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Shout! Factory Announces U.S. Theatrical Release for 'Jack and the Cuckoo-Clock Heart'
Highly anticipated new CG-animated motion picture directed by Mathias Malzieu and Stéphane Berla to be released simultaneously in theaters and on VOD Wednesday, September 24, 2014.
By Jennifer Wolfe | Tuesday, June 17, 2014 at 10:47am
In Business, CG, Films, Home Entertainment | ANIMATIONWorld, Headline News | Geographic Region: North America
Los Angeles, CA -- Multi-platform entertainment company Shout! Factory, The Film Collective, Dada Films, and Brainstorm Media have announced a strategic collaboration to launch the popular French animated film Jack and the Cuckoo-Clock Heart, adapted by Mathias Malzieu from his own bestselling novel and the gold-selling album by his band Dionysos, and directed by Mathias Malzieu and Stéphane Berla. The film is produced by Virginie Besson-Silla and Luc Besson's EuropaCorp.
The film will be released simultaneously in theaters and day-and-date on VOD Wednesday, September 24, 2014. The announcement was made by Shout! Factory's founders Richard Foos, Bob Emmer, and Garson Foos.
In a second strategic collaboration, Shout! Factory has tapped The Film Collective and Dada Films to handle U.S theatrical distribution and Brainstorm Media for VOD for this film.
Jack and the Cuckoo-Clock Heart is a whimsical and visually opulent animated fairy tale set in an exciting period full of fabulous inventions, unforgettable characters, enchanting music, and fantastic adventures. This superbly animated movie about love and the acceptance of others will appeal to animation lovers looking for something a bit edgier and artistic.
Directed by Mathias Malzieu and Stéphane Berla, the film features an exceptional English voice cast of Orlando Seale, Samantha Barks, Harry Sadeghi, Stéphane Cornicard, Sophia Ellis, Jessie Buckley, Barbara Scaff, Michelle Fairley, and Richard Riddings.
"Jack and the Cuckoo-Clock Heart is an incredibly beautiful, unusual and artful film. We're really proud to be involved in bringing this movie to the North American audience. It's something that movie fans will enjoy – with an excellent original soundtrack as well," said Garson Foos.
"We are delighted to again be working with the Shout! Factory team on Jack and The Cuckoo-Clock Heart," stated Ruth Vitale and MJ Peckos.
"We love working with Shout! on their VOD and TV – their people, product, and marketing are amazing. When they showed us this beautifully crafted film, we knew it had great potential – especially at Halloween!" said Meyer Shwarzstein.
Source: Shout! Factory
Formerly Editor-in-Chief of Animation World Network, Jennifer Wolfe has worked in the Media & Entertainment industry as a writer and PR professional since 2003.
The Film Collective
Dada Films
Brainstorm Media
Stephane Berla
Jack and the Cuckoo-Clock Heart
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Uncle Sean's Update - 7/16/21
Here is the Uncle Sean Update for 7/16/21:
This was AWESOME and made Uncle Sean smile – Congratulations to University of Tennessee at Martin for winning first place out of 35 competing universities at the CSBS 2021 Community Bank Case Study Competition. Check out their winning report - Analysis of TriStar Bank: Serving the Community During a Pandemic and Supporting Diversity, Inclusion, and Economic Fairness.
University of Arkansas won Second Place with their report - Southern Bancorp Bank: Serving the Underserved Since 1986.
Southeastern Louisiana University captured Third Place with this report on minority owned bank, Liberty Bank & Trust - Liberty: Financial Freedom for All.
Huge congratulations to ALL 35 Teams that participated in the competition! Uncle Sean is very happy to see such interest and great work coming from young people across our nation as we celebrate community banks and the critical role that they serve in our communities!!!! GREAT JOB to EVERYONE!!!!
The Big 4 Banks reported 2Q21 earnings this week. Without going into tedious detail (which I will do if left unsupervised for too long – LOL), the headlines at the 50,000 foot level are: 1) continued reserve release reflecting solid economic recovery with Consumer Segment charge-off's and loss reserves mainly back to pre-pandemic levels – caution remains in industry specific commercial segments; 2) loan volumes are disappointingly flat especially weighed down by less consumer cc balances, but is widely expected to pick up in 2H21; and 3) debit and credit card purchasing volume has been huge. Here are the Big 4's 2Q21 investor decks if you want to get weird (like me):
JPM 2Q21 Earnings Deck; BOA 2Q21 Earnings Deck; Citi 2Q21 Earnings Deck; WF 2Q21 Earnings Deck
Apple is launching Apple Pay Later as a BNPL feature for any Apple Pay wallet purchase. Goldman Sachs is reportedly the lender for the platform. Note that this new offering is separate from the Apple Card 24 month payment plan (0% financing for iPhone and other Apple products only) as it is for ANY Apple Pay purchase. There are two different platforms for the BNPL platform – first is a four interest free installment plan payable every two weeks, and second is a longer payment plan (undefined as of yet, but presumed to be 12 months) with interest.
For the record, Apple Pay is currently accepted at over 85% of U.S. retailers and anywhere that accepts contactless payments.
Two of Uncle Sean's favorite top 10 Rock Star Sponsor Banks are making more headlines this week:
Cross River Bank (these guys are CRUSHING it) is bringing Fly Now Pay Later airfare financing to the U.S.
Serial acquirer and fintech sponsor Blue Ridge Bank announced a definitive agreement to acquire FVCbank in all-stock merger of equals transaction – check out the Investor Deck reflecting $306.6M purchase price with 2.1 year payback.
Square is the latest to announce a proposed bitcoin-focused DeFi platform. Although the new business unit has not been named yet, it will include Seller, Cash App and recently acquired Tidal businesses. You can read more about DeFi on Uncle Sean's 7/9/21 Update.
Discover is partnering and investing in Sezzle (BNPL firm) with a $30M investment to "integrating a buy now, pay later solution on the Discover Global Network. Further, a dedicated referral program will be implemented that introduced Discover credit and debit products to Sezzle's user base."
PROG Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:PRG), the fintech holding company for Progressive Leasing, announced the acquisition of BNPL firm, Four Technologies, Inc. – terms were not disclosed. Steve Michaels, CEO explained "Combining Four with Progressive Leasing and Vive Financial, our lease-to-own and revolving credit companies, builds upon our direct-to-consumer growth strategy and delivers an exceptional value proposition to retailers looking to offer their customers additional payment options."
LendingClub (parent company to LendingClub Bank) settled with the FTC this week with an $18M payment for consumer remediation that does not include any admission of liability.
GreenSky (home improvement fintech loan facilitator) gets tagged with a $2.5M civil penalty by the CFPB and is being required to refund or cancel up to $9M in unauthorized loans. If you really want to, you can read the entire 5 page CFPB Consent Order here. GreenSky entered into the agreement with the CFPB without admitting any liability or wrongdoing.
Congratulations to Blend Labs who began trading today (NYSE: BLND). Shares jumped 11% at the open to $20 giving BLND a valuation north of $4B!!!
Fintech funding updates are smoking hot this week - and includes a slew of new rounds for cybersecurity solutions:
Arctic Wolf (cybersecurity firm for SME's) raised $150M in Series F funding.
Virsec (cybersecurity platform using real-time integration to prevent "zero-day" cyber hacks) raised $100M in Series C funding round.
AttackIQ (cybersecurity "breach and attack simulation solution" startup) raised $44M in Series C funding to ramp up international expansion.
Cybereason (cybersecurity tech platform) raised $275M in Series F late stage crossover financing round led by Liberty Strategic Capital founded by Steve Mnuchin, former U.S. Treasury Secretary.
Keep an eye on this one…. Stytch (an API-first passwordless authentication platform) raised $30M in Series A funding. The article mentions that "Stytch was founded by two former Plaid employees, Reed McGinley-Stempel (CEO) and Julianna Lamb (CTO), who built user authentication features that 'millions' use to connect their bank accounts to apps like Venmo, Coinbase and Robinhood. The company was founded on the premise that passwords are no longer secure, and make companies easy targets for hackers and expose them to account takeover risk."
Remote (international HR, payroll, and compliance platform for businesses) raised $150M in Series B with a valuation just north of $1B.
Jasper Card (fka Creditstacks) raised $34M in Series A with an additional $100M in receivables financing. Valuation was not disclosed but Jasper intends to use the funds to "grow its AI technology to further develop its underwriting model and introduce a new line of financial services."
M1 Finance raised $150M in Series E with a valuation of $1.45B and is M1's fourth funding round in 13 months. Last $75M Series D was just four months ago.
Railsbank (BaaS neobank) raised $70M in Series B funding. Valuation was not disclosed, but was "hinted" at the high hundreds of millions per the article. Proceeds to be used for international expansion, presumably U.S. as part of their Credit Card-as-a-Service platform (Railsbank is based in London).
Cardless (Credit Card-as-a-Service platform for digital cobranded card issuance) raised $40M in Series B funding round.
Rumored for months now, Revolut (UK Neobank with an expanding presence in the U.S.) finally announced that they raised $800M in Series E funding with a stunning $33B valuation – HOLY COW!!!!! The previous Series D round was last July 2020 at $580M with a valuation of $5.5B. Revolut plans to use the funds to expand U.S. presence and product offerings (recall where Revolut has submitted a draft application for FDIC insurance and California DFPI bank charter in March 2021).
A quick look at their recently released 2020 Annual Report shows $306M USD ($222M pound sterling at 1.38 USD conversion) in top line revenue on page 38….. Which is a valuation of about 108X revenue – DANG!!!!!! Also of note, Net Loss before OCI is $284M USD ($206M pound sterling) and appears to be getting worse – top line revenue grew by 34% in 2020 while losses increased 93% (yep – that is going the wrong way). I'm confident that the VC firms involved in the funding know way more than I do regarding Revolut's future and scalability, but that sure looks expensive!
Random Uncle Sean Stuff:
42 days until college football!!!!
Aunt Patty and I found the tiniest baby scorpion I have ever seen last night after dinner. That little baby was about the size of a match head. Of course we now have to burn the house to the ground, but I digress. LOL!!!
And….. DAD JOKES – They're Baaaaack!!!
What did 50 Cent do when he got hungry? 58!
On March 10, 1876 Alexander Graham Bell makes the first phone call ever…. And moments later he was notified that his car's extended warranty had expired.
Last week while buying bird seed, the cashier was shocked when I asked how long it takes for the birds to grow once I plant them….
I accepted a position as the head of Old McDonald's Farm. Now I am the CIEIO!!!!
Staring curiously at a jar of Molasses……. So what do they do with the rest of the mole?
I'm not necessarily stating that I am Batman "per se", but….. Batman and I have never been seen together… Just sayin'….!!!!
Have a GREAT weekend and please stay safe!!!
Uncle Sean
Sometimes known as Sean Mayo – contact me directly for scope and pricing of custom reports / analysis projects at smayo@fedfis.com | 214-604-6961 – or you can contact FedFis Sales Team at 512-960-0911 | info@fedfis.com #FedFisHasTheData FedFis
FedFis, LLC disclaimer – The views and opinions of Uncle Sean are of his own and may not necessarily represent the views, endorsements, and/or opinions of FedFis, LLC – we all know he's a little bit different; but that's why we love him.
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Швеція брала участь e Зимових Олімпійських іграх 1980 року в Альбертвіль (Франція) ушістнадцяте за свою історію, і завоювала одну золоту та три бронзові медалі. Збірну країни представляв 61 спортсмен (49 чоловіків та 12 жінок).

Золото
 Гірськолижний спорт, слалом, чоловіки — Інгемар Стенмарк.
 Гірськолижний спорт, гігантський слалом, чоловіки — Інгемар Стенмарк.
 Лижні гонки, 15 км, чоловіки — Томас Вассберг.

Бронза
 Хокей, чоловіки — Збірна Швеції з хокею

Посилання
 Національний олімпійський комітет Швеції
 База МОК
 Офіційні олімпійські звіти
 sports-reference.com

1980
Країни на зимових Олімпійських іграх 1980
1980 у шведському спорті

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


I hope we get to place stationary a/c on carrier decks, although i doubt this is possible.
Good idea! This is possible on regualar airfields, hopefully it is on carriers too. It would really add to the atmosphere.
im affraid it is not possible.
If they do not go back to a system that allows us to park AI planes, this is very sad indeed. There will be no way, for example, to represent a strike on the deck when an attack happens short of a timeout right before players reach the CV---something that invariable drags a machine to a stop.
Please, please, please, make the disappearing A/C and ability to "park" AI via zero speed, zero alt waypoints a toggle!


This department consists of some people who started to treat me oddly whenever they had heard that I'm a fresher- a bitter truth of a Fresher's life. They started asking questions & questions which yields a same reaction & reply irrespective of the fact that I provide a wise answer or a dull answer that is "Learn son, learn, you need to study more & more." okay! I was quite accustomed with these facts because I knew these before coming here that coming days would be more challenging to me.What I found here after coming for internship that most of the persons working here are actually not professional, they dont know how to behave professionally.
I want to draw another example of misbehave in this department, the very second day in solution department was something unexpected . I appeared at the office very early in the morning 9:20AM , i found that those solution people were still not there at their desks, I waited some time in the cafeteria-had some morning coffee. Finally found one guy finally had arrived to its destination -I wished him a good morning & sat beside him. he was talking about some casual things & we were engaged in that topic soon. suddenly I received a voice in hindi from backwards.
-"hero tumhe bol rahahu, piche dekho" (hero am calling you,turn back).
I stood up & looked back,found one person is calling me. whenever i stood up, he came aggressively & suddenly pushed my chair towards him,snatched the chair from my position on which I was sitten. I was so surprised finding such a behavior.
-"dusra chair dhund ke lao." (look after another chair for you).
They were so unprofessional. one of those biggest surprise in this office.


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Q: Done downloading iMessages from iCloud but recent ones are missing I opened Messages on my MacBook Pro and clicked "Enable Messages in iCloud".
It said "downloading" (or something along those lines) for a good 10-15 minutes and then stopped, presumably done.
However, certain messages are clearly missing that are on my iPhone (I only text from my iPhone). I think mostly from the last couple of days, but there could be more I'm not sure.
Is that normal? Do iMessages from my iPhone only get uploaded to iCloud every few days or something?
I tried "Sync Now" and it didn't do anything

A: I had this exact problem with my 14 inch M1 macbook pro 2021, and iphone 13, running the latest OSes as of Feb 2022. My iphone had all my messages, but macbook was missing messages from about the last day or so.

The way I solved it was to plug in (so that they are charging) both my macbook and iphone. Then, the macbook was still missing the messages. However, I then used my iphone and sent a single imessage to a family member (who also had iphone, so text message was blue) and instantly that message appeared on my macbook, along with all the missing messages from the past day.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


New York won't just be the mecca of tennis if the New York City FC has its way. According to an article published in Soccer America Daily, the team has announced it will build a new training facility, to be completed in less than two years from now.
The team has purchase 17 acres in Orangeburg, N.Y., just 25 miles north of midtown Manhattan. The proposed 25,000-square-foot complex will house team offices, locker rooms, medical services, a gym, a cafeteria, and other amenities, and a grass surface covering one and half times the area of a regulation soccer field.
NYCFC did not disclose what it paid for the land and has not put a cost on what it will spend on the project.
New York-based architect Rafael Vinoly, designer of training facilities for New York City FC's sister-clubs Manchester City FC and Melbourne City FC, supervised design of the facility.
The facility is scheduled to open prior to the start of the 2018 season. NYCFC trains at SUNY Purchase College in Westchester County. The club withdrew from a proposed arrangement with Manhattanville College when local residents opposed it.
The Orangeburg Planning Board approved the proposal in July after the club agreed to help pay for access and infrastructure upgrades.
So – any ASBA members involved in this project? Let us know!
Caption for photo: A rendering of NYCFC's upcoming facility. Image from the NYCFC website.
This entry was posted in Uncategorized and tagged ASBA, Football, futbol, N.Y., New York, New York City FC, NY, NYCFC, Orangeburg, Rafael Vinoly, soccer, soccer training facility, sports facility. Bookmark the permalink.


Berlin has a vast network of lakes, rivers and canals, integrated into the urban landscape. In fact, it is often said that Berlin has more bridges than Venice. And like Venetian bridges, Berlin's waterways present an ideal breeding ground for a child's vivid imagination. It is no wonder then, that the pirate is one of the favorite characters in the games children play. There is a pirate hidden in each Berlin youngster and he is just waiting to come out for his next urban adventure - much to the despair of the adults watching these wild shenanigans.
The film series revolves around four of these city pirates: identical twins Marie and Louise Kukowski (both fourteen years old), their brother Matt (eleven years old) and his sister Babette (eight years old). All four are experts in looking for trouble.
8 + 10 x 25 min.


Holy Smoke is a traditional london porter. purportedly, the name was first recorded in the 18th century, and is thought to come from its POPULARITY WITH STREET AND RIVER PORTERS WHEN drinking WATER HAD HEALTH RISKS AND ENERGY DRINKS HAD YET TO BE INVENTED.
IT IS A DARK STYLE OF BEER WITH A MALT BILL COMPRISED OF GOLDEN PROMISE, AMBER, CARA AND MUNICH MALTS TO FORM THE 'NUTRITIOUS' BACKBONE AND THIS HAS BEEN COMBINED WITH THE RICH INTENSITY OF OAK SMOKED WHEAT TO GIVE A SUBTLE HINT OF SMOKE, CHOCOLATE MALT TO ADD THE CLASSIC CHOCOLATY FLAVOUR AND BLACK MALT FOR COLOURING. THE PORTER HAS BEEN HOPPED WITH MAGNUM TO PROVIDE BITTERNESS TO COUNTERACT THE SWEETNESS OF THE BEER AND THE SCHEDULE HAS BEEN KEPT DELIBERATELY LIGHT IN ORDER TO SHOW OFF THE MALTS.


It may not feel like fall yet (at least in Texas), but it's sure beginning to taste like fall! Nothing tastes like fall more than pumpkin, except maybe pumpkin and apples… Pumpkin Butter! And the smell… it's like walking into … finish reading Pumpkin Butter: Hello Fall!


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Under Trump, Stock Market Up, Justice Index Down
The Trump presidency has marked its 100th day with the stock markets up, but the justice index sharply down. The markets may have fallen victim to premature exuberance over the cloudy prospects for tax breaks for the well-to-do and regulatory relief for business and industry. But justice advocates are rightly troubled by all the steps the administration has already taken and seems intent on pursuing to set back the cause of equal rights and social justice both at home and abroad.
A word first about the Trump stock market bubble. The S&P index closed on Friday [April 28] up 5 percent from its setting on Inauguration Day, Jan. 20. Among post-World War II presidents, that gives Trump bragging rights over all but two: Kennedy and Bush41, who saw the market rise 9 percent in 1961 and almost 8 percent in 1989 respectively. The market fell 5.5 percent in Bush43's first 100 days, according to data from CNBC; it rose 2.8 percent in Obama's first 100 days and then another 18.7 percent over the next six months as Obama's policies helped lift the country from the Great Recession.
The current stock market gains mean very little for the supposedly forgotten white working-class voters who gave Trump the margin for his Electoral College victory in a few battleground states and who depend on wages and salaries to earn a living. The fragmentary tax plan released by the White House on Wednesday [April 26] confirms the hopes of Trump's better-heeled supporters for lower tax bills for the rich and for corporations and dashes any hopes for significant tax breaks for middle- and lower-income taxpayers.
To date, Trump has done little for the economically stressed middle-class workers he promised during his campaign to help, apart from photo-op announcements of supposedly saving factory jobs. And in a telling policy move on Trump's first full day in office the Department of Housing and Urban Development reversed an Obama administration decision that would have lowered mortgage insurance premiums on loans insured by the Federal Housing Administration. FHA-insured loans are popular among first-time homebuyers and those with poor credit; they stood to save hundreds of dollars a year under the policy quietly jettisoned by Trump's HUD.
On issues more directly related to law and justice, the administration has been anything but quiet in instituting policies or signaling future moves to set back criminal justice, LGBT rights, voting rights, immigrant rights, and human rights abroad. The setbacks for justice policies come as no surprise given Trump's selection of the conservative Alabama senator Jeff Sessions as attorney general to head what, it must be remembered, is called the Department of Justice.
Sessions has echoed the president's inaugural address warning about the supposed "carnage" in American cities, inciting public support for punitive anti-crime policies even with the crime rate at historically low levels. In perhaps the most distressing and least justifiable of his policy moves, Sessions has scaled back the Justice Department's oversight of local police departments. Sessions called the kinds of investigations that brought court-monitored, agreed-upon reforms to such troubled cities as Baltimore and Ferguson, Mo., as part of a war on police. He directed a review of the existing consent decrees in nearly two dozen cities and stalled work on future agreements.
As attorney general, Sessions has also echoed Trump in unsubstantiated warnings about voter fraud, thus attempting to shore up the dubious rationales for stricter voter ID laws even as federal court challenges proceed. In the highest-profile of such cases, the department under Sessions switched its previous position that Texas was guilty of intentional racial discrimination in enacting its strict voter ID law in 2011. Private plaintiffs fortunately are still pressing the claim, which could result in reinstituting preclearance requirements for any Texas voting law changes.
Sessions also played a decisive role in reversing another Obama administration policy: the Education Department's directive to local school districts to allow transgender pupils to use restrooms and locker facilities corresponding to their gender identity. Reportedly, Sessions had to prevail on a reluctant Education Secretary Betsy DeVos to reverse the Obama administration policy guidance broadly interpreting the sex discrimination law known as Title IX to encompass gender identity. The move caused the Supreme Court to back away from a ruling in a transgender rights case, Gloucester County School Board v. G.G., by sending the case back to a federal appeals court to take account of the new Trump administration policy.
The Justice Department was also tasked with defending two of Trump's most legally dubious moves. So far, federal courts have rejected Trump's first and second "travel ban" executive orders that amounted to thinly disguised Muslim bans as Trump had called for in his campaign. A federal judge in San Francisco last week also rejected the executive order Trump issued in his first week threatening to cut off federal funds to so-called "sanctuary cities" that resist being commandeered into enforcing federal immigration law.
Trump's most concrete legal accomplishment, of course, has been his appointment of the committed conservative Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court. In 13 oral arguments over the past two weeks, Gorsuch gave court watchers no reason to doubt his future alignment with the court's conservatives in pro-law enforcement positions in criminal cases and pro-business stances in regulatory and civil justice cases. Even without recorded votes, Gorsuch evidently saw no need to tighten Supreme Court review of death penalty procedures as the justices allowed to go on an unseemly execution spree over the past two weeks.
Far from concerned about these issues, Trump signaled his confidence in administration policies and U.S. standing in the world by proclaiming May 1 to be Loyalty Day. "The United States stands as the world's leader in upholding the ideals of freedom, equality, and justice," Trump declared. However true or not in years past, that claim rings hollow indeed as his administration moves past the 100-day milestone used to judge previous presidents.
Posted by Kenneth Jost at 8:00 AM No comments:
Judges' Role in Death Cases Curbed as Sotomayor Urged
Justice Sonia Sotomayor can now take a bow for significant reforms in death penalty cases in two of the states with among the highest number of executions since capital punishment was reinstituted in 1976: Alabama and Florida. Those two states were until recently the only two where judges in recent years could and actually did impose death sentences even after juries voted for life or long prison sentences instead.
Both states have now enacted laws eliminating judges' power to impose a death sentence except based on factual findings or recommendations from a jury. Alabama's new governor, Kay Ivey, signed a bill repealing the state's judicial override procedure earlier this month [April 11] just one day after taking over following the resignation of her sex scandal-plagued predecessor, Robert Bentley.
Florida changed its law in March 2016 to eliminate a judge's power to impose a death sentence without input from the trial jury. The change came three months after the Supreme Court ruled in Hurst v. Florida that the state's procedure ran afoul of a decade-long line of precedents generally limiting a judge's power to make factual findings needed to increase a defendant's sentence.
Sotomayor authored the 8-1 decision in the Florida case, but she had first spoken out against judge-imposed death sentences in an Alabama case two Supreme Court terms earlier. In Woodward v. Alabama, Sotomayor wrote an impassioned dissenting opinion
from the court's refusal in November 2013 to consider an Alabama death row inmate's challenge to the judicial override procedure.
A judge had sentenced Mario Dion Woodward to death for the killing of a Montgomery police officer, but in the face of an 8-4 jury recommendation that he be spared the death penalty and sentenced to life imprisonment instead. In her opinion, Sotomayor noted that Alabama was the only state within the previous decade where judges had actually imposed death sentences in the face of contrary verdicts.
Alabama judges had actually made somewhat frequent use of this power, Sotomayor noted. She listed in an appendix the 95 defendants sentenced to death by Alabama judges after contrary sentencing recommendations by juries. By contrast, Alabama judges had overridden jury-recommended death sentences only nine times. And Sotomayor pointed out that the number of judge-imposed death sentences appeared to spike in election seasons. One judge, she noted, had noted in his campaign literature the six defendants he had sentenced to death, including one that the jury had recommended be given a life sentence instead.
Sotomayor was joined in her dissent by Justice Stephen G. Breyer, but not by the court's other two liberal justices: Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Elena Kagan. She acknowledged in her opinion that the Supreme Court had previously upheld Florida's judicial override procedure in capital cases.
Florida had once led the nation in what Sotomayor called "life-to-death overrides," with 89 in the 1980s compared to 30 in Alabama and six in Indiana. By the 1990s, Alabama had taken the lead with 44 compared to 26 in Florida and four in Indiana. After 2000, Alabama stood alone with 26 life-to-death overrides; in the only other case, in Delaware, the judge-imposed death sentence was reduced on appeal to a life term.
Sotomayor achieved her goal in March 2015 when the court agreed to hear a new Florida case challenging that state's judicial override procedure in capital cases. The case was argued early in the new term, in October 2015, and ended with a nearly unanimous decision overruling the previous decisions upholding Florida's procedure. "Time and subsequent cases have washed away the logic of [the earlier decisions]," Sotomayor wrote. As the lone dissenter, Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. argued that the "advisory" role played by the jury under Florida law satisfied the line of precedents requiring juries not judges to make factual findings needed to increase a defendant's sentence.
Florida passed its new law three months later to eliminate judges' power to impose death sentences unless recommended by at least a 10-2 jury vote. The writing appeared to be on the wall for Alabama's judicial override procedure after the court sent an Alabama case back to the state's court to consider the impact of its decision in Hurst. The Alabama legislature completed approval of a bill to repeal the judicial override provision on April 4; Bentley had promised to sign it, but it fell to Ivey to sign the measure after Bentley's resignation.
Robert Dunham, executive director of the Washington-based Death Penalty Information Center, called the repeal "significant." He noted to the Birmingham Times that historically judicial overrides had been seen as a safeguard against runaway juries, but that in contemporary times the power "has been used to impose death sentences against the will of the community and has been disproportionately used in election years in cases of white victims and African am defendants."
Today, Sotomayor has become the court's most vocal critic of the lethal injection procedures currently used in death penalty states. She spoke for the four liberal justices in dissenting from the decision in Glossip v. Gross (2015) upholding the current three-step lethal injection procedure.
Sotomayor reiterated her points from that dissent as recently as Thursday night [April 19] in voting to grant stays of executions to the Arkansas inmates seeking to halt the state's plans to carry out eight executions within a span of two weeks. With one significant reform to her credit, Sotomayor can be expected to keep up the pressure on this issue as well.
Posted by Kenneth Jost at 12:18 AM No comments:
On Use of Force, Law Is Toothless, Not Pointless
The results of President Trump's decision to launch missile strikes against the Syrian air force base in retaliation for its use in a chemical weapons attack on civilian populations can now be toted up. In short, the strikes achieved little in terms of military or diplomatic objectives, but Trump got a bump in his approval rating and a distraction from the investigation into possible collusion between his campaign and the Russian government.
The episode also lays bare for all to see the rank hypocrisy of Republican politicians and Republican voters who rushed to Trump's support despite having opposed any similar U.S. intervention four years ago when President Obama was in the White House. A survey by the Pew Research Center found overall support for Trump's action — 58 percent to 36 percent — with Republicans supportive by a 4-1 margin: 77 percent to 19 percent.
Four years earlier, Pew's survey found Republicans opposed to intervention: 35 percent in favor, 40 percent opposed. The 2013 survey found Democrats and independents opposed by larger margins: 48 percent to 29 percent for Democrats, 50 percent to 29 percent for independents. But it was opposition from Republicans on Capitol Hill that forced Obama to fold his cards. Obama had argued that he could act on his own but explained that he wanted Congress's support to strengthen the U.S. position.
Trump's all but unilateral decision prompted a useful if inconclusive debate over the legality of his actions, with no more than minimal consultation with leaders in Congress and no resort to international law or the peacekeeping machinery of the United Nations. The history of this and similar debates earlier gives pause to any sticklers for separation of powers or international law. But it is too facile to treat either domestic or international law merely as toothless restraints on the president's power to use military force.
The constitutional debate over the president's warmaking powers is long-lived, a built-in feature of the separate provisions that make the president the commander in chief but give Congress the power to "declare" war. The debate was well joined in the Vietnam era. The various legal challenges to the Vietnam War were never fully adjudicated, but Congress eventually responded by enacting the War Powers Act in an effort to limit any extended commitment of U.S. forces abroad without congressional approval.
The law, adopted in November 1973 over President Richard Nixon's veto, requires the president to notify Congress within 48 hours of committing U.S. forces abroad and requires withdrawal of U.S. forces within 60 days unless Congress affirmatively approves. Trump followed other presidents' examples by notifying Congress of the missile strikes two days after the launches but without formally acknowledging any obligation to do so.
The three-paragraph letter sent to Congress on April 8 was admittedly brief, but constitutes the most formal statement of Trump's intentions and justifications for his decision. "I directed this action in order to degrade the Syrian military's ability to conduct further chemical weapons attacks and to dissuade the Syrian regime from using or proliferating chemical weapons," Trump wrote, "thereby promoting the stability of the region and averting a worsening of the region's current humanitarian catastrophe."
Two days earlier, Trump had announced the missile strikes to Americans and the world in a televised address from Mar-a-Lago not even three minutes long: heavy on bathos, light on tactical or legal content. Now, more than a week later, Trump has still been light on explaining the policy or exploring the implications even as his principal advisers send conflicting signals on long-term goals regarding the future of the Syrian strongman Bashar Al Assad.
As for the War Powers Act, Charles Stevenson, an adjunct professor at Johns Hopkins University's School of Advanced International Studies in Washington, argues that the law has achieved its purposes even without formal presidential acknowledgment. Stevenson, an aide to the dovish Iowa senator Harold Hughes back in the Vietnam era, notes that no overseas conflict since 1973 has lasted more than three to four months without congressional approval.
International law operates as even less of a formal restraint on presidential warmaking, but it too should not be completely discounted. Trump's televised address sounded not like an "America First" foreign policy but more like what some experts are calling an emerging doctrine of humanitarian intervention in international law.
Ironically, Trump has gotten support for the missile strikes from a liberal veteran of the Obama administration: Harold Koh, the human rights-minded Yale law professor and State Department legal adviser under Obama. Koh argued in a law review article that humanitarian intervention, even without U.N. Security Council approval, may be legal under international law if various conditions are met. The humanitarian crisis must be one that threatens international order, and the intervention must be limited and necessary to prevent a per se violation of international law, such as use of chemical weapons.
Trump's impulsive resort to missile strikes was satisfying no doubt: an eye poke to Assad and, incidentally, to his Russian ally Vladimir Putin. But Trump could have strengthened his case, and shown more respect for public opinion at home and abroad, by dotting the i's and crossing the t's of applicable law, even now if only after the fact.
With Shoutout to Scalia, Gorsuch Reaffirms Likely Course
After taking the oath of office as Supreme Court justice, Neil Gorsuch turned to the widow of his predecessor, Antonin Scalia, to give one more tribute to the man he was to succeed. "I won't ever forget," Gorsuch said, facing Maureen Scalia as she sat in the front row of the Rose Garden ceremony, "that the seat I inherit today is one of a very, very great man."
Gorsuch had gone further when President Trump announced his selection on Jan. 31 by praising "the towering judges" who had served in the seat: not only Scalia but also Robert Jackson, a Democrat named by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1941. Somewhat oddly, Gorsuch skipped over Scalia's immediate predecessor, William Rehnquist, who held the seat as associate justice until his elevation to be chief justice in 1986.
Apart from Jackson and one other justice, the seat that dates back to 1863 has been held by judicial conservatives for all but a 30-year period. The seat that Gorsuch is shown in Supreme Court charts as seat #10: historically, the tenth seat of what is now a nine-seat court.
The Republican-majority Congress added a tenth seat to the court in 1863 partly to give President Abraham Lincoln stronger support on a court that had upheld his wartime blockade of southern courts by only a one-vote margin. To fill the new seat, Lincoln appointed Democrat Stephen Field, then serving on the California Supreme Court after having relocated to the West from his native Connecticut.
Field was commended to Lincoln as a strong supporter of the Union and an expert in land and mineral issues then of special interest to western states. He became a stalwart on a court that became increasingly conservative over time — as seen in decisions striking down federal civil rights laws and the first federal income tax.
Field served for what was then a record 34 years until, with his mental abilities in evident decline, the other justices prevailed on him to retire in 1899 at age 82. The court had long since reverted to nine members, however. When Justice Joseph Catron died in April 1865, the Republican Congress abolished what was then shown as the court's eighth seat rather than allow the new president, the ex-southern Democrat Andrew Johnson, to fill the seat.
All but one of the six justices to hold the seat after Field until Gorsuch were Republicans appointed by Republican presidents; of those five, four proved to be reliably conservative on the bench. Two others had more liberal records: Harlan Fiske Stone, nominated by Calvin Coolidge in 1925, and Jackson, who was Democrat Franklin Roosevelt's choice for Stone's seat when he elevated Stone to chief justice in 1941.
As Field's successor, President William McKinley chose Joseph McKenna, a one-time colleague of McKinley's in the U.S. House of Representatives. McKenna had a generally conservative record on the bench. Like Field before him, McKenna overstayed his welcome. With his mental faculties noticeably in decline, Chief Justice William Howard Taft persuaded McKenna to retire in 1925 at age 81.
As McKenna's successor, Coolidge picked Stone, his attorney general and a former Wall Street banker. Stone aligned himself in the 1930s with liberal justices Louis Brandeis and Benjamin Cardozo in voting to uphold some of FDR's New Deal enactments that were struck down often by 5-4 votes. When FDR got a series of Supreme Court appointments beginning in 1937, Stone became part of a reliable pro-New Deal majority. And in 1941 Roosevelt was persuaded to name Stone as chief justice to gain Republican support as World War II loomed.
To succeed Stone as associate justice, Roosevelt picked his attorney general, Robert H. Jackson, who had been FDR's initial choice for the center seat. Jackson is held in high regard today as one of the best writers in Supreme Court history and as one of the strongest defenders of civil liberties — for example, in striking down mandatory flag salute laws and in dissenting from the decision to uphold the wartime internment of Japanese Americans.
Jackson died in office in 1954 after joining, despite initial doubts, the Brown v. Board of Education decision to prohibit racial segregation in schools. As his successor, President Dwight Eisenhower chose John Marshall Harlan, namesake grandson of the justice now best remembered for dissenting in 1896 when the court upheld legally enforced racial segregation.
Harlan faced questions about Brown from southern senators and was confirmed by what was then an unusual divided vote of 71-11. He compiled a generally conservative record during the Warren Court's upheavals on civil liberties and criminal law. Harlan retired in September 1971, gravely ill at age 72, and died three months later.
President Richard Nixon chose Rehnquist, then an associate attorney general in the Justice Department, for the vacancy barely a month after Harlan's retirement. Rehnquist's conservative record provoked a fight with Democrats in the Senate, but he won confirmation by a vote of 68-26. As associate justice, he was the most conservative member of the Burger Court and was then chosen by President Ronald Reagan as Burger's successor in 1986.
The controversy over Rehnquist allowed Scalia to glide unopposed to a 98-0 confirmation despite his already evident conservative views. Scalia's legacy after a tenure that fell seven months short of 30 years was a constant backdrop for Gorsuch's nomination: praised by Trump and Republican senators but his judicial philosophy criticized by Democrats. Gorsuch's final shoutout before getting down to work gives the strongest clue yet that he expects to be true to Scalia's memory.
Republicans Made High Court a Partisan Battleground
Republicans and Democrats exchanged bitter accusations on the Senate floor last week as the GOP majority went nuclear to clear the way for Judge Neil Gorsuch's confirmation to join the Supreme Court in time for the final arguments of the term later this month. Senators on both sides of the aisle uniformly decried the politicization of the Supreme Court while trading bitter accusations that the blame lies with senators or dark-money special interest groups on the opposite side.
The blame starts, however, with Richard Nixon, who turned the Supreme Court into a partisan battleground as part of the divisive campaign he waged for the presidency in 1968. He was the first of what are now five Republican presidents who have pushed the ideological envelope with appointments that have given the high court a seemingly permanent conservative orientation.
Nixon tapped into law-and-order sentiment by accusing the Warren Court of coddling criminals while his so-called southern strategy drew on the South's continuing resentment of the court's role in school desegregation. Today, most of the Warren Court's flashpoint rulings are accepted as legal mainstream. The Miranda rule on police interrogation is now part of popular culture, according to no less a judicial conservative than the late chief justice William Rehnquist. The Gideon ruling on right to counsel is hailed as a landmark even if its promise less than completely fulfilled. Outside criminal law, few if any mainstream legal figures would go back on the Brown desegregation ruling, the Baker v. Carr line of cases on reapportionment, or the New York Times v. Sullivan First Amendment decision on libel law.
Still, Nixon turned immediately to setting a new course. After a Republican-led filibuster blocked Abe Fortas's nomination as chief justice, Nixon turned in his first months in office to the most prominent judicial conservative of the time: Warren Burger, an outspoken critic of Warren Court rulings on criminal law. For a second vacancy, Nixon picked two conservative judges rejected by the Senate's Democratic majority, Clement Haynsworth and G. Harrold Carswell, and was then forced to turn to the moderate Harry Blackmun.
To fill two more vacancies, however, Nixon chose Rehnquist, a Goldwater conservative transplanted to Arizona from the Midwest, and Lewis Powell, an establishment business-oriented Virginian seen as somewhat moderate. Powell went on, however, to help form 5--4 conservative majorities in such decisions as those that limited school desegregation remedies, cut off death penalty challenges, and upheld state anti-sodomy laws.
President Gerald Ford deliberately moved to the center with his sole Supreme Court appointee: John Paul Stevens, a Republican with a non-ideological record on the federal appeals court in Chicago. President Ronald Reagan's decision to name Sandra Day O'Connor as the first female justice was likewise more political than ideological, but she was vouched for by her conservative Stanford Law School classmate, Rehnquist.
Reagan followed with the three most conservative Supreme Court nominations since the 1920s: Rehnquist as chief justice to succeed Burger, Antonin Scalia to fill Rehnquist's seat, and one year later the archconservative Robert Bork to succeed Powell. Bork showed himself in his confirmation hearing testimony to be outside the legal and popular mainstream: the Senate's bipartisan 58-42 vote to reject the nomination refutes the continuing conservative meme that he was mistreated or misjudged. And, as with Nixon's situation two decades earlier, Reagan first tried another committed conservative, the pot-smoking Douglas Ginsburg, before turning to the moderate Californian Anthony Kennedy.
History provides no definitive answer whether President George H.W. Bush should have known that David Souter would prove to be less conservative than vouched for by his principal White House supporter, the fellow New Hampshirean John Sununu. For his second Supreme Court appointment, however, Bush turned to Clarence Thomas, who had already flashed his doctrinaire conservative views in writings and speeches though not yet in his brief record on the federal appeals court in the District of Columbia. Thomas won confirmation only because southern Democrats saw political risks back home in rejecting the only African American nominee Bush was likely to choose.
As the first Democratic nominees in a quarter-century, President Bill Clinton picked two appellate judges with centrist records and reputations: Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer. Two decades later, President Barack Obama's first two nominees, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan, had supporters across the ideological spectrum: Sotomayor had been appointed to the district court by the first president Bush and then elevated by Clinton to the federal appeals court in New York; Kagan had famously soothed the ideological warfare at Harvard Law School during her tenure as dean.
Sotomayor and Kagan were both rightly seen as "progressives," but Obama had more liberal candidates to choose from. His third nominee, Merrick Garland, was more conspicuously chosen as a moderate over candidates who had more liberal records and stronger support from liberal advocacy groups. But Senate Republicans replied to his de-escalating move not with accommodation but resistance by refusing even to consider Garland's nomination much less to put it to a vote.
Obama's actions contrasted with President George W. Bush's record on Supreme Court appointments. John Roberts came with gold-plated academic and professional credentials, but also a solid record as a Reagan-era conservative. Conservatives shot down Bush's nomination of his White House counsel Harriet Miers, and he followed by turning to a judge, Samuel Alito, who satisfied the conservative groups' litmus tests and has proved to be as conservative as they had hoped.
President Trump's outsourcing of the Supreme Court nomination to the Federalist Society and the Heritage Foundation carries the conservative politicization of the court one significant step further. Neil Gorsuch may not have been the most conservative judge on Trump's list of 21 candidates, but he has a deserved reputation as a reliable conservative and revealed himself as such through his calculated silences in his confirmation hearing.
With his confirmation, the Supreme Court now includes three justices with among the narrowest Senate mandates in history. The Senate's 54-45 vote to confirm Gorsuch was the fourth closest in history; Thomas's 52-48 margin was the third closest, and Alito's 58-42 vote was also narrow by historical standards. A half-century of Republican moves have left a picture of the court as little more than the third of three political branches of the national government.
Despite what Republican senators would have the public believe, it is the conservative justices today who have an activist ideological agenda, not the liberal bloc. Gorsuch's calls to make it easier to overrule administrative agencies or harder to regulate political campaign contributions point him toward the Thomas-Alito alliance that views many liberal precedents as ripe for reversal. The court has a deep reservoir of public confidence, but the Republicans' siege on the marble palace has weakened that confidence. As Gorsuch's presidential benefactor might say, Sad!
On Gorsuch, Senate Should Debate, Deliberate
The Senate should not vote this week on the Supreme Court nomination of Judge Neil Gorsuch. Not because Democrats can block Gorsuch's nomination or would be likely to get a more acceptable nominee if they could.
No, the reason for slowing down the vote is that Senate Republicans owe it to the American people to allow full debate and deliberation on Gorsuch's nomination before sending him to the Supreme Court for what is likely to be 25 years or longer.
There may be no mystery about the outcome, as Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley said at the start of a 4-1/2 hour meeting that ended with an 11-9 party line vote to send the nomination to the floor. But the same American people who figured in the Republicans' decision to block President Obama's nomination last year of an equally qualified nominee, Judge Merrick Garland, deserve to know what they will be getting from a Justice Gorsuch. They will be getting
* A justice who is a threat to reproductive rights, LGBT rights, and workers' and consumers' rights.
* A justice who is a threat to clean air and clean water regulations.
*A justice who would invite a larger role for money in politics by narrowing the power of Congress or state legislatures to limit campaign contributions.
* A justice who could be a pivotal vote for expanding presidential power at a time when the president is a constitutional time-bomb waiting to go off.
* A justice with no record of promoting racial justice or protecting voting rights at a time when those issues tarnish America's claims to liberty and justice for all.
Nine Democratic senators laid out the bill of particulars against Gorsuch's nomination one by one with careful citation to Gorsuch's record during 10 years on a federal appeals court and his year-long stint in the Bush administration Justice Department. Significantly, Gorsuch was often all by himself in some of the instances cited.
While at the Justice Department, Gorsuch drafted a signing statement for President George W. Bush that would have justified torture-like "enhanced interrogation techniques" such as waterboarding despite Congress's clear intention to prohibit those practices. The passage was deleted in the final version at the instance of the then-solicitor general Paul Clement, no shrinking violet on issues of presidential power.
On environmental regulations, Gorsuch used an unrelated case to call for reconsidering the so-called Chevron doctrine, a 30-year-old precedent for deferring to federal agencies' interpretations of ambiguous congressional enactments.
As for campaign finance, Gorsuch called in a concurring opinion for subjecting laws on campaign contributions to the strictest constitutional standard -- so-called "strict scrutiny." The Roberts Court has invoked that standard to overturn federal and state laws to limit corporate spending in campaigns.
Republicans countered the charges by citing Gorsuch's admittedly outstanding academic and professional credentials and by accusing Democrats of imposing a political agenda litmus test. Democrats invited the critique perhaps by depicting Gorsuch as too often siding against the "little guy" in close cases. The Democrats needed to try even harder than they did to explain that they were criticizing Gorsuch's approach in analyzing and applying laws enacted for the very purpose of protecting or empowering individuals against more powerful organizations or entities.
In the notorious stranded trucker case, for example, Gorsuch took a federal law enacted to give truck drivers a safety-based right to refuse a company's instruction on operating a vehicle. Alone among seven judges to consider the case, Gorsuch construed the key term in the law so narrowly as to leave the trucker defenseless in his decision to avoid the risk of freezing to death in subzero weather while waiting for a long-delayed repair service.
In somewhat like vein, Gorsuch gave a narrowing interpretation to the federal law guaranteeing a "free appropriate public education" to students with disabilities. Taking a minority position, the Tenth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals had adopted a standard that schools must provide some "de minimis benefit" to special-ed students. Applying that precedent in a subsequent case, Gorsuch opted for an even weaker standard: merely a de minimis benefit. The Supreme Court threw out that standard in an 8-0 decision issued coincidentally just as Gorsuch was wrapping up his Judiciary Committee testimony.
Republicans have been impervious to all these criticisms. They have voted in near lockstep for President Trump's nominees, even some with weaker qualifications than Gorsuch's: think Rex Tillerson at State, Ben Carson at Housing, and so forth. Betsy DeVos for Education was too much to swallow for Maine's Susan Collins and Alaska's Lisa Murkowski, but they are apparently on board for Gorsuch.
Democrats have enough votes -- 41 as of late Monday night -- to block a vote on Gorsuch's confirmation under the current rules requiring 60 votes for a motion to proceed. Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell is vowing to change the rule if necessary to bring the nomination to a vote with a simple majority.
Even without the rules change, Democrats are in fantasyland if they think Trump would respond to a rebuff by looking for a consensus choice instead of going back to the Federalist Society-approved list. Recall: Nixon nominated Carswell after Haynsworth was defeated; Reagan turned to Douglas Ginsburg after Bork was rejected; moderates Blackmun and Kennedy emerged only on third tries; and Bush43 picked the hard-line conservative Alito after the weakly qualified Harriet Miers withdrew.
Democrats have a losing hand. Gorsuch may be as good as they can expect from this president. Gorsuch's challenge as successor to a stolen Supreme Court seat will be to try to live up to the self-portrait he drew of a careful, apolitical judicious judge.
Replay of Brutal Murder Might Have Been Avoided
Catherine Fuller was brutally murdered on her way home from a late-afternoon shopping trip barely two miles from the U.S. Capitol one month before Ronald Reagan's landslide re-election in 1984. Longtime Washington-area residents still recall the murder and the long trial a year later that ended with the convictions of 10 black youths for what prosecutors depicted as an opportunistic robbery that turned into a savage gang-style killing.
Three decades later, the gruesome events were replayed at the U.S. Supreme Court last week [March 29] as two of the defendants asked to have their convictions thrown out because the prosecution withheld evidence potentially useful to their defense. Charles Turner and Russell Overton are asking the justices to put themselves in the impossible position of deciding whether the jury that deliberated on their fate for a full week would still have convicted them if the withheld evidence had been turned over back then.
Frustratingly, the reopening of the case might have been avoided under current Justice Department policies that take a broad view of the government's disclosure obligations under a well-established Supreme Court precedent, Brady v. United States (1970). Brady requires the government to give the defense any potentially exculpatory information in its files. Today, the government concedes that the prosecution violated Brady by failing to turn over evidence from two witnesses pointing toward the possibility that someone else could have killed Fuller.
Jerry Goren, the Harvard-trained lawyer who led the prosecution team and now lives in California, testified in the later post-conviction hearing that he investigated the evidence from the witnesses placing another black youth, James McMillan, in the vicinity around the time of the killing. McMillan, who would later be convicted of a somewhat similar murder, was said to have been seen concealing some object that could have been the lead pipe used to sodomize Fuller before she died.
In his 2012 testimony, Goren said that homicide detectives interviewed the witnesses, but he did not give the information to the defense because he did not find their accounts credible. Prosecutors naturally suspect defense attorneys will grasp at any straws, however insubstantial, to try to conjure up reasonable doubt in some jurors' minds. So a minimalist approach to Brady naturally leads prosecutors to withhold evidence if they think they can get away with it.
Representing Turner in the Supreme Court arguments, attorney John Williams had no doubt that the withheld evidence would have been helpful to the defense at trial. "This whole case would have been cast in a different light," Williams told the justices. The prolonged deliberations on Turner and Overton after the jury had convicted nine other defendants showed that jurors had doubts about their guilt, he said. Deanna Rice echoed the point in the five minutes she was allotted for divided argument representing Overton.
For the government, deputy solicitor general Michael Dreeben had the unenviable task of explaining away a now-admitted Brady violation. The evidence to suggest an "alternative perpetrator theory" was "weak and speculative," Dreeben told the justices. By contrast, the evidence of a group attack on Fuller was "strong" and corroborated by some of the members of the group who testified for the government in hopes of a shorter sentence. Given all that, Dreeben said, there was "no reasonable probability" that the jury would have rejected the government's theory in favor of a single perpetrator.
The justices were somewhat hard to read in what was for them an unusually fact-specific set of arguments, but Justice Elena Kagan was one of three — along with Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sonia Sotomayor — who voiced discomfort with the withholding of the evidence to suggest an alternative perpetrator. "It would have been a completely different trial," Kagan told Dreeben.
Dreeben explained the long jury deliberation by detailing the difficulties of a case that could have been a Law and Order episode.. The prosecution witnesses' testimonies naturally "diverged" in places, the veteran criminal law specialist conceded, given the "chaotic" pace of events in the killing. The prosecution's reliance on some of the participants was also perfectly natural, Dreeben said.
The government looked for other witnesses, but none came forward, he said. The community in what was then a run-down neighborhood felt "under siege," he said. And the reality, Dreeben continued, is that in criminal cases "it's frequently the case that the only people who can really tell you what happened are those who participate."
Ginsburg followed by bluntly asking Dreeben to explain the withholding of the evidence. At the time, Dreeben replied, the government's policy was to comply with Brady but to do no more. Todya, under policies adopted in 2006, prosecutors are instructed, according to Dreeben, to "go above and beyond Brady and disclose information that a defendant might use even if it is not [required]."
The evidence of other witnesses in the case surfaced only in 2001 through doubts raised in a story by a Washington Post reporter, Patrice Gaines, and work by researchers with the Mid-Atlantic Innocence Project. Turner and Overton have now been arguing in court for more than a decade to try to reopen their case. A well-regarded D.C. Superior Court judge, Frederick Weisberg, reaffirmed the convictions after the 2012 hearing; the D.C. Court of Appeals upheld his ruling in an exhaustive, 94-page opinion in June 2015.
Government lawyers routinely cite the importance of finality in urging appellate courts to spurn defendants' post-conviction petitions. Supreme Court handicappers are forecasting a ruling to uphold these convictions. In this painful reminder of a brutal killing, however, the government itself is to blame for the doubts cast on a hard-won verdict so long ago.
With Shoutout to Scalia, Gorsuch Reaffirms Likely ...


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1.  Rejoice in the Lord, Ò you righteous.
make melody to Him with the harp óf ten strings!
play skillfully on the strings, wíth loud shouts.
and all His work is dóne in faithfulness.
the earth is full of the steadfast love óf the Lord.
and all their host by the breath óf His mouth.
He put the deeps ín storehouses.
let all the inhabitants of the world stand in áwe of Him.
He commanded, and ít stood firm.
He frustrates the plans óf the peoples.


*Tuesday- our field trip to the Chattahoochee Nature Center. If your child is packing a lunch, please make sure it's 100% disposable.
Thursday- Chick-fil-a breakfast for $3. Order forms went home last week.
The weather is getting warmer. On PE days they are going outside so be sure to check the weather to see if they should have a light jacket.
-Tomato Plant Sale are due 4-25.
-Our Field Trip to the Chattahoochee Nature Center is 4-26. All students should wear their Tritt Blue shirt and athletic shoes. We'll be doing a lot of walking on trails. All sack lunches from home should be 100% disposable. We don't want to bring anything back with us.
If you have not sent in the field trip form, please do so by Thursday. I must turn in our lunch count on Friday.


Leaving Belgrade proved harder than it should have been as major roadworks were taking place on the route to the motorway and diversion signs were patchy at best. But we eventually reached the motorway, which initially was badly in need of repair, but improved as we moved away from the city, and headed south towards Macedonia.
Motorways in Serbia are subject to tolls as they are in Macedonia, although these are not as expensive as in France, for example. It is possible to pay in both countries in Euros, although this costs about 10% extra due to exchange rates not being great. The total toll costs for this leg of our trip were about 10 euros, and you hand over your cash at toll booths. Credit cards were not accepted, although they were at service stations, which were plentiful on the motorway, but few and far between otherwise.
Just as when we entered Serbia, there were no problems crossing into Macedonia. We had to produce our vehicle registration document and the Green Card.
Between Belgrade and the border was a mixture of motorway and decent quality two lane road. Thre was good motorway for over half of the drive from the Macedonian border to Skopje, and again as we approached Skopje. The light traffic and the gorgeous scenery meant we made good and enjoyable progress, the whole trip fro Belgrade to Skopje taking about 6 hours of relaxed driving.
Driving in Skopje, which is quite a large city, is as erratic as I have experienced anywhere. This, combined with the fact that all street names are in Cyrillic script, meant finding our hotel in Skopje was interesting. Before leaving the UK we tried to find a SatNav which covered Serbia and Macedonia but although some now cover the main roads, none have yet incorporated city street detail. You really do need someone who can read a map! In spite of the apparent lack of any driving rules, as long as you drive carefully, much as you would in any new city, people respect your road space and we had no problems.
We really liked Skopje. The people were very friendly and in spite of the driving habits, very relaxed and cheerful. The city centre is an interesting mix of the modern and ancient, with lots of street art and sculpture and a lively cafe culture in the newer centre, alongside a much older "bazaar" quarter just across an old stone bridge.
Throughout Macedonia we saw churches and mosques next to each other. This made us wish we had a better understanding of the history, recent as well as older, of this part of Europe.


text:
Trump budget request boosts nuclear, clean coal – while solar, ARPA-E and energy R&D are cut
Presidential budget requests rarely make it through congress. Nevertheless, this budget reveals the administration's radical goals. Bad news for ARPA-E , EPA and Energy-Star.
February 11, 2020 Eric Wesoff
U.S. President Donald Trump unveiled his fiscal year 2021 budget request, which includes $35.4 billion to fund the Department of Energy (DOE), a reduction of about 8 percent.
Presidential budgets are symbolic gestures that rarely make it through congress. Nevertheless, this budget reveals the administration's radical goals.
The budget proposal envisions increased funding for nuclear and the questionable pursuit of clean coal, while slashing funding for energy R&D by almost half, from $5.3 billion to $2.8 billion, according to reports.
Energy storage is relatively prominent. Solar is not.
The only mention of solar is in the context of opening up public lands to energy development by oil, gas, coal, and geothermal and solar
Trump wants to shut down the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy.
In a 180-degree turn from the administration's long-time stance, there's no funding sought for the revival of the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository plan, according to The Hill.
There's $546 million proposed for the dubious cause of advanced coal energy systems and carbon capture, utilization and storage.
$1.3 billion is slated for the Office of Nuclear Energy, including advanced reactor development and the establishment of a uranium reserve
Earlier this month, the DOE did announce up to $125.5M in funding for solar research in: reducing costs of silicon and other PV materials; innovations in manufacturing; systems integration; solar and agriculture; AI in solar; and small innovative projects in PV and CSP.
Slashing the EPA, Energy Star, waterway protection in blue states
The budget takes aims at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), proposing to reduce its budget by 25 %, and cut off funds for the appliance efficiency rating program, Energy Star, as reported in The Hill.
EPA programs intended to be cut or eliminated include those that fight for safe water in disadvantaged communities, the reduction of radon and lead, as well as the Superfund program and its backlog of toxic sites.
Storage gets some mention
Last week, as reported in the Washington Examiner, Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette said the DOE was looking at "innovative solutions" that could include interim storage or other types of storage.
The DOE budget includes $40 million for the Grid Storage Launchpad and $97 million for the Energy Storage Grand Challenge.
Still, these storage and solar numbers pale compared to the dollars being proposed for the coal industry.
Gregory Wetstone, CEO of the American Council on Renewable Energy, comments in a release: "The Trump Administration's Fiscal Year 2021 budget would once again dramatically underinvest in clean energy research and innovation."
Here's the DOE budget request fact sheet.
Eric Wesoff
More articles from Eric Wesoff
Solarman says:
The Southern Company's clean coal fired plant was pretty much DOA, it never put out the 'calculated' power at the effective price point that would have been appropriate. At one time it was putting out $95/MWH at a time when simple solar PV and wind generation could be bought for $40 to $60/MWh on the open market. I understand the Kemper plant's boilers were modified to use natural gas before it would be semi-profitable. All in all, solar PV and wind generation technology is still dropping in price point. Any data derived from the installation and operation of the Kemper plant should "prove", clean coal is NOT viable, but for the same cost over runs the Kemper plant accrued over the years, one sure could put in massive amounts of energy storage, distributed along the grid for a more robust and capable grid infrastructure.
The NRC has been the agency in charge of nuclear technology roll out for decades now. One article made the claim, a 'new' nuclear generation technology takes about $1 billion dollars or more and several years to get through NRC scrutiny for one to get a permit to build a new technology plant. Right now a "process" for smaller, modular reactors is under way. It may still take 20 years before one sees this technology used in the public sector. Who ever it is that is 'advising' Trump where future energy expenditures should go, should become, "You're fired", by the Donald.


Learning all you can about the complex garage door system at your home is highly recommended. To that end, we offer you the following frequently asked questions page. Our specialists at "Garage Door Repair Chicago" work with all types of doors, springs and openers. We fix every component from the panels to the remote controls, so you can count on our experience when it comes to answering these important questions.
Why is the opener making grinding noises?
The most probable cause of this problem is a broken moving gear. It is made from plastic and found inside the motor unit. You need to stop running the opener immediately and disconnect it from the power source. Get the broken gear replaced with a new one with the same specs right away.
How long is the useful life of my spring?
This depends on the make. Each spring comes with a cycle life estimated by the manufacturer. It shows how many cycles, one opening and one closing, the component can perform before it breaks. You simply need to divide this number by the number of cycles the component typically performs per day. This will give you a reliable estimate of the spring's useful life.
How can I protect the garage door panels from damage?
They should be painted with exterior-grade paint right after the new door has been installed. Repainting should be an integral part of annual maintenance. Weather seals and the bottom seal, in particular, also provide protection from damage. You should refrain from using driveway and garage floor cleaners containing damaging compounds.
What causes the garage door to go off track?
This issue typically occurs when a lift cable gets broken. The door starts hanging on one side and it is easy for it to go off track. When this happens, the track may get bent or broken. The solution involves replacing the cable and straightening or replacing the track depending on its condition.
How do I care for my opener remote?
The most important thing is to keep it with you and not in your car to protect your property. Now there are mini remotes which can be easily clipped to a keychain. You will also benefit from cleaning it as often as necessary. Wiping the case and buttons with a bit of alcohol should help. You should also clean the battery compartment. If there is rust on the battery contacts, lemon juice should help for its removal.
Why is my garage door shaking?
This could be the result of loose track brackets, hinges or rollers. Tightening the bolts should help to resolve the problem completely. If there are damaged or broken bolts, they should be replaced with new ones. It is also possible for the hinges and/or rollers to have got worn. In this case, they should be replaced right away.
Replacing the garage door only when the old door stops functioning is not advised. Instead check the parts in the old door, and if extensive wear and tear is found, change to a new one for better comfort, safety and appearance. There are several advanced options present now that can be used to increase the safety of the door.
The popping sound during opening is due to the presence of worn out rollers. You need to replace the rollers to get rid of the popping sound. Worn out rollers may also cause improper opening and closing of the door. Have the rollers checked by our specialist in Chicago and replace them, if needed.
How do I look after garage door weather stripping?
The great thing is that our professionals in Chicago help you ensure that the weather stripping on your garage door is pliant at all times. We will use a gentle vinyl cleaner in order to ensure that there is no debris or dirt. We check the physical condition of the stripping.
Can I repair my garage door springs?
Since they hold a great deal of tension and can cause harm, it is best if you allow a service technician from Garage Door Repair Chicago to install the springs of your garage door. They have the know-how and the tools to do so.


• Provides Ceroffee's customized profiles created by green beans and roasting masters!
• Provides optimal profiles for 12 different kinds of green beans (5 blendings and 7 singles including the world's Best 3 coffees).
A blending which begins with a mild taste and gets bitter and burn taste later on; the blending has flavors that are generally preferred by men.
A perfect combination of freshness and excellent sour taste! Rich wood aroma appears in the end. The blending is good to drink in the morning and in the lazy afternoon.
This blending tastes soft and harmonious! Chocolate scent and sweat taste hit in the middle, and that last till the end. It is a blending for anytime and anywhere.
Rich and nutty aroma! A blending with moderate body, slightly bitter and sour taste create a harmony. It is all time favorite for everyone.
Its savory taste comes first to capture one's appetite, and smoky scent comes after. The blending has less bitter taste, but fruity sour taste and nutty taste harmonize to be a perfect one for Dutch.
The best premium African coffee with fresh fruity scent, moderate body and pleasantly bitter taste!
Premium coffee that is produced by fair trade. It is grown at a high elevation without using chemical pesticides! Nutty sweat flavor, rich aroma and citrus acid harmonize together!
The popular coffee with citrus flavor and chocolaty sweetness, along with flower fragrance. Its refined flavor is often compared with wine. Preferred by women because of its smooth body and fine aroma.
The perfect coffee to wake you up in the morning! It embraces strong tastes of coffees from other area, so that it is commonly used for blending.
The coffee praised as the world top 3 coffees for having great taste and aroma. Premium quality achieved through hand picking and strict quality control.
Produced in Kona, the most famous area for the highest quality coffee in Hawaii, only coffee growing region in USA; tangy sour and heavy body creates unique and cool flavor to invite you into the luxurious aroma world.
A coffee that Van Gogh enjoyed; the coffee bean is grown in Yemen which is known for the first coffee growing area in the world! A Queen of coffee with a dark chocolaty aroma, bold flavor, and well harmonized bitter and sour flavor.


Horseback riding in Greece; Mountains to the Mediterranean.
Horseback riding in Greece offers one of the most attractive bargains in Europe. The best place to go in the Greek Archipelago is the island of Crete. It is the largest of the Greek islands and lies between Europe and North Africa which gives it an agreeable, temperate climate, attracting tourists year around. The interior of the island is made up of fertile valleys with olive groves, vineyards, vegetables and fruit surrounded by rugged mountains going up to 7,000 ft. offering interesting, varied terrain for riders which your sure-footed horses handle with ease. You will pass through remote hillside villages where peasants still use donkeys to help them farm. Riders can enjoy the adventure of steep trails and fast canters in the valleys. The wild scenery is magnificent and the island is surrounded by the clear blue of the Mediterranean Sea. There are fine beaches to ride on and chances to swim with your horse when weather permits.
You will ride across the Lasithi Plateau which is one of the most productive agricultural areas in Crete. In the old days it was covered with the white sails of wind mills which provided the power for milling grain and pumping up water for irrigation. Wind mills are no longer used, but many of the old buildings have been transformed into charming private houses. This island was the first part of Europe to develop a civilization and the island is dotted with archeological sites dating back four thousand years from ancient Minoan, Greek, Roman and Turkish times.
The local food and drink are varied and delicious. The diet is traditionally Mediterranean, depending heavily on fresh vegetables, fruits and fish. Nearly every family in the country has several olive trees and each village has its own press to make oil. Bee hives are common too and honey is often used in preparing dishes like yogurt. Other famous specialties are stuffed grape leaves known as dolmades and fish mousaka casseroles with eggplant. Vineyards are common too and many delicious local wines are produced much as they have been for millennia. You can also try the stronger raki or ouzo made from distilled wine.
The Greeks love horses and equestrian related activities are deeply woven into their culture. The first known treatise on horsemanship was written by Xenophon long before Christ and is still relevant today. It is the Greeks who gave us the stories of centaurs and Pegasus. Alexander the Great's horse, Bucephalus, is one of the most famous warhorses in history. You have the choice of taking a guided ride staying in various charming inns including one on the beach, doing this same ride unguided following well marked trails or branching out each day in different directions from your comfortable riding center with its swimming pool and superb views. It would be difficult to find a more interesting and attractive adventure at a reasonable price than horseback riding in Greece.
"I really enjoyed this ride-the horses were wonderful, tough, and willing. Our hosts were outstanding; I can't say enough about how helpful, pleasant, and professional they were. They were also truly concerned that we had a good ride, but perfectly willing to"


Authentic Italian Food at Anthony JR.'s Restaurant & Pizzeria!
After a long day at work or school, why not take a break and come enjoy great food and drinks at Anthony Jr.'s Restaurant & Pizzeria? For the last 2 years, we've been awarded Reader's Choice Award for our great food.
Our Dining Room & Take out Service is open from 11am-11pm Monday-Saturday and Noon -10 pm on Sunday.
Please take some time to browse our Web site to learn more about our services. If you have any questions, please contact us. We would be more than happy to help you in any way we can.


The B.Sc. in Information Technology program prepares students to meet the information and communication technology needs of government, business, healthcare, universities, and other kinds of organizations. Information Technology (IT) is the application of computers and telecommunication systems to produce, manipulate, store, organize, retrieve, and transmit data. It involves development, installation, implementation, management, and maintenance of computer hardware and software within companies, universities, and other organizations.
IT graduates assume the responsibility of the development and selection of the appropriate computer hardware and software products and systems for an organization; and the installation, customization, implementation, management, and maintenance of such products and systems for the organization's computer users.
The Islamic Online University joins worldly IT knowledge and Islamic knowledge in this exciting program. Hence, we've created a unique opportunity for students to fulfill their religious duty of seeking and sharing knowledge while securing worldly benefits. In today's society, computers and information technology touches almost every aspect of modern life. Thus, learning IT is a magnificent way, that a person can contribute to his/her society.
The B.Sc. in Information Technology program features carefully designed courses that are based on web systems and technologies, multimedia systems and designs, computer communication and networks, systems and network administration, network security, software engineering, databases, data warehousing, system integration and architecture, information systems, and human computer interaction.
Teaching, IT Analyst, IT programmer, IT web developers.


There are 7 different challenges that you have to go through with this obstacle course. You first start the course diving through a wall, then you push through the pillar wall, go around the inflated side post, crawl through the tunnels, more walls and then go out the back and you are the winner.
The Ultimate Challenge is a 31ft inflatable obstacle course with many awesome challenges inside. It comes with squeeze walls, tunnels you have to crawl through and walls you have to bust through. This is great for kids in pre-k to middle school.
Two warriors enter and only one warrior leaves! The joust comes with headgear and two jousting sticks. Give us a call today to book the joust for your next event.
The is a test of two runners to see not only who is the fastest but also the strongest runner. But most importantly it's just a lot of fun.


I have 22 used decoys I'm willing to give to a young middle school or high school duck Hunter. Ring necks, gadwal, mallards, pintails, wigeon, and shovelers. I was gonna post this on Facebook but I feel like I'll get more honest folks on here. They are for sale but if a kid asks me first they can have them.
My name is Riley Wilson 8th grade middle schooler at Locust Grove, and love to duck hunt! I would love to have them.
They're yours buddy! I can mail em or you can pick em up. Up to you and your parents.
That's a fine thing you did right there RLykens!
Good evening this Riley i just wanted to say thank you for the decoys!! I can't wait to use them next year, THANK YOU!!!!
Good thing you've done. I hope the young man enjoys them for years.
Awesome thing you did there. Congrats to you both.
Great gesture! That's what it's all about!
Now that's a gentleman right there, good for you. That's what duck hunting should, used, to be about. Tip of the hat Rlykens!
Thank you guys for a the nice comments. The kids are what it's all about! Here's my daughter killing a few wood ducks with me over the years.
/\ Great job all around!!!!


Trust Trails for iPhone gives visitors to Scotland rich information about the National Trust for Scotland's range of attractions, as well as an engaging social experience.
The National Trust for Scotland (NTS) wanted to increase members' engagement and enrich the visitor experience at their range of properties. We worked to realise the NTS's goals through ongoing technical consultation, rapid prototyping and a close-knit development process.
Trust Trails is primarily aimed at new and returning visitors to Scotland, as well as existing members of the National Trust for Scotland. Users of the app can choose to visit nearby NTS places – such as stately homes and impressive national parks – or even follow a pre-determined Trail: a collection of places that tell a story about Scotland and its history.
The app makes use of location sensitivity to provide real-time, contextual information about nearby places of interest to the user. Arriving at a property, users can see a selection of official and community-submitted photographs around the property, and follow a selection of guided walks around the property.
We worked very closely with the NTS Digital Media team, first producing a selection of sketches and digital mock-ups that demonstrated a working interpretation of their initial brief. These sketches and mock-ups gave the NTS team an instant, visualisation of their ideas, and allowed them to demonstrate something real to user focus groups and gather critical initial feedback.
Some very early whiteboard sketches of the Trust Trails user experience.
From this early feedback, we were able to refine our mock-ups to the point where we could begin building a prototype application that ran on the iPhone. Prototyping is an essential part of the application development process, and something that we encourage at the start of all our projects.
The Trust Trails prototype was a fully working iPhone application, made available to a range of testers both within and outside the National Trust for Scotland. With a simple user interface built on our initial wireframes, the prototype made use of a sample of existing NTS data, such as places of interest.
The initial mock-ups and prototype apps were used to gather feedback from users, directly influencing the final design and experience of the app. The prototype and sample data gave testers a rich experience from which we could see how the app worked in the "real world", and design the final user experience accordingly.
Using this feedback, Plymouth Software worked with the NTS team to design the final user experience, prioritising the functionality that users most desired and expected.
The social experience was an important requirement of the initial brief. In this first release, users can register and sign into a personal Trust Trails account. Once signed in, users can post their own photos, thoughts and ratings about each of the places they visit.
All of this, as well as the app's content, is powered by a powerful web-based content management system developed by Plymouth Software.
Like all our web development, Plymouth Software used the powerful Rails framework to build and develop the content management system. Staff from across the National Trust for Scotland can use the CMS to upload and maintain details about the places, trails, photographs, walks, and user submissions. This information is then synchronised with all users of the iPhone app.
The mobile application is backed by a custom web administration service. NTS staff can manage content within the app, which is then synchronised with the iPhone app.
With many of the NTS places and properties being quite remote, it was important that the app could work without any network signal. To achieve this, we built a powerful synchronisation API into the web service that allows users to create and use content offline. The app will automatically synchronise with the server when the user returns to a network location.
Trust Trails for iPhone was published to the App Store just before Easter. We're already hard at work on the next release, which will include some great improvements to user generated content, including recording your own walks around a property and integration with social media.
Trust Trails for iPhone also marks the release of Plymouth Software's first iPhone app, extending our portfolio and skills to cover both iOS and Android – the two most popular smartphone platforms in the world.
To download Trust Trails for your iPhone or iPod Touch, download today from the Apple App Store. To learn more about the National Trust for Scotland, please visit www.nts.org.uk.
For more details about our work with the National Trust for Scotland and other organisations, just call 03300 881195 or contact us.


On behalf of Hanis Irvine Prothero, PLLC on Friday, September 23, 2011.
Congratulations to HIP Partner, Patrick Hanis. Pat was awarded Kiwanian of the Year by the Meridian-Kent Kiwanis Club. He was recognized for chairing the largest fundraiser for the Club, participation on the board of the Kiwanis Children's Cancer Program, organizing birthday presents for donation to Seattle Children's Hospital , and serving as a Board member. Great Job Patrick.


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3 comments · Oct 26, 2020
Obsessed with Loki? Check out these other tricksters
Loki is undoubtedly one of the most popular Norse gods. Even if it weren't for Marvel's portrayal of him opposite Thor, this trickster god has always had some kind of draw to people.
But he isn't the only trickster god. In fact, just about every single mythology has its own trickster. Tricksters aren't just pranksters. They possess an intense intellect or a secret knowledge that could bring everything down. They also don't obey rules or conventions.
And they aren't always bad guys, like Loki. In many cultures, the trickster is the hero. Even Odysseus, while not a god, was a trickster.
One could even say that Morgoth, who played discordant with the song of creation, is a trickster god, the in the mythology of Tolkien.
Here are some other trickster gods from all around the world:
Anansi from West African and Caribbean Mythology
Anansi's origins lie in Ghana, and his name come from the Akan language. It means, 'spider.' But as the slave trade came to the United States, so did Anansi. Today, you can hear tales of him from Sierra Leone to Aruba and Bonaire.
Anansi is often depicted as a spider, but also as a spider with a man's face and even a man. He is a powerful orator, which is no doubt why his stories are so beloved-- to tell them, you too, must be a great storyteller. It was Anansi who inspired Ghanese hunters to be swift and clever. But he also inspired slaves in the New World to fight against their captors. Anansi taught his followers to be swift and tricky, not to try to be strong. A great portrayal of this is in the TV show, American Gods, and its novel namesake.
Hermes from Greek Mythology
Hermes plays a great number of roles in the Greek Pantheon. He is the patron of merchants, trade, commerce, sports, travelers, athletes, and tricksters. Hermes played tricks in order to bully the bigger, more powerful Greek gods. But he also did it to help humanity, who he treasures. He also often tricks women, both human and god alike. The list of his lovers is pretty extensive.
Of note, his demi-god son, Autolycus gained his skills as a thief from Hermes. He then taught them to his grandson, Odysseus, who is one of the most notable tricksters in lore.
Kokopelli from Hopi and Pueblo Mythology
I'm willing to bet you know who Kokopelli is, even if you have never heard his name. It's this little dancing, flute-playing man who often shows up in headshops and at musical festivals.
Kokopelli is part of many Native American cultures in the southwestern United States. It's said that they come from the Aztec traders, once called the pochtecas. To this day, Kokopelli is a name given to those who come from afar bringing knowledge.
Lugh from Celtic Mythology
Lugh is a Celtic god, but more important than that, he is an Irish god. He is god of the arts and the light of the sun. He is the god of the forge and even more so, the god of witchcraft. He teaches artisan crafts, musicians, bards, and all craftsmen.
Maui from Hawaiian Mythology
If you liked Maui from the film Moana, you'll like the actual Maui that he is based on. Maui is considered to be a rascal or kolohe. He worked hard for the humans who worshipped him. Like Prometheus, who is from Greek mythology, Maui stole fire from the gods and gave it to the humans. He also slowed the sun by catching it with his fish hook, and tried to obtain immortality for humans.
Coyote from Navajo Mythology
Coyote is very important in Navajo mythology. He is kind of an enigma because he can sway to be either funny or terrifying. He's extremely powerful of his own accord, which is something that not a lot of trickster gods get. He created the Milky Way when he got impatient with the creation of the cosmos. He flung his sack of stars and scattered them across the sky, instead of placing them carefully. He uses his wiles to trick a giant that is terrorizing the land, created the calendar, and tricked Changing Bear, also known as Ursa Major, into being his wife.
Sun Wukong from Chinese Mythology
Sun Wukong is more famously known in the west as Monkey. He's the hero of a very famous Chinese epic tale, called Journey to the West. He is taught how to change his shape, in the 72 methods of heavenly transformation. He's also taught how to fly 108000 miles in a single bound. And finally, he is taught how to become immortal through a breathing technique. His weapon is a nine-ton iron pillar, called As You Wish Gold Banded Cudgel.
Loki in Norse Mythology
So now that you know about other tricksters around the world, what can we learn about our old friend, Loki? Well, most of the time, tricksters are around to help humans gain an upper hand over the gods. They are also often artists, who exist outside the laws of the society of their pantheons.
Do any of those things ring true for Loki? Who is your favorite trickster god, or what is your favorite tale about them? Who have we missed in this list? Let us know in the comments below!
Did you know that you can engrave ANY of our horn mugs, cups, or tankards? It doesn't just have to be a horn! Just fill out our form and show us what you want. We promise, no tricks!
Mr Wednesday
Ghanese hunters? You mean Ghanaian hunters? Is Ghanese even a word?
be dennis J sylvester
I'm interested in coffee mug with IMG_3538.jpg or Lugh from Celtic mythology on a coffee mug. Can it be done? I'm new to this site.
I'm taking a mythology class at UNM and this is a vary helpful article. Thanks Eric