Two and a half years we have been awaiting oral argument that has been fully briefed since December 2015.

That is a really long time to wait for appellate review on a simple issue.

CPLR 3215C

There must be a dispute before the court at all times.  Sounds simple, and it is.

It is so simple it is a basic tenet of the judicial system our forefathers implemented more than two centuries ago.

If one does not allege a dispute when filing the initiating papers, the power of the court is never invoked.  Simple enough.

It gets interesting when the dispute goes away during the case.

The plaintiff and the defendant could settle the case stripping the dispute and jurisdiction would go away.

The plaintiff could withdraw the complaint stripping the dispute and jurisdiction would go away.

Another way, although not the last possible way, was implemented by the New York State Legislature under CPLR 3215c where the legislature codified what circumstances of inaction are tantamount to a passive withdrawal, failing to seek a default judgment within 365 days of default.

Yup, the plaintiff can sit on its hands for 365 days after you have passed that time allotted to you to respond in some fashion to the complaint.

On the 365th day, the complaint ceases to exist and the court no longer has any power over the parties.

The history of the statute seems to go all the way back to 1869 as it mirrors the Supreme Court Case of Ex Parte Mccardle.

That decision references THE basic tenet of jurisdiction. No dispute=No Jurisdiction.

We are still the people, but "We, the People", have gotten lazy.

And, some of the people who were not originally intended as "We, the People", are rightfully pissed.

Let us state right up front that the people who wrote the founding documents of this federation of independent states, were White, Male, Landowning, Protestant, slave owning bastards who wrote up a government for themselves and people like them.

Others were not likely to be protected as noted by Washington himself after the Revolution with regards to one nearly tolerable other group, Catholics:

As mankind become more liberal they will be more apt to allow that all those who conduct themselves as worthy members of the community are equally entitled to the protection of civil government. I hope ever to see America among the foremost nations in examples of justice and liberality. And I presume that your fellow-citizens will not forget the patriotic part which you took in the accomplishment of their Revolution, and the establishment of their government; or the important assistance which they received from a nation in which the Roman Catholic faith is professed.

Quite the admission there that some are less equal to others.

But that does not negate in any way the beauty, power, and resiliency of the system they wrote.

The tools that make up that system have a history that instructs on their power and use.  

We should all master them to thwart those who would sully the country with attempts to limit those documents outside the ways listed in the documents on how to change the documents. 

May 10, 2017: I was arrested and charged for reporting a crime to a federal bankruptcy judge in my own hearing before that federal bankruptcy judge.

By the time the un-named and unbadged seemingly US Marshals, Court Security officers and Homeland Security officers were done I was stopped by at least 7 of them upon exiting the courtroom.

The lead goon (haven't found his name yet) just stood to the side.

The secondary un-named goon pictured here (call him Ginger as he is a redhead) asked me to come with them.

As he had no badge, I demanded his name. He said, again to come with them.

I persisted and asked a second and a third time.

Ginger then directed three homeland security officers to cuff me, which they did.

I immediately and repeatedly demanded, as is my right when being arrested absent a warrant, to be taken immediately before a federal magistrate judge. This they did not do.

After that I was forcibly taken by the goon squad to an elevator, forced to face the rear and spread my legs, forced into a room on the first floor and again forced to face a wall and spread my legs.

After 45 minutes +/- of questioning I was released and charged with the two counts of disorderly conduct.

What I have learned should cause anyone to take pause entering any building where the courts are housed, as they are lawless zones.

Goons. The lot of them.

Lidya Maria Radin. A person like any other, save for the circumstances of her prosecution by the Southern District of New York and what appears to be a Soviet era quality show trial where judge Pitman avoids stating that his court follows the US Constitution, witnesses who are not allowed to be asked if they have read, let alone studied, the US Constitution which they have sworn an oath to support, uphold and defend and demanding a probable cause hearing or a simple review of probable cause gets one taken away by US Marshalls and held in a room while the judge debates how to screw you if you won't participate.

Yeah, I know, standard belief is that if one is being prosecuted, one is guilty. But this long, twisted repetitive stripping of a defendant of her rights ought to have everyone worried, scared and angry.

It has happened to Lidya Radin (charged with entering an public elevator after a hearing to which she was not a litigant and charged with attempting to enter the clerk of courts office in the SDNY).

It has happened to Jason Berg (tackled at full tilt outside Newark Courthouse for taking a picture of a car.)

It has happened to Louis Mumford (telling a judge that as his client was acquitted, his client was free to go).

It has happened to me, Eric Richmond (arrested for reporting crimes (felonies) by the Second Circuit to a Federal Judge).

It could happen to you. Make that it will happen to some of you.

Take heed now and see the inner workings of a system where no one even bothers to check the checker, watch the watchers or judge the judgers.

Especially when they run a scam based on public indifference, like Magistrate Henry Pitman.

Let me preface this part with the statement that there are many, many uses for Flask.  We will address it as a content server with some presentation things along the way.

Consider this a bare bones tutorial of how to build a website in Flask.

Essentially, Flask is a set of tools written mostly in the Python programming language which is itself is a set of tools.

Chew on that for a moment.  A set of tools built on top (or incorporating as their building blocks) a set of tools.

Flask uses the Python tool set, the Flask tool set and hundreds of task specific tool sets also written mostly in Python.

Sounds complicated.  But it really isn't that bad.  It is very powerful , and, in contradiction to Django (also python) and Ruby (not Python), Flask imposes very few restrictions.  You get to choose how dangerously you want to live.  As a result, you get incredible flexibility of your own choosing.  The downside is flexibility comes with some additional complexity cost.  Knowledge of that additional complexity will make you capable of much more than other solutions.

If you are using PHP, well, we can't cure you, but take a look at the Flask medicine.

So get buckled in and walk with us through this project.  Lets learn some Flask!

At thegrowler.org (wannabe news-ish) we sometimes take a look at the legal system from many viewpoints. Sometimes word of a situation reaches ears of those who have had not too dissimilar episodes in court.

Almost all of these are cases wherein the litigant is pro-se and is getting savaged by the court or they are represented by an attorney that fails to stand up to such judicial savagery.

One such case involves NYS Supreme Court Judge Francois Rivera.

I was asked to attend the proceedings to serve papers. That did not happen and I stayed to watch the proceedings.

It was quite an eyeful and earful.

First Call - Did not attend as all parties were not yet present.

Second Call - Saw a few cases. Most pretty innocuous. But there were three cases where Francois Rivera distinguished himself with considerable aplomb before the equivalent of a judicial F-Bomb on a litigant.

The Brooklyn Lyceum started out as the brainchild of the Boro of Brooklyn and architect Raymond Francis Almirall.

More to come ...

THE GROWLER: a years late followup to some heated discussions about the future of journalism ...

which led to a process diagram sketched on the back of an envelope that was promptly ignored for years.

Then a media echo chamber of silliness effectively cauterized a Democratic-leaning populace into a zombie-like apathy at the polls.

Not only must objective critical analysis occur (whether or not we call it journalism), that work needs to be given a fertile and sustainable soil from which to spring.

The Growler is that soil.

Read on to see what we want to become.

Is a trademark of a place valid in the United States? We think not (it sure isn't in Britain as Canary Wharf Apartments learned).

Did William J. Thomashower overplay his hand ? We think he did in a few ways.

This simple T-Shirt design by roxysteeparlour.com has been attacked by William J. Thomashower on behalf of the Brooklyn Navy Yard Development Corporation.

First etsy.com and then amazon.com bowed to his will.

They covered their corporate behinds but there remains the Battle of the Brooklyn Navy Yard.