The June 11, 2019 edition of the PBS “Nightly Business Report” was startling because the 1, 2, 3, 4 top stories were all antitrust.  Here be it and see it. Uno: Ten state attorneys general sue to block the Sprint/T-Mobile merger. Dos: A federal judge may unscramble the CVS/Aetna merger consummated in 2018. Tres: Trump wonders aloud about the competitive effects of the proposed merger of United Technologies and Raytheon. Cuatro: The House Judiciary Committee began its much-heralded antitrust oversight hearings, squarely targeting Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google. […]

In HL’s Grand Central Station neighborhood hipster-doofi line up for five buck Matcha Wellness Lattes at cashless Bluestone Lane kiosks and Birkenstock-shod elder hippies tender $20 – plastic only – for a snack size soup and avocado toast at the Great Northern Deli.  While on line with them HL suppresses an impulse to lecture and instead waits his turn, places an order and refuses it when the proffer of cash is rejected.  Our own private uncivil disobedience.  A variation has HL offer the “cards” in his phone and watch digital wallets – also not accepted – but that only demonstrates that these particular cashless merchants are also clueless.  […]

Abigail Disney, Walt’s great niece and Roy’s granddaughter, stole the show last weekend, topping even Disney Studio’s Avengers: Endgame $1.2 billion box office for favorable mentions.  Her criticism of Disney’s 2018 compensation of $65 million to CEO Bob Iger, because that was “1424 times the median pay of a Disney worker” also earned her another rare trifecta (see HL 70) of leading stories in the Washington Post, New York Times and Wall Street Journal. […]

“Biden is Running for President, After Months of Hesitation.”  Not HL’s words, but those from The New York Times’ headline and first spin, crudely letting us know that they are not thrilled. The paper of record that used to keep its “opinions” on those pages now places its thumb on the scale by thumbing its nose at the old wall between news and its’ editorial board’s desires.  There, formally announcing candidacy 16 months before the nominating convention, is described as hesitation and equivocation.  Instead of the smart conduct of the leading contender for virtually every minute of the last several months, waiting while the 19 others in the Peanut Gallery announced. […]

At upcoming debates, Democratic presidential candidates will be asked whether they support reparations to African-Americans for America’s original and continuous sin.  Not certain that Trump, Bill Weld and any other Republicans seeking the nomination will be asked that.  If there are debates and hosted by Fox, a more likely question is whether Brown v. Board should be overruled. […]

By this 72nd post it should be clear, at least to HL, that Hopelessly Liberal is a chronicle of survival and adherence to constitutional norms and the rule of law during Trump’s presidency.  Private law firms are businesses, but their business also is a learned profession.  And when they do their work well, they do good, have fun, make a living and uphold the American system of justice – under our imperfect Constitution, but the oldest written and one better than any other ever conceived.  So today HL celebrates the anniversary of one damn good American law firm. […]

Reaction to and commentary about the college admissions scandal is a silly season sprinkled with liberal doses of hyperbole, feigned shock, but mainly inapposite and excessive reactions.  These began right after the reflexive “what do we wish for:” A.      I hope my school wasn’t one of those involved; or B.      I hope my school is prestigious enough for parents to lie, cheat and bribe their kids in. […]

Knowledge of, faith in and fidelity to The United States Constitution has come a long way in New York State.  From John Jay and Alexander Hamilton, two drafter/shepherds of the Constitution, to Andrew Cuomo and Letitia James. Steeply downhill it appears, as the state’s governor and attorney general pursue a rare trifecta in violation of the spirit, if not letter, of our national charter. In their effort to assure that Paul Manafort remains a felon and serves time, when and if Trump pardons his federal high crimes, New York’s chief executive and legal officer have reputedly cut a deal with the legislature to alter New York’s double jeopardy prohibition.  This would purportedly allow for Manafort’s prosecution for some of the same conduct that resulted in several of Manafort’s federal convictions. […]

This floating legal treatise will not offer yet another pronouncement on the 47 months imposed on Paul Manafort for crimes that the sentencing guidelines prescribe a term of 19 to 24 years.  Nor the district court judge’s comment that Manafort otherwise had led a “blameless life.” […]

February commemorates Black History.  HL celebrates these important markers idiosyncratically.  Not by recalling what was hammered into the head about Crispus Attucks but his own experience with what is being celebrated.  Reflecting on what Martin Luther King, Jr. (January 15), St. Patrick (March 17), Israeli Independence (May 9) and The Bimbo (2007) mean to him.  With some of those, and certainly Black History, a lot. […]