LEAVING out of account the weak echoes of pre-Revolutionary ideologic systems, the only theory which has opposed Marxism in Soviet Russia these years is the Formalist theory of Art. The paradox consists in the fact that Russian Formalism connected itself closely with Russian Futurism, and that while the latter was capitulating politically before Communism, Formalism opposed Marxism with all its might theoretically.
Menomonee Falls School District banned 33 titles. The same day the ACLU made its open records requests, Elkhorn Area School District received a request from a parent challenging 444 books, prompting the temporary removal and review of those titles.
The letter to the school districts accompanying the requests notes that removing books from school libraries threatens the First Amendment rights of students and their families. The Supreme Court held over 40 years ago that “local school boards may not remove books from school library shelves simply because they dislike the ideas contained in those books.”
But no threat of any kind is required to conduct surveillance under Section 702. The law permits surveillance of any foreigner abroad, as long as a significant purpose of the surveillance is to acquire “foreign intelligence information.” FISA defines this term extremely broadly to include any “information related to . . . the conduct of U.S. foreign affairs.” A conversation between friends about whether the United States should do more to support Ukraine would justify surveillance under this definition.
Law and punishment are very different concepts and should not be unduly amalgamated. The function of law is the codification of norms, definition of rights and obligations, creation of mechanisms for monitoring and enforcement. Law must be both preventive and curative. It should be proactive and not merely reactive.
— Blagojevich accused of ‘moral turpitude’ at hearing on his law license:“In a 90-minute hearing, attorneys for the Illinois Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission took a three-member panel that will decide the status of Blagojevich’s license through his worst hits as governor, including his convictions for attempting to sell a U.S. Senate seat, shaking down the CEO of a children’s hospital for campaign cash and lying to the FBI,” by Tribune’s Jason Meisner.
— INSIDE BLAGO’S CLEMENCY CAMPAIGN, by WSJ’s Jess Bravin: “Rod Blagojevich’s release from federal prison last week culminated a nearly two-year campaign to put the once-prominent Democrat’s case on President Trump’s agenda, orchestrated by a volunteer adviser who once worked for the former Illinois governor’s political opponents. …
“[Mark] Vargas helped get Mr. Blagojevich’s wife, Patti, onto Fox News Channel shows likely to be seen by Mr. Trump. He enlisted the aid of a former National Rifle Association president, David Keene, the president’s personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, and one of his legal advisers, Alan Dershowitz. He wrote newspaper columns accusing federal prosecutors of excess and sent them to people in the president’s circle.
“But people close to the president say it was Mr. Vargas’s successful effort to enlist support from African-American leaders — notably the Rev. Jesse Jackson — that made the difference.”
“Everyone knows 14 years was way beyond the sentencing norms,” said Delmarie Cobb, a longtime political operative who served as Hillary Clinton’s Illinois press secretary in 2016 and worked on Jackson’s 1988 presidential campaign.
Jackson’s team declined to comment Tuesday, but Democratic state Rep. Kam Buckner was among those to praise Blagojevich’s release while slamming Trump.
Blagojevich, a Democrat, was convicted in 2011 by a federal jury on more than a dozen counts, including an attempt to sell the Senate seat vacated when Barack Obama was elected president in 2008, and was often used to lampoon the machine politics the state has long been known for. But Trump senior adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner, who has internally championed pardons and commutations, reportedly suggested pardoning Blagojevich would appeal to Democrats.
Ms. Cat’s Chronicles 
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