Greetings, MAFL Members and Friends,
As usual, a lot to update in only a short passage of time, but this is fairly typical in federal court litigation like this. Without further ado, them updates!
“You Were Right; And I Was… Less Right.” – Megamind (2010)
Early on, many of you in these lawsuits pointed out that Paypal (and Venmo) aren’t good payment options because of their policies and practices toward dissenters (from whatever The Newest Narrative is). I was concerned about it, too, but needed to get started and time was the primary concern. Well… the latest kerfluffle with Paypal and $2500 fines for people peddling “disinformation” was the proverbial straw for this camel, so I wanted to (a) acknowledge those who said it from the beginning, and (b) let you know I’m in the middle of transitioning to new payment processors. I had hoped to put the new links in here, but I can’t really find something that I like yet, so suggestions welcome. Skrill? GabPay?
- I will have my accounts with Paypal and Venmo closed in the coming weeks and I’ll update everyone with new payment links.
“I would maintain that thanks are the highest form of thought; and that gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder.” – Gilbert Keith Chesterton
I don’t know if I’ve said it before or not, but it never hurts to say it again, but to all of you wonderful paying clients and benefactors – Thank You. We’ve been able to continue this fight and I haven’t had to harass you or seek outside funding to pay my bills. I want to tell you all publicly how grateful I am because I have the most incredible calling: To Use my talents to Serve You All in a Most Noble and Worthy Cause. There really isn’t anything I’d rather be doing.
“In the interest of justice and due to the emergency nature of the motion, the court orders that the defendants must respond by Thursday, October 20, 2022 and the plaintiffs must submit their reply, if any, by Monday, October 24, 2022.” – Judge Jeffrey Brown, Bazzrea, et al v. Austin, et al (ECF 40)
We filed an Emergency TRO (again), but this time on behalf of our named Plaintiffs – specifically OS2 Sabrina Wilder – but some of our other named Plaintiffs also feature in the filing. PO3 Tim Jorden has already been discharged and LT Caleb Wadsworth has now been noticed for a BOI/Board of Officers to show cause. Four others (putative plaintiffs) have also been discharged and I know there are a whole slew of folks who are facing administrative processing of one kind or another in the coming weeks.
One of the more troubling aspects of all of this – for those that don’t know – is that there is another lawsuit by Coasties (122 of them) filed by the Thomas More Society in the Northern District of Texas (vice East, where we are – fairly close-by, by even Texas’ size standards) and the Coast Guard has agreed to abate discharge proceedings against named plaintiffs and at least 1 putative plaintiff in that case. We got a copy of a late September status report filed in that case – available here – and you can see that the Coast Guard is fine with pausing proceedings there. The only difference between the two lawsuits is that we have the additional claims against the FDA in our suit, while the Thomas More Society only does 1A/RFRA claims, so the only claims there are essentially duplicate RFRA claims to those we’ve filed on your behalf here. I inquired of our DoJ counterparts why the Coast Guard won’t pause discharge/admin proceedings for our plaintiffs, but will for Thomas More. Blah blah blah – no answer.
I don’t know if that’s what caught the judge’s eye, but at least he gave us an expedited schedule and a chance to Reply by next Monday and hopefully get a quick Ruling – and a temporary pause from the Court- while we await its ruling on the PI Motion.
“Bret speaks with three active and past duty service members about their experience in the US military during Covid, they seek to bring to light what they are seeing and what it represents.” – The Dark Horse Podcast, Oct. 13, 2022
By now, many of you may have seen or heard that myself, 1LT John Bowes, CDR Olivia Degenkolb, all appeared together on Bret Weinstein’s podcast. It’s not huge, but it’s not small potatoes, either. Some of you know that I don’t think much of media in litigation, although I used to teach several classes in the Sea Services’ “Defending Complex Cases” course at Naval Justice School when I was there as an instructor – and again later as a civilian military justice attorney. Unfortunately, that was back in the halcyon days when the Media could at least be counted on to ask some questions about what the government was doing to its volunteer citizen-soldiers. Now, the mainstream media is essentially American Pravda and we simply do not have any way to inform the American people about your plight. They are bombarded with bullshit on a daily basis and it is hard to get a signal to them above the noise. There are people out there who care about what’s being done to you and would like to help – and we could always use good help, or resources to hire more folks to aid the cause, so you may see me beating the drum when good, viable opportunities arise. Thanks to John and Olivia for sharing their stories and their time in order to represent to the rest of the U.S. what I already know – how cool, hard-working, talented, and patriotic you all are, and consequently what a travesty it is that you’re going through this at the hands of paid civil servants.*
- *Paid with my tax dollars, too! And this is the part I resent the most. I’m paying these a-holes to violate your rights…and mine.
- Never forget this. This is why Americans need to do away with Direct Deposit, which puts the tax man between you and your paycheck. The ultimate veto is to at least be able to stop paying them to violate our rights. That’s what the Boston Tea Party was about.
Happy Birthday to me. 53. What an odd number. Prime, of no real life significance, just one of those meh numbers on the timeline of Life. Notwithstanding all of that, happy to be here. Like many of you, I have too may friends I served with – great men (in all cases) – who are no longer here, killed in training or in war. I make it a point to be grateful I’m still above the dirt and can contribute.
Cheers, and Fortitudine,
Dale
