"Where there is no vision, the people perish: but he that keepeth the law, happy is he."
-- Proverbs 29:18, King James Bible (KJV)

Monday, July 31, 2017

What Happens When Congress Tries to Play President and Conduct Foreign Policy

What happens when the "locally-elected" representatives of the U.S. Congress try to break out of their provincial hamlets and -- Walter-Mitty-like -- attempt to enter the big stage of international affairs to play President and to conduct foreign policy?

The immediate result, as we see from news reports, is the quick souring of world politics on an unprecedented scale, even among allied nations. See the BBC News piece at Russia's Putin orders 755 US diplomatic staff to be cut.

Nothing the Trump administration may have done wrong in the last six months compares in stupidity with this inexcusable Congressional overreaching of its Constitutional legislative powers, which are normally subject to the doctrine of the "separation of powers" that marks the executive, judicial and legislative branches.

Without ANY probative evidence that the Russian government actually interfered in the past U.S. Presidential election, Congress has usurped the President's  Constitutional duties and has decided to go ahead with stiff retaliatory sanctions against Russia anyway -- usurping thereby the foreign policy sphere of the President -- and even threatening U.S. allies in THEIR economic relations with Russia if they do not toe the U.S. Congressional line.

Normally, the President makes foreign policy, not locally-elected foreign-policy-clueless local State representatives.

No sane nation conducts foreign policy through parliaments... and for good reason not. So, what now? Another Act of Congress in retaliation ... etc. etc.? Surely the people in Congress jest!

This Congressional usurpation is all the more difficult to understand given the widespread ignorance among voters and their locally-elected State representatives about all things foreign.

In the USA generally, try finding any news beyond even greatly limited local happenings on your local TV channels or radio stations. The rest of the world is mostly invisible somewhere "out there".

As one U.S. cashier in the dark fields of the republic said to a customer (true story): "Y'all talk funny. Where ya from?" Answer: "London". Reply: " Is that near England?"

That and similar knowledge gaps are not a good information basis for foreign affairs. And that is why parliaments are not responsible for foreign policy.

Saturday, July 15, 2017

From Scrolls to Wax Tablets to the Codex to the Book to the Modern Digital Tablet

Look at the image below. Look familiar?

The paged "codex" was the forerunner of the modern "book",
which developed from the use of "wax tablets" in ancient days,
ultimately replacing the more ancient "scrolls".

Given the contemporary phenomenon of the digital tablet or notebook viz. laptop, many a disciple of modern hardware and "tablet patents" or similar would be surprised to discover that the "wax tablet" with stylus was already popular in Ancient Greece, as shown in the image below, dating the folding wax tablet to at least 500 B.C.

What is new under the Sun?



Staatliche Museen Berlin, Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Antikensammlung F 2285

For more, see DelanceyPlace.com
and its excerpt from
Mark Kurlansky Paper: Paging Through History



Saturday, July 08, 2017

U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice Roberts Places Experience Above Success for Students

What a marvelous read about U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice Roberts this is!

If you have ever doubted that Chief Justice Roberts lacks wisdom, think again!

Read Debra Cassens Weiss at the ABA Journal in Chief Justice Roberts tells students he hopes they will experience challenges rather than success.

It is an interesting commentary on how we obtain wisdom through experience.

Peter Robert Haje in Memoriam - A Brilliant Mind, A "Born" Lawyer, A Great Guy

Peter Robert Haje in Memoriam
- A Brilliant Mind, A "Born" Lawyer, A Great Guy

Peter (Pete) Robert Haje, age 82, born July 31, 1934, passed away on July 2, 2017 in New York City. See the New York Times obituary.

The photograph below was taken in New York City in the year 1995 at the Helmsley Palace (recently renamed Lotte New York Palace). When built, it was the tallest hotel in New York City.

Peter Haje at the time of the photograph was Executive Vice President and General Counsel of Time Warner Inc.

Peter Haje is in the middle of the photograph below (copyright Andis Kaulins), flanked by Andis Kaulins and Michael Rohrdrommel, who were on their way from Germany to California to meet with Sam Tramiel of Atari to try to negotiate a contract for distribution in Germany of the Atari Jaguar, a home video game console. One must recall, coincidentally, that Jack Tramiel had purchased the Atari consumer division of Atari, Inc. from Warner Communications.


Peter had invited us for a friendly lunchtime chat at the Helmsley Palace after we had visited him in the executive offices at Time Warner headquarters in Rockefeller Center.

Peter had been a mentor to Andis Kaulins, the LawPundit, during the LawPundit's tenure as an associate at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison, and "Pete" remained a dear friend for many years, even after the LawPundit moved to Europe and to other disciplines and projects.

As written in the title of this posting, the LawPundit regarded Peter Haje to be a brilliant mind, a "born" lawyer, and a great guy.
 
Thank you, Peter, for having been an important part of my life.

Rest in peace.

Sunday, July 02, 2017

Patent Trolls, Venue Shopping and the U.S. Supreme Court's Landmark Decision in TC Heartland v. Kraft Foods Group Brands

At the ABA Journal Supreme Court Report, Mark Walsh gives us a nice analysis of the very important patent case
TC Heartland v. Kraft Foods Group Brands
in Supreme Court makes venue shopping harder for patent trolls.

We already posted at LawPundit in May about the decision of the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) on the case in question in
U.S. Supreme Court Unanimously Reverses Long-Standing Lax Federal Circuit Patent Venue Rule.

Walsh refers to Stanford Law School intellectual property expert Professor Mark A. Lemley, who calls the Heartland decision SCOTUS's "most important patent ruling" since the Supreme's 2014 decision in the patent eligibility case of Alice Corp. v. CLS Bank International ("what is patentable subject matter").

Take a look at Supreme Court Reins In Patent Venue by Dennis Crouch at Patently O for an interesting United States map of patent venues prior to
TC Heartland LLC v. Kraft Foods Group Brands LLC. Change was necessary!


°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°

Sky Earth Native America -- in Two Volumes
Native American Rock Art Petroglyphs Pictographs
Cave Paintings Earthworks & Mounds
Deciphered as Land Survey & Astronomy by Andis Kaulins

paperbacks in color print
Volume 1, 2nd Edition, 266 pages

ISBN: 1517396816 / 9781517396817
Volume 2, 2nd Edition, 262 pages
ISBN: 1517396832 / 9781517396831

Sky Earth Native America Volume 1-----------Sky Earth Native America Volume 2
by Andis Kaulins J.D. Stanford                                         
by Andis Kaulins J.D. Stanford
(front cover(s))  
 
  ------

(back cover with a photograph of the author and book absract text)