulnerability.”

[portiaofourchambers]

Wrongfully Convicted Compton Man Released After 20 Years Behind Bars

Contreras was convicted of attempted murder and robbery off eyewitness identification that proved to be wrong.

“Erroneous eyewitness identifications account for about 75 percent of all wrongful convictions in the U.S.,” Paula Mitchell, legal director for the LPI, added.

“This is a huge problem,” Adam Grant, an attorney for Contreras, and LPI's Program Director, said of eyewitness testimony, reports the Los Angeles Times. “It’s a thorny problem because the public considers it reliable.”

[theillustratedcourtroom-blog]

Above is the court artwork of Bill Robles, who is highlighted in the article below.

Lindsay Lohan in court, Los Angeles Superior Court

[theillustratedcourtroom-blog]

Above is the court artwork of Bill Robles, who is highlighted in the article below.

Lindsay Lohan in court, Los Angeles Superior Court

[portiaofourchambers]

AG Sessions says the Justice Department will "pull back" on police department civil rights suits

Donald Trump's attorney general said Tuesday the Justice Department will limit its use of a tactic employed aggressively under President Obama

BUT HILLARY’S EMAILS

stay safe out there everyone

[portiaofourchambers]

This Is Solitary

In solitary confinement, the failures of the justice system pile up on each other. This is what happens when they land on society's most vulnerable.

[npr]

On Thursday morning, law enforcement entered the Oceti Sakowin camp to do a final sweep before officially shutting it down, ending a months-long protest against the completion of the nearby Dakota Access Pipeline.

The Oceti Sakowin camp was the largest of several temporary camps on the northern edge of the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation in North Dakota. Protesters have been living on this land for months, in support of members of the Standing Rock Sioux.

Supporters have said that running the pipeline under under a part of the Missouri River known as Lake Oahe would jeopardize the primary water source for the reservation, and construction would damage sacred sites, violating tribal treaty rights. The river crossing is the last major piece of the pipeline that remains unfinished.

PHOTOS: The Final Hours Of A Dakota Access Pipeline Protest Camp

Photos: Angus Mordant for NPR

[portiaofourchambers]

Off-Duty LAPD Cop Fires Gun During After-School Melee with Anaheim Teens

A group of teens were walking home from school yesterday afternoon in the West Palais neighborhood of Anaheim when a resident confronted them. The off-duty Los Angeles policeman complained that they were walking on his property. Words were exchanged, the man grabbed a 13-year-old named Christian (per the Facebook post of...

Maybe you’ve heard the metaphor of the sheep, wolves and sheepdogs --that most people are gentle sheep, incapable of causing harm, some people are violent wolves who are capable great harm, but police and soldiers, no, they’re noble sheepdogs who can stand up to the wolves and protect the sheep. 

After years of working alongside law enforcement, I call bullshit. There is one kind of person who is willing to resort to violence. There aren’t sheepdogs and wolves -- just angry, violent mongrels who will lash out at whatever provokes their authority.

[bookgeekconfessions]

Writing is hard. Should have been a lawyer.

[portiaofourchambers]

I did become a lawyer and I wish every day I was a writer.

[rallyforbernie]

This is what Republicans try to demonize for political gain. Think about it.

[portiaofourchambers]

My family has a similar story -- my brother, not even thirty at the time, hospitalized for a serious heart condition. He had no insurance through his job so he was on Obamacare. Thank God, he’s still with us, and on heart medication, and no one went bankrupt. That’s the real ACA. Howl like you love your loved ones. Save the ACA.