“In 2017, six counties in North Carolina changed how they paid their public defenders. Previously, the counties paid private attorneys an hourly rate to represent indigent people charged with crimes. Under the new system, indigent defense would be handled with flat-fee contracts — an attorney would agree to represent a given percentage of a county’s indigent cases in exchange for a set amount of money. Five years later, a study documented the results: People represented under the flat-fee system were more likely to be convicted, far more likely to be incarcerated, and more likely to plead guilty without a trial. Flat-fee lawyers spent less time on each case and were significantly more likely to dispose of a case on the same day they met their clients. … Those outcomes were entirely predictable.” (03/30/26)
Source: Future of Freedom Foundation
by Jacob G Hornberger
“This coming Fourth of July, when Americans will be celebrating the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, there will be an amusing aspect of the celebrations — the fact that Americans today hate everything our American ancestors stood for. But at least the feelings have been mutual; our American ancestors hated everything that today’s Americans stand for. No, I’m not referring to the issue of slavery. I’m referring to the issue of serfdom. Our American ancestors would never have countenanced a society in which the American people are serfs. Today’s Americans, on the other hand, wouldn’t have it any other way; they love their lives of serfdom.” (03/30/26)
“The ‘deadline’ for Iran to open the Strait of Hormuz or face destruction of its power plants works like Donald Trump’s ‘concept of a plan’ on healthcare: it’s always two weeks away. Trump surprised no one with his decision Friday to extend the deadline (the second such postponement) until April 6. When that date arrives, Trump almost certainly will punt again. His ever-moving deadline strategy (on healthcare, tariffs, war, etc.) has become his predictable fallback when a pressure tactic (e.g., threats to bomb Iranian power plants or impose tariffs) proves impossible, too expensive, or just pointless. … time is on Iran’s side.” (03/30/26)
“This is how Rahm Emanuel eats a salad: He rips open its clear, clamshell container with two hands. He grabs the ramekin of the dressing. He pours it across the salad. Then he picks up the salad container, shaking it with an intensity and ferocity that forces the balsamic throughout, giving no quarter to the greens and the grilled chicken. This is material information, mind you, for his would-be 2028 Democratic presidential primary rivals. Because how Rahm eats a salad is how he does anything and everything: with intent and with verve and without mercy. The next presidential election is more than two years away. But Rahm, 66, is already saturating old (and new) media with his small-bore policy rollouts and white papers, spending hours cultivating Beltway and battleground state reporters with on and off-the-record bull sessions …” (03/30/26)
“The ethical standards for licensed attorneys, including those employed by the DOJ, are imposed and enforced by the states. They are an independent check on the temptation to mislead the court, disregard its orders, or engage in other unethical conduct. Rather than requiring more accountability of its attorneys, the department is proposing to eviscerate the controls that do exist, by making itself the judge of whether misconduct has occurred. This is why alarm bells should be sounded by the Department of Justice’s recent decision to issue a proposed rule which would turn the system on its head. The draft rule would effectively empower the department to indefinitely interrupt state disciplinary investigations by directing an internal ‘review’ of allegations of misconduct against its own attorneys.” (03/30/26)
“As we begin a new week, the media is filled with reports that President Trump is ready to approve a US ground operation against Iran, either to seize Iran’s uranium or to attack an island off the country’s coast. Thousands of US troops have sped to the conflict area to await President Trump’s decision. The President is on the verge of making a serious mistake to add to a series of deadly mistakes that have characterized this terrible war of choice against Iran. A US ground operation against Iran would only achieve the death of thousands of US servicemembers. Of course, if our Congress was doing its job, this debacle would never have started.” (03/30/26)
“Honestly, I can’t believe I’m in this world of ours (or do I mean His?). Yes, this very one and no other! Almost a quarter of a century after, in response to the 9/11 attacks, the U.S. launched its war in Afghanistan that would last a mere 20 years until Donald Trump prepared for and Joe Biden carried out a humiliating withdrawal of the last American troops there, the U.S. is back big time, dumber and more wildly destructive than ever. Whew! That’s a lot of (terrible) history to get into a single sentence! And so, here’s a TomDispatch question for you: What four-letter country, the first three of which are IRA, has the U.S. now been bombing? No, not Iraq! That war began in 2003 and ended a mere eight years later in 2011. And remind me, how did that work out?” (03/29/26)
“The American empire appears to be in retreat. Humiliated by Russia in Eastern Europe, outmaneuvered by China in East Asia, and bogged down in a conflict with Iran in the Middle East, the United States has turned its gaze southward. Unable to win the great power competition across Eurasia, the Trump administration has increasingly embarked on the most aggressive militarization of Latin America policy in a generation, seeking victories in what Washington has long considered its backyard. The result has been what observers are calling the Trump Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine, a framework that envisions the Western Hemisphere as an American strategic priority zone requiring military suppression of cartel networks and exclusion of Chinese influence.” (03/30/26)
“The mutants were on the march Saturday, or on the street corners, I should say. No, they weren’t hookers, at least in the traditional sense, but prostitutes nonetheless. Democrats came out of their basements, gave their controllers a chance to recharge, and got a little bit of vitamin D from the sun for the first time since COVID. Suckers, all of them.” (03/30/26)
