#JOURNALISM:

He didn’t have a role in it https://t.co/OSzYcvYlSN

— Kurt Schlichter (@KurtSchlichter) August 28, 2024

OPEN THREAD: Just do it.

THE NEW SPACE RACE: With successful airlock test, Lockheed Martin invests in inflatable space structures.

DECISIONMAKING: How 2 fatal shuttle disasters weighed on NASA’s decision to bring Boeing Starliner astronauts home on SpaceX Dragon.

DISPATCHES FROM THE LAW OF MERITED IMPOSSIBILITY:

What is the difference between a "conspiracy theory" and the truth? About 18 months. pic.twitter.com/XpgWugiyDp

— Chief Nerd (@TheChiefNerd) August 27, 2024

As Rod Dreher’s “Law of Merited Impossibility” states: “‘It will never happen, and when it does, you bigots will deserve it.’”

A BLACK EYE FOR JUDGE RAKOFF: Sarah Palin Wins New Trial in Defamation Case Against New York Times: Appeals panel says trial judge made errors that deprived Palin of a fair trial.

A federal appeals court on Wednesday revived Sarah Palin’s defamation suit against the New York Times, ruling a trial judge committed a series of errors in presiding over the former Republican vice-presidential candidate’s case.

Palin’s lawsuit, filed in 2017, alleged the newspaper defamed her in an editorial about gun violence. The article incorrectly suggested that an ad circulated by Palin’s political-action committee inspired a 2011 shooting in Tucson, Ariz., where six people died, and then-Rep. Gabrielle Giffords was wounded. The Times issued two corrections and its editorial board tweeted an apology to its readers.

Palin, who sued the Times and former editorial page editor James Bennet, said those corrective efforts were insufficient.

Palin’s case went to trial in 2022 and a jury sided with the Times. In an unusual move, U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff announced during jury deliberations that he planned to dismiss the case after the verdict, concluding that Palin hadn’t met the demanding legal standard of proof.

The Second U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Wednesday said Rakoff’s move was improper and ordered a new trial.

The dismissal “improperly intruded on the province of the jury by making credibility determinations, weighing evidence, and ignoring facts or inferences that a reasonable juror could plausibly have found to support Palin’s case,” Judge John M. Walker wrote for a three-judge panel in a 56-page opinion.

The panel said Rakoff also made other missteps, including the erroneous exclusion of certain evidence, that impugned the reliability of the verdict.

Shane Vogt, a lawyer for Palin, called the ruling “a significant step forward in the process of holding publishers accountable for content that misleads readers and the public in general.”

A New York Times spokesman said the decision was disappointing. “We’re confident we will prevail in a retrial,” he said.

In granting the dismissal, Rakoff concluded that Palin hadn’t presented sufficient evidence that the Times acted with actual malice, meaning that it knew the editorial was false or acted with a reckless disregard for the truth. Public figures such as Palin are required to meet that standard to prevail in defamation cases.

Rakoff announced his ruling outside the presence of the jurors, while they were deliberating. The next day, jurors came to the same conclusion: Palin hadn’t proven her case. Later that evening, some jurors revealed they had seen notifications on their phones about Rakoff’s decision to toss the case. They said the alerts hadn’t affected their views.

But the Second Circuit said Wednesday that it had its doubts.

As it should have. The full opinion is here.

I’D BE SAD IF I WERE A FISH: Antidepressants Are Seeping Into Fish Everywhere – And It’s Changing Them.

Then there are the birth-control hormones in the water.

NOBODY TELL NANCY PELOSI: Oldest Wine in History Discovered in Ancient Roman Tomb.

MIDDLE EAST: Israel Launches Massive Raid on the West Bank.

ERIC COWPERTHWAITE: Re-Holstering Is Difficult: What We Can learn From The Secret Service During The Trump Attack. “Seriously, the holster, gun belt, magazine carriers are just as important as the gun and the training. If you spent $1000 on an Sig P320 X with red dot optics, but only spent $20 on the holster, you are in trouble.”

One would expect, though, that “trained law enforcement officers” would have mastered this very basic, though important, firearms skill well enough that they could perform it under stress. And another video of Trump arriving at the hospital appears to show the same agent having the same problem again.

COLOR ME SKEPTICAL: 2024 Cadillac Celestiq First Ride: Worth Rolls or Bentley Money? Nope: “But whereas Bentley offers an option to rotate the infotainment screen away in favor of a wood panel or analog clock, Cadillac presents a brilliant QLED screen spanning the abundant width of the car just under the windshield.”

ASKING THE IMPORTANT QUESTIONS: Kamala’s Policies Are Getting Americans Brutalized. How Much Will We the People Endure?

BASED ON PAST PERFORMANCE, THAT’S ENOUGH FOR LIKE WHAT, TWO CHARGERS? Biden Administration to Issue More Than Half a Billion Dollars for EV Charging Infrastructure.

KNOW YOUR PLACE, DISSIDENT: Michael Sparks, the first Jan. 6 defendant to breach U.S. Capitol, sentenced to 53 months in prison.

DIDN’T EARN IT: Disney Seeks DEI Director, Offering Salary 4x The National Average. “We’re seeking a Director of Strategic External Engagement – Enterprise DEI to lead our efforts in building strategic relationships with external stakeholders, driving community engagement, and generating valuable insights to support our diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) objectives.”

Funny, but there’s nothing in there about trying to make shows and movies that don’t lose money or destroy franchises.

LIMITED TIME DEAL: Amazon Kindle – The lightest and most compact Kindle. #CommissionEarned

MEANWHILE, OVER AT VODKAPUNDIT: We Came THIS Close to RFK vs Trump Instead of RFK Endorsing Trump.

THIS IS WHY YOU’RE ALREADY ON YOUR FIFTH REPUBLIC. “Political chaos in France after Macron refuses to name PM from leftwing coalition.” Man, imagine if voting for someone made no difference here! Heh heh heh… (tugs collar)

(H/T Ace of Spades.)

UNEXPECTEDLY:

New York City implemented vacancy control, banned Airbnb, has rent control, etc

And the monthly rent on a one bedroom apartment

Just hit $4500 pic.twitter.com/UGNgvqgBCw

— Rohin Dhar (@rohindhar) August 27, 2024

If only there were some kind of law about the relationship between supply and demand and how they affect prices. Something so simple that you could plot it on a curve easy enough for politicians and voters to understand.

GOOD LUCK: Fake online reviews and testimonials are a headache for small businesses. They hope the FTC can help.

BILLIONING DOWN ON STUPID: Biden-Harris Throws Even More $$$ at This Problem They Made Up.

21ST CENTURY RELATIONSHIPS: That feeling when your “cool-ass girl” can’t dig your online monkey torture vids.

THE NEW SPACE RACE: SpaceX delays Polaris Dawn astronaut launch until at least Aug. 30 due to bad weather. “Polaris Dawn was originally scheduled to launch early Monday morning (Aug. 26) from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, but SpaceX pushed things back a day to perform more preflight checkouts. The company then called the planned Tuesday (Aug. 27) attempt off after detecting a helium leak, targeting Wednesday (Aug. 28) instead. But now Mother Nature has foiled that plan.”

HMM: Participating in Black Lives Matter Protest Isn’t Protected by Federal Labor Law.

HOW ‘AMERICA’S WORST COURT’ INTIMIDATES ELECTED OFFICIALS TO FIGHT JUDICIAL REFORM:

According to constitutional scholar Rob Natelson, “Montana’s [Supreme Court] may be unique for its disregard of basic standards of justice, the extent of its intervention into the state’s political life, and its high-handed use of power.” Natelson also describes the Montana Supreme Court’s rulings as “banana-republic conduct” and questions its legal competence. For all these reasons, he has concluded it is “America’s worst court.”

One elected official, Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen, has been suffering for bravely confronting the state court’s wrath and incompetence. Knudsen, a Republican, has become the victim of lawfare for simply doing his job — defending state laws in court. Knudsen was elected as attorney general in 2020 following service for a decade in Montana’s state House of Representatives, including two terms as speaker. Due to the Montana Supreme Court’s judicial overreach and activism, in recent years the state legislature has skirmished with the court over matters such as changing how judicial vacancies are filled (the subject of Senate Bill 140) and access to judicial email records, which had been subpoenaed by the legislature as evidence of inappropriate political activity by the justices.

As attorney general, it is Knudsen’s duty to advocate on behalf of the legislature, even if the legislature is trying to make the state supreme court more accountable and less intrusive. Not surprisingly, the court justices and their patrons in the plaintiffs’ bar strongly oppose efforts to lessen the court’s power and influence. Just as bar associations in California and other states have become weaponized by the left to intimidate and retaliate against conservative lawyers such as John Eastman, the attorney discipline body in Montana (called the Office of Disciplinary Counsel) has unleashed a torrent of 41 “ethics” charges against Knudsen, accusing him of attacking the court’s integrity and undermining public respect for the court.

Read the whole thing.