Rep. Matt Gaetz raised a few eyebrows earlier this week when he issued a statement claiming that the House Ethics Committee is opening “new” investigations targeting him. The Florida Republican did not elaborate as to what, exactly, these probes would entail, though the congressman insisted he’d done nothing wrong.
Soon after, the congressional ethics panel clarified matters, issuing a rare statement explaining that the committee’s original investigation is expanding and intensifying, reviewing a variety of allegations — including claims that he engaged in sexual misconduct and illegal drug use. NBC News reported:
The bipartisan panel, which investigates ethics complaints, said in a lengthy statement that it is also examining whether Gaetz “accepted improper gifts, dispensed special privileges and favors to individuals with whom he had a personal relationship, and sought to obstruct government investigations of his conduct.”
The House Ethics Committee first launched a probe into Gaetz more than three years ago, though the latest revelations suggest that this investigation is still expanding to include new lines of inquiry.
[…] while the political world waits, Gaetz is responding to the developments in a sadly predictable way:
The Florida Republican is trying to capitalize on the ethics probe with a new fundraising campaign.
In an appeal sent to Gaetz’s donors this week, the GOP congressman wrote, “[Former House Speaker] Kevin McCarthy, working sinisterly behind the scenes with the help of his Uniparty cabal, has orchestrated another wave of attacks — refusing to let go of me EXPELLING him as Speaker.”
To the extent that such details matter, prospective donors who took the letter’s claims at face value made an unwise choice. For one thing, the Ethics Committee’s scrutiny of Gaetz began long before McCarthy claimed the House speaker’s gavel, and there’s nothing to suggest the Californian — who resigned from Congress six months ago — has anything to do with the ongoing investigation.
For another thing, there is no “Uniparty cabal.”
But I’m also struck by the bizarre set of circumstances. A member of Congress finds himself facing an ethics investigation. The probe was launched by a committee chaired by a colleague from his own party. The member stands accused of possibly accepting improper gifts, dispensing special favors, and obstructing government investigations.
All of this, of course, is unfolding in an election year.
[…] the Florida Republican feels comfortable effectively telling would-be donors, “I’m facing an ethics mess, so send me money.”
birgerjohanssonsays
Nooo…
Donald Surherland has died.
He was 88 years old.
Two plaintiffs — Charles and Kathleen Moore — were challenging a foundational principle of the U.S. tax code, arguing that a provision in the Trump tax cuts causing a one-time tax on unrepatriated foreign profits was unconstitutional.
The case — Moore v. United States — had it all. It presented the court with an opportunity to redefine “income” for the purposes of the tax code, potentially undermining it; it served as a stand-in for the court to potentially block future wealth taxes or taxes on unrealized gains of the sort Democrats have discussed in recent years; the plaintiffs’ facts were likely bogus; […] it was brought by two longtime conservative movement attorneys.
[…] sitting atop all the typical muck was Justice Samuel Alito.
And, in a surprise move, Alito sided against the Moores in a decision released Thursday morning. He signed on to a concurrence written by Justice Amy Coney Barrett, leaving as light a public footprint on the case as possible.
It’s a real comedown for Alito on the Moore case.
He spent much of the past year telegraphing that he would cast his vote with the Moores. At oral arguments, he grilled Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar, referencing media coverage in one question: “One of your arguments that you press most strongly — and, certainly, it has resonated a lot in the coverage of this case — is that the adoption of the petitioners’ arguments would have far-reaching consequences.”
Alito spurred media coverage of the case through his own behavior. […] Alito gave two interviews to the authors in the immediate aftermath of reports from ProPublica that exposed lavish gifts that Justice Clarence Thomas received from billionaire Harlan Crow, and a luxury fishing vacation that Alito took with GOP megadonor Paul Singer. Alito used the same pages in the Wall Street Journal’s Opinion section to “prebut” the Singer story, writing under his own byline to attack ProPublica’s reporting.
But the interview with Rivkin — combined with the high, billionaire-related stakes of the Moore case — immediately raised serious questions over whether Alito had a conflict of interest. […]
The interview did succeed in sparking an exchange between Alito and Senate Democrats. They addressed their concerns not to Alito but to Chief Justice John Roberts. Alito instead replied with a four-page statement in which he informed senators that they failed to understand “the circumstances under which Supreme Court Justices must work.”
After all of that, Alito sided with the liberals and the bulk of the Court’s conservative wing against the Moores. Justices Clarence Thomas and Neil Gorsuch were the lone voices in favor of the Moores’ interpretation of the Constitution.
Alito did save some face. He signed onto an extremely narrow concurrence that, in part, cast blame on the Moores themselves for presenting a flawed argument, thereby preventing Alito and his co-concurrer, Justice Amy Coney Barrett, from ruling in their favor.
The Supreme Court Thursday ruled not to redefine “income” — a move, pushed aggressively by Justice Neil Gorsuch during oral arguments, that would have headed off various wealth tax proposals that have gained steam on the left, and been a gift to the very wealthy and corporations.
Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote for the majority, in which all of the liberals joined. Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson also wrote a solo concurrence; Justice Amy Coney Barrett concurred in the judgment, joined by Justice Samuel Alito. Gorsuch and Justice Clarence Thomas dissented.
[…] The case also put the Moores in the difficult position of arguing that the specific tax making them cough up around $14,000 (on over $500,000 in gains) was unconstitutional, while the many other taxes operating similarly are not.
[…] “The upshot is that the Moores’ argument, taken to its logical conclusion, could render vast swaths of the Internal Revenue Code unconstitutional,” Kavanaugh added.
He echoed points made by Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar during oral arguments, noting that agreeing with the Moores’ elimination of all of those taxes would shift the burden to “ordinary Americans,” […]
In a footnote, Kavanaugh hastened to say that Thursday’s decision should not be read as a ruling on or a judicial endorsement of a wealth tax, something the Court would consider in the future if Congress passed it. […]
In her concurrence, Jackson issued a mild warning to the Court, seeming to look to a future where Democrats may successfully pass one of the burgeoning wealth tax proposals.
“I have no doubt that future Congresses will pass, and future Presidents will sign, taxes that outrage one group or another — taxes that strike some as demanding too much, others as asking too little,” she wrote, adding that previous cases teach the justices “that this Court’s role in such disputes should be limited.”
Thomas and Gorsuch, the dissenters, also looked towards a future wealth tax — but as a frightening congressional power grab to which the Court has now made itself vulnerable. […]
Fox News released a new poll Wednesday showing a three-point shift toward President Joe Biden, putting him ahead nationally at the highest number since October.
Biden is ahead of Donald Trump at 50% to 48%, and there was an even bigger swing in an extended poll that included Robert Kennedy, Jr., Cornel West, and Jill Stein. In that poll, Biden now edges out Trump by 42% to 41%, a four-point shift from May.
Not only does this poll indicate that Trump’s conviction was not an automatic boost for his campaign as so many Republicans have claimed, it also shows the best numbers on the economy that Biden has received in a Fox poll.
Meanwhile, Trump has discovered that he hates Fox News.
Naturally, Fox, which has made a habit of blasting out even the most unlikely results from polls that showed Trump ahead, has gone silent about these new results. [LOL. Of course.]
As The Washington Post reports, evening news host Bret Baier handed out the top lines on the Wednesday night broadcast, saying that the difference between Biden and Trump was “within the margin of error.” Which it is.
Baier swung immediately to a story about immigrant violence, though he did have a Washington Times commentator on at the end of his segment to explain how elections “don’t turn on amorphous things like the future of democracy” but on things that really matter—like the danger of immigrants. [Sheesh]
For the rest of the evening, hosts focused on other topics, like defending their heavily edited videos claiming that Biden had “wandered away” or had forgotten the name of a Cabinet secretary.
Left: Fox News airing a doctored clip claiming President Biden “appeared to forget” the name of Secretary Mayorkas
Earlier in the evening, pundit Jesse Watters—the latest to hold the Sean Hannity/Tucker Carlson chair of fear and loathing—appeared on another program to insist that the polls were “locked in” with Trump in the lead. When it came time for his own show, Watters forgot to mention that the polls had moved.
Laura Ingraham also apparently didn’t get the new numbers. She not only didn’t mention the new poll results on her program, but she was insistent that Trump is ahead. Ingraham was also on message about why democracy doesn’t matter.
“The top concerns of voters remain the economy, border, inflation, the cost of everything. And Biden has made it all worse,” she said.
Hmm. The economy, inflation, and the cost of everything? That’s almost like … all the same thing.
But it’s funny that she would focus on this, as the Fox poll also had some changes on that front.
Fifty-nine percent say they are getting ahead or holding steady financially, up 5 points since last summer, and 44% feel optimistic about the economy, up 9 points compared to 2023.
The economic numbers don’t sound great. They’re not. But the movement is all in Biden’s direction. Despite the concerted efforts of a news media that seems fixated on telling people how bad things are, it seems like they might have noticed all of the not-collapsing around them.
But even worse for Ingraham—and Trump—is that she is fundamentally wrong about voter concerns. Because the item at the top of the poll, the one that voters found most important about the coming election, was “the future of American democracy.” The economy slid to second place, with “stability and normalcy” a close third.
It was this suggestion, that Americans are concerned about America, that really put Trump on full boil. [Screen grab of Trump post is available at the link] “The latest Fox News poll is TRASH! […] I am leading BIG in virtually every other poll […] The #1 issue in this Country is not protecting democracy,” Trump railed. “It is INFLATION and IMMIGRATION!” […] “Fox News polls have treated me, or MAGA, fairly! […] Fox News would get rid of Paul Ryan, and get a new Pollster […]”
Funny how Trump and Ingraham were so exactly aligned. Guess they didn’t mention this poll when everyone was getting together for the morning talking points.
Louisiana became the first state to require the display of the Ten Commandments in every classroom as Gov. Jeff Landry signed a sweeping education bill on Wednesday. The bill, which also removes requirements for COVID-19 vaccinations and limits schools’ authority to require any other vaccinations, seems tailor-made to generate a string of lawsuits as state legislators place performative politics ahead of children’s education.
The Ten Commandments requirement is definitely the part of the bill that’s generating the most attention. As The Washington Post reports, Landry declared that “if you want to respect the rule of law, you’ve got to start from the original lawgiver, which was Moses.”
It’s a deliberate attempt to challenge the Constitution and force one specific religion into public schools.
Landry knows exactly what he’s doing. As the Nashville Tennessean reported, Landry was a speaker at a GOP fundraiser in Tennessee on Friday.
“I’m going home to sign a bill that places the Ten Commandments in public classrooms,” he said at that meeting. “And I can’t wait to be sued.”
There’s no doubt he will be. Four civil liberties organizations have already filed lawsuits.
Proponents of the law believe that they have found a clever way around the separation of church and state because the legislation doesn’t allocate any funds to purchase Ten Commandments posters or plaques. It only requires that the list be posted, counting on churches and other groups to “volunteer” copies.
As the GOP becomes more and more focused on delivering the demands of a Christian nationalist movement, eradicating the line between church and state has become a higher priority. In the past year, a dozen states have introduced legislation that would place chaplains in public schools. Supreme Court decisions, including the overturning of Roe v. Wade have energized radicals behind this movement.
While it is unlikely that a bill mandating the display of the Ten Commandments could survive any challenge before a reasonable court, this Supreme Court has already demonstrated that it is not reasonable. The potential of the current Supreme Court finding some way to ignore the Constitution and allow this to stand is, sadly enough, not out of the question.
In a 2022 ruling, the Supreme Court backed a high school football coach who was making his team pray after games. Louisiana might actually win this thing.
And if Republicans in Louisiana and other states blow a few million dollars of their education funds while beating their chests about an issue that appeals only to white Christian nationalists, they’re fine with that.
What’s more immediately concerning is that the attention given to the Ten Commandments part of this legislation is preventing a closer look at the total package of legislation that Landry signed. That package includes more money for private schools, eliminating vaccination requirements, weakening teacher standards, and eliminating preferred pronouns. It also gives power over school curricula to a new state board that can determine what and how teachers are allowed to teach.
Of the Ten Commandments, only four concern anything that might be considered instruction on civil affairs: Don’t kill, don’t steal, don’t lie, and don’t commit adultery. At least one of those is, hopefully, not a big concern to K-12 students. Two other commandments—don’t be jealous of the things that aren’t yours and respect your parents—might be considered moral instruction.
But all of the others concern matters that are completely and unambiguously religious in nature.
Regarding claims about the “original lawgiver,” someone might want to inform Landry about Hammurabi or Ur-Nammu. Not only do these expansive lists of laws predate any version of the Ten Commandments, but those ancient vengeance- and retribution-based legal systems would likely appeal to Republicans.
Of course, the intention of putting the Ten Commandments in every classroom from kindergarten through college doesn’t have anything to do with education. And it’s certainly not about respecting the rule of law.
Donald Sutherland, the tall, lean and long-faced Canadian actor who became a countercultural icon with such films as “The Dirty Dozen,” “MASH,” “Klute” and “Don’t Look Now,” and who subsequently enjoyed a prolific and wide-ranging career in films including “Ordinary People,” “Without Limits” and the “Hunger Games” films, died Thursday in Miami after a long illness, CAA confirmed. He was 88.
The Republican chair of the House Intelligence Committee is demanding the Biden administration declassify all relevant intelligence about the status of Russia’s nuclear anti-satellite program, saying it would allow for a full public debate on the threat posed by Moscow’s project.
Rep. Mike Turner of Ohio said in a speech that the Biden administration has failed to decisively confront the Russians over an anti-satellite weapon that could jeopardize the array of satellites orbiting the Earth that modern society depends on for communication and navigation.
“The Biden administration must immediately declassify all known information concerning the status of Russia’s nuclear anti satellite weapons program,” Turner told an audience at the Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank in Washington.
[…] The GOP congressman pushed the administration in February to publicly reveal Russia’s effort to build a nuclear weapon capable of striking satellites after issuing an cryptic statement about the need for the White House to declassify certain information. The administration eventually acknowledged that Russia was developing such a weapon though it said it was not an imminent threat and offered no other details publicly.
[…] The Biden administration rejected Turner’s criticism and made no promise to declassify more information about the Russian weapons program.
“He’s just wrong. He’s just flat out wrong,” White House national security spokesperson John Kirby told reporters.
“Look, we have absolutely taken this very seriously. We’ve been working this particular problem set from every possible angle, including through intense diplomacy with countries around the world, and obviously, through direct conversations with Russia,” Kirby said.
Kirby and other administration officials noted that the U.S. proposed a resolution at the U.N. Security Council in April that sought to prevent an arms race in space. Russia vetoed the resolution.
“We’ve been working hard to get other countries to join us, making clear what the dangers are of an anti-satellite weapon that’s designed to carry a nuclear weapon,” Kirby said.
He added it would have been better to have kept the intelligence on the Russian project secret to allow for private diplomacy but Turner’s statement in February eventually led to the information coming out about the program.
“As we said at the time, in February, when this was made public, publicizing this highly sensitive intelligence was highly irresponsible, and it was something that the intelligence community themselves had serious concerns with,” Kirby said. “And we had assessed that starting the private engagement rather than immediately publicizing the intelligence would have been a much more effective approach.” […]
The Vermont lawmaker wants to know why the drugmaker charges up to 15 times more for the blockbuster weight loss drugs in the U.S., compared to other countries.
More at the link.
KGsays
Two weeks before the election:
“Tory Gambling Scandal Running Away From Sunak” – birgerjohansson@498
The YouTuber missed a trick there – should surely have been “Gamboling Away From Sunak”!
One of the world’s rarest cats, the Iberian lynx, is no longer classed as endangered, according to a report by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
On Thursday the IUCN, which categorises species according to the level of risk they face in a “red list”, bumped the Iberian lynx from “endangered” to “vulnerable” after a significant surge in numbers.
Its population grew from 62 mature individuals in 2001 to 648 in 2022. While young and mature lynx combined now have an estimated population of more than 2,000, the IUCN reports.
The White House announced Thursday that it will rush delivery of air defense interceptor missiles to Ukraine by redirecting planned shipments to other allied nations, as Washington scrambles to counter increased Russian attacks on Ukrainian energy infrastructure.
In Atlanta to promote the Biden administration’s efforts to quell the import of illegal drugs into the U.S., Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen announced new sanctions against members of a Mexican drug cartel accused of trafficking fentanyl, cocaine, meth and migrants through the southern border.
Milwaukee police show the world how to provide state funded abortions. Just carjack a vehicle while pregnant and the police will shoot you during the chase. If you are lucky, you’ll live, and the fetus aborted. All Cops Are ‘Bortionists.
The Supreme Court ruled Friday that individuals who pose a “credible threat to the physical safety of another” may be stripped of their guns, showing that even its extremely expansive reading of the Second Amendment stops short of letting a proven domestic abuser carry arms.
Chief Justice John Roberts wrote for the majority, joined by every justice except Justice Clarence Thomas. Justice Sonia Sotomayor also wrote a concurrence, joined by Justice Elena Kagan. Justices Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, Amy Coney Barrett and Ketanji Brown Jackson all wrote separate concurring decisions.
Roberts put some, if very modest, guardrails on the Bruen decision from last term, when Thomas, writing for the majority, knocked down a century-old New York gun licensing law because it lacked a historical analog from the country’s founding. Taking that logic to its natural conclusion, Zackey Rahimi argued that there was certainly no founding-era analogue to stripping domestic abusers like him of their firearms — an obvious truth in a time when the most powerful and wealthy white women were considered far less than full citizens.
“The Second Amendment permits more than just regulations identical to those existing in 1791,” Roberts wrote, saying that “the Court’s conclusion in Bruen that regulations like the surety laws are not a proper historical analogue for a broad gun licensing regime does not mean that they cannot be an appropriate analogue for a narrow one.”
“Holding otherwise would be as mistaken as applying the protections of the right only to muskets and sabers,” he added.
The ruling was yet another smack on the wrist for the Fifth Circuit, as Roberts took pains to explain the twofold way the circuit court had erred. The Supreme Court reversing the Fifth Circuit has been a theme this term — less a sign of the high court’s moderation, and more of the Fifth’s right-wing extremity.
“For its part, the Fifth Circuit made two errors. First, like the dissent, it read Bruen to require a ‘historical twin’ rather than a ‘historical analogue,’” Roberts wrote. “Second, it did not correctly apply our precedents governing facial challenges.”
Sotomayor, joined by Kagan, wrote to both cheer the Chief’s looser approach to Bruen and to make explicit that Thomas’ approach to gun regulations would moot nearly all of them if they lack a beat-for-beat founding-era predecessor.
[…] “History has a role to play in Second Amendment analysis, but a rigid adherence to history, (particularly history predating the inclusion of women and people of color as full members of the polity), impoverishes constitutional interpretation and hamstrings our democracy,” Sotomayor argued.
Barrett more anxiously seconds the majority’s wider approach to historical analogues, though added that “harder level-of-generality problems can await another day.”
Gorsuch wrote essentially a rebuttal to Sotomayor and Kagan, a glowing endorsement of originalism as the gold standard in constitutional interpretation: “Faithful adherence to the Constitution’s original meaning may be an imperfect guide, but I can think of no more perfect one for us to follow,” he simpered.
Kavanaugh joined in in his own concurrence, waxing that “the Constitution is a document of majestic specificity with ‘strikingly clean prose.’”
Gorsuch also emphasized the narrowness of the decision, leaving the door open to future rulings on whether the government can disarm someone without a judicial finding that he poses a credible threat, whether someone can be disarmed permanently or whether someone can be punished for using his gun in self defense (this last, he claims ominously, has historical roots indicating that even someone shown to be a credible threat can use his guns for self defense).
This Court, he made clear, is not giving up its radicalism on gun rights just because this case made the justices squeamish.
Buried in Kavanaugh’s pages-long ode to originalism — peppered with sucking up to various conservative justices, including Roberts — is a worrying contention that heightened scrutiny is a fairly recent invention that doesn’t hold much weight and should not be expanded. Strict scrutiny, the highest of these, is often invoked in equal protection claims, and meant to guard against laws that infringe on fundamental rights, or that involve classifications like race or national origin.
This is a breaking news story that will be updated.
There’s a wrongheaded tendency to think the Court isn’t quite as bad or corrupt when it hands down one of these “good” decisions as it did today in the domestic abusers gun case. Resist the urge. […]
The idea that the case was taken up at all and that the plaintiff succeeded at the circuit court level is astonishing and scandalous in itself. But let’s start with some basics. The landmark Heller decision did not uphold the kind of absolute 2nd Amendment “gun rights” advocates have long claimed. It was terrible but it didn’t do that. What it did was for the first time find an individual right to own and possess firearms. Like all rights, any regulation of that must be justified by and balanced against some legitimate public interest or need.
This law would seem to provide a good example of that. It restricted the use or possession of firearms for someone whom a judge had found was likely to or stood a good risk of committing acts of violence against a spouse or partner. So in addition to the restraining order, the would-be (or in the vast majority of already) domestic abuser can’t have a gun during the covered time.
To most of us this really isn’t a tough call.
But it got better, or worse, as the case may be. If you’re on the gun rights side of this issue you want a case that’s maybe something like this: Fred is getting divorced from his wife. She got a restraining order but the facts didn’t clearly merit it and Fred has no history of violence at all. Fred’s also a security guard. So confiscating his guns meant he lost his security guard job and now his kids are eating at a soup kitchen because he can’t support them. You get the idea. You want a set of facts like that, which puts the law in the worst possible light.
This was not that set of facts. To put it mildly.
Plaintiff Zackey Rahimi is a drug dealer from Texas and generally a violent freakshow of a guy. He got hit with a protective order that suspended his gun license and forbade him to have any firearms after he attacked his girlfriend, with whom he shares a child, and then threatened to shoot her if she told anyone.
In other words, Rahimi is almost literally a poster-boy for the law in question.
Even the cannier gun rights activists were leery of this case. I mean, it’s a huge black eye for their movement. From their point of view, it’s an example of bad facts making bad law. […]
In any case, it’s certainly good that the Court reversed this egregious lower-court decision and upheld the law, with only the odious Justice Thomas dissenting. Perhaps Clarence and Ginni realized that the odds of a second Trump insurrection succeeding were threatened by such a law since so many of the feralest Trumpers have domestic abuse rap sheets. Regardless, good news. But it’s a kind of good news we only get because the current Court is operating less by cases rendered up through the appellate process than ones shaked, baked and served up by Fox News.
Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry signed a bill requiring every public school classroom to display the Ten Commandments after bragging that he “can’t wait to be sued” for this outrageous assault on the Constitution.
But the legislation package does a lot more than force Christianity on children. For example, it also removes requirements for COVID-19 vaccinations and limits other vaccinations.
Not only is the overall package a hodgepodge of religious right thirst traps, but the part about the Ten Commandments includes plenty of outright strange.
Here are nine of the most outrageous components of this legislative package.
1. THE VERSION OF THE TEN COMMANDMENTS IN THE BILL ISN’T EVEN IN ANY VERSION OF THE BIBLE
The bill doesn’t stop at requiring that the Ten Commandments be displayed, it resolves any concerns over how different translations (and Catholic vs. Protestant) Bibles include different versions of the commandments. The bill includes its own version that all schools are required to follow. That version isn’t taken from any translation of the Bible.
Instead, it was pulled from a 2006 Supreme Court case, Van Orden v. Perry, involving a monument on public land featuring text from the Fraternal Order of Eagles. Louisiana legislators duplicated the text from that ruling under the impression that it gives them some sort of leg up in any potential court ruling. Where the Eagles got their divine inspiration is anyone’s guess.
2. NO SMALLER THAN 11 INCHES BY 14 INCHES, PLEASE
The authors of the bill seemed to worry that some smartass might get the brilliant idea of putting the Ten Commandments on the head of a pin or another tiny and obscure location, so they set a minimum size of “at least eleven inches by fourteen inches.”
The bill also requires a “large, easily readable font.” Might I suggest Comic Sans? Charcoal gray text on a black background would also be appropriate.
3. THE BILL INCLUDES NO FUNDING
Legislators thought they were clever on this one. By not funding the Ten Commandments posters, or rolling them off state presses, they wanted to keep some pretense of following the ruling of another 2006 case that said they could be displayed on public land if it were supported by a private donation.
So all of those 11-by-14 posters are supposed to be donated to the schools. However, schools are required to show the commandments. […]
The bill also says that citizens can donate funds so schools can buy copies of the Ten Commandments.[…]
4. THE BILL CALLS THE MAYFLOWER COMPACT “AMERICA’S FIRST WRITTEN CONSTITUTION”
It also calls it the “first purely American document of self-government.” And since that first Constitution and purely American document was full of references to God, that obviously means that the U.S. government is based on God.
How religious is the Mayflower Compact? It starts with “in the name of God, Amen,” and in the second paragraph it really gets rolling.
“Having undertaken, for the glory of God, and advancement of the Christian faith, and honor of our King and Country,” it reads. There’s a whole lot of “dread sovereign Lord, King James” stuff in there as well. So apparently the U.S. was meant to be a monarchy.
Louisiana legislators do not mention that this document was prepared for the local governance of a few hundred religious extremists as a giant FU to civil authority, or that the compact was written before any of them had even set a Pilgrim foot on North America.
They also failed to note that, if that call out to God was supposed to lend the Plymouth colony some special favor, the fact that only 52 people were alive by the end of the first year might suggest that God is unimpressed by paperwork.
5. LEGISLATORS SCOURED U.S LAWS TO FIND A MENTION OF GOD, AND THEY GOT … ALMOST ONE
The Northwest Ordinance of 1787 might not be the first legislation someone thinks of as a defining document … unless that someone is a Christian nationalist. On the religious right, this law is often cited as “proof” that the U.S. is based on religion, stating that “religion, morality, and knowledge, being necessary to good government and the happiness of mankind, schools and the means of education shall forever be encouraged.”
Well, all right then. Religion in schools, it’s the law. What could be better? It not only gets cited in the Louisiana bill, but legislators proposed that schools can choose to hang it on the wall next to the Ten Commandments.
The pesky thing about the Northwest Ordinance of 1787 is that it’s from 1787. As in, before the Constitution or the First Amendment. It didn’t conflict with the wall between church and state because that wall was still under construction. This bill wasn’t even signed by any Senate, House, or President; it was passed by the unicameral Confederation Congress.
But hey, confederacy! That only makes it better, right?
6. SCHOOLS ARE PROHIBITED FROM EVEN ASKING ABOUT STUDENTS’ VACCINATION STATUS
While the first five items were all crammed into the single bill about the Ten Commandments, Landry actually signed off on a package of items, including a prohibition on COVID-19 vaccine mandates. But that doesn’t really matter, since another bill in the package entirely eliminates school officials’ authority to check vaccination status.
To put a double underline under this prohibition, teachers aren’t allowed to ask about vaccination status, but if they somehow become aware, they’re not allowed to seat students in a way that might prevent the spread of disease in their classrooms. They also can’t prevent unvaccinated kids from participating in any in- or out-of-school activity.
Because that would be “discrimination.” And you know how much Southern Republicans hate discrimination.
7. TEACHERS CAN BE SUED FOR USING A STUDENT’S PREFERRED NAME OR PRONOUNS
The legislation requires that students only be assigned pronouns according to what is called their “immutable sex” as found on their birth certificates. They can also only be addressed by the name found on their birth certificates or by nicknames “derived from that name.” […]
Teachers better be on top of these things because the bill makes them personally liable, allowing them to be sued if they don’t keep those nicknames and pronouns straight.
8. A “DON’T SAY GAY” BILL WORSE THAN FLORIDA’S WAS ADDED ALMOST WITHOUT NOTICE
The “Let Kids Be Kids” act protects delicate ears from any mention of sexual orientation, gender identity, or sexual orientation all the way through grade 12. No teacher, coach, or other school employee is allowed to engage in any discussion on these topics. They’re also not allowed to reveal their own gender identity or sexual orientation.
9. IT ALLOWS SCHOOLS TO APPOINT A “VOLUNTEER CHAPLAIN”
That would be a chaplain. As in one chaplain. But surely getting the community to appoint a single religious representative at the school will mean everyone’s religious beliefs are recognized.
The chaplain is only a volunteer, though, and not an actual school employee. So maybe students could go to them about their concerns over sexual orientation and gender identity. What could possibly go wrong?
The Louisiana bill also includes a fake Thomas Jefferson quote.
How will the Ten Commandments do anything at all to help Louisiana’s many crises? That state has:
— One of the highest poverty and child poverty rates in the US (26% of all Louisiana children live below the poverty line),
— More than twice the rate of death for women in childbirth than the national average and almost twice the rate of child and infant mortality,
— Terrible high school graduation rates and one of the lowest adult literacy rates in the entire developed world,
— A 38.1% adult obesity rate, one of the highest in the developed world,
— One of the worst violent crime rates in the country (549.3 incidents per 100,000 people, vs the US national average of 366.7),
— STD rates off the charts, usually ranking in the top 5 in America for chlamydia, gonorrhea, and syphilis,
— The second-lowest life expectancy in the nation,
— One of the worst levels of income and wealth inequality in America,
— Almost twice the national rate of hunger (“food insecurity”) with almost one in five (16.7%) of their children going to bed hungry every year,
— More people dying from heart disease than almost any other state,
— Among the worst and most lethal air pollution in the nation (see: “Cancer Alley”),
— Almost twice the national rate of teen pregnancy (27.5 per 1000 females 15-19 compared with a national rate of 17.4), and
— Almost twice the number of people in prison as the national average (680 per 100K vs a national average of 419).
Republicans in the state now have a brilliant new solution to all these problems brought on by a half-century of Republican rule: post the Ten Commandments in every school and college classroom in the state, starting with kindergarten.
This is particularly bizarre, given that Republican Governor Jeff Landry says he’s ordering this “because if you want to respect the rule of law, you’ve got to start from the original lawgiver, which was Moses.” He even includes a fake quote attributed to James Madison in his proclamation. […]
Our laws don’t, as do the Ten Commandments:
— Specify a single god who must be worshiped,
— Demand a ban on graven images (statues, crucifixes, and pictures of deities),
— Require us to take a Sabbath day off work every week or be put to death,
— Mandate that children “honor” their parents or be stoned to death,
— Make it illegal for men to “covet” other men’s wives or sleep with unmarried women,
— Or criminalize telling a lie except under oath (in fact, corporations have recently asserted the explicit “right to lie” under the First Amendment, and Trump averaged a lie every 3 minutes in his last speech).
The only two things in common between the Ten Commandments and most state or federal laws are prohibitions on killing and stealing, which have always been pretty obvious and don’t need giant posters saying, “Don’t Kill” and “Don’t Steal” in school. […]
Much more at the link.
More about that fake Madison quote:
On page 120 of David Barton’s book The Myth of Separation, David Barton quotes James Madison as saying:
“We have staked the whole future of American civilization not upon the power of government, far from it. We have staked the future of all our political institutions upon the capacity of mankind for self-government, upon the capacity of each and all of us to govern ourselves, to control ourselves, to sustain ourselves according to the Ten Commandments.”
Barton gives the following footnote for the quotation:
Harold K. Lane, Liberty! Cry Liberty! (Boston: Lamb and Lamb Tractarian Society, 1939), pp. 32-33. See also Fedrick Nyneyer, First Principles in Morality and Economics: Neighborly Love and Ricardo’s Law of Association (South Holland” Libertarian Press, 1958), pp. 31.
The only problem with the above is, no such quote has ever been found among any of James Madison’s writings. None of the biographers of Madison, past or present have ever run across such a quote, and most if not all would love to know where this false quote originated. Apparently, David Barton did not check the work of the secondary sources he quotes. […]
Making shit up.
If you want to quote one of the Founding Fathers:
In a February 10, 1814 letter to Dr. Thomas Cooper, Jefferson addressed the question directly:
“Finally, in answer to Fortescue Aland’s question why the Ten Commandments should not now be a part of the common law of England we may say they are not because they never were…”
Anybody who asserted that the Ten Commandments were the basis of American or British law was, Jefferson said, mistakenly believing a document that was “a manifest forgery.”
onald Trump was happy to announce a massive $53 million fundraising haul just one day after he was convicted of 34 felonies. It was a shockingly high number, especially considering that Trump only raised $4 million the day after his arraignment last summer. And for that, he even sold pieces of his suit.
Now that the fundraising totals for May are out, it appears that Trump has absolutely crushed President Joe Biden’s campaign, raising an astounding $141 million. That’s $60 million more than the Democratic team—and Biden had a good month. Trump has been tapping his small donor base continually since he decided to turn his time in the White House into a never-ending campaign.
So how did Trump go back to that stone and squeeze out so much water? The answer is: He didn’t.
Of Trump’s funding, $50 million came from a single check from wealthy banking family scion Tim Mellon. Trump is being bankrolled by a billionaire boys’ club—a group of immorally wealthy men sitting on a mountain of cash, who see his candidacy as their best chance to end democracy and bring in an era of neo-feudal plutocracy.
Mellon is the heir to a fortune that goes back to the Gilded Age. His family’s $14 billion net worth is based on wealth that Mellon’s great-grandfather bequeathed in 1908.
In a self-published book, Mellon calls Social Security and Medicare “slavery redux.” He fumes that Black people have become “more belligerent” than they were before the Civil Rights Movement, are “slaves of a new Master, Uncle Sam,” and live on a “largess” that “is funded by the hardworking folks, fewer and fewer in number, who are too honest or too proud to allow themselves to sink into this morass.”
This seems perfect for someone born in the lap of extreme luxury who has never met a spoon that wasn’t silver.
Now, as The New York Times reports, Mellon has become the first person in this cycle—and perhaps the first person in history—to spend $100 million in a single election. That includes $75 million to Trump and $25 million to spoiler candidate Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
And it’s only June.
The second biggest source of funding for Trump’s MAGA Inc. super PAC in May was $10 million from billionaires Richard and Elizabeth Uihlein.
Richard Uihlein owns a company that produces bubble wrap and shipping products, but his wealth originated from his lucky position as the heir to the Schlitz family’s brewing fortune. His great-grandfather also saddled his family with a pile of money. The Uihleins haven’t written their own self-published tome on the sad state of the peasants. Instead, they make their views clear to their employees through regular tirades disguised as company letters.
“High unemployment, bankrupt states, expensive government programs like health care, higher taxes and a relentless global economy make the elections in November very important,” Elizabeth Uihlein wrote in one letter before the 2016 election. “Dick and I love reading newspapers and when we watch TV news, the channel is mostly set on Fox News.” [And yet they still manage to be ignorant. It’s a mystery.]
Trump is being bankrolled by a coalition of billionaires who have never known hardship, but sure have a lot of complaints about the people who have faced struggles in their lives. Elon Musk—another fortunate son—has been bringing together groups of billionaires to meet with Trump, plot over how to fund his campaign, and make it clear that if anyone gives money to Biden, he will be furious.
In exchange, Trump has been floating a proposal for dropping income taxes completely and replacing it with tariffs that are paid by consumers—a 100% regressive tax system that would vastly benefit the ultra-wealthy while hurting everyone else.
It’s no surprise that Trump’s burst of funding in May was largely the result of a big spike in large donations, which increased by six times in the two days after Trump’s conviction as the wealthy generated a false signal of mass support for Trump.
Trump isn’t being held up by people sending in $10. He’s running for those who measure their wealth in 10 figures. This is a contest for the future of democracy between the 0.01% and the rest of the U.S. And if the wealthy win, well, the statements from Mellon and Uihlein make clear what happens next.
Russian President Vladimir Putin threatened Thursday to send weapons to North Korea if South Korea delivers arms to Ukraine, as international tensions spike following a new treaty between Moscow and Pyongyang.
Speaking to reporters in Hanoi, Vietnam, after visiting North Korea and cementing the treaty with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un that includes a mutual defense pact, Putin said South Korea has nothing to worry about so long as it didn’t invade Pyongyang.
“As for the supply of lethal weapons to the combat zone in Ukraine, this would be a very big mistake,” he said. “I hope this doesn’t happen. If this happens, then we, too, will make appropriate decisions that are unlikely to please the current leadership of South Korea.” […]
Imagine you are so wealthy that you can throw around $50 million without even blinking. What do you do with such an amount? Feed the poor? Start an enormous college scholarship fund for the underprivileged? Buy the entire Arena Football League? Fill the pools at all your mansions with ginger beer and black rum so you can literally swim in Dark and Stormys no matter where you are?
How about getting a fascist government elected in your country? That worked out so well for billionaire German industrialists in the 1930s.
Yet that is what Timothy Mellon, scion of one of the nation’s wealthiest families, raging bigot, and Amelia Earhart obsessive, has chosen to do. Remember when his ancestors funded, like, libraries and universities and the arts and shit? And now someone like Timothy and his cousin Richard Mellon Scaife can make us nostalgic for Gilded Age robber barons. The world is truly a magical place.
The New York Times reports that Timothy Mellon donated the $50 million to pro-Donald Trump super PAC Make America Great Again, Inc., the day after Trump was convicted of 34 felonies for business fraud connected to his being a terrible lay. This donation accounted for most of the almost $70 million the PAC raised in the month of May. […]
Within days of the contribution, the pro-Trump super PAC, Make America Great Again Inc., said in a memo that it would begin reserving $100 million in advertising through Labor Day.
This week MAGA Inc. announced the first salvo in that advertising: $30 million in TV ads to air in Georgia and Pennsylvania over the Fourth of July. […]
[Snipped details of Mellon donating money to Robert F. Kennedy Jr.] a few years ago he donated $50 million to Gov. Greg Abbott and the state of Texas to build its own border wall. As of last August, Texas had managed to build a whopping 10 miles of wall along its thousand-mile border with Mexico. Clearly Mellon has excellent instincts for investments.
In addition to chronic xenophobia about scary browns crossing the border, Mellon once self-published an autobiography that took so much heat for its insulting caricatures of Black people that it is no longer available anywhere. Even Amazon (we checked), and those guys will sell anything.
Personally, we would prefer Mellon save his funding for his real passion of searching for Amelia Earhart. Which, hilariously, he also appears to suck at:
In the course of examining the video, he said that November, he’d spotted something significant in the footage: Earhart’s plane. He could see it all: the tachometer, the altimeter, and a co-pilot’s wheel, among many other things. […]
Somehow that passage manages to undersell just how nuts Mellon’s reading of some murky underwater footage got:
“Tim says, ‘The airplane’s right there.’ I said, ‘Where?’ He said, ‘That’s a part of this and this is a part of this and oh, heck that’s Amelia’s hand. Oh, there’s body parts here.’ I said, ‘Tim, that’s not—that’s coral!’ He said, ‘Nah, nah…’ And this is on an online forum and he’s doing screen captures and circles and arrows and I’m going, ‘Shit,’ and then he decides, oh, there’s her banjo. Banjo?”
Maybe Earhart was so busy playing her banjo that she forgot to fly her plane!
“Stamps, toilet paper—it got really crazy. And then he saw Earhart and Noonan’s heads encased in cellophane bags attached to a hose, attached to a nitrogen bottle they used to service the landing gear.”
Mellon was apparently convinced that Earhart and her navigator, having crash-landed on a deserted island and with no hope of rescue, had committed suicide by pulling plastic bags over their heads and then somehow sucking nitrogen through a hose. This is the guy who has spent $100 million of his own money (so far) to elect the next president. […]
Captain Kylian Mbappe and other players at the European Championships have urged people to vote in a snap election that could see the surging nationalists take power. [video at the link]
The far right may be on the verge of power, but it will first have to contend with an opponent that might be more formidable than France’s beleaguered mainstream politicians: the national soccer team.
Stars of the country’s iconic Les Bleus have sought to bolster the defenses of the Fifth Republic, speaking out to urge the public to vote in a crucial snap election campaign that is taking place alongside the men’s European Championship this summer.
Winner of the 2018 Word Cup, France is considered one of the top contenders to win the tournament that kicked off in Germany last week, but its players have their eyes on what’s happening off the field too, with tensions high at home ahead of a parliamentary vote that could usher in unprecedented political change.
“The extremes are at the gates of power,” captain and star forward Kylian Mbappe said in a news conference on the eve of France’s opening game against Austria on Monday.
Mbappe, 25, appealed to the younger generation of voters, saying the county was at a “crucial” moment.
“I don’t want to represent a country that doesn’t correspond to my values, or our values,” said Mbappe.
The comments are a reflection of the growing concern among many in the country ahead of the votes on June 30 and July 7, which were called by President Emmanuel Macron in a surprise move after the far right surged in European parliamentary elections. […]
Opinion polls suggest the far-right, anti-immigration National Rally (RN) party could come out on top for the first time in the country’s history. […]
His teammate Marcus Thuram, the son of legendary French soccer player and anti-racism advocate Lilian Thuram, was even more direct. He called last week for French voters to “fight daily” to prevent the party from gaining power.
French winger Ousmane Dembélé last week also urged his compatriots to mobilize to vote, saying “the alarm bell” has been sounded.
“Generally speaking, it’s been very rare for French soccer players to speak out in this way,” said Tom Williams, a French soccer expert and the author of “Va-Va-Voom: The Modern History of French Football.”
“I think particularly the fact that Marcus Thuram specifically encouraged people not to vote for RN, that’s pretty unique in the recent history of French football,” said Williams. […]
The team is often upheld as a symbol of multiculturalism in France, boasting players who are Black, Arab or Muslim, and often come from former French colonies in the Caribbean and Africa.
Mbappe is one of them: He was born in the Paris suburbs, but his father hails from Cameroon and his mother from Algeria. […]
he team is often attacked by the far right, which questions how French the team’s nonwhite players are […]
France plays again later Friday, against the Netherlands. Mbappe, who broke his nose in Monday’s game, looks set to play after returning to training in a protective mask adorned with the red, white and blue of the French tricolor.
[…] If all goes according to plan, the incumbent president and the former president will meet again in just six days, sharing a debate stage in Atlanta. Ahead of the event, the candidates and campaigns are doing what they always do ahead of debates, which is try to manage expectations.
Indeed, as we discuss every four years around this time, presidential campaigns invest quite a bit of time and energy into these pre-debate tactics, sometimes going to comical lengths to argue that their rival is an extraordinary debater, […] (My personal favorite came in 2004, when the Bush/Cheney team, with great sincerity, told campaign reporters that John Kerry was the greatest debater since Cicero, the legendary orator from ancient Rome.)
The trouble is, Trump is exceedingly bad at this game, despite this being his third run for the White House in as many cycles.
The New York Times had a good report on this after the presumptive GOP nominee’s latest rally in Wisconsin.
A few minutes into his speech at a campaign rally on Tuesday, Donald J. Trump asked a question of the few thousand who’d turned up to hear him speak. “Is anybody going to watch the debate?” … He repeatedly mused about the potential scenarios, lowering expectations that he would dominate Mr. Biden and then, as if he couldn’t help himself, raising them again.
This happens a lot.
At some level, Trump must understand that it helps Biden when he lowers expectations for Biden. In fact, this has happened before: Four years ago, Trump told the public that he would “DESTROY” Biden in the debates, and national polling found that a plurality of Americans did, in fact, expect Trump to prevail in these events.
The tactics backfired: When Biden and Trump actually met for their debates, post-event polling found that most Americans thought Biden won, thanks in part to the low expectations the Democrat was easily able to clear.
Four years later, Trump nevertheless declared last month that the incumbent president is “the WORST debater I have ever faced,” adding, “He can’t put two sentences together!”
Perhaps realizing that this is the opposite of the message he’s supposed to be pushing, Trump reversed course yesterday, saying on a podcast that Biden is actually an effective and “worthy” debater who “destroyed” Paul Ryan during their 2012 vice presidential debate.
But seconds later, again unable to help himself, Trump quickly added that he believes Biden is secretly in cognitive decline. “I shouldn’t be the one to say that,” Trump said of his rival, “but I don’t think he’s doing particularly well.”
So to recap, Americans are supposed to believe that Biden is both a good debater who knows what he’s doing, and he’s also the worst debater who’s physically unwell and “can’t put two sentences together.” […]
KGsays
So to recap, Americans are supposed to believe that Biden is both a good debater who knows what he’s doing, and he’s also the worst debater who’s physically unwell and “can’t put two sentences together.” – Lynna, OM quoting MSNBC@30
That’s not going to be a problem for Trumpkins, who believe simultaneously that January 6th was a false flag operation by “Antifa” and the FBI, and that those imprisoned for their violent part in it are martyrs.
KGsays
A little-noted feature of opinion polls during the UK election campaign is that the percentage recorded for Labour has dropped – only by a few points, but enough to show up clearly enough in polls-of-polls. In some polls, it is now below 40% – which was the percentage achieved by Labour in 2017 (the election before last) when it was led by one Jeremy Corbyn. This drop in no way threatens the expected huge Labour majority, but that expectation is due to the Tories haemorrhaging votes to Farage. It would be most amusing if St. Keir were to end up with a lower percentage of the vote than Corbyn got in 2017.
Talking of the Tories and Reform Party UK Ltd., many anti-Tories (including here) are still insisting that the right thing to do in all circumstances is to vote for whoever is most likely to defeat the Tory in your constituency, in hopes that they will win fewer seats than the LibDems, who would then become “His Majesty’s Loyal Opposition”, which carries with it a number of parliamentary perks to do with setting the subject of debates and chairing committees. In some cases (e.g. Clacton, where Farage is standing and will probably win) the candidate most likely to defeat the Tory is the Reform Party UK Ltd. candidate. But even setting that aside, modifying the recommendation to “Vote for the non-Faragist candidate most likely to defeat the Tories”, the result if all non-Faragist Tories follow that advice would not necessarily be all that wonderful. The Tories are likely to win fewer seats than the LibDems only if they also win a lower proportion of the popular vote than Reform Party UK Ltd. (it’s not impossible they could win fewer seats than the LibDems but more votes than Reform Party UK Ltd. but the two eventualities obviously tend to go together). In such a case, it’s likely Farage and a few of his minions would be elected. Now in such a case, while the LibDems would be the official opposition, Farage would have a good case for claiming to be the real leader of the opposition, having gained more votes than any party other than Labour. But furthermore, it’s possible that the Tories and Reform Party UK Ltd. together would have more seats than the LibDems, maximising the pressure on them to merge – and Farage would probably not accept a merger unless he got to be leader. So he could be leader of the opposition within a matter of weeks, and in an excellent position for the 2029 election.
No one has ever accused Donald Trump of possessing any capacity to learn a fucking thing.
Four years ago, Trump and his campaign kept painting Joe Biden as some sort of old and drooling incompetent who could barely walk three feet without collapsing. A barely sentient simulacrum of a human who was being hidden away in the basement of his Delaware house so the public couldn’t see his advanced decrepitude before the election. A man so slight he would fall over if you so much as looked at him.
Then Biden was feisty and sharp at the debates, shocking wingnuts who had spent months hearing from Fox News that he had one foot in the grave. The Trump campaign, having set the bar so low that Biden would have cleared it just by walking onstage to his podium, immediately lost one of its campaign talking points.
Trump, being a moron, has been trying this same strategy since long before the 2024 campaign even really began. Then, less than a week before the first debate, he seems to have remembered that it didn’t work out in 2020 and he better quickly tamp down on everyone’s expectations, as he did at a rally in Wisconsin on Tuesday.
From The New York Times:
Mr. Trump was also preparing for his caricature of Mr. Biden to be punctured next week. He openly wrestled with the obvious question: What if Mr. Biden clears the very low bar that Mr. Trump has now set for him?
He had answers: If that should happen, it’s only because Mr. Biden will be “pumped up,” he told his followers, suggesting that the president would hoover up a pile of cocaine beforehand, since the drug was recently found in the White House by the Secret Service.
[…] In a shocking twist, however, the Times, which has never seen an “Is Biden Too Old to Be President” story it wouldn’t print, admitted what we all know, which is that Donald Trump is also old:
Lately, Mr. Trump has been experiencing his own adventures in aging for all to see. Last week, he bragged about passing a cognitive test when he was president but mixed up the name of the doctor who’d administered it. He has confused Nancy Pelosi with Nikki Haley, and Mr. Biden with Barack Obama.
And those are just two of Trump’s recent senior moments. The folks at MeidasTouch put together a whole compilation that you can watch if you can stand giving the Site Formerly Known as Twitter some traffic.
And so Democrats have their own set of video clips they’ve been consuming, too — seeing evidence of aging in Mr. Trump’s curious tangents about sharks and boats with electric batteries, or in the way he bollixes up words.
Free debate idea for Biden: Walk out onstage wearing a shark costume like you’re a Katy Perry backup dancer. Trump will be so thrown he might become even less coherent, if that is even possible.
Trump is also trying to dampen expectations by blaming literally everyone else involved in the debate ahead of time. He told the rally crowd that he’s taking on not just Biden but CNN and the debate moderators, Jake Tapper and Dana Bash, who
were constitutionally incapable of treating him fairly. “I’ll be debating three people instead of one half of a person,” he said.
[Trump blaming everyone but himself! Shocking.]
Shouldn’t that be two and a half people, or is he tacitly confessing he knows Biden isn’t nearly as far gone as Trump and his flunkies have been saying?
Really, the entire GOP has run with this “Biden so old” line practically since the 2020 election was over, and he keeps publicly showing them up. We’d say “you would think they’ve learned by now,” but that would imply a capacity for learning things.
The debate is Thursday. We’ll be watching (and liveblogging, probably make Evan do it) from the safety of our booze bunker.
Andrew Bailey’s lawsuit targets New York attorney general and Manhattan DA, who both secured Trump convictions
The Missouri attorney general, Andrew Bailey, has confirmed that he is suing the state of New York for election interference and wrongful prosecution for bringing the Stormy Daniels hush-money case to a trial that saw Donald Trump convicted of 34 felonies.
Bailey, a Republican politician appointed by Missouri’s governor, Mike Parson, last year, said in a post on X (formerly Twitter) that he would be filing a lawsuit “against the State of New York for their direct attack on our democratic process through unconstitutional lawfare against President Trump”.
“We have to fight back against a rogue prosecutor who is trying to take a presidential candidate off the campaign trail. It sabotages Missourians’ right to a free and fair election,” he added in a subsequent message.
The lawsuit is anticipated to be a series of similar actions against the New York attorney general, Letitia James, and the Manhattan district attorney, Alvin Bragg, over a pair of lawsuits brought against Trump or the Trump Organization and its officers. Both resulted in findings against the defendants. Trump is appealing both cases.
Moreover, he argues, Bragg never specified “intent to commit another crime” – namely election interference – that would have brought the charges back within time-limitation statutes.
“Radical progressives in New York are trying to rig the 2024 election. We have to stand up and fight back,” Bailey told Fox News Digital on Thursday.
But Bailey also told the outlet that he recognized that any attempt by one state to sue another would probably go straight to the US supreme court. He said the investigations and subsequent prosecutions of Trump “appear to have been conducted in coordination with the United States Department of Justice”. […]
Even though the hush money trial is over, Trump should still be barred from attacking prosecutors and jurors, the district attorney’s office said.
rosecutors who handled Donald Trump’s Manhattan criminal trial asked a judge to keep in place most of the restrictions imposed by a gag order, but conceded it was no longer necessary to limit the former president’s comments about witnesses who testified against him.
In a filing made public Friday, prosecutors cited “intensified” threats against Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, his family and the office’s staff, disclosing that two people involved in the case received bomb threats at their homes on the first day of the trial. Prosecutors described those threats as “directly connected to defendant’s dangerous rhetoric about this prosecution.”
They also wrote that officials had logged 56 “actionable” threats during and immediately following the trial, as well as hundreds of threatening emails and phone calls. […]
Why Israel acts the way it does
Its catastrophic war policy is driven by a national ideology of trauma.
From the outside, the policies of Israel’s government seem both brutal and inexplicably self-destructive.
Its war in Gaza has claimed tens of thousands of Palestinian lives and demolished much of the physical infrastructure, like schools and hospitals, required for a society to function. Despite the massive casualties, Israeli forces have yet to bring Hamas close to “total defeat.” And there is still no credible plan for preventing Hamas from simply returning to power after the war, as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly ruled out handing control over Gaza to the moderate Palestinian Authority (PA).
These policies have some real public support. Recent polls of Israeli Jews have found that majorities of Israeli Jews endorse the Israeli military’s conduct in Gaza, believe Israel should maintain control over Gaza after the war, and express deep skepticism about a negotiated two-state solution with the Palestinians (at least for now).
To understand how Israel got here, you need to understand how most Israelis think about security.
That article could be a lot shorter if it were honest. Here, let me give you a corrected version:
Why Israel Acts the War It Does
Israel has always been made up of people who wanted to kill people and take their possessions, including but not limited to their land, from the very beginning of the modern-day nation. David Ben-Gurion, the central figure of the foundation of the country and its first Prime Minister, was not at all shy about saying that out loud, and a movie made in the 1990s featuring interviews with the early Israeli soldiers confirmed that they always understood they had to murder Palestinians to take their stuff. The US (and to a lesser extent the EU/UK) has shielded Israel from suffering any repercussions for its actions, using the combined threats of economic sanctions and military force, so the horrifyingly evil little nation has never learned to do anything else or even hide its intentions, which is why IDF soldiers keep posting actual video of themselves committing war crimes to social media. They take this so much for granted that they constantly spy on their supposed allies and bomb UN and Red Cross/Red Crescent operations with impunity. Their leadership has been trying for decades to rehabilitate the reputation of Adolf Hitler, so the idea that their country has anything whatsoever to do with religious or ethnic Judaism is obviously total nonsense. We in the media keep pretending it’s a complex issue, but it’s really that simple: Israel is a nation of treacherous murderers and thieves and always has been, and our own leaders are variously cowards and villains for siding with them.
There. The end. That’s all anybody really needs to know.
Well, singular Vicar, let’s see you put this into your Bizarro World terms:
In this story, Israel made a generous peace offer to the Palestinians during the 2000 summit at Camp David — only to be immediately rebuffed and met with four-and-a-half years of the Second Intifada, the most violent period of Israeli-Palestinian conflict until the current Gaza war. Shortly after the intifada ended in 2005, Israel attempted a different route to peace: unilaterally withdrawing troops and settlements from the Gaza Strip. The end result of that decision was Hamas taking over the Gaza Strip, using it as a launching pad for rocket fire and (ultimately) the October 7 attack.
This recounting is at best selective, telling only the facts flattering to Israel and leaving out its own mistakes. Jeremy Pressman, a political scientist who studies the Camp David negotiations, accused Segal of “peddling a completely discredited version” of events — one that makes Israel’s offer out to be more generous than his research suggests it actually was.
Hey, did you get as far as the ironic bit?
But setting aside truth for a moment, there is no doubt that Segal’s story is the dominant one among Israeli Jews. They don’t just believe it intellectually, but feel it in a visceral way. The past 25 years of suicide bombings and rocket fire left an open psychological wound, pushing politics to the right even in the relatively low-casualty decade before October 7.
(Fever dreams, eh?)
John Moralessays
We in the media keep pretending it’s a complex issue, but it’s really that simple: Israel is a nation of treacherous murderers and thieves and always has been, and our own leaders are variously cowards and villains for siding with them.
Just checking, you reckon new-born Israeli babies are treacherous murderers and thieves?
(All that foam frothing from mouth makes you hard to understand)
John Moralessays
[Ack!]
—
We in the media keep pretending it’s a complex issue, but it’s really that simple: Israel is a nation of treacherous murderers and thieves and always has been, and our own leaders are variously cowards and villains for siding with them.
Just checking, you reckon new-born Israeli babies are treacherous murderers and thieves?
(All that foam frothing from mouth makes you hard to understand)
A Clark County judge has dismissed the charges filed against the six Nevada Republicans who submitted an invalid slate of electoral votes for former President Donald Trump in 2020 on the grounds that the county was not the appropriate jurisdiction for the case.
At a Friday morning hearing in Clark County District Court, Judge Mary Kay Holthus said she was unconvinced by state prosecutors’ arguments that Clark County was the appropriate county in which to hear the case. The electors’ attorneys had argued a more appropriate venue would be in Carson City, where the illegitimate signing ceremony took place, or in Douglas County, where the fake elector documents were originally mailed from.
Clark County is more Democratic, meaning a jury could be less favorable to the Republican defendants.
“You have literally, in my opinion, a crime that has occurred in another jurisdiction,” Holthus said. “It’s so appropriately up north and so appropriately not here.”
Immediately after the ruling, Nevada Attorney General Aaron Ford said the “judge got it wrong” and that his office will appeal the ruling to the state Supreme Court. A trial set for January has been vacated pending the high court’s ruling.
The state is unable to refile the case up north because a three-year statute of limitations expired in December.
[…] The ruling marks the first time that a case related to the Trump campaign’s efforts to submit a false slate of electors has been dismissed.
The six defendants — Nevada GOP Chairman Michael McDonald, Republican National Committeeman Jim DeGraffenreid, Clark County GOP Chairman Jesse Law, state party Vice Chair Jim Hindle, Shawn Meehan and Eileen Rice — were each indicted on two counts by a grand jury in December over their role in submitting fake election documents to federal and state election authorities that purported to cast Nevada’s six electoral votes for Trump.
The defendants faced charges of offering a false instrument for filing and uttering a forged instrument, which together carry punishments of two to nine years’ imprisonment. […]
The United States and China resumed semi-official nuclear arms talks in March for the first time in five years, with Beijing’s representatives telling U.S. counterparts that they would not resort to atomic threats over Taiwan, according to two American delegates who attended.
Winnett, hired by Washington Post publisher William Lewis, faced questions about his U.K. work, including stories based on stolen records. Washington Post link
Robert Winnett, the British journalist recently tapped to become editor of The Washington Post later this year, will not take the job and will remain at the Daily Telegraph in London, according to a company email sent to Post employees Friday morning.
The change of plans comes after days of turmoil surrounding The Post, triggered by the abrupt exit of executive editor Sally Buzbee on June 2 and questions about past journalistic practices of both Winnett and William Lewis, The Post’s CEO and publisher.
Lewis had announced Winnett’s hiring when Buzbee departed just 2½ weeks ago, along with plans for a “third newsroom” that would be tasked with attracting new audiences. Under the plan, former Wall Street Journal editor Matt Murray came on board to run news coverage until Winnett’s arrival, at which point Murray would have handed the reins to Winnett and run the new division in November after the election.
Murray took over June 3 and was introduced to the newsroom; Winnett, who oversees news coverage at the Telegraph as a deputy editor, had not yet met The Post staff and was almost entirely unknown in American media circles.
Lewis and Winnett have faced accusations in recent days of using unethical newsgathering practices in Britain, where they previously worked together at the Telegraph and the Sunday Times — London newsrooms that sometimes operate by different rules than their American counterparts.
[…] Paying sources for information is considered unethical in most American newsrooms. So is misrepresenting oneself as anything other than a journalist to obtain confidential information as part of newsgathering, a practice referred to as “blagging.” While blagging is illegal in Britain, The Post reported that legal experts have said it is defensible if the information obtained is in the public’s interest.
[…] “To be sure, it can’t be business as usual at The Post,” Bezos added. “The world is evolving rapidly and we do need to change as a business.”
It’s not just drug companies and insurers that keep the cost of prescription drugs high: “[T]here is another collection of powerful forces that often escape attention, because they operate in the bowels of the health care system and cloak themselves in such opacity and complexity that many people don’t even realize they exist. They are called pharmacy benefit managers. And they are driving up drug costs for millions of people, employers and the government.”
Trump’s latest reported idea would result in massive tax cuts for the ultrarich—at the expense of other Americans
Economists are warning that Trump’s reported idea to eliminate the income tax and replace it with massive tariffs on imports would cripple the economy, explode the cost of living, and likely set off a trade war. And because the math doesn’t come close to working, it would also tremendously increase the national debt.
In other words, Trump’s latest notion is both economically and fiscally illiterate. “If a 20yo interviewing for a House internship suggested replacing the income tax with a massive tariff, they’d be laughed out of the interview,” Brian Riedl, a conservative budget expert, wrote on X.
The politics of Trump’s latest scheme are perhaps even worse, because this plan exposes the hypocrisy of his faux populism. Indeed, what’s striking about the idea is just how regressive and non-populist it is. Replacing the income tax with tariffs would result in massive tax cuts for the ultrarich—at the expense of middle and lower-class Americans. Brendan Duke and Ryan Mulholland of the left-leaning Center for American Progress estimate that Trump’s proposal would raise taxes by $8,300 for the middle 20 percent of households, if American consumers end up bearing the full brunt of tariffs on imports.
President Joe Biden’s plans for the economy are much better than those of Donald Trump, according to a new study from Moody’s Analytics.
If Trump wins and can implement his plans, including extending his tax cuts for millionaires and tariffs on imported goods, Moody’s expects America to tumble into a recession in 2025. Long term, Trump’s announced economic plans would depress economic growth and drive up prices.
Everything would be made worse under a “Republican sweep scenario” where Republicans capture Congress as well as the White House and enable Trump’s other plans, such as a mass deportation of immigrants. Under that scenario, Moody’s sees not just a prolonged slowdown in the economy, but a sharp increase in inflation and interest rates.
On the other hand, if Biden wins, inflation is expected to drop below 2% while the economy continues steady growth.
Trump’s plan for mass deportation would choke an already tight labor market, making it hard for companies to find workers. That could be good for remaining laborers in some jobs, as companies are forced to fight over a shortage of workers. But for everyone else that would mean increased inflation and product shortages.
The shortage of immigrant workers could hit agricultural production especially hard. Florida’s efforts to limit immigrant workers on farms in that state are already generating “ghost towns” where farmers are unable to find the help they need and a major industry has been disrupted. If Trump were to take such policies nationwide and carry through on anti-immigrant threats, Americans might see the nation’s abundance of food that is produced in this country—an abundance that means they spend less of their income on food than any other country—sharply reduced.
“Biden’s policies are better for the economy,” Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody’s Analytics told USA Today. “They lead to more growth and less inflation.”
Moody’s also worries that, if Trump wins, the Federal Reserve might be forced to increase interest rates even more to address rising labor costs and renewed inflation. That raises the chance that Trump could generate a double-dip recession where the economy drags along for years.
They also project that Trump’s policies would lead to an overall loss of jobs. By the end of a second Trump term, Moody’s projects over 3 million fewer jobs than if Biden is reelected. Extending his tax cuts would also add $5.2 trillion to the nation’s debt.
If Biden wins the White House, Moody’s projects inflation to continue to fall and return to the Fed’s 2% target by summer 2025. Additionally, growth accelerates, jobs continue to be added and the deficit goes down.
It’s an enormous contrast.
As USA Today notes, Trump’s policies frighten even the libertarian economists at the CATO Institute. They predict that Trump’s policies would be highly damaging to the U.S. economy.
With Biden, Americans get:
– Inflation and interest rates that go down.
– An increase in jobs.
– A steadily growing economy that maintains stability.
With Trump they get:
– Rising inflation and interest rates.
– A decrease in jobs.
– A sluggish economy marked by recessions and instability.
This is just one more area where it seems like the choice should be blindingly obvious. And that’s before even considering the other effects, like the damage done by tearing apart immigrant families and destroying environmental progress.
You could almost forgive the wingnut disinformation apparatus their lazy-yet-brazen (brazy? blazen?) attempts to photoshop Joe Biden into a senility crisis, considering how difficult it must be to find footage of their own candidate where he isn’t waving at imaginary crowds, unsuccessfully attempting to read at a third grade level off a large print teleprompter, or raping somebody.
Hell, why not? This is an audience that talked itself into consuming medication designed to deworm livestock, what’s left of ‘em anyway. They’ll swallow whatever shit you shovel and ask for seconds. […]
But if we’re gonna turn this thing into some sort of mental acuity death match, my money’s on the guy who understands that a cognitive test isn’t something you “ace.”
“Trump challenges Biden to a cognitive test. Mixes up name of doctor.”
Another one of those headlines that proves whatever god that’s been fucking with us has a sense of humor.
…and then the next ten pages of the newspaper are about the entire institutional Republican Party sucking that dude’s butt. Dude who can no longer navigate the already preposterous act of BRAGGING ABOUT PASSING A COGNITIVE TEST without demonstrating cognitive decline. […]
[…] Speaking of groveling, the veepstakes hurtles madly towards the dignity equivalent of absolute zero, where all self-respect ceases […]
JD Vance is so far up that ass at this point, I no longer recall what he looks like. Dug Bugman tries his best, but he comes off as a bit of a try-hard, don’t you think? “Oh, Biden is the real dictator, remember that election he tried to overt-wait, I mean the time he tear-gassed those peaceful protesters in Lafay-hang on, no, well who can forget the camps full of childrrrrrrrrrr oh will you look at that, I’m a getting a text from Kristi Noem’s parakeet, it’s seeking asylum, I have to take this.”
Anyway.
Somebody must’ve reminded Off-Brand Orbán that the guy they’ve all been gleefully painting as a scarcely sentient pile of dust gets to spend ninety prime time minutes next week stuffing him in rhetorical locker after rhetorical locker, because now he’s frantically lowering expectations. Suddenly ol’ Joe’s the legendary debater who vanquished seven Paul Ryans with a single “malarkey.” […]
The Dotard’s certainly doing his damndest to hook former Speaker Ryan up with one of the many hammer/nail gun aficionados in his social media audience, disparaging his onetime governing partner as a “dog,” because Truth Social is kind of like a dating app, only for stochastic terrorism.
[…] Now, a less stable genius might suggest it’s unwise to shit all over the very swing state voters your party hopes to court with the substantial investment of its quadrennial national convention […] These people don’t have unforced errors so much as brief, rare periods when they’re not actively on fire.
[…] Marjorie Taylor Greene has had it with your insurrection shaming! Domestic terrorists are people, too! They have a vibrant, if embarrassing culture, which is vanishing before our eyes, as adherents succumb to federal prosecution, ivermectin poisoning, and the many other everyday dangers one faces when one is a fucking dumbass.
[…] Convicted felon Roger Stone has a plan to help the rapist felon who commuted his sentence overturn the next election he loses, deploying “lawyers, judges, technology” in addition to the traditional terrorist mob.
Hmm. Well, we’ve seen the lawyers, nothing to worry about there. “Technology” could mean bamboo fiber detectors, or it could mean a hat that lets you bear-spray four cops at once, we’ll have to wait and see. As for judges, there’s only so many Aileen Cannons to go around.
Anyway, Aileen’s doing all she can already, according to a new report that says she rejected the eminently sensible advice of her colleagues, to pass the stolen classified documents case off to a more experienced judge, one perhaps a skosh less corrupt, but in her defense, justice ain’t gonna obstruct itself.
Louisiana Republicans’ trifecta-fueled theocracy bender shows no signs of abating, as the Ten Commandments must now, under penalty of law, be displayed in every single classroom statewide. The Vincent Price scenes specifically, my sources tell me.
[…] Seems Robert Morris, megachurch “pastor” and “spiritual advisor” to celebrity rapists, molested a 12-year-old girl in the 1980’s. Morris spent the ensuing decades in penitent solitude, since it would of course be obscene for a child molester to set himself up as a moral authorit- hang on, I’m being handed an update…
Another super godly man o’ the cloth is “Pastor” Micah Beckwith, who thinks the Capitol Riot was “divinely inspired.” One job I think Micah should definitely not have is Lieutenant Governor of a whole dang state, but Indiana Republicans apparently disagree.
(Y’know, if I were a religious fundamentalist, that would piss me off, because it implies God is a fucking moron. Like, what sort of sickly, meth den deity inspires weirdos to don sloppy cosplay headdresses and commit crimes? “We honor Him by concocting fake religious dietary requirements when our blinding dumbfuckery lands us in prison,” said the Prophet, for He too had a brain that did not work at all, nay, not even a little bit.)
At this very moment, large, well-organized caravans of migrants are marching towards our southern border. Some people call it an “invasion.” It’s like an invasion.
Update to 2024:
[…] As the 2024 election approaches, the word “invasion” has become acceptable usage among Trump’s sycophants and Republican imitators. As reported by Jazmine Ulloa, writing for The New York Times, “The word invasion has appeared in 27 television ads for Republican candidates—accounting for more than $5 million in ad spending—ahead of the November 2024 election, according to early April data from AdImpact.”
Immigration is the one issue that Republicans intend to fixate on because they have nothing else to talk about, certainly nothing they’ve achieved themselves. In fact, Republicans—again following Donald Trump’s command—deliberately prevented the Biden administration from drastically increasing protection of the U.S.-Mexican border by blocking passage of comprehensive immigration legislation they themselves had co-authored, simply so Trump could use the issue against President Biden in 2024. That bill literally provided billions in funding for border security and protection. So while they clearly believe immigration is a helpful issue for inflaming their base, it’s equally clear that Republicans don’t consider it serious enough to actually do something about.
There’s no argument that the number of undocumented immigrants crossing the U.S. border has increased since President Biden took office. The number of people turned away by the Biden administration has also reached record levels, but (to be fair) that is a function of the overall numbers. Earlier this month the administration took unilateral action that would deny the right of asylum to those who crossed the border unlawfully. The Biden administration clearly recognizes that controlling the influx of immigrants in this country is an important concern.
However, it is not an “invasion.” Calling it an invasion is not simply dehumanizing to the people who arrive at our border with Mexico. It is intended to suggest that some terrible harm will come to Americans because of an increase in immigrants. But there is simply no evidence of that. In fact, most of the data suggests the exact opposite.
Take Texas, for example. Immigrants comprise about one quarter of the state’s entire workforce. Of the estimated 3.3 million immigrant workers within its borders, 1.1 million of those are undocumented. They contribute about $119 billion annually to the Texas economy, based on their personal income. They also pay about $6.5 billion in taxes. That doesn’t sound like an invasion. It sounds, quite simply, like people coming to do work here that needs to be done.
[…] Unsurprisingly, it is the undocumented folks who tend to work in the hardest jobs, representing an outsized number of people employed in the sweaty, back-breaking fields of agriculture, construction, groundskeeping, and maintenance. These are not the type of jobs preferred by even so-called legal immigrants who can afford to demand (and get) more because of their status. […]
Although some attain licensures and professional status in business and other fields, by and large these immigrants are not entrepreneurs. They are not forming sole proprietorships or banding together as LLCs. Someone keeps hiring them, again and again.
When Texas Gov. Greg Abbott howls about immigrants, he seldom mentions the Texas companies and businesses that hire them—and keep hiring them—year after year. No Republican ever mentions that, in fact. But that is the major reason they keep arriving at our border: Because there is plenty of work to be found here. If these people were such a dire threat, wouldn’t you expect a massive crackdown with heavy penalties—not just piddling, one-time fines but serious prison sentences—levied on their employers?
The reality is that these folks prop up the entire service economy of states like Texas. Because Texas employers—including small businesses and corporations run by Republicans—want it that way.
That’s why it’s so odd to hear Republicans complaining about an “invasion.” Unless they are directly involved in employing them—and many clearly are—the vast majority of Republicans’ interaction with most undocumented immigrants is limited to blithely driving through their suburban enclaves while these “invaders” are hard at work mowing their grass, putting up their neighbor’s roof, or helping grandma get out of bed in her nursing home.
[…] And no, immigrants are not coming here to commit crimes. Why? Because—quite logically—they’re terrified they’ll be deported if they do. Many of them sought immigration in the first place to escape political oppression, gang violence, and abysmal economic conditions. […] they have scant political representation and no high-priced lawyers standing up for them in court. […]
But many have families to support. And apparently they take their civic responsibility a lot more seriously than so-called real Americans. As reported by NPR’s Jasmine Garsd:
[…] Beyond incarceration rates, research also shows that there is no correlation between undocumented people and a rise in crime. Recent investigations by The New York Times and The Marshall Project found that between 2007 and 2016, there was no link between undocumented immigrants and a rise in violent or property crime in those communities.
Nor are they bringing in fentanyl That’s another myth spun by Republicans out of whole cloth. As reported by Joel Rose for NPR:
[T] he vast majority of illicit fentanyl — close to 90% — is seized at official border crossings. Immigration authorities say nearly all of that is smuggled by people who are legally authorized to cross the border, and more than half by U.S. citizens […] Virtually none is seized from migrants seeking asylum.
It’s a common complaint that immigrant hiring reduces wages for U.S. citizens. Even if that were true, that’s not the fault of the immigrants but the fault of the employers who hire them, knowing that they can get away with paying substandard wages and denying such workers benefits and protections enjoyed by U.S. citizens.
But as reported by Amita Kelly for NPR, the reality is that “Economists disagree whether or how much an influx of immigrants depresses wages:”
Some have found that new immigrants depress wages for certain groups, such as teenagers or workers with a high school diploma or less. Others say the overall effect on the economy is tiny, and an influx of immigrant workers vitalizes the economy overall.
Either way, the forces driving wage reductions for blue-collar workers go far beyond immigration.
It’s also fair to point out that the “forces” driving lower wages for blue collar workers owe themselves to the decrease in union representation, a development that is almost entirely due to Republican policies. But even the libertarian CATO institute acknowledges that “A decrease in the supply of immigrants can only increase native wages if immigrants and natives are substitutes for one another; in other words, if they compete for the same jobs.”
[…] Americans pay these so-called invaders substandard wages to do the necessary work that we clearly don’t want to do. We blame them for drugs and crime they have nothing to do with. Then we demonize them, declaring they’re “poisoning the blood” of our nation, and agitate about deporting them. […]
The influx of immigrants into our country is not an invasion and we’re not being invaded. The word is simply an inflammatory, dehumanizing slur, lifted straight out of Donald Trump’s racist lexicon.
New Jersey Transit and Amtrak rail service was severely disrupted this week, leaving some commuters stranded for hours on the hottest days of the year.
Extreme heat coupled with strained infrastructure, malfunctions and mechanical problems on Amtrak and New Jersey Transit brought agony and massive delays for tens of thousands of commuters throughout the Northeast this week.
Rail service between New Jersey and New York’s Penn Station was suspended Thursday before the evening commute and again on Friday morning, with New Jersey Transit citing “AMTRAK overhead wire issues.”
While the root cause of the disruptions is still being investigated, they hit during some of the hottest days of the year so far, lengthening commutes amid an early-summer heat wave.
“Unfortunately, a unique combination of events recently caused major delays in the New York area, affecting travel along a significant section of the Northeast Corridor,” Amtrak President Roger Harris said in a statement Friday.
Harris added that on Thursday, a circuit breaker that powers the trains “experienced a catastrophic failure on one of the hottest days of the year and a serious brush fire also came close to our tracks.”
He said Amtrak is also working with New Jersey Transit “to understand and address recent disruptions associated with NJT trains operating on Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor infrastructure, which appears unique to the equipment and area.”
Amtrak and New Jersey Transit trains share one century-old tunnel connecting New York and New Jersey. It is the only passenger rail connection between Manhattan and the rest of the Northeast Corridor, which runs from Washington, D.C., to Boston.
Extreme heat straining infrastructure
While no single cause has been identified for this week’s transit disruptions, rail experts noted that extreme heat has the potential to strain infrastructure.
Many trains use one long, welded piece of metal called a “continuous weld” to function, and when temperatures rise, it expands, creating stress and forcing the rail to buckle, said Curtis Morgan, the freight and trade division head and a senior research scientist at the Texas A&M Transportation Institute.
“It can cause a derailment,” he said. “Because of the additional stress on the rail, the trains are ordered to go at a slower speed.” […]
New York City is under a heat advisory until Sunday night, with the heat index at times reaching near triple digits, according to the National Weather Service.
Clinton J. Andrews, the director of the Center for Urban Policy Research at Rutgers University and an expert in engineering, urban planning and climate change mitigation, said the summer months will add pressure to rail infrastructure. “[…] the tracks, which are made of steel, and the catenary wires, which provide power to electric trains, tend to expand during a heat wave.”
Most of this week’s delays and cancellations in the New York City metropolitan area were caused by power and overhead wire issues, a malfunctioning circuit breaker and a disabled train at Penn Station, transit officials said. […]
New Jersey Transit operates 700 trains each weekday along hundreds of miles between Philadelphia and New Haven, Connecticut, but the large majority of disruptions occurred between New Jersey and New York. […]
0:00 Air-to-air drones
0:33 WWI comparison
1:30 Drones favor the defender
2:25 The element of surprise
3:25 Drones and artillery
4:36 Breaking the deadlock
5:53 Drones and turtle tanks
That’s a step up for you; usually the times when you only almost sound stupid last mere seconds.
Yes. They bear guilt the same way that US citizens like me, born here, bear a share in the guilt of the theft of this land from the natives. (And, for that matter, that modern Europeans bear a sliver of the guilt from that same theft, since their ancestors did it and their nations retain the profits from it.) Being the receiver of an estate looted from a corpse is still a crime, even if most people — like you — have collectively decided that it’s okay if we all look the other way.
Israel has never negotiated in good faith; pretty much everything they say on their behalf is a lie. (Consider, for example the claim they made after October 7 that Hamas had killed 40 babies and raped a bunch of Israeli women — after a few weeks, they admitted that the only dead baby (singular) to be found anywhere near the site was probably caused by fire from the IDF. Then, recently, they recanted on the rape part, too — probably because it started to look a bit suspicious that no women at all came forward, even under conditions of anonymity, to talk about it. They’ve now admitted it was all lies — but they were very useful, timely lies, and lies which Biden embraced and claimed to have seen evidence of… in fact, he even claimed that after the Israelis admitted they were lying.)
(Incidentally, Open Secrets published a list a little while ago of the largest totals of known donations to US Senators by Israeli lobbying groups since 1990; Joe Biden was number 1 on the list, with over $5.6 million in donations — and since he hasn’t been in the Senate since 2008, that number is probably more meaningful than it looks, thanks to inflation. No wonder he’s willing to tell blatant lies on their behalf; he knows which side his bread is buttered on. It’s also not surprising that Hillary Clinton has come out of her seclusion to denounce pro-Palestine protests — she’s #3 on the list, and took money from Israel at approximately the same average rate as Joe the Israeli puppet, but for only about 40% as long.)
I refuse to recognize any guilt on the part of Hamas. Palestinians live in an open-air concentration camp, where they are subject to abduction, torture, and murder essentially at the will of the colonizing government, which exists entirely on land they stole within living memory. They are stuck there against their will. The Israelis are absolutely, 100% in the wrong, and if they don’t like the fact that the Palestinians won’t bow down and cooperate with the murderers and thieves who are butchering them, they can give the land back and get the hell out of the region.
John Moralessays
Yes. They bear guilt the same way that US citizens like me, born here, bear a share in the guilt of the theft of this land from the natives.
Even the neonates? The babies? The toddlers? The pre-pubescent youth? Pubescent youth?
The women, the old people, everyone!
(Listen to yourself!)
Being the receiver of an estate looted from a corpse is still a crime, even if most people — like you — have collectively decided that it’s okay if we all look the other way.
That’s got to be the clumsiest, most obnoxious bait and switch I’ve ever seen attempted.
Anyway. I certainly have never disputed what IsraEl is doing, or that it’s criminal.
That was never, ever the point that the article made, nor the point I made.
How the fuck you imagine you can jam in your stupid, counterfactual claim that I’m somehow OK with it is left to speculation. Have a look; I have made many many comments here and elseblog.
Bah. So weak! So formulaic, so… well, perfunctory.
I refuse to recognize any guilt on the part of Hamas.
Meh. It’s you making that claim, so it’s not credible.
Me, I reckon you at best you don’t give a shit.
(At best)
Palestinians live in an open-air concentration camp, where they are subject to abduction, torture, and murder essentially at the will of the colonizing government, which exists entirely on land they stole within living memory. They are stuck there against their will. The Israelis are absolutely, 100% in the wrong, and if they don’t like the fact that the Palestinians won’t bow down and cooperate with the murderers and thieves who are butchering them, they can give the land back and get the hell out of the region.
Wow, you really are a thickie.
Here:
Hey, did you get as far as the ironic bit?
But setting aside truth for a moment, there is no doubt that Segal’s story is the dominant one among Israeli Jews. They don’t just believe it intellectually, but feel it in a visceral way. The past 25 years of suicide bombings and rocket fire left an open psychological wound, pushing politics to the right even in the relatively low-casualty decade before October 7.
(Fever dreams, eh?)
—
(I couldn’t be fucked to dismiss your Joe Biden smear job, so there’s that)
Russia launched a reinvasion of Kharkiv oblast in mid-May, rapidly pushing across the Ukraine border and threatening to advance on Kharkiv city. After pushing for about 6 kilometers, advancing Russian forces ran into stiff opposition from Ukrainian defenses and their initial sprint slowed to a crawl. Two weeks later, President Joe Biden gave Ukraine permission to use U.S.-made weapons on targets just across the border in the Belgorod area of Russia, and that seemed to genuinely turn the tide.
Ukraine has halted Russia’s advance across this revived front and regained territory in several towns or villages, including the critical crossroads town of Vovchansk.
But even as Russia ran up another hideous tally of lost men and machines, a new tactic has become more dominant. Russia may be in short supply of sophisticated missiles and its ships may have been essentially eliminated from the Black Sea, but it has a seemingly unending supply of glide bombs. Now it’s using those bombs to absolutely pulverize any Ukrainian village, town, or city it can reach from airfields inside Russia.
As NPR reports, glide bombs are striking one after another in the Kharkiv region. Carrying up to 6,600 pounds of high explosives, the bombs can devastate an entire city block. Russia used 3,200 glide bombs in May—and the pace only seems to be increasing. [X post and video at the link, “13 guided bombs (KAB) in one hour”]
Fighters on the ground in Kharkiv report that Russia has steeply reduced the number of tanks and armored vehicles it is using. Instead, lightly supported infantry groups are moving with glide bombs clearing their way.
Not only are these glide bombs hitting positions near the front line, they’re being used in Kharkiv and other cities away from the immediate action. The glide bombs can reach much farther into Ukrainian territory than Russian artillery or MLRS.
This isn’t only happening in Kharkiv. It’s happening everywhere.
Russia’s deployment of heavy artillery as a means of clearing possible defensive positions while its infantry engaged in wave assaults has been read as a “scorched earth tactic” since the illegal invasion began. But that term is being revived in connection with glide bombs as Russia rolls out hundreds of massive explosives each day along the front. They’re being used like artillery, but the results are larger and more immediate. In a matter of days, glide bombs have reduced Vovchansk to the kind of rubble that resulted from weeks of fighting in Bakhmut, Severodonetsk, or other cities on the eastern border.
Glide bombs eliminated the last Ukrainian positions in Avdiivka. They’re also flattening buildings around the town of Chasiv Yar, southwest of Bakhmut, where Russian forces have been trying to capture a position of high ground from resilient Ukrainian troops under almost constant attack for weeks.
The increasing use of these bombs and their increasing importance to Russian military tactics means Ukraine’s ability to reach across the border and stop these bombs before they are launched will be the make-or-break feature of the next few months.
Now, Russia is putting the finishing touches on yet another airstrip less than 60 miles (100 kilometers) from Ukraine and launching the bombs routinely from multiple bases just inside Russian borders, according to the AP analysis of satellite pictures and photos from a Russian aviation Telegram channel.
If it seems like a lot of Ukraine’s drone activity in the past few weeks has been centered on targeting Russian airbases, this is why. Ukrainian forces may have held tight against a sudden Russian reinvasion across the northern border, defenders may be digging deep at Chasiv Yar, and Ukraine may be putting the brakes on Russian advances along the road west of Novooleksandrivka, but they can’t do this under a constant rain of enormous bombs.
The glide bombs aren’t sophisticated, modern, or even very accurate, and they don’t need to be. They’re just big. And they seem to be the one Russian weapon that can’t be stopped by very clever Ukrainian operators flying FPV drones.
Ukraine has to have the ability to outrange these bombs; to stop the planes that are lofting them before they take off; or to take the planes down before the bombs can be released. Part of what they have needed is simple permission. And now they have it.
The U.S. has told Ukraine it can use American-supplied weapons to hit any Russian forces attacking from across the border — not just those in the region near Kharkiv, according to U.S. officials.
That’s fantastic. Now would be a great time for a few F-16s to put in an appearance.
Author and editor Michael Weiss spoke with a group of aviation experts to explain a mystery: Why does Russia keep bombing itself with glide bombs? What he learned was that the conversion of dumb bomb to smart bomb is far from perfect. [X post at the link: Aviation expert: “[…] almost every day for a month and a half, Russia has been bombing itself. Not intentionally, of course. But why? There are several reasons.” and “The kit that makes the FAB a ‘smart’ bomb is often faulty. Most likely it’s not hermetic and made out of the wrong type of metal, i.e. something other than duraluminium. This means the electronic components are open to humidity and cold temperatures. Hence the failures.”]
Unfortunately, Russia does not have the kind of leaders that are going to stop just because they dropped a few dozen bombs on their own civilian population.
Let’s hope this is true. Because South Korean equipment for Ukraine would be much better than the North Korean material Russia is getting. [X post and image at the link: “South Korea is reconsidering sending arms to Ukraine, per Yonhap News. This follows Putin’s visit to North Korea earlier this week, signing a new Russia-North Korea defense pact.”]
[…] Nearly every day, the billionaire businessman’s campaign team sends out videos of Biden stumbling or stuttering, looking worn-out or appearing disoriented at public events.
They claim these clips, which are painstakingly edited together and sometimes distort reality, are proof that Biden cannot effectively run the United States.
“His brain is straight gnocchi at this point,” senior Trump aide Jason Miller said Thursday. […]
Trump celebrated another trip around the sun in grand style on Friday night [June 14] in Florida.
[…] Foster [Matthew Foster, a lecturer in government at American University,] also points out that Trump’s schedule is much lighter, with more time between public appearances, and when he does address supporters, he often descends into long, disjointed, stream-of-consciousness tirades.
“He’s giving off the old, drunken uncle vibe at times when he is giving these speeches, and this might be a sign of age, that you become less able to control all of your impulses,” Foster told AFP.
“And for somebody who’s already so impulsive, this could go into unforeseen territory.” […]
Susan Glasser, staff writer for the New Yorker, talks with Alex Wagner [MSNBC] about the unavoidable fact of Donald Trump’s mental deterioration and how Trump has managed to set the bar so low that his stumbles are often ignored, in contrast to how President Biden is scrutinized.
Newsweek:
[…] During his speech in the key swing state of Nevada on Sunday, the former president posed a hypothetical scenario in which a boat with a large battery sinks while a shark was nearby.
“If the boat is sinking, water goes over the battery, the boat is sinking, do I stay on top of the boat and get electrocuted?” Trump said. “Or do I jump over by the shark and not get electrocuted?”
Author and frequent Trump critic Stephen King was one of those who criticized the former president for his remarks.
“This is like listening to your senile uncle at the dinner table after he has that third drink,” King posted on X, formerly Twitter. […]
Snark from USA Today:
Unlike Trump, Biden doesn’t care if you get eaten by a shark. These are not the kind of sensible, America-loving questions you hear from Sleepy Joe Biden. Does he even care about patriotic Americans like us, the ones who might one day be forced to choose between boat-battery electrocution or death by shark?
Commentary:
[…] What may be “old news” to us here at DK, usually is just the eye-opener that those with “Trump Amnesia” desperately need to hear. Just saying. These Trump melt-downs may be “new News” to low info voters. Could be.
Afterall, Repetition is the key to make your salient points stick. The GOP has this repetition Messaging trick wired, BTW.
[…] Trump is “obsessed with sharks, terrified of sharks,” Stormy Daniels said in 2018. “He was like, ‘I donate to all these charities, and I would never donate to any charity that helps sharks. I hope all the sharks die.'” […]
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) said the Supreme Court is “living in the 1700s” after it overturned a Trump-era ban on gun bump stocks.
“I mean, they are so out of touch. They’re literally living in the 1700s. They go back to what our Founding Fathers said about guns at a time when we had muskets. We didn’t have bump stocks. We didn’t have machine guns,” she said on CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday.
[…] The Supreme Court invalidated the ban earlier this month on bump stocks, which convert semi-automatic weapons to ones capable of firing hundreds of rounds per minute. Democrats, including President Biden, criticized the ruling shortly after.
Hochul echoed Biden’s statement on the ruling, who called on Congress to pass legislation banning bump stocks after the decision.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) introduced legislation last week to ban the bump stocks, saying it was “no surprise to see the Supreme Court roll back this necessary public safety rule as they push their out-of-touch extreme agenda.”
Senate Republicans blocked this effort last week, with many saying that the high court ruled correctly.
[…] the state of Hawaii and youth activists announced Friday that they had reached a “historic” settlement in the kids’ lawsuit on climate, saying it’s the first of its kind anywhere in the world. And it’s a hell of a good outcome, requiring Hawaii to eliminate greenhouse gases from its transportation sector by 2045 or sooner.
And it’s in a state so recently scarred by its own climate disaster, last summer’s deadly Maui wildfires, which killed 101 people and left thousands homeless.
The agreement settles the case of Navahine v. Hawaii Department of Transportation, filed two years ago to force the state to live up to its 1978 hippie greenie constitutional amendment (thank Crom) stating,
Each person has the right to a clean and healthful environment, as defined by laws relating to environmental quality, including control of pollution and conservation, protection and enhancement of natural resources.
A similar provision in Montana’s constitution was the basis for last year’s court victory by another group of terrific young people, but this is a much bigger win. The Montana case sought to force the state to consider climate impacts when approving energy projects, while the Hawaii settlement will lead to the decarbonization of the state’s transportation sector, the state’s biggest source of greenhouse emissions.
The lawsuit argued that the state violated the rights of the plaintiffs by promoting highway construction almost to the exclusion of promoting clean, electric public transport and other alternative transportation.
Another key difference between the two suits: Where Montana officialdom reacted with flagrant pissiness to the lawsuit and its outcome, Hawaii leaders actively negotiated the agreement with the plaintiffs and their representatives. And those leaders, mostly Democrats, are now flat out celebrating the settlement too. In a statement, Hawaii Gov. Josh Green (D) said, “The passion demonstrated by these young people in advocating for a healthy, sustainable future for their generation and those to come is laudable.”
Many of the 13 kids — the youngest was nine when the case began — are Native Hawaiians, and as Green’s statement notes, Hawaii’s indigenous youths are “already experiencing climate change harms to their well-being and their ability to perpetuate cultural practices.” Hawaii officials, Green said, sought to “embrace the government’s kuleana (responsibility) to lead the way on bold and broad climate action.”
[…] So what’s in this agreement? It’s a LOT. It certainly helps that Hawaii already has an existing commitment to decarbonization by 2045 or sooner, but the settlement’s terms are enforceable in court, not just targets. As WaPo explains, the state must now create a plan to decarbonize transportation, with five-year interim targets that will be updated every five years through 2045, or ideally sooner.
That’ll include decarbonizing not only road transportation and building up public transport, but also transitioning to net-zero carbon emissions in marine and air transportation within Hawaii — meaning boats and flights from one island to another. Happily, battery-powered aircraft for relatively short hauls are already coming on the market. Hawaii lacks the power to regulate ships and planes arriving from outside the state, but its regulations — and those in other states — will pressure such carriers to get their climate shit together too, as professionals put it.
The plan must also improve walkability and bike paths. Also too:
Under the plan, Hawaii’s Department of Transportation will also provide $40 million for public charging stations for electrical vehicles by 2030 and establish a volunteer youth council to regularly advise the department.
[…] As in the Montana case, the kids in Hawaii were represented (or put up to it, if you work for an oil company, God help you) by climate nonprofits Earthjustice and Our Children’s Trust, which has launched other lawsuits to protect the future of young folks in Alaska, Virginia, and Utah. Two down, three to go!
It’s a hell of a win, and yet another reminder that you should elect Democrats if you want to clean up the air and improve public health, with the side benefit of improving transportation and keeping the planet hospitable to large mammals like the Hawaiian monk seal and Hawaii-born folks like Barack Obama, Sen. Mazie Hirono, and the Editrix’s Commie Mom. (Oh! And Bruno Mars, Bette Midler, Jason Momoa, and golfer Michele Wie!)
Iran’s Supreme Court overturned the death sentence handed down to a rapper who made music that criticized the regime and backed nationwide protests sparked by a woman’s death in the custody of Iran’s morality police, his lawyer said.
[…] Iran’s Supreme Court has now ordered a retrial, Raesian said, adding that the judges decided that Salehi’s previous prison sentence of six years and three months — on charges of “spreading corruption on the Earth” — violated “Iran’s multiple-offenses rules, and was in excess of the legal punishment.”
Iran’s ISNA news agency also reported on the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Salehi’s death sentence
[…] Salehi was taken into custody in October 2022, after he publicly supported the protests sparked by the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, which took place when she was detained for allegedly violating Iran’s strict Islamic dress code for women. The weeks-long protest movement, which united different factions of Iranian society and presented a major challenge to Iran’s clerical leadership, was ultimately snuffed out by the country’s authoritarian system.
[…] A coalition of rights groups working to defend Salehi welcomed the move by Iran’s Supreme Court.
“It is a clear demonstration of the injustice of the lower court decision, and we are delighted that Salehi no longer faces the threat of execution. The Supreme Court found that the death sentence delivered to Salehi was excessive and failed to comply with Iranian law,” said Index on Censorship, the Human Rights Foundation and lawyers representing Salehi in a statement published Saturday.
[…] Salehi’s case will now return to the lower court that initially sentenced him to death — Branch 1 of the Isfahan Revolutionary Court — so he can receive a new sentence, according to the Index on Censorship statement. The group called on the court to respect the rapper’s rights in that process.
“Even a shorter period of imprisonment would be an injustice: Salehi has done nothing other than to call for his, and other Iranians’, fundamental rights to be respected,” it said.
[…] The construction industry has one of the highest suicide rates among professions — with the rate among male construction workers 75% higher than men in the general population, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. An estimated 6,000 construction workers died as a result of suicide in 2022, an increase from 2021, according to the most recent data available. That compares to around 1,000 who died from a construction work-related injury.
“When you’re more likely to be killed by your own hands than to get killed in a jobsite accident, that’s a crisis in our industry,” said Brian Turmail, vice president of public affairs and workforce for the Associated General Contractors of America. “We know pretty much what needs to happen to protect people physically. We’re figuring out how to protect people mentally.”
While construction wages are up and jobs are plentiful, those in the industry fear that the pressures on their workers’ mental health are only getting worse. A recent surge in construction projects, spurred by billions of federal dollars for infrastructure, clean energy and semiconductor projects have put increasing strain on an already stretched workforce. As a result, workers are putting in more than 10-hour days in harsh weather conditions, facing high-pressure deadlines and having to spend months away from home living in hotels, temporary workforce housing or their vehicles. There is also the risk of workplace injuries and a higher rate of opioid misuse along with the general financial instability of hourly work.
[…] In Arizona, workers building the $20 billion Intel facility typically work two 60-hour weeks followed by a 50-hour week for months at a time in the hot Arizona weather with no paid vacation time, said Vitale. Because of a shortage of local workers, many are coming in from out of state, leaving behind friends and family and living for months or years in hotels or temporary housing.
For Azbill, a number of factors came together in a matter of months that pushed him to a place where he was close to ending his own life. […]
“I was working 19-hour days, and then I couldn’t sleep at night. Try that for six months and see where someone would be,” he said. “You start seeing everything negatively, there is this darkness. I was crying myself to sleep.”
[…] At the Intel project, the site’s general contractor, Hoffman Construction, has tried to tackle the risk of suicide in a number of ways across its worksites after the company lost two of its supervisors to suicide over the past several years, said Vitale. Intel doesn’t employ any of the construction workers on the site or have direct involvement in the construction process.
The company has created community center-style spaces on its worksites where workers can have some personal space, attend a substance misuse meeting or talk with a peer who can help connect them to mental health resources. It also started including discussions about mental health in its regular staff meetings.
“It would be rare to find someone in the industry who hasn’t known a person that has taken their life within the last year or two,” said Vitale. “As an industry, we just keep putting more and more pressure on the worker to outperform what they’ve done before, and at some point it’s just untenable.” […]
Trump laying the groundwork to explain why he is going to lose the debate with Biden:
So, a little before debate time, he gets a shot in the ass. They want to strengthen him up. So he comes out. He’ll come out. Okay. I say he’ll come out all jacked up, right?
Sounds like another confession from Trump. Also smells like desperation. Even Trump’s campaign team seems to think he is going to lose.
Either that, or they are trying to set expectations for Trump’s performance (level of coherence?) really, really low.
For perspective, the FAB 3000’s are roughly equivalent to the explosive power of McVeigh’s truck bomb in Oklahoma City. Russians can launch a half dozen at a time along a section of the front.
—————————
Ukraine has been systematically taking out air defenses in Crimea and along the Russian border in various places. I have no idea how ready they are to put F-16s into action, but if they can interdict these glide bomb attacks with them, it would take away Russia’s favorite weapon. Ukraine needs to take the war into Russia at logistics entry points and make getting anything into Ukraine a major effort. They’ve been using drone attacks and sabotage throughout the war in this regard. Ramping that action up and taking the war to Belgorod and Rostov on Don more would be a game changer. They have permission to do that now.
————————-
Glide Bombs are a threat right now because they are cheap and easy to produce (relatively). However they are delivered with expensive and in Russia’s current state nearly irreplaceable. When Jets start really dropping from the sky that all goes away.
Afghans have been celebrating their country’s surprise cricketing victory over Australia at the T20 World Cup in the West Indies.
Footage from the city of Khost near the border with Pakistan showed hundreds of people celebrating in the streets.
It was the first time Afghanistan has triumphed over the cricketing superpower – and all the more surprising given that at the turn of the century, the country didn’t even have a national team.
Collecting the player-of-the-match award, Afghanistan’s Gulbadin Naib said: “It is a great moment, not only for me but my nation, my people.”
Meanwhile captain Rashid Khan said the win would “give people back home so much hope”.
“Cricket is the only source of happiness back home, you all know that,” he said.
birgerjohanssonsays
Alan Turing was born today 112 years ago.
Today is six months until Christmas, or Anti-christmas. Sweden is terrorised by angry gnomes who demand expensive gifts from all members of the family.
Look forward to the next Tory pre-election scandal. “In the second week before Votemas, my Tory gave to me…”
birgerjohanssonsays
Oops. I promise I had not read this news before posting my previous comment.
“Tory minister accused of cronyism after associate’s firm hired as adviser | Conservatives | The Guardian”
The next episode of God Awful Movies will bring up the 2013 film The Book of Daniel, a creation made with a budget from leftover coffee change. The guest masochists Dan and Dan were confused by the lack of cohesion.
birgerjohanssonsays
1,2 million m3 of snow left over from the winter road clearing in Luleå town will not have time to melt before the end of the summer. I mention it in case you want to complain about your winter.
“Oh Mummy -Sutekh’s Post-Dr Who Career”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=Q1xnU2BNryo
(I expected him to join the House of Lords, but the many Borisite ex-tories must have brought down the place. Sorta like sitting next to Matt Gaetz)
The RNC’s Michael Whatley said “there’s not a single metric” that’s improved over the last four years. Reality tells a very different story.
Michael Whatley, the current chair of the Republican National Committee, appeared on Fox News late last week to summarize what he sees as the foundational question of the 2024 presidential race:
“The American voters are going to go vote based on whether they are better off today than they were four years ago. And there’s not a single metric that President Biden can show where America’s better off than they were four years ago.”
The RNC chief obviously had some grammatical trouble toward the end of the quote, but putting that aside, Whatley peddled a familiar refrain. Republicans are heavily invested in the idea that President Joe Biden will lose for the simple reason that the country was better off four years ago.
Indeed, Whatley can’t think of “a single metric” that’s moved in the right direction when comparing 2020 and 2024.
Of course, if the RNC chair is genuinely interested in the underlying question, there’s all kinds of evidence for him to consider. The New York Times’ Paul Krugman explained in a recent column that the Reagan-era “Are you better off than you were four years ago?” question is “almost ludicrously favorable to President Biden.”
After all, four years ago, thousands of Americans were dying each day of Covid-19. Soaring deaths aside, four years ago more than 20 million Americans were unemployed; Trump left office with the worst job record of any president since Herbert Hoover. Also, the country was in the grip of a violent crime wave, with murders soaring. Today, by contrast, we’ve just experienced the longest stretch of unemployment below 4 percent since the 1960s, and the violent crime wave — Trump didn’t cause it, but it did happen on his watch — has been rapidly receding.
Krugman’s list, of course, was just a sampling. As we’ve discussed, there are plenty of other related data points: The nation’s uninsured rate improved under Biden. The supply-chain challenges improved under Biden. The cost of many prescription drugs improved under Biden. Infrastructure investments improved under Biden. The budget deficit improved under Biden. The U.S. murder rate improved under Biden. [All good points.]
The United States’ global standing improved dramatically after Biden replaced Trump in the White House.
Whatley would have Americans believe there’s “not a single metric” that’s improved over the last four years. If we’re overly literal about it, I suppose there’s a kernel of truth in that assessment — because there are a great many metrics that show how much better off the United States is as compared to four years ago.
[…] For whatever reason, Trump approaches practically every challenge with the same thought: “If I fail, it can’t be my fault.”
With this in mind, it’s not too surprising to see the former president apply this same model to Thursday night’s debate against President Joe Biden — which the presumptive GOP nominee is preparing for by making pre-emptive excuses for the possibility that the event might not go his way.
In recent days, Trump and his surrogates have condemned the debate’s format — apparently indifferent to the fact that his own team negotiated the terms of the event — while going after the CNN anchors who’ll moderate the debate.
As for the possibility that his Democratic opponent might be able to “put two sentences together,” Trump appears eager to pre-emptively delegitimize Biden’s debate performance, too. The New York Times reported:
In his last scheduled rally before he takes the stage for a presidential debate, former President Donald J. Trump on Saturday mocked President Biden over his preparations, suggesting his opponent might be using medical supplements. … [H]e seemed to be preparing his supporters for the possibility that Mr. Biden might prove a formidable opponent by accusing him of using a chemical boost.
“I say he’ll come out all jacked up, right?” Trump said on Saturday, referring to the incumbent, after telling supporters that Biden will get “a shot in the ass” shortly before the debate. The former president added soon after, “Whatever happened to all that cocaine that was missing a month ago from the White House?”
Trump peddled a similar line a week earlier in Wisconsin, suggesting Biden not only used illegal drugs, but actually stole cocaine found in the White House.
He’s also getting plenty of backup from the usual suspects: The Republican National Committee, among others, has asserted as fact that the incumbent president is “on an intense doping regimen,” and assorted right-wing members of Congress have called on Biden to take a drug test to resolve allegations that Trump manufactured out of whole cloth.
Last month, Republican Rep. Greg Murphy of North Carolina went so far as to tell Fox Business that he had secret knowledge about Biden’s reliance on illicit substances, which he refused to divulge on the air.
To be sure, all of this is quite bonkers, even by contemporary Republican standards, though it’s not altogether new. As regular readers might recall, Trump was concerned about his debates against Hillary Clinton, so he said the former secretary of state might be on performance-enhancing drugs. [Same as it ever was.]
Four years later, he did it again. In September 2020, the then-president whined incessantly about his suspicion that Biden was also on drugs. Asked at a White House press briefing whether this line of attack was an attempt at humor, the Republican replied, “No, I’m not joking.”
But in 2024, Trump and his allies have embraced the bizarre theory with even great vigor and enthusiasm.
[…] If Biden excels, Trump wants to be able to tell his followers, “I said all along that the debates are rigged, the moderators were unfair, and my opponent is a drug addict.” If the former president does well, he’ll declare, “I won the debate despite the fact that the process was rigged, and Biden had an unfair pharmacological advantage.”
Trump could be investing more time and energy ensuring that the debates go well, but he apparently finds it far easier to focus on making pre-emptive excuses for the possibility of losing.
Trump’s weekend of madness, and the media’s continued silence [Not “silence” exactly, just something ranging from indifference to pro-Trump spin on the part of the media. No focus on repeating the truly awful or nonsensical stuff Trump spews, but lots and lots of focus on negative stories about Biden.]
Donald Trump spoke to the Faith and Freedom Coalition conference at the Washington Hilton on Saturday. The next day, Trump held a sparsely attended rally in Philadelphia, which he described as “one of the most egregious places anywhere in the world.” [video at the link]
Between those two events, Trump delivered moments that should have been the end of any campaign. But because the media has decided that Trump gets a special exemption from either the truth or making sense, don’t expect to see pundits reviewing these statements on Monday morning.
Some of those clips involved the sort of nonsensical rambling that fills so much time at Trump rallies, like this extended riff on lather, showers, his hair, and why “they don’t want you to have any water.” [video at the link]
Other moments were the stuff of absolute nightmare fuel, as in this moment when Trump threatened to take off his clothes and reveal his “beautiful, beautiful body” along with the stigmata of his struggles with justice.
“I’ve taken a lot of wounds, I can tell you,” he said. “More than I suspect any president ever.” [video at the link]
And there was Trump’s proposal for pitting migrants against each other in an arena for amusement.
“It’s not the worst idea I ever had,” Trump said. Amazingly, that’s true, but only because he’s had some really terrible ideas. [video at the link]
Finally, there’s the moment where Trump told the Faith and Freedom crowd that they have to get out and vote this time, but in four years … don’t worry about it.
“In four years, don’t vote. I don’t care,” he said. “But we’ll have it all straightened out so it’ll be much different.” [video at the link]
This is far, far from a comprehensive list. Both of Trump’s speeches included other moments when he seemed to be going simply off the rails or when he expressed his usual lies about the economy, crime, and the 2020 election. But this cluster of statements should be more than enough to disqualify anyway.
I know everyone is weary of watching videos of Trump saying stupid stuff, but you have to see his current state of madness (his current unhinged, blathering awfulness] to believe it.
For months now, fossil fuel companies have been trying to push what might be one of history’s most ridiculous ideas: The U.S. needs to give up on renewable energy and burn more coal because we need that power to drive the massive server farms behind AI.
Not only is burning up the planet for better chatbots right up there in the annals of foolishness, but any claim that we absolutely have to use fossil fuels to meet increasing energy demands is also more than a little suspect. Because right now we’re looking at a solar energy boom that exceeds all expectations.
As the Rocky Mountain Institute reports, the world is experiencing one of those rare moments when complementary technologies become radically cheaper and more available at the same time, leading to a “cleantech revolution.” [Graphs at the link, impressive.]
If you’ve been feeling pessimistic about the climate crisis, take a moment to read this report. This is a story of reality beating the most optimistic projections, and of a technological solution that keeps breaking through every projected barrier.
The biggest problem with solar at this moment might be that it is too cheap. Prices have plunged below $0.10 per watt as rapidly increasing production capacity for solar panels has exceeded the ability to plan and install more capacity.
What’s most striking about the findings of this report—other than just how rapidly solar power and battery storage are expanding—is how the message of “there’s no point in us doing anything when China is going to keep generating dirty electricity” has kept the U.S. rooted in place while China has surged ahead in solar power.
Bannon’s lawyers have written to the DC US Circuit Court of Appeals that his imprisonment shouldn’t happen this summer, as the trial-level judge has ordered, because he would be behind bars “for the four-month period leading up to the November election, when millions of Americans look to him for information on important campaign issues,” according to a recent filing for Bannon.
Maybe scientists can figure out how memory works … with your help
It’s been several years since I aimed [readers] at the wonder which is Zooniverse, a site where ordinary people can pitch in to assist with breakthrough research. Its projects have included finding comets, translating ancient texts, and recovering the history of forgotten Black communities. I once got to name a chimpanzee after I watched her teach an infant to use stone tools through a trail camera 5,000 miles away.
This is all possible because of the researchers at Zooniverse who make information accessible to non-specialists. A few hours of training can have you recovering data from old ships’ log books or helping to verify planets around distant stars.
And, yes, humans can still do this work better than AI. [Interesting.]
The latest project is Synapse Safari, which represents a dataset from the Rosalind Franklin Institute and the Center for Development Neurobiology to determine how neuron networks are formed. That might sound intimidating, and you might not have the slightest idea what a ”synaptic vesicle” is, much less how to identify it in an image.
But don’t worry about it. Go through the tutorial and give it a try. […]
The Finnish government (elected last year, a coalition mostly consisting of two large rightwing parties) continues to provide lots of circences while taking away all the panem from people. Many voters of the nationalist-fascist Finns party are deeply disappointed, as the fiscally-fascist Conservative party keeps slashing their benefits and the Finns in government go along. The coalition has a narrow majority in the parliament and currently a record low public approval rating.
I noted recently, in the wake of European Parliament election, how the Finns suffered badly in that election although it has precious little to do with domestic politics. Now, the party has reacted in panic while trying to appear outwardly calm, cranking up the racist dogwhistles to entertain their voter base. Prime minister Petteri Orpo, of the Conservative party, has realized he needs to concede more in the conflict between the two parties’ agendas. So now he’s tolerating more open racism, while working harder to pretend that he doesn’t tolerate, see or hear about any racism in the messaging of his coalition partners. His job is extra tricky, because lately there have been two separate, obviously ethnically motivated high profile knife attacks by obvious nazi youth on brown kids.
Meanwhile, today one of the cabinet ministers, a sleazy guy named Wille Rydman survived his second parliament vote of confidence within a year (survived more narrowly than the first time). He was long ago exposed on having tried to sexually groom underage teen girls, was expelled from the Conservative party and duly joined the Finns, who are more comfortable about openly tolerating asshole/criminal behavior from conservative white men. Subsequently, Rydman has tried to attack the media (legally and on social media) over the grooming investigations, which inspired the opposition to set up this second vote of confidence.
birgerjohanssonsays
Farron Cousins:
“Trump Allies Say They Aren’t Bluffing And Will ‘Burn It All Down’ If He Wins The Election”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=4LTSunEzpDc
That sounds…very moderate and traditionally conservative.
lumipuna @92, thanks for that update on the political scene in Finland. As I suspected would happen, people voted in a bunch of rightwing doofuses and now they are appalled by some of the results.
I will never understand why people have to give power to rightwing doofuses before they can fully comprehend what rightwing doofuses will do. I mean, they tell you up front what they are going to do. Still, it seems the experience has to be real and in person before knowledge dawns. Meanwhile, a lot of damage is done.
[…] If anyone of us or anyone in general got up in front of a crowd and rambled this kind of nonsense, the men or women in the white jackets would be hauling us away. First of all a dishwasher is called a dishwasher. A washing machine washes clothes. I don’t and know no one who uses rainwater to wash anything. Water treatment plants exist. Who are “they” as referred to do not want us to have water? I have plenty of water and a bill to prove it. My Dad whom I miss very much has Alzheimer’s but never talked this kind of incoherent mess and was in a nursing home before his death.
Donald J Trump is mentally unfit to be left alone, much less lead a nation. This is just crazy stuff.
This is not the first time he has made water works part of his speech. It happened in earlier presidential runs. Who the heck are “ They”. Democrats? Weather folks? Public utilities? Who?
This came from the Biden Campaign and folks need to see this incoherent nonsense.
My Lord, the man is not only off the rails, he doesn’t know where the rails are. [X post and video at the link: “In a terribly embarrassing moment for Trump, Fox News has to cut away from his speech because he isn’t making any coherent sense. It’s beyond clear Trump is senile. Retweet so all Americans see this.” Also available here: https://x.com/BidensWins/status/1804915684406653174 ]
More at the link, including a partial transcript of Trump’s ramblings.
[…] The sad fact that millions of American families face every day is that most forms of dementia are a one-way street. Treatments may slow the progress of the condition, but nothing can pull someone back once they have gone far down that path. All the stimulants in Jackson’s little black bag can’t drag someone from the kind of senile state that Fox News and Republicans claim Biden lives in and restore them to vigorous, determined competence.
[…] For all Trump’s talk, don’t expect him to volunteer for a drug test on Thursday evening. He doesn’t need to. He could wander around the stags, talking about sharks, batteries, and the difficulty of getting shampoo from his luxuriant hair, and it wouldn’t rate a column on page 15 of any paper in the nation. That’s not a concern on the right.
Biden isn’t going to do any handstands on Thursday evening. And don’t be surprised if the Friday headlines contain the shocking news that Biden mangled the name of a foreign leader or forgot the date of some obscure event. Because Biden is still held to the level of expectation that has been conveniently discarded for Trump.
There will also be talk about how old Biden is. The Times bought their Biden-so-old stories in bulk. They’re not about to stop running them now.
What worries Republicans about Thursday evening is that some of the MAGA faithful could be exposed to Biden live and unedited. But since this debate is running live on CNN, that’s not a huge concern. By the time any of it gets to Fox, it will surely be edited to make it seem that Biden is less competent. Or on drugs. Or both.
The Cass team knew. They knew and did nothing. They knew and said nothing.
Earlier this year Dr. Hilary Cass, a respected but conservative pediatrician in the UK, released a report reviewing how Britain’s National Health Service does (and doesn’t) provide gender-related health services to youth under 18 years of age. The report was supposed to clearly establish what was and wasn’t working in NHS’s “Gender Identity Development Services” and provide the recommendations that would determine the level and types of care that would be provided to trans youth for years — maybe decades — to come.
When it landed, the report was widely panned for omissions, distortions, and double standards, all consistently slanting the recommendations toward denying gender-related care. Ironically, denying care wasn’t needed: the Tories had starved Tavistock, the national centre for GIDS, to the point that no one added to the long waitlist for services likely to ever reach the top of the list before being bounced for turning 18. While that was bad enough, whistleblowers have now come forward to share that as the wait times grew longer, the number of children dying by suicide erupted to unprecedented levels. That fact alone would have argued for more access to care, not less, but Cass and her team not only rejected the obvious conclusion, they buried the evidence that children were dying.
Before December of 2020, possibly for as long as Tavistock Gender Identity Development Services (“GIDS” or just Tavistock) had maintained a waitlist, but at least for seven years, there had been one suicide of someone who could not get in for services, and though reporting is slightly unclear on this point, there don’t seem to have been any suicides for minors receiving treatment.
This date is important because this is when a court in the UK issued a terrible opinion in Bell v. Tavistock, and for the next three years as both wait times and suicides increased, the restrictions that started as a result of this case continued to be justified by the unfinished Cass Review. The two created interwoven rationalizations for denying care, or at least for delaying it indefinitely, which to both reasonable people and those suicidally hopeless appear indistinguishable.
But as we said months ago, “Recommendations against treatment are not neutral.”
While the Cass Report would like you to believe that there are no risks associated with denying GIDS to teens and tweens, as wait times grew, suicides shot up dramatically. The primary source documenting all these suicides is Jo Maugham of the Good Law Project, a progressive law center in the UK with a solid reputation. Maugham is reporting that he now has two sources — actual whistleblowers who are not revealing confidential patient identifiers like some people we could name — detailing that the Cass team knew about the increase in suicides and in the very best interpretation failed to act. It’s highly possible, though, that their sins are worse than omission.
First, Whistleblower One.
W1 tells me that in the seven years before the High Court decision (on 1 December 2020) there was one death of a young trans person on the waiting list but in the three years afterwards sixteen deaths.
These figures are said to come from a presentation to Tavistock staff given by the Named Doctor for Safeguarding Children.
W1 also says they raised these concerns with Hilary Cass and a Director of the Tavistock. I have seen an email to both which sets out these death numbers.
That email also complains, vigorously, of the failure of both to engage with these numbers or W1.
When challenged, Cass pointed to paragraph 5.65 of her report, which states: [Screen grab of text is available at the link.] Text:
The Review met with the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust to discuss deaths of patients (where known) who had been referred to or were currently or previously under the care of GIDS. The patients who died by suicide between 2018 and 2023 were described as presenting with multiple comorbidities and/or complex backgrounds. In addition the trust observed that risk of suicidality was heightened at transition points in care; for example between child and adult services. The young people were more likely to be registered as female at birth, identifying as male in adolescence.
If you look closely here, there’s no dividing line between the first suicide (July 2019) and the series starting after services were restricted (2021-2023). It’s also written in such a way as to obscure any role that denial of care might have played. They blame “complex” histories and comorbidities and difficulties after youth leave the GID list for the adult list, but they spend not a word of thought on the inaccessibility of care. The idea that treatment might help children more than infinite delay is not even a hypothesis Cass is willing to investigate.
The way 5.65 blames the transition “between child and adult services” is particularly insidious, given that teenagers are seeing their chance for care disappear as they are stripped from the Tavistock list and added to the back-end of the adult waitlist, without ever having been seen by GIDS clinicians. As 18-year-olds, they are effectively starting their wait over. This is a transition from one hopelessly long waitlist to the ass-end of a new hopelessly long waitlist. “Transition points in care” is itself an artful weasel phrase concealing the lack of care — in all senses — these teens received.
At a minimum this should raise the question of whether the long wait times are causing harm or, conversely, whether treatment actually saves lives. In a way, this seems similar to the research Cass called “missing”: one cohort of kids were given a waitlist with hope of services. After December 2020 another cohort was given an infinite waitlist and no hope at all. One group had a single death. One group had 16. Yet this politics-induced study informs Cass’s recommendations not at all.
It gets worse, of course.
Maugham is very careful to document (as well as is possible) the timing of instances of suicide associated with GIDS using published minutes of Tavistock board meetings. He finds that beginning January of 2022 the deaths of people on the GIDS waitlist are combined with those on the GICs (“Gender Identity Clinics” for legal adults) waitlist and those lucky ones receiving adult care as deaths of people ambiguously described as “in gender.” This protects the decision-makers denying care, but also compromises clinically significant information needed by providers.
In April of 2023 there is an age-disambiguated report of five deaths associated specifically with GIDS, but the causes of death are now obscured, so it is impossible to say if any of these children died of suicide or unforeseeable llama incidents. Again, clinicians really ought to know how their patients (or waitlisted patients-to-be) are dying, but this report scrubs that entirely.
And then? Then, Maugham reports, Tavistock stopped releasing its board minutes. They were also denying FOIA requests “due to poor performance and the potential reputational impact.” In other words, “We fucked up and we don’t want to look bad.” […]
“If GIC waitlists continue to grow, there may be an increased chance of a serious incident” and “The risk is very real, and sadly we have lost a patient on the waiting list in this past quarter to suicide.”
On the adult (GIC) side, things have become so bad that in a breakout of the budget you can see a line item for suicide-proofing the clinics’ gender neutral bathrooms. The mind reels that they could justify £50,000 for suicide-proofing bathrooms but nothing for expanding actual care. What argument wins over the penny pinchers in one case but not the other, and why? (Spoiler: it’s anti-trans hatred. It’s always anti-trans hatred.)
All of this puts an exclamation point on criticisms of Hilary Cass and her recent statement that success of the GID and GIC programs should not be measured against whether trans people are happy with and for themselves.
Erin in the Morning’s latest reporting has a few details on several individual cases and how they were or were not identified, but one thing that no one seems to have done is present just how alarming this rise in suicides is mathematically. Because your friendly, neighborhood Crip Dyke is such a glutton for punishment that reading about trans kids dying isn’t enough, she went and did that math for you. According to her quick back-of-the-napkin calculations, the rate now is one death by suicide per thousand kids on the goddamned infinite waitlist per year.
That would be at least 38 times the risk for non-trans kids.
No one seems to want to report that; not Cass, not the NHS, not most media. While demographics on trans lives are often imprecise because of how often trans people are unrecognized and misidentified, but these are some solid numbers. There is a crisis among trans youth who can’t get care, but the one source that was supposed to give the public honest, unbiased information about exactly those youth and exactly that care launched a coverup instead.
The coverup is supposed to be worse than the crime, but how do you get worse than 16 dead children?
Joke’s on you, people who said retired General Michael T. Flynn is a raging idiot! The guy seems to have at least one talent: separating [people] from their cash by crying victim and spinning QAnon #pizzagate nonsense, for the enrichment of himself and family members.
The NYT’s David Fahrenthold and Alexandra Berzon got the receipts on how Flynn took over what was once Phyllis Schlafly’s charity, America’s Future Inc., in 2021, and drained it like a taiga calf during mosquito season, sucking in at least $2.2 million for themselves (that reporters could uncover, but probably in reality much more). Flynn doled out this largesse mostly to himself, but also to five relatives. And natch, he did not disclose this on filings to the IRS, like he was legally obligated to do. […]
The Flynn family keeps it tight! Remember when they spent the 4th of July 2021 reciting the QAnon pledge together? Then they sued CNN for reporting on it, and lost. In a world of conspiracy theory loony toons, they espouse the looniest: pedophile cannibals, pizza basements, Deep State cabals, elites bathing in blood, even though allegedly Michael T. Flynn was caught on tape saying it was “nonsense.” […]
Anyway, even as donations to America’s Future Inc. went down, and it dipped into savings and sold off assets to stay afloat, payments to the Flynn family went up. Michael Flynn himself got $40k in 2021 for working two hours a week, such very productive hours he got $60k the next year for them. Sister Mary got $148k for being “executive director,” a law firm run by Michael’s niece got $146k, another sister got $128k for “public relations work,” and sister-in-law Valerie got $1,050 for “decorating.” Brother Joseph also got $50k for working two hours a week as “treasurer” — he was the one who got banned from Twitter for tweeting that he was curing his COVID with horse dewormer, way back in the halcyon days when Twitter cared about disinformation.
[…] Hilariously, the family of grifters got grifted at Mar-a-Lago, though. Their biggest fundraiser in 2022 actually ended up costing them $63k more than they made. Gotta pay that protection money to The Don!
Flynn also spent his legal defense fund that was advertised as being “solely to defray attorneys’ fees and other costs related to legal representation” on not that, paying $265,000 to his sister, and between $250,000 to $1 million directly to himself. Flynn hasn’t needed a “legal defense fund” since getting that sweet pardon from Trump in 2020, but it’s still collecting cash to this day.
Then there’s the America Project, a “nonprofit” started in 2020 by Patrick Byrne (the Overstock dot com guy), and horsepiller brother Joseph, which paid Michael Flynn’s business $200k for “consulting,” and $410k to Joseph.
[Flynn was] Trump’s first national security adviser, who was forced out after less than a month after it turned out he’d lied to Mike Pence about his dealings with the Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak, talking words along the lines of don’t retaliate for those sanctions Obama put on y’all for meddling, because once Trump’s in it’ll be dictator paradise.
He was also literally a foreign agent, working for Turkey, and was paid $530k in 2017 for publishing an op-ed on The Hill about how Turkish dictator Recep Tayyip Erdogan was really an awesome guy. It was an early red flag (heh) that the Trump administration was maybe not so very America First when acting Attorney General Sally Yates warned them in January 2017 transition that Flynn was a liar who might’ve been compromised by Russia, and the Trump admin was all la la la, don’t give a shit, and continued to employ him. How naive we were back then!
And the Flynn family charity scam is only one part of their ventures. There’s a Flynn movie coming soon, plus sweatshirts, t-shirts and $35 QAnon trucker hats, or you can buy signed bundles that include a 20’ poster of Flynn’s face to hang in your baby’s room. Then there’s the Michael T. Flynn children’s book from the imprint that brought you the Kirk Cameron subscription-based library of children’s literature, only $50 for a signed copy! Or you can pay $40 to attend a seminar with him.[…]
[video at the link] If QAnon wasn’t so deadly destructive, it would be sort of funny.
The two NASA astronauts who flew Boeing’s Starliner capsule to the space station this month have been in orbit longer than anticipated — and will stay there for now.
The original plan for this first crewed test flight of the Starliner called for veteran astronauts Butch Wilmore and Sunita Williams to spend about a week on the space station before riding the capsule back to Earth. They arrived at the orbiting outpost June 6.
But their return journey has been postponed several times. NASA initially floated June 18 as the earliest date the astronauts could return, after which the agency said the flight back would happen on June 22. Then that was changed to June 26, and the latest delay, announced Friday, pushed the planned landing back to an as yet undetermined new date.
The reason for the adjustments, NASA has said, is an investigation into issues with the capsule that cropped up earlier in the flight. The spacecraft’s propulsion system has a slow helium leak — something mission managers knew about prior to launch. At the time, they said it was unlikely to affect the test flight or the safety of the astronauts, but four additional helium leaks were detected once the spacecraft reached orbit.
As the Starliner craft neared the space station on June 6, five of its thrusters also malfunctioned, delaying the final approach by just over an hour.
Officials at NASA and Boeing said they are continuing to monitor these issues as they plan for the capsule’s return.
“We are taking our time and following our standard mission management team process,” Steve Stich, manager of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, said in a statement. “We are letting the data drive our decision making relative to managing the small helium system leaks and thruster performance we observed during rendezvous and docking.” […]
There are enough supplies at the space station to accommodate the visitors, and there is no need to hurry the departure, the officials said.
Stich said NASA will conduct a full review before the go-ahead is given for the capsule’s undocking.
Wilmore and Williams are currently living on the ISS with seven crew members who were already stationed there: NASA astronauts Michael Barratt, Matt Dominick, Tracy Dyson and Jeanette Epps, and Russian cosmonauts Nikolai Chub, Alexander Grebenkin and Oleg Kononenko.
[…] Boeing hopes to eventually conduct routine flights to and from the space station for NASA, similar to the commercial service that SpaceX has been providing the agency since 2020 with its Crew Dragon capsule.
birgerjohanssonsays
“Tories Still Don’t Understand the Mess They’re In”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=CjKzZvFGeNw
The way I see it, they are lying scum who even lie to themselves. This results in a ‘Hitler in the bunker’ syndrome, divorced from reality.
birgerjohanssonsays
‘Rebuttal’ is now ‘reFutal’ according to prez 45.
John Moralessays
@83: “Screenrant.com: “15 Best Hard Sci-Fi TV Shows Ever Made””
Arguably, one of those is actually hard SF.
In fact, the term Hard Sci-Fi shows the cluelessness of the article’s author(s).
It’s a clickbait listicle.
The shows are from the last few years, of course, which makes the “Ever Made” claim risible.
To store the increasing amount of clean energy coming from renewables, we need batteries. Without them, there’s a risk of stalling the transition away from fossil fuels. Stationary thermal batteries or heat batteries are growing in popularity for industrial processes and district heating. In this episode of Transforming Business, we look at some simple, natural, and cost-effective materials, squirreling away energy as heat to be used when needed.
Chapters:
0:00: The heat is on
0:36: Sand, the new kid on the block
2:45: The fatal flaw of renewables
3:53: The more established players
8:10: Decarbonizing heat
9:26: Caveat & Credit
(Gotta say, solar power in Finland seems, well… I live in Qld, Australia, so let’s say etiolated)
Wikileaks says Julian Assange has been released from Belmarsh Prison and departed the United Kingdom after reaching a deal with US prosecutors. UK court documents suggest the Wikileaks founder has agreed to plead guilty to espionage charges in exchange for his freedom. ABC reporter Carrington Clarke says Mr Assange’s plight had become a political issue in the United States ahead of an expected presidential showdown between Donald Trump and Joe Biden.
John Moralessays
Oh, right. Assange.
Me, I reckon truth is a fucking goog defence.
What he allowed to be published was truth.
Too much truth.
Now, he is a martyr.
So it goes.
birgerjohanssonsays
Re. @ 109
Fuck the authorities.
birgerjohanssonsays
John Morales @ 105, @ 107
The best films can straddle several categories. Articles like this one are mainly useful for bringing up films that never caught much attention.
My own opinion is that way too many SF films are aimed at a teenage audience and never bother with quality.
.
Finland in summer has quite long days, so lots of insolation. It is just distributed in an uneven way.
.
-BTW perovskite photovoltaic panels -much easier and cheaper to make – are finally approaching a longevity that will make them viable for mass production.
I see them soon making a much bigger contribution to energy production in places like Australia or southern California. In places with more patchy sunlight you obviously need to supplement solar with other things.
John Moralessays
“Articles like this one are mainly useful for bringing up films that never caught much attention.”
Nah. They’re listicles. El ultra cheapo “content”. Grist for the mill.
You get a list of recent movies, put a bit of generic fluff on each one, make it an “article”.
Old hat stuff, I know it when I see it.
—
Finland in summer has quite long days, so lots of insolation. It is just distributed in an uneven way.
Um. Australia in winter (in places) will still exceed Finland in summer in terms of insolation.
Here: https://globalsolaratlas.info/map
See the difference for yourself, compared to where I live.
-BTW perovskite photovoltaic panels -much easier and cheaper to make – are finally approaching a longevity that will make them viable for mass production.
I see them soon making a much bigger contribution to energy production in places like Australia or southern California. In places with more patchy sunlight you obviously need to supplement solar with other things.
Well, indeed, but anywhere, not just there.
Grid-scale storage.
So, so many approaches!
Gravity stuff, hot stuff, compressed stuff, chemical stuff — so many ways to put excess energy into potential energy. Cheap approaches, some with rather low energy density and/or mass and volume, but they’re just lumps on a landscape, no? So what if they’re biggish, that’s the point, so long as they’re cheap and made with readily-available stuff.
(People who only focus on Lions are foolish)
John Moralessays
Here in Oz, there are times and places where solar has negative value — too much juice flowing into a grid that can’t handle it. Slowly fixing that, but it’s a pain. Storage is the bleedingly obvious solution.
Also, our loony mob (the equivalent of the Republicans for you USAnians) have decided nuclear is the go.
The current ‘ opposition’ — that’s the actual term. Shadow government. Who were in power until recently.
Anyway.
They claim that the fact that business and academia think it is a vastly expensive ridiculous proposal that will add fuck-all extra energy into the grid and speculative is… well, wrong.
(Doesn’t seem to be resonating with the populace)
birgerjohanssonsays
John Morales
There is a podcast at Youtube called ‘Terry Talks Movies’ that brings up both well known films but mostly ultra-obscure films, many of the latter from his native Australia.
Many of the films are of course objectively bad but interesting as documents of the time in which they were made.
.
In regard to a smooth energy supply there is interest in new tech to drill very deep boreholes with a new technology (I think they break up the rock by microwaving it instead of using a conventional bore head).
If my memory is correct there are parts of Australia that are already interesting for geothermal energy even with the old drilling technology. Places with greater temperature gradients.
I recall the documentaries by John Pilger. Australian politics are toxic, and so is the abomination named Murdoch.
Labor senator Fatima Payman has crossed the floor, voting in support of a Greens motion on recognising Palestinian statehood in a move that imperils her party membership.
While Coalition backbenchers are allowed to cross the floor, the Labor party requires all of its parliamentarians to support collective decisions or face the possibility of expulsion. Some Labor members to have crossed the floor have been expelled from the party and others have been suspended.
An Albanese government spokesperson said there was “no mandated sanction in these circumstances” but did not confirm if there would be any consequences.
After crossing the floor, Payman, a first-term senator for Western Australia, described it as the “most difficult decision” she has had to make.
She told reporters what would happen next was the party’s “prerogative”, but she would like to continue serving as a Labor senator. Payman said she believed she had “upheld the party ethos and called for what the party’s platform has stipulated”.
About £1.4bn worth of personal protective equipment (PPE) has been destroyed or written off in what is understood to be the most wasteful government deal of the pandemic.
Figures obtained by the BBC reveal that at least 1.57 billion items of PPE provided by Full Support Healthcare, an NHS supplier based in Northamptonshire, will never be used, despite being manufactured to the proper standard.
The Department for Health and Social Care (DHSC), which was responsible for purchasing and delivering Covid PPE, said it was unable to provide a statement due to the pre-election period.
The Labour Party described the contract as a “staggering waste” while the Liberal Democrats said it was a “colossal misuse of public funds”.
Full Support Healthcare agreed a £1.78bn deal in April 2020 to deliver face masks, respirators, eye protection and aprons – the largest Covid PPE order from a single supplier, accounting for 13% of the government’s total spend.
[…]
BBC Investigations made a series of requests over a six-month period under the Freedom of Information Act to NHS Supply Chain, which manages the delivery of healthcare products.
The responses reveal that of the 2.02 billion items of PPE provided by Full Support, only 232 million items have been dispatched to the NHS or other care settings.
Some 749 million items have already been burned or destroyed, “including by energy from waste”, and a further 825 million are classified as excess stock “where disposal and recycling are possible outcomes”.
This means about £1.4bn worth of Full Support Healthcare’s PPE will not be used.
(I hear that government is a bit on the nose, this upcoming election)
StevoRsays
Just saw the dco mentioned here – Megafauna: What Killed Australia’s Giants? which wa sfascinatingand really well done – would recommend and oen of the things discussed there wa salso mentioned here :
..telltale clues within the remains of a Procoptodon and a 50,000-year-old short-faced kangaroo — a close relative of Procoptodon — strongly suggest giant kangaroos did not hop. For instance, the pelvis and knee joints were much broader in the extinct species than the eastern grey. Big joint surfaces are typically found in animals that shift their weight from one leg to the other as they walk.And extinct kangaroos’ hip bones and vertebrae suggest it had a more upright posture and shorter tail than an eastern grey — perhaps better suited to walking.
Tracks through time
According to Museums Victoria vertebrate palaeontology collection manager Tim Ziegler, “independent lines of evidence all seem to roughly be pointing in the same direction, that there were these giant striders in the Australian landscape”. Now, evidence of a giant strider in the Australian landscape may have been uncovered in the form of footprints.
China has made spaceflight history yet again.The nation’s robotic Chang’e 6 mission returned material from the moon’s mysterious far side to Earth on Tuesday (June 25) — something that had never been done before. The milestone moment occurred Tuesday at 2:07 a.m. EDT (0607 GMT; 2:07 p.m. Beijing time), when Chang’e 6’s return capsule landed in China’s Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.
I’m pleased Assange is to be freed, but if he hadn’t evaded Swedish justice and stiffed the people who put up his bail, he’d have been home in Australia years ago even if he’d been convicted of rape.
The Catholic Church has organized four groups of pilgrims, from Connecticut, California, Texas, and Minnesota, to march (and ride a riverboat) across the US for a mid-July National Eucharistic Congress in Indianapolis. This blessed event has not taken place in this country for 80 years, yet purely by coincidence certain bishops have resurrected it during an election year involving a Catholic president who has somehow failed to enforce Church orthodoxy on the entire population (and whom certain bishops feel should not receive his ritual cannibalism until he straightens out).
Some have questioned the need for the event, and the congress’s $14 million cost — saying belief in the Eucharist is stronger than feared, that the event is only appealing to those already drawn to traditional piety and that it’s partly the byproduct of a political debate.
But Bishop Mark Brennan of the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston, West Virginia, said reinforcing Eucharistic faith is crucial.
“If that is weakened in our people, then they’ll be weakened in their response to Christ and to the service of God and neighbor that they’re supposed to offer,” Brennan said aboard the boat taking him and his counterpart from the Diocese of Steubenville downriver toward Wheeling.
No mention made in this report of explicit criticisms of those ungodly eggheads who have dared to deface Christ Crispies.
StevoRsays
She’s part of a large group of non-scientists who are photographing, understanding, and identifying a kingdom of life that in their opinion, has been neglected by scientific institutions. “Globally we have only described 155,000 species of fungi out of potentially 2 to 5 million species, with some scientists speculating up to 11 million,” Ms Marciniak says. To put that into perspective, the latest Numbers of Living Species in Australia and the World report estimates there are 300,000 plant and 1.4 million animal species described worldwide. In Australia alone, there may be up to 250,000 species of fungus, and less than 12,000 of those have been described. While Australians have a national pride around our unique mammals and plants, Australia’s enchanting fungal species just don’t hold the same place in our hearts. So why is Australia — and the world — so far behind in our understanding of this diverse group of organisms? And why are non-scientists having to fill in the gap?”
For Thesome kids are alright.. (some adults are too for that matter..) files :
In the past two decades, the oyster population in Mississippi’s Gulf waters has been devastated by both natural and manmade disasters. Among those working to restore oyster habitats is ninth grader Demi Johnson, who was recently recognized by the National Geographic Society for growing more than 1,000 oysters, which are likely to spawn millions more. John Yang speaks with Johnson about her work.
A Texas law that banned abortions in early pregnancy is associated with a stark increase in infant and newborn deaths, a study published Monday in JAMA Pediatrics found.
Lawmakers passed Texas Senate Bill 8, or SB8, in September 2021. The state law banned abortions as soon as a fetal heartbeat is detected, which can be as early as five weeks. This effectively banned abortion in the state, which used to allow abortion up to 22 weeks of pregnancy.
The law did not include exemptions for congenital anomalies, including conditions that will cause a newborn to die soon after birth.
The new study compared infant death rates in Texas from 2018 to 2022 to those of 28 other states. The data included newborns 28 days or younger and infants up to 12 months old. Infant deaths in Texas rose by nearly 13% the year after SB8 was passed, from 1,985 in 2021 to 2,240 in 2022. During that same period, infant deaths rose by about 2% nationwide.
Babies born with congenital anomalies also increased in Texas, by nearly 23%, but decreased by about 3% nationwide.
“This is pointing to a causal effect of the policy; we didn’t see this increase in infant deaths in other states,” said Alison Gemmill, assistant professor of population, family and reproductive Health at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, who led the research.
While some congenital anomalies can be corrected after birth, including cleft palate and some heart defects, others are deemed “incompatible with life.”
“The specific increase in deaths attributable to congenital anomalies really makes an ironclad link between the change in the law and the terrible outcomes that they’re seeing for infants and families,” said Nan Strauss, senior policy analyst of maternal health at the National Partnership for Women & Families, who was not involved with the research. “The women and families have to suffer through an excruciating later part of pregnancy, knowing that their baby is likely to die in the first weeks of life.” […]
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on Monday unveiled a new slate of financing initiatives to support housing development, including a $100 million fund specifically for affordable housing. […]
Affordable housing … good that the Biden administration is addressing the issue.
The frequency and magnitude of extreme wildfires around the globe has doubled in the last two decades due to climate change, according to a study released Monday. … Though previous research found a decrease in the area burned globally by wildfires this century, the new study found that extreme wildfire events have increased 2.2-fold since 2003.
Shock. Outrage. Disbelief. Anger. Southwest Florida’s arts leaders had those reactions and more after Gov. Ron DeSantis vetoed all of Florida’s planned arts and culture grants in the state’s 2024-25 budget. Every single penny.
The Heritage Foundation is funding the creation of a blacklist of federal government workers who MAGA loyalists claim might obstruct the Trump II agenda, the Associated Press reported Monday.
The work of compiling the list of names of some 100 government employees is being done by a Kentucky fellow named Tom Jones and his American Accountability Foundation. The work is being financed with the help of a $100,000 “Heritage Innovation Prize” from the Heritage Foundation, long a bastion of Reagan conservatism in DC but now fully in MAGA mode. Heritage announced the prize winner back in May, referring to “the presence of anti-American bad actors burrowed into the administrative state.”
In announcing the prize, Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts touted it as effort to expose the “Deep State”:
“The weaponization of the federal government under President Joe Biden is only possible because of the deep state of entrenched Leftist bureaucrats in the White House and its agencies. I am proud to support the outstanding work of AAF in their fight to hold our government accountable and drain it of bad actors determined to undermine our constitutional republic and weaponize government against the American people, our economy, and our institutions.”
[…] Jones is a former staffer to Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC), who went on to run the Heritage Foundation, and to Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI). Jones also did oppo work for Sen. Ted Cruz’s 2016 presidential campaign.
Notably, the plan is to publish the list online. A doxxing in the public square as it were, with all the obvious historical echoes, as the AP rightly notes:
The public list-making conjures for some the era of Joseph McCarthy, the senator who conducted grueling hearings into suspected communist sympathizers during the Cold War. The hearings were orchestrated by a top staffer, Roy Cohn, who became a confidant of a younger Trump.
As for the criteria used to determine who makes the list and how those criteria are applied, the AP provides this chilling methodology: “They’re relying in part on tips from his network of conservative contacts, including workers.”
A U.S. bankruptcy court trustee is planning to shut down conspiracy theorist Alex Jones’ Infowars media platform and liquidate its assets to help pay the $1.5 billion in lawsuit judgments Jones owes for repeatedly calling the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting a hoax.
In an “emergency” motion filed Sunday in Houston, trustee Christopher Murray indicated publicly for the first time that he intends to “conduct an orderly wind-down” of the operations of Infowars’ parent company and “liquidate its inventory.” Murray, who was appointed by a federal judge to oversee the assets in Jones’ personal bankruptcy case, did not give a timetable for the liquidation.
Jones has been saying on his web and radio shows that he expects Infowars to operate for a few more months before it is shut down because of the bankruptcy. But he has vowed to continue his bombastic broadcasts in some other fashion, possibly on social media. He also had talked about someone else buying the company and allowing him to continue his shows as an employee. […]
The U.S. surgeon general, Dr. Vivek Murthy, on Tuesday declared gun violence in America a public health crisis, recommending an array of preventive measures that he compared to past campaigns against smoking and traffic safety.
The step follows years of calls by health officials to view firearm deaths through the lens of health rather than politics.
The National Rifle Association has vigorously opposed this framing and promoted legislation that effectively quashed federal funding for research into gun violence for a quarter-century. The N.R.A. also unsuccessfully lobbied against Dr. Murthy’s nomination as surgeon general by Barack Obama in 2014, calling him “a serious threat to the rights of gun owners.”
Dr. Murthy’s 32-page advisory calls for an increase in funding for firearm violence prevention research; advises health workers to discuss firearm storage with patients during routine medical visits; and recommends safe storage laws, universal background checks, “red flag” laws and an assault weapons ban, among other measures.
“I’ve long believed this is a public health issue,” he said in an interview. “This issue has been politicized, has been polarized over time. But I think when we understand that this is a public health issue, we have the opportunity to take it out of the realm of politics and put it into the realm of public health.”
[…] In 2020, gunshot wounds surpassed car accidents as the leading cause of death for children and adolescents in the United States. The rates of firearm mortality for young people in America is nearly six times the rate in Canada, nearly 23 times the rate in Australia and nearly 73 times the rate in the United Kingdom, the surgeon general’s advisory said.
The last decade brought a surge in new gun ownership and a striking rise in firearm suicides of young people, many carried out with guns owned by adults in the household. In cases where children and adolescents were killed by unintentional gunshot wounds, around three-quarters of the firearms used had been stored loaded and unlocked, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has found.
“We have to look at this now for what it is, which is a kids’ issue,” Dr. Murthy said.
[…] Some warnings from the surgeon general — like a 1964 advisory about the health risks of smoking — have succeeded in shifting the national conversation […]
Hillary Clinton: I’ve Debated Trump and Biden. Here’s What I’m Watching For. New York Times link
[…] Too often we approach pivotal moments like this week’s debate between President Biden and Donald Trump like drama critics. We’re picking a president, not “best actor.”
[…] I am the only person to have debated both men (Mr. Trump in 2016 and, in the 2008 Democratic presidential primary race, Senator Biden). I know the excruciating pressure of walking onto that stage and that it is nearly impossible to focus on substance when Mr. Trump is involved. In our three debates in 2016, he unleashed a blizzard of interruptions, insults and lies that overwhelmed the moderators and did a disservice to the voters […]
It is a waste of time to try to refute Mr. Trump’s arguments like in a normal debate. It’s nearly impossible to identify what his arguments even are. He starts with nonsense and then digresses into blather. This has gotten only worse in the years since we debated. I was not surprised that after a recent meeting, several chief executives said that Mr. Trump, as one journalist described it, “could not keep a straight thought” and was “all over the map.” Yet expectations for him are so low that if he doesn’t literally light himself on fire on Thursday evening, some will say he was downright presidential.
Mr. Trump may rant and rave in part because he wants to avoid giving straight answers about his unpopular positions, like restrictions on abortion, giving tax breaks to billionaires and selling out our planet to big oil companies in return for campaign donations. He interrupts and bullies — even stalking me around the stage at one point — because he wants to appear dominant and throw his opponent off balance.
[…] First, pay attention to how the candidates talk about people, not just policies. . . .
Second, try to see through the bluster and focus on the fundamentals at stake. . . .
Third, when you see these two men side by side, think about the real choice in this election. It’s between chaos and competence.
[…] On Thursday, Mr. Trump will most likely say he wants to leave abortion to the states. He hopes that sounds moderate. But it really means he’s endorsing the most extreme abortion bans already imposed by many states and all the extreme restrictions to come. Mr. Trump should have to answer for the 12-year-old girl in Mississippi who was raped and then forced to carry a child to term. She started the seventh grade with a newborn because of her state’s draconian abortion ban. It’s because of Mr. Trump that in Louisiana a young girl unable to get an abortion went into labor clutching a teddy bear. Studies find that women living under abortion bans are up to three times more likely to die during pregnancy, childbirth or soon after giving birth. Because of Mr. Trump, one in three women of reproductive age now lives under such restrictions.
[…] expect Mr. Trump to blame Mr. Biden for inflation but avoid answering questions about his own economic plans. He has to deflect or lie because his proposals — tax cuts for the superrich, gutting the Affordable Care Act, deporting millions of workers and slapping across-the-board tariffs on everyday goods — would exacerbate inflation, raise costs for American households and cause a recession. That’s not my prediction; it’s from Wall Street’s Moody’s Analytics. Experts at the nonpartisan Peterson Institute for International Economics estimated that Mr. Trump’s tariffs alone would mean, in effect, a $1,700 tax increase each year for the average American family — or more.
[…] – Abortion and women’s rights generally
– Inflation (and check this out: Economists See a Trump Inflation Bomb)
– Fidelity to the democratic process
[…] This election is between a convicted criminal out for revenge and a president who delivers results for the American people. No matter what happens in the debate, that’s an easy choice.
[…] everyone’s least favorite anti-vax crusader and Presidential spoiler candidate just got shot down by SCOTUS today, which dismissed both of his frivolous anti-vaccine lawsuits without so much as a comment. From Bloomberg:
The US Supreme Court turned away two vaccine-related appeals from Children’s Health Defense, the group founded by immunization skeptic and presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
The justices left intact a federal appeals court decision that said the group and five parents lacked legal standing to challenge the Food and Drug Administration’s emergency approval of Covid-19 vaccines for children.
The high court also turned away contentions, pressed by Children’s Health Defense and 13 students, that Rutgers University violated the Constitution by making vaccination against Covid a condition of attending classes in the fall of 2021.
Kennedy, who is on leave as the chairman and chief legal officer of Children’s Health Defense, was listed as one of the lawyers pressing the appeal in the Rutgers case.
The justices didn’t request a response from either the FDA or Rutgers, signaling they weren’t seriously considering accepting either appeal. Both rejections came without comment or public dissent.
The cases are Children’s Health Defense v. FDA, 23-1161, and Children’s Health Defense v. Rutgers, 23-1222.
Israeli Supreme Court rules ultra-Orthodox must serve in the military
The decision could result in ultra-Orthodox lawmakers pulling out of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition and collapsing it.
Israel’s Supreme Court ruled unanimously Tuesday that ultra-Orthodox yeshiva students must be conscripted into the Israeli military and are no longer eligible for substantial government benefits, a decision that could lead to the collapse of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s ruling coalition.
The ruling follows decades of controversy over the role in Israeli society of the ultra-Orthodox, also known as the Haredim, which have mushroomed from a small minority into a million-strong community, making up more than 12 percent of the population. Ultra-Orthodox political parties have provided crucial backing to Netanyahu in exchange for the exemption from military service and hundreds of millions of dollars for their community’s institutions.
But in a country where military service is mandatory and battlefields are expanding, Israelis from across the political spectrum have demanded a change to the status quo, and on Tuesday, the Supreme Court made it official. […]
The ultra-Orthodox receive government subsidies for privately run schools — where some young men devote their lives to studying the Torah — as well as other religious and social organizations. The community is largely autonomous and insulated from the rest of society; few members work, pay taxes or serve in the military.
[…] According to a survey by the Jewish People Policy Institute (JPPI), a nonpartisan think tank based in Jerusalem, 81 percent of Jewish Israelis favor changing the ultra-Orthodox exemption, with 45 percent supporting “coercive” measures and 36 percent preferring “persuasive” methods. […]
Jazzletsays
Jon @#121
It would be helpful to have that PPE distributed to every household in the UK on the off-chance that a parliamentary candidate rolls up on the doorstep. I could have done with it when the local Lib Dem turned up on mine.
Officials in Oklahoma tried to approve the nation’s first publicly funded religious charter school. The state Supreme Court had other ideas.
Under Oklahoma law, religious institutions and private sectarian schools are not supposed to participate in the state’s charter school programs. As we discussed last year, however, officials on Oklahoma’s Statewide Virtual Charter School Board nevertheless approved the application by the Catholic Archdiocese of Oklahoma to establish the St. Isidore of Seville Virtual Charter School.
As the Associated Press reported, the Oklahoma Supreme Court has ruled that members of the charter school board made a mistake.
An Oklahoma board’s approval of what would be the nation’s first publicly funded religious school is unconstitutional and must be rescinded, the state Supreme Court ruled on Tuesday. … The ruling also says both the Oklahoma and U.S. constitutions, as well as state law, were violated.
“Under Oklahoma law, a charter school is a public school,” Justice James Winchester, an appointee of former Republican Gov. Frank Keating, wrote in the court’s majority opinion. “As such, a charter school must be nonsectarian. However, St. Isidore will evangelize the Catholic school curriculum while sponsored by the state.”
The vote on the state high court wasn’t especially close: This was a 7-1 ruling, with one justice recusing himself.
In case this isn’t obvious, it’s worth emphasizing that Roman Catholic groups have, for many years, received public funds to provide secular social services. It’s not unusual, for example, for a city to contract with a local Catholic Church to host soup kitchens, for example.
This proposal was something altogether different. The Archdiocese of Oklahoma said in the “vision and purpose of the organization” section of its charter school application that the Catholic school “participates in the evangelizing mission of the Church and is the privileged environment in which Christian education is carried out.”
[…] “It’s extremely disappointing that board members violated their oath in order to fund religious schools with our tax dollars. In doing so, these members have exposed themselves and the state to potential legal action that could be costly.”
[…] It’s entirely possible this case will be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, which has been unsubtle in recent years about its hostility toward the separation of church and state, and its regressive perspective on religious liberty in general.
Will Republican-appointed justices take up the Oklahoma case and knock another hole in the church-state wall? Watch this space.
[…] Soon after taking office, Trump not only ignited ugly racial controversies, the Republican also took steps to hurt urban investment and block enforcement of a federal housing policy that requires communities to address patterns of racial residential segregation.
As Trump’s term continued, Black voters suffered greater losses. The Atlantic’s David Graham explained in 2019, “Trump has sabotaged a law that guaranteed health insurance for many African Americans. He has undermined protections for voting rights. His Justice Department has stopped going after police departments that discriminated against African Americans. He has rolled back environmental protections. Beyond policy, he has used rhetoric that suggests the citizenship of African Americans and other minorities is conditional and less than that of white Americans.”
By 2020, Black communities were also feeling the brunt of the Covid crisis that Trump tragically mismanaged, as well as the recession that caused widespread harm during the Republican’s final year in office.
It’s against this backdrop that the presumptive GOP nominee, encouraged by polling showing a surprising number of African-American voters giving Trump a fresh look, is recycling his rhetoric from 2016. [video at the link]
Speaking to a largely white audience in Washington, D.C., this past weekend, the former president once again said he had a familiar question for Black voters: “What they hell do you have to lose?”
As it turns out, the answer is readily available. We already know, for example, that unemployment among Black workers recently reached an all-time low, thanks in large part to President Joe Biden’s economic agenda, which Trump is desperate to reverse. The uninsured rate among Black families also reached an all-time low, and African-American communities are among the beneficiaries of the sharp improvement in the nation’s crime rate.
But just as notable is Trump’s vision for the near future. It was just a couple of months ago, for example, when Axios reported that in a prospective second term, Trump and his team intend to “dramatically change the government’s interpretation of Civil Rights-era laws to focus on ‘anti-white racism’ rather than discrimination against people of color.”
Asked for comment, the Republican’s campaign didn’t exactly deny its interest in rolling back policies designed to address systemic racism.
A few weeks later, Trump sat down with Time magazine’s Eric Cortellessa and said, “I think there is a definite anti-white feeling in this country and that can’t be allowed either.” The GOP candidate added that he hopes to focus on the “problem” related to the “bias against white” in a second term.
What do Black voters have to lose from a second Trump term? That need not be a rhetorical question, and between the former president’s indefensible record and unsettling future plans, the answer seems painfully obvious.
The media is having a hard time saying things like “actually, the economy is doing great,” or even more nuanced things like “yes, we understand that cars and housing are too expensive, but overall, the economy is strong, and Joe Biden is the only one who has any desire or plans to fix the things that need to be fixed.”
Those are true facts, though.
And little indicators keep showing up to help remind us that Donald Trump would be an absolute wrecking ball for the economy.
For instance, Felix Salmon is reporting at Axios that out of all the Fortune 100 CEOs — AKA people who are as rich as they say they are — not a one of them has donated to Trump this cycle. This is significantly down from past presidential cycles, where some Fortune 100 CEOs would donate to the Republican presidential candidate. In 2004, over 40 of them! In 2008 and 2012? Almost 30 each time!
The other years since then, the ones named “Trump”? Uh, well. In 2020, two of them sucked it up and wrote a check. That’s it.
Salmon notes that this is a cohort where two-thirds are registered as Republicans. But we guess they just don’t love Trump enough.
Salmon links to an op-ed from Dr. Jeffrey Sonnenfeld from Yale, who put all these numbers together. He explains that it’s not that these CEOs just love Joe Biden (he keeps siccing the FTC on them! they find that annoying!), but:
The reality is that the top corporate leaders working today, like many Americans, aren’t entirely comfortable with either Mr. Trump or President Biden. But they largely like — or at least can tolerate — one of them. They truly fear the other.
And Sonnenfeld lists some of the things that make them feel better about Biden, despite misgivings about some other things (progressive things Biden has done, like antitrust enforcement and tyrannically taxing them at 28 percent):
[I]nvestments in infrastructure to rebuild highways and bridges, which will help reduce supply chain disruptions; government support for domestic chip making and electric vehicle production; record corporate profits and exuberant financial markets burying fears of a widely anticipated recession; the successful transformation of the United States into the world’s largest oil and natural gas producer.
Then there was that roundtable meeting Trump had a few weeks ago with CEOs, who found Trump remarkably stupid and ignorant, even for Trump. “Trump doesn’t know what he’s talking about,” said a CEO, according to CNBC. He didn’t have any plans or any ideas how he wanted to do anything he allegedly wanted to do. Plus:
Several CEOs “said that [Trump] was remarkably meandering, could not keep a straight thought [and] was all over the map,” Andrew Ross Sorkin, co-host of CNBC’s “Squawk Box,” reported.
And this wasn’t woke CEOs from commie big businesses, as Sorkin explained. It was the regular kind of CEO, who leans Republican:
The same CEOs who were struck by Trump’s lack of focus “walked into the meeting being Trump supporter-ish or thinking that they might be leaning that direction,” Sorkin reported.
“These were people who I think might have been actually predisposed to [Trump but] actually walked out of the room less predisposed” to him, Sorkin said.
Also he was very low-energy.
Is there anybody in big business who loves Trump? Maybe these 16 Nobel Prize-winning economists, maybe they know something about “economy”?
Sixteen Nobel prize-winning economists are jumping into the presidential campaign with a stark warning: Former President Trump’s plans would reignite inflation and cause lasting harm to the global economy if he wins in November. […]
“While each of us has different views on the particulars of various economic policies, we all agree that Joe Biden’s economic agenda is vastly superior to Donald Trump,” the 16 economists write in a letter, first obtained by Axios.
Very embarrassing Nobel-winning economists, not like Alan Dershowitz or Sean Hannity or whichever REAL (Fox News) economists are on the stack of printouts Trump will likely show up to the debate this week with.
Rivers will continue to surge and more storms could be on the way across the Midwest on Tuesday, as well as dangerously high temperatures, as the region reels from severe flood damage and widespread disruption.
Some 31 million people are at risk of severe weather Tuesday evening, with as much as 2 inches of rain per hour possible in parts of Missouri, Iowa, Illinois and Minnesota.
Potential storms Tuesday morning could bring hail bigger than 2 inches, winds of more than 60 mph and a few tornadoes, the National Weather Service warned.
At least two people are known to have died as a result of flooding.
The flooding has set records at various points along the Des Moines River Basin: the surge at Estherville, Iowa, was 17.14 feet as of 3:20 p.m. Monday and was forecast to rise even higher, according to the agency.
A railroad bridge connecting Sioux City, Iowa, to North Sioux City, South Dakota, collapsed Sunday night because of heavy rain and flooding and fell into the Big Sioux River. Officials said Tuesday afternoon that water levels at the river had started to recede.
[…] More than 20 river locations are experiencing major flooding, with 29 forecasted to go into major flooding. The high river levels will continue through the end of the week as the water drains downstream. However, heavy rain is expected to return on Thursday and Friday and could lead to more flooding around rivers that have not had a chance to recede.
So far, almost 3 million people have been affected in South Dakota, Minnesota and Iowa, where President Joe Biden declared a major disaster Tuesday morning and pledged federal aid to support state, local and tribal recovery efforts. […]
Affected residents can apply at DisasterAssistance.gov.
[…] Extreme heat will only add to local difficulties, with temperatures in the upper 90s, possibly more than 100 degrees in places, expected over the central Plains and the Mississippi Valley and spreading into much of the Lower 48 states.
Around 70 million people are under heavy alerts from the Rockies and Plains to the Mid-Atlantic and Florida.
The high heat is expected to peak Wednesday for the D.C. to Boston corridor, but will remain for other regions including the Midwest and South throughout the week.
In Las Vegas, this month is set to be the hottest June on record, with temperatures 11 degrees higher than normal. An excessive heat warning is also in place for desert areas of Los Angeles County.
birgerjohanssonsays
A SpaceX Falcon Heavy will launch 5.16 EDT .
You can watch the launch live at Youtube.
birgerjohanssonsays
There has been a delay, the launch will happen 59 minutes from now.
John Moralessays
The Eucharist as “ritual cannibalism”, again?
Another person making that stupid, stupid claim!
No. It’s theophagy, not cannibalism. Get it right.
Been through all that already, you keep repeating that falsehood, I will keep repeating the truth.
KGsays
The UK general election descends ever further into farce. After two Tory candidates and two senior party officials (as well as 6 poice officers) were revealed to be under investigation for making bets on the date of the general election base on inside information, a Labour candidate is now under investigation for betting against himself! The seat was consideed a safe Tory one, but there scarcely seems to be such a thing anymore. All three candidates have now been suspended from their parties, although they will still appear on the ballot papers with their party affiliations. The Labour candidate, Kevin Craig, who is the founder and head of a PR company, has given £100,000 to the party – and as someone has said, we now know the price of a Labour seat!
KGsays
It’s theophagy, not cannibalism. – John Morales@147
But according to the doctrine of the hypostatic union, Jesus was both fully God and fully man – so since it’s supposed to be him Catholics are munching on and slurping, it’s surely fully theophagy and fully cannibalism!
See, people who partake (I’ve done it!) of the ritual don’t think of it as cannibalism.
And the people who don’t partake (like PZ) see it as eating a cracker, not cannibalism.
The only people who claim to see it that way are either stupid, uninformed, or trying to mock Catholicism thereby. My comments will reach the uninformed, at least. Then, they can look it up for themselves, or talk to an actual Catholic.
Making lies up as if there were not enough bad things and silly things for which to mock Catholicism annoys me.
KGsays
But John, what you say at #172 at the link you give is:
Still fully human and fully God, but with a glorified body.
So if still fully human, then fully (even if glorified) cannibalism. However Catholics see it, that’s the logic of the doctrine they (or at least their church) professes.
However Catholics see it, that’s the logic of the doctrine they (or at least their church) professes.
The claim is either that Catholics believe they are being cannibalistic, when in fact they are not, or that they are according to their own beliefs being cannibalistic, as you are now expressing.
Again: they don’t see it as cannibalism, you don’t see it as cannibalism, Pierce does not see it as cannibalism.
You are claiming they should see it as cannibalism based on your own understanding of their doctrinal beliefs, but you are getting it wrongity-wrong-wrong.
(And yes, Catholics can eat chocolate during Easter)
John Moralessays
Who (If I may borrow a bit of BDSM terminology) looks to be the dom and who the sub?
Neither, or both.
Still.
If I had to make a choice nonetheless, I suppose the taller dude with the goofy grin is the sub.
KGsays
but you are getting it wrongity-wrong-wrong. – John Morales@154
Um, the original assertion is this:
“(and whom certain bishops feel should not receive his ritual cannibalism until he straightens out)”
Where’s the argument for that?
(Goose, gander)
Anyway.
There is an argument in what I’ve written, implicit of course.
Obviously, I cannot know what is truly the belief of people.
All I know is that I grew up in a very strict Catholic country and milieu and institutions, and after that I’ve been as irreligious as I can be.
And never, ever, ever, did anyone imagine Communion was cannibalism.
It never came up like that.
—
Here, again:
“The only people who claim to see it that way are either stupid, uninformed, or trying to mock Catholicism thereby.”
It is a proposition, no?
“The claim is either that Catholics believe they are being cannibalistic, when in fact they are not, or that they are according to their own beliefs being cannibalistic, as you are now expressing.”
It is a proposition, no?
Again: they don’t see it as cannibalism, you don’t see it as cannibalism, Pierce does not see it as cannibalism.
It is a proposition, no?
Basically, I am saying nobody actually sees it as cannibalism unless they are either stupid, uninformed, or trying to mock Catholicism thereby (that last case is a flourish, of course, and so is redundant).
So, if you want it explicit, I put it to you that no actual Catholic imagines they’re being cannibalistic, and that no informed person imagines actual Catholics imagine they’re being cannibalistic, and that for you to claim “However Catholics see it, that’s the logic of the doctrine they (or at least their church) professes.” entails you know what their doctrine actually states.
John Moralessays
TL;DR: they think they are comsuming spiritual godhood essence and joining with the deity thereby.
(That’s why it’s called “communion”)
John Moralessays
[well, the True Believers; most other Catholics know it’s just custom and ritual and they LARP it, as I did for a long time]
John Moralessays
“1331 Holy Communion, because by this sacrament we unite ourselves to Christ, who makes us sharers in his Body and Blood to form a single body.”
Pierce R. Butlersays
John Morales @ # 147: It’s theophagy, not cannibalism. …, I will keep repeating the truth.
In the absence of serious supporting evidence, there is no truth in mythology.
(Was Dumbledore really gay? Was Darth Vader actually Luke’s father?)
Let’s see some of that evidence (or less of that tedious one-upmanship)!
John Moralessays
In the absence of serious supporting evidence, there is no truth in mythology.
Have I got news for you: the topic at hand is people’s beliefs regarding some mythology, and more specifically, a religion.
Whether true or not, Pierce, it is the case that either those beliefs include cannibalism in relation to a quite specific (I can cite the Catechism, that being official content of that particular mythology) sacrament.
Let’s see some of that evidence (or less of that tedious one-upmanship)!
I just gave you some.
(You do realise testimony is evidence, no?)
John Moralessays
(Was Dumbledore really gay? Was Darth Vader actually Luke’s father?)
Duh.
They were cannibals, by the logic of their their professed doctrine. :)
John Moralessays
Hm, evidence… evidence.
Hey, Pierce, I wrote “Again: they don’t see it as cannibalism, you don’t see it as cannibalism, Pierce does not see it as cannibalism.”
If I can confirm that you in fact do not see it as cannibalism, as I stated, that would be evidence, no?
So. Here I am, seeking evidence that will assuage your desire for some of that evidence.
You game?
John Moralessays
Or, we could forgo all the foreplay and Socratic shit, and you could just confirm that you yourself don’t think it’s cannibalism, and that you furthermore don’t think actual Catholics think they’re being cannibals, Pierce.
(Save us all the trouble, that would)
John Moralessays
(and whom certain bishops feel should not receive his ritual cannibalism until he straightens out)., quoth the very same person who also posted “Let’s see some of that evidence (or less of that tedious one-upmanship)!”
You gonna try to do what you say to do?
(I reckon not)
—
See, I’m not actually accusing you of hypocrisy, Pierce.
Or even (what was it? ah, yes!) that tedious one-upmanship.
(heh)
Pierce R. Butlersays
John Morales @ # 162: … the topic at hand is people’s beliefs …
Yeah? Who said that, where? (Another assertion w/o evidence.)
I just gave you some.
You gave us more of that tedious stuff. Word games without wit tend to turn out that way.
John Moralessays
Yeah? Who said that, where?
You, @125. (and whom certain bishops feel should not receive his ritual cannibalism until he straightens out).
(Another assertion w/o evidence.)
That’s the Trump technique, no?
(How’s it working for you?)
You gave us more of that tedious stuff.
Ah, yes. So, so tedious, this business of substantive testimony and citations to authoritative sources.
This is what is not tedious, as you see it: (and whom certain bishops feel should not receive his ritual cannibalism until he straightens out).
Word games without wit tend to turn out that way.
Well, duh. Thus your unfortunate position, where you bluster and engage in Cargo Cult type argumentation.
It is not a game.
I am being factual.
I can tell you are not game. Weak.
So.
Hey, Pierce, I wrote “Again: they don’t see it as cannibalism, you don’t see it as cannibalism, Pierce does not see it as cannibalism.”
If I can confirm that you in fact do not see it as cannibalism, as I stated, that would be evidence, no?
So. Here I am, seeking evidence that will assuage your desire for some of that evidence.
But, fair enough. For you, stating either a ‘yes’ or a ‘no’ to a proposition put to you is a word game without wit.
I see it as cowardice.
But fine, remain coy about your personal belief about whether Catholics truly think they are ritually cannibalistic.
I know, you know. Everyone knows.
Heh.
Tell me more about this supposed up-manship (I reckon a better term might be ‘competitiveness’), if you care to.
(Don’t forget to account for the fact that it takes two to tango :) )
John Moralessays
[obs, the Socratic play is at hand]
CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captainsays
Follow-up to xxx p3 #262, about hazards of satellite pollution (by SpaceX, Amazon, etc.) and the cycle of rockets replacing them
When old satellites fall into Earth’s atmosphere and burn up, they leave behind tiny particles of aluminum oxide, which eat away at Earth’s protective ozone layer. A new study finds that these oxides have increased 8-fold between 2016 and 2022 and will continue to accumulate
[…]
Aluminum oxides spark chemical reactions that destroy stratospheric ozone, which protects Earth from harmful UV radiation. The oxides don’t react chemically with ozone molecules, instead triggering destructive reactions between ozone and chlorine that deplete the ozone layer. Because aluminum oxides are not consumed by these chemical reactions, they can continue to destroy molecule after molecule of ozone for decades as they drift down through the stratosphere.
[…]
it would take up to 30 years [after each reentry] for the aluminum oxides to drift down to stratospheric altitudes, where 90% of Earth’s ozone is located.
[…]
by the time the currently planned satellite constellations are complete, every year, 912 metric tons of aluminum (1,005 U.S. tons) will fall to Earth. That will release around 360 metric tons (397 U.S. tons) of aluminum oxides per year to the atmosphere, an increase of 646% over natural levels.
KGsays
John Morales@157,
Your link does not appear relevant. If:
1) Jesus is fully human (as well as fully God).
2) The Eucharist involves eating Jesus’s body and drinking his blood.
Then:
3) The Eucharist involves eating human flesh and drinking human blood.
Are you denying that both (1) and (2) are Catholic doctrine?
John Moralessays
Your link does not appear relevant.
Not to you.
It’s the Catechism of the Roman Catholic Church.
The rules and regulations to which adherents supposedly agree during the rite of ‘Confirmation’.
See, the RCC is not like the protestant type thingies. There’s dogma.
I’m pointing you to it.
It could not possibly be any more relevant to the topic.
Ex Cathedra</>, do you know to what that refers?
—
Look, I know you think you have it down.
But you could not be any more wrong.
Because you don’t get the doctrine.
Perhaps have a chat with anyone you know who actually is Catholic, if you disbelieve me.
Are you denying that both (1) and (2) are Catholic doctrine?
Yes. Yes indeed. Verily so.
You are getting sucked in by the terminology.
This is not a physical thing, it’s a transcendental thing.
To any physical examination, it will be a cracker and (rarely for the congregation) some wine.
It’s a fucking transubstantiation! It is no longer physical flesh and blood.
It is religious metaphor, IOW.
FFS. Just talk to any practicing Catholic.
—
You know, you sound to me just like one of those creationists arguing science, when they don’t actually know the science. Exactly the same.
John Moralessays
Bah. Keyboard, carelessness.
(One iota of difference — and therein lies a little drollery)
Your link does not appear relevant.
Not to you.
It’s the Catechism of the Roman Catholic Church.
The rules and regulations to which adherents supposedly agree during the rite of ‘Confirmation’.
See, the RCC is not like the protestant type thingies. There’s dogma.
I’m pointing you to it.
It could not possibly be any more relevant to the topic.
Ex Cathedra, do you know to what that refers?
—
Look, I know you think you have it down.
But you could not be any more wrong.
Because you don’t get the doctrine.
Perhaps have a chat with anyone you know who actually is Catholic, if you disbelieve me.
Are you denying that both (1) and (2) are Catholic doctrine?
Yes. Yes indeed. Verily so.
You are getting sucked in by the terminology.
This is not a physical thing, it’s a transcendental thing.
To any physical examination, it will be a cracker and (rarely for the congregation) some wine.
It’s a fucking transubstantiation! It is no longer physical flesh and blood.
It is religious metaphor, IOW.
FFS. Just talk to any practicing Catholic.
—
You know, you sound to me just like one of those creationists arguing science, when they don’t actually know the science. Exactly the same.
John Moralessays
I mean, ordinary people nowadays don’t get that, to the degree that any person who considers themself a Catholic adherent has beliefs that differ from those of the Catechism, then to that degree are they heretical according to the Church.
(Back in the day, people were quite aware of this, since the Church had temporal power)
John Moralessays
OTOH, my very wife has been a lifelong adherent, a practicing Catholic who goes to church and donates and cleans up the grounds and so forth. And yet, we have successfully fucked a shit-ton of times without breeding progeny. Using other than, ahem, the doctrinally-sound rhythmic techniques of the day.
We had to promise the priest that we would try to have children and not try to avoid having children, blah blah blah. I know, you probably don’t, but it’s a thing priests do before they marry their parishioners.
So we did.
Of course, contingent commitments made under duress, or clever interpretation (sure, I tried as much as I could!). Family pressures, FWIW. My mom, especially.
Anyway. People are complicated, and people blithely deny the facts all the time. It’s obvious to me.
Anyway, by that time, we were supposed to have been conditioned and inculcated into saying “yes yes yes” to whatever during ordinary conversations and in church and so forth. Actually practicing any of that bullshit was left to the true loonies, who were weird.
Of course, most people were very superstitious back then, six decades and more ago.
You know that.
John Moralessays
You don’t have to remain ignorant, KG.
I cited the beginning of a shitload of text, and furthermore adduced a rather relevant not-quite-elite section thereof.
See, that’s the thing with the RCC. All of it is codified.
John Moralessays
Back in the day, I remember the churches and the cathedrals.
The cathedrals had more, but all had banks of candle-slots for people to place and light candles upon.
Row upon row, column upon column of them.\
The more candles you bought and lit, the more merit your pleas to the heavens.
The more dedication, the more commitment you showed, the higher the likelihood of a successful intervention. Or so went the thinking.
(I seen it!)
John Moralessays
Just saying, but back in the old country back in the day, every hamlet, every village, every town, and so forth had a church. And they all vied for ostentatious pulchritudinous churchiness.
(Many of them retain the remnants of the rococo period)
Then I moved to South Australia in 1972, and found out every place had a pub, but churches were rarer.
(I mean, in Aussie terms, Adelaide is “the city of churches”, but believe me, it holds no candle)
—
Anyway, no cannibalism belief amongst the populace.
Anyway, the conceit of the RCC is that they are the direct and uninterrupted descendants of the apostles, and that Peter (the Rock!) was the first pope.
Here, for you: I believe in God,
the Father almighty,
Creator of heaven and earth,
and in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord,
who was conceived by the Holy Spirit,
born of the Virgin Mary,
suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, died and was buried;
he descended into hell;
on the third day he rose again from the dead;
he ascended into heaven,
and is seated at the right hand of God the Father almighty;
from there he will come to judge the living and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Spirit,
the holy catholic Church,
the communion of saints,
the forgiveness of sins,
the resurrection of the body,
and life everlasting.
Amen.
I said that a lot, both in Spanish and in English.
Never believed any of it, of course.
(Like most Catholics most of the time in most places, but you know, roleplaying for $reason$)
As right-wing operative/podcaster Steve Bannon prepares to report to prison, House Republican leaders have launched a provocative new effort to rescue him.
If all goes according to plan, right-wing operative/podcaster Steve Bannon, on the heels of several legal defeats, will report to prison on Saturday. His Capitol Hill allies, however, are still exploring ways to keep him free.
Politico reported overnight that House Speaker Mike Johnson and his fellow Republican leaders in the chamber agreed to back an odd effort “to reject the previous Congress’ handling of the Jan. 6 select committee.”
The Republican leaders voted to make their determination the formal position of the House, allowing them to file a legal brief on behalf of the chamber, according to three people familiar with a party-line, secret vote that was first reported by POLITICO. … House GOP leaders’ decision came via a vote of the so-called Bipartisan Legal Advisory Group — a five-member panel of House Republican and Democratic leaders tasked with setting the chamber’s positions in court.
The House speaker apparently isn’t embarrassed about the effort: The Louisiana Republican bragged about it on Fox News and CNN last night.
What’s more, Republican Rep. Barry Loudermilk of Georgia, who chairs the House Administration Committee’s oversight panel, is also reportedly moving forward with plans for a court filing that will claim that the Jan. 6 committee did not have the authority to conduct depositions — despite the fact that multiple federal courts have already come to the opposite conclusion.
Before digging in on the partisan gambit, let’s briefly review Bannon’s legal predicament, because it provides some necessary context.
The House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack sent Bannon a subpoena way back in September 2021. Even at the time, the seriousness was obvious: The podcaster was told that this was a legal summons — not a suggestion — and that failure to comply opened the door to meaningful legal consequences.
Bannon nevertheless refused to cooperate. The House then approved a resolution finding the GOP operative in contempt of Congress and referred the matter to the Justice Department, which indicted the former White House strategist. A jury later convicted Bannon — his lawyers struggled to present much of a defense — ultimately leading to his prison sentence, which was imposed by a Trump-appointed judge.
A few weeks ago, Rep. Thomas Massie endorsed a provocative idea: Maybe, the Kentucky Republican argued, the House could keep Bannon free by voting to “rescind” the subpoena that Bannon chose to ignore. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene threw her support behind the idea soon after.
As a rule, GOP leaders are supposed to shrug with indifference in response to weird ideas from their far-right flank, but it appears Johnson and his leadership team quickly got on board with the general idea of trying to rescue the podcaster, culminating in the Legal Advisory Group’s move.
In theory, there’s no reason to assume the effort to provide Bannon with a get-out-of-jail-free card should work. Indeed, it’s a little late for the House Republican Conference to effectively declare in a court filing, “Never mind!”
That said, the judiciary is certainly capable of delivering partisan surprises, and Politico’s report added, “It … remains to be seen what legal effect the position of House GOP leaders will have on Bannon’s fight.” Watch this space.
KGsays
See, that’s the thing with the RCC. All of it is codified.
But since the doctrine of the hypostatic union is itself necessarily false*, the whole codification collapses into gobbledegook.
*Or a “sacred mystery” to use the Catholic terminology.
“I don’t say this in a braggadocious way, but if they don’t get the endorsement, they don’t win,” Donald Trump boasted. Yeah, about that…
A couple of years ago, Rep. Jim Jordan insisted that Donald Trump’s endorsement is the most powerful expression of political support in the history of the United States. The Ohio Republican’s sentiment echoed the rhetoric the former president has pushed himself for years.
In fact, it was just a few months earlier when Trump declared that his endorsement was “considered by the real pollsters to be the strongest endorsement in U.S. political history.” He added that his record is “almost unblemished.”
[…] In reality, while the former president has long padded his win-loss record with support for GOP incumbents facing little-to-no opposition, creating an exaggerated picture, plenty of Trump-backed candidates have fallen short in recent years — including this year.
A few weeks ago, for example, he backed Mendham Borough Mayor Christine Serrano Glassner in the Republicans’ U.S. Senate primary in New Jersey. She lost. Soon after, despite the former president’s confidence in the potency of his support, his choice in Indiana’s lieutenant governor’s race also flopped.
As Politico reported, the news this week was even more dramatic: “Tuesday was a rough primary night for Donald Trump — and he wasn’t even on the ballot.”
The former president endorsed a replacement for Sen. Mitt Romney, but Utah voters picked a Trump skeptic instead. He backed his spiritual adviser for an open South Carolina House seat only to watch him narrowly lose in a runoff. Trump threw his support to the Colorado GOP chair for a House district; he was blown out by more than 30 points.
Let’s take those contests one at a time:
In Utah, Trump made an unexpected move shortly before Primary Day, throwing his public support behind Riverton Mayor Trent Staggs in the state’s open U.S. Senate race. Rep. John Curtis nevertheless won by roughly 20 points.
In Colorado, the former president endorsed state GOP Chair Dave Williams, who ended up losing to conservative commentator Jeff Crank by roughly 30 points.
In South Carolina, Trump went out of his way to endorse and try to rally support for right-wing pastor Mark Burns, who was competitive in his primary race, but who ended up falling short against Sherri Biggs, an Air National Guard lieutenant colonel who had Gov. Henry McMaster’s support.
It’s worth adding for context that in Utah’s congressional primary, Trump endorsed incumbent Rep. Celeste Maloy, and her race remains too close to call, and in last week’s congressional primary in Virginia, the former president backed state Sen. John McGuire, and that contest, which appears to be headed toward a recount, is also too close to call.
In other words, the list of recent failures might yet grow a little longer.
[…] for the former president, the power of his endorsement is supposed to be — indeed, it must be — the stuff of legend. In 2021, for example, he commented on the Republicans who beg for in-person meetings, where they plead for his electoral support, marveling at his self-professed power.
“We have had so many, and so many are coming in,” Trump said. “It’s been pretty amazing. You see the numbers. They need the endorsement. I don’t say this in a braggadocious way, but if they don’t get the endorsement, they don’t win.”
[…] GOP officials and candidates are supposed to tremble in fear at the very idea of losing favor with him, because his all-powerful endorsement is the key to unlocking electoral success.
And the more GOP officials and candidates notice that the myth isn’t true, the less they’ll feel the need to sacrifice their dignity to satisfy the whims of a failed former one-term president whose endorsement means less than he likes to admit.
Part of Kenya’s parliament building was on fire Tuesday as thousands of protesters against a new finance bill entered and legislators fled, in the most direct assault on the government in decades. Journalists saw at least three bodies outside the complex where police had opened fire.
The protesters weren’t armed.
KGsays
It’s a fucking transubstantiation! It is no longer physical flesh and blood.
It is religious metaphor, IOW. – John Morales@172
I think you’re an unconscious Protestant, John! That the Eucharist becomes the actual body and blood of Christ (in “substance” although continuing to have the “accidents” of bread and wine) was exactly what Luther, Calvin and that crew couldn’t stomach.
[…] The list of Trump’s electric vehicles lies was lengthy a year ago, but it just keeps growing. And like the shark vs. battery story, it keeps getting more bizarre. Now Trump is attacking the Pentagon for its electric tanks—a thing that absolutely, positively does not exist.
[…] Trump regularly claims that “all EVs are made in China.” This isn’t true. In fact, the number of EVs sold in the U.S. that originate in China is exactly zero. Most of the electric cars sold here are made in the U.S. This seems like something he might want to explain during his next breakfast with Elon … and it also seems like Musk should be explaining to Tesla stockholders why he favors the guy who keeps attacking the industry.
Trump means to slam the brakes on EV sales at a time when Americans are buying record numbers and consumer choice of electric vehicles is rapidly expanding. That includes ending federal policies that help lower the cost of electric vehicles […]
While Trump’s effort to secure a $1 billion bribe from oil and gas executives has been well reported, many of those reports leave out just what Trump was promising in exchange: ending EV incentives and making sure they stay dead.
[…] in recent rallies, Trump has added military electric vehicles to his attack list, not just because they contain his hated batteries, but because they do something else he hates—try to improve the environment.
[…] Trump has claimed that both electric tanks and sustainable jet fuel are going to cripple the American military.
“They want to make our Army tanks all electric so that when we go into a foreign country, blazing hot, we’re going in, we keep their environment and their air nice and clean,” Trump told a Wisconsin crowd in May. “Now how crazy is it?”
It was just one of several statements in which Trump talked about “their environment” or “our enemy’s atmosphere.” He apparently doesn’t understand that we all breathe the same air and that pollution can’t be limited by borders.
But that’s far from the most spectacular Trump lie about the military’s effort to develop new vehicles.
“They don’t go far and they have to pull a wagon because the wagon, the battery, is so big that the Army tanks will have a wagon like a child,” Trump said in an interview on Fox News. “He’s pulling a wagon.”
This child-like tank is completely nonexistent: No such tank has been built, no such tank has been planned, no such tank has even been thought about.
The closest the military has come has been considering using the same kind of hybrid diesel-battery technology found in trains. Those systems have proven so effective that they are expected to replace conventional diesel in the near future because they provide more power and greater range. And when it comes to tanks, even this alternative is only in the early stages of consideration.
Trump’s statements about EVs are clearly meant to signal his support for fossil fuels, but his statements aren’t just wrong, they’re complete fantasies. He’s promising to set back American industry by decades, forcing American companies to produce vehicles that few other countries want, while spewing lies about a tank that pulls a wagon.
It’s a promise to build another kind of wall around America; One where the products inside are so backward that no one outside wants them. And it’s all based on lies.
QAnon cult followers have their own version(s) of what is going on:
President Trump should this say on his first question: ….”First, Thank you for this opportunity. Joe, are you wearing an ear piece?” Even if he isn’t, that question from Trump will completely throw him off and he’ll be agitated from the beginning! Epic!
This is a movie. The real Joe is dead, due to a neck stretching at Gitmo and the current Joe is an actor doing his part to make the left believe he’s in command. If the debates happen I suspect the current Joe will act just fine. He might show some signs of dimensia, but overall he’ll do what he is suppose to do, act right, and not make any gaffs. He will be cognizant of all issues put forth and have some good points to make. Once or twice he will stare off into space just to keep the facade going, but overall he will do just fine. Remember, the movie has been produced and is now being watched by millions. It cannot go off the rails, Q and his team have already figured out what can go wrong and have put failsafes in place. Let’s just watch the debates and enjoy a good brand of popcorn. Plus, how else can Q prove to the left that Joe isn’t all there than by showing him for ninety minutes flubbing words, and staring off into space. Not too much, but just enough to have the hard Lefties begin to question his capacity to be President.
Commentary:
This is really a phenomenon among QAnon adherents: There are many who believe that Trump is still president. In short, the idea is that Trump saw that the election would be stolen, so he declared a state of emergency and, as a result, is still president, and that everything we’ve seen since 2020 is a continuation of the Trump administration, including the puppet Biden actor obscuring Trump’s real role as president. If you want the full and very crazy story, you can check out this Substack.
Trump should wear gloves or coat his hand in nonpermeable and touch nothing Trump should eat out of cans for 48 hrs up to event Trump should NOT drink their water but bring his own bottled water Trump should NOT shake hands without nonpermeable coating. Trump should demand Biden take full panel drug test by independent lab like labcorps or better and refuse the debate if Biden declines Trump should let RFK Jr in the debate and be super respectful to RFK jr but not to Biden Trump should bring a fan and aim it at Biden and say the baby smell is distracting…do you smell a diaper change? I can’t debate a guy who shit his pants
[…] I believe 3 Bidens out there. The articulate one should be the one showing up for debate.
Isn’t there a version of him that is articulate? They’re cloning people now.
There are ways to determine if someone is a clone: missing wisdom teeth, flat-footed, abnormal genitalia. Also, their gait will be different from the original.
He’ll be full of Adrenochrome. I heard he literally can’t get out of bed without it.
Blood transfusion from children. Part of the days long preparation.
Probably also a continuous medication pump to prop him up and adjust his meds as needed so he can live through the debate and sound somewhat coherent. The water they will let them have will be spiked with whatever they need and he will be directed at specific times to drink it in order to get the meds into him.
Commentary:
QAnon nuts think the rest of America is as knee-deep into their conspiracies as they are.
I can only imagine how tiring it must be to live your entire life in a state of such delusion […] I mean, I only just read the few excerpts above and I’m worn out! Or my patience is, at any rate… ;-)
————————
People cling to conspiracy theories because they require less, not more, energy. The theories answer all questions in a nice neat bundle. Trying to learn facts, civics, law or policy is hard.
——————————-
It’s kind of funny, but not really, because there are enough of these bizarro dupes to have done real damage to our society and continue to do so.
——————————-
This is why I refer to the Trumpers as Q/MAGA. Some of us have forgotten that Qanon nonsense is deeply intertwined with MAGA thinking. Any of these comments could have been made by some of the neighbors I follow on FB-especially the movie and body-double blather. One of my Q/MÀGA neighbors has offered to hold seminars after The Storm hits to help those of us who would not listen to him understand “the peace, love, and happiness” we will all have during the next Trump administration.
——————————
This would be hilarious if they ever demanded some kind of consistency. But they’ll think, “Yes, he can be drugged up and be an adequate clone at the same time!”
——————————–
“He might show some signs of dimensia…” That must be a new q word. Dementia+amnesia?
——————————
The thing left out in the post above is the blood allegedly comes from children who…expired in the midst of being frightened to death.
Not s/. It’s another conspiracy element of the bigger adrenochrome plot and tied to the pizza gate story
————————-
what’s your mental detox regimen after visiting these sites?
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I don’t think it’s stupidity for MAGA folks; I don’t think folks are stupid. I would say it’s a combination of shamelessness, spreading and proof by assertion–lying about everything, constantly, as a tactic.
——————————
If there’s a drug that makes people with dementia able to speak in complete sentences and discuss complex subjects coherently, Big Pharma would love to bring it to market.
—————————
Q-nutz!! Cult like behavior at its finest😵💫😵
——————————
Q is what’s left of IQ once you remove intelligence.
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I work with a crazy right-winger… and even she thinks the QAnons are crazy. O’ course, she believes loads of other things that are just as nutty, and constantly needs the rest of the office to talk her down from them.
Anyway, these folks are definitely high off their own supply at this point. I’m pretty sure, for a lot of them, “Q” is the only community contact they have, the only place they feel they “belong” because real people avoid them. So, like all good fanatics, they give it their all, and the longer they stay isolated in The Kingdom of Crazy, the less really bonkers shit seems implausible. So of course they believe Biden has clones or is being played by an actor, etc., because nothing is crazy anymore.
———————————
Pure insanity — how anyone can believe this bull crap is beyond my capacity to process.
————————– I can’t debate a guy who shit his pants. OMG, is this more projection? Trump’s people are preparing another “Everybody does it” defense.
CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captainsays
@KG 189:
It’s a fucking transubstantiation! It is no longer physical flesh and blood. It is religious metaphor, IOW. – John Morales@172
[…] the Eucharist becomes the actual body and blood of Christ (in “substance” although continuing to have the “accidents” of bread and wine) […]
1357 […] bread and wine which, by the power of the Holy Spirit and by the words of Christ, have become the body and blood of Christ. Christ is thus really and mysteriously made present.
[…]
1374 The mode of Christ’s presence under the Eucharistic species is unique. […] “the body and blood, together with the soul and divinity, of our Lord Jesus Christ and, therefore, the whole Christ is truly, really, and substantially contained.” “This presence is called ‘real’—by which is not intended to exclude the other types of presence as if they could not be ‘real’ too, but because it is presence in the fullest sense: that is to say, it is a substantial presence by which Christ, God and man, makes himself wholly and entirely present.”
[…]
and St. Ambrose says about this conversion:
[…] Could not Christ’s word, which can make from nothing what did not exist, change existing things into what they were not before? It is no less a feat to give things their original nature than to change their nature.
1376 The Council of Trent summarizes the Catholic faith by declaring: “Because Christ our Redeemer said that it was truly his body that he was offering under the species of bread, it has always been the conviction of the Church of God, and this holy Council now declares again, that by the consecration of the bread and wine there takes place a change of the whole substance of the bread into the substance of the body of Christ our Lord and of the whole substance of the wine into the substance of his blood. This change the holy Catholic Church has fittingly and properly called transubstantiation.”
[…]
1381 “That in this sacrament are the true Body of Christ and his true Blood is something that ‘cannot be apprehended by the senses,’ says St. Thomas, ‘but only by faith, which relies on divine authority.’ For this reason, in a commentary on Luke 22:19 (‘This is my body which is given for you.’), St. Cyril says: ‘Do not doubt whether this is true, but rather receive the words of the Savior in faith, for since he is the truth, he cannot lie.'”
Godhead here in hiding, whom I do adore
Masked by these bare shadows, shape and nothing more,
[…]
Seeing, touching, tasting are in thee deceived;
How says trusty hearing? that shall be believed;
What God’s Son has told me, take for truth I do;
Truth himself speaks truly or there’s nothing true.
Jesus said it is his body. Shut up, agree, eat the cracker.
While the Catholic doctrine of transubstantiation in relation to the Eucharist can be viewed in terms of the Aristotelian distinction between substance and accident, Catholic theologians generally hold that, “in referring to the Eucharist, the Church does not use the terms substance and accident in their philosophical contexts but in the common and ordinary sense in which they were first used many centuries ago. The dogma of transubstantiation does not embrace any philosophical theory in particular.”
birgerjohanssonsays
Steve Bannon…. he makes me think of the initial scenes of “Once Upon a Time In The West, where three very … pungent-looking individuals hang out at the train station. Also, that deviant film producer whose name I have expunged from memory.
.
The differences in the theology between the RCC and the member churches of the Southern Baptist organisation are less interesting than what they have in common: women are not allowed to be priests.
[…] In July 2021, Kinzinger [former Rep. Adam Kinzinger] agreed to serve on the Jan. 6 committee, at which point Republican leaders stopped talking to him. In October 2021, the congressman — an Iraq and Afghanistan war veteran — announced that he wouldn’t run for re-election.
This morning, as NBC News reported, Kinzinger took a step that would’ve been exceedingly difficult to predict a decade ago.
[…] Adam Kinzinger, the Illinois Republican who forcefully repudiated then-President Donald Trump after the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, endorsed Democratic President Joe Biden on Wednesday, blasting the presumptive GOP nominee as a “direct threat to every fundamental American value.”
“[W]hile I certainly don’t agree with President Biden on everything, and I never thought I’d be endorsing a Democrat for president, I know that he will always protect the very thing that makes America the best country in the world: our democracy,” Kinzinger said in a video message released this morning.
“Donald Trump poses a direct threat to every fundamental American value,” Kinzinger continued. “He doesn’t care about our country. He doesn’t care about you. He only cares about himself, and he will hurt anyone or anything in pursuit of power.”
“There is too much at stake to sit on the sidelines,” Kinzinger concluded. “So to every American of every political party and those of none, I say: Now is not the time to watch quietly as Donald Trump threatens the future of America. Now is the time to unite behind Joe Biden, and show Donald Trump off the stage once and for all.”
The Democratic incumbent was predictably pleased to get the backing. “This is what putting your country before your party looks like,” Biden wrote in a social media message. “I’m grateful for your endorsement, Adam.”
This comes on the heels of former Georgia Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan also backed the incumbent Democratic president. “Unlike Trump, I’ve belonged to the GOP my entire life. This November, I am voting for a decent person I disagree with on policy over a criminal defendant without a moral compass,” Duncan wrote in his endorsement announcement.
Stepping back, the larger question is how much company Kinzinger and Duncan will have in the GOP’s pro-Biden bloc.
By any fair measure, it’s an exceedingly small group. Former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson has encouraged people to vote for Biden, and former deputy White House press secretary Sarah Matthews, said she’s voting for Biden.
At least for now, that’s more or less where the list ends.
I kept a close eye on this dynamic four years ago, and found quite a few GOP partisans — former Republican National Committee chairs, former Republican cabinet secretaries, former Republican governors and former Republican members of Congress — who publicly expressed support for the Biden-led Democratic ticket.
Will we see something comparable between now and Election Day 2024? Watch this space.
Bad news, as summarized by Steve Benen from The Hill:
[…] after a closer-than-expected congressional special election, Republican Rep. Michael Rulli of Ohio was sworn into office this week, giving the GOP conference slightly more breathing room: Party leaders now lose up to two votes on any party-line measures, instead of one.
lumipunasays
John Morales at 180 :
Anyway, the conceit of the RCC is that they are the direct and uninterrupted descendants of the apostles, and that Peter (the Rock!) was the first pope.
(My comment is not about the argument you’re having, just random musing)
Meanwhile, Protestants (at least most of them?) apparently claim to have recovered the true spirit and intent of the Apostles. Hence, the Lutheran church here in Finland likes to co-opt the term “Apostolic”, though almost nobody knows what it’s supposed to mean.
I once learned the Finnish Lutheran version of Apostle’s creed by heart. Now, I could barely remember the Finnish words when looking at the English version you quoted. Interestingly, our Lutheran version has the line about “Holy Catholic Church” rendered as “Holy shared congregation”. AFAIK that’s literally the etymological meaning of “catholic church”, but of course in that form it doesn’t have inconvenient associations with the institution known as Catholic Church.
The Supreme Court appears poised to allow emergency abortions in Idaho when a pregnant patient’s health is at serious risk, according to Bloomberg News, which said a copy of the opinion briefly posted Wednesday on the court’s website.
The document suggests the court will conclude that it should not have gotten involved in the case so quickly and will reinstate a court order that had allowed hospitals in the state to perform emergency abortions to protect a pregnant patient’s health, Bloomberg said. The document was quickly removed from the website.
The Supreme Court acknowledged that a document was inadvertently posted Wednesday.
“The Court’s Publications Unit inadvertently and briefly uploaded a document to the Court’s website. The Court’s opinion in Moyle v. United States and Idaho v. United States will be issued in due course,” court spokeswoman Patricia McCabe said in a statement.
The case would continue at the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals if the high court dismisses proceedings.
The finding may not be the court’s final ruling, since it has not been officially released.
The Biden administration had sued Idaho, arguing that hospitals must provide abortions to stabilize pregnant patients in rare emergency cases when their health is at serious risk.
Most Republican-controlled states began enforcing restrictions after the court overturned Roe v. Wade two years ago.
Idaho is among 14 states that outlaw abortion at all stages of pregnancy with very limited exceptions. It said that its ban does allow abortions to save a pregnant patient’s life and federal law doesn’t require the exceptions to expand.
The Supreme Court had previously allowed the measure to go into effect, even in medical emergencies, while the case played out. Several women have since needed medical airlifts out of state in cases in which abortion is routine treatment to avoid infection, hemorrhage, and other dire health risks, Idaho doctors have said.
The high court’s eventual ruling is expected to have ripple effects on emergency care in other states with strict abortion bans. Already, reports of pregnant women being turned away from U.S. emergency rooms spiked following the high court’s 2022 ruling overturning the constitutional right to abortion, according to federal documents obtained by The Associated Press.
The Justice Department’s lawsuit came under a federal law that requires hospitals accepting Medicare to provide stabilizing care regardless of a patient’s ability to pay. It’s called the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act, or EMTALA.
Nearly all hospitals accept Medicare, so emergency room doctors in Idaho and other states with bans would have to provide abortions if needed to stabilize a pregnant patient and avoid serious health risks like loss of reproductive organs, the Justice Department argued.
Idaho argued that its exception for a patient’s life covers dire health circumstances and that the Biden administration misread the law to circumvent the state ban and expand abortion access.
Doctors have said that Idaho’s law has made them fearful to perform abortions, even when a pregnancy is putting a patient’s health severely at risk. The law requires anyone who is convicted of performing an abortion to be imprisoned for at least two years.
A federal judge initially sided with the Democratic administration and ruled that abortions were legal in medical emergencies. After the state appealed, the Supreme Court allowed the law to go fully into effect in January.
Supreme Court: It Ain’t Bribery If You Call It A Tip!
With only Thursday and Friday left in the term to publish opinions (unless they add more days), the Supreme Court of the United States published only two opinions on Wednesday.
One is a real corker, ballsily holding that a bribe to a public official isn’t a bribe if it’s a “gratuity” after the fact. […] it’s very important to make sure that contractors can have an easy time tipping any elected officials who steer public contracts their way!
Making bribery, I mean, gratuities easier, gee, whyever might Clarence Thomas and Sam Alito care about that? The case is Snyder vs. US:
This case involves James Snyder, who is the former mayor of Portage, Indiana. In 2013, while Snyder was mayor, Portage awarded two contracts to a local truck company, Great Lakes Peterbilt, and ultimately purchased five trash trucks from the company for about $1.1 million. In 2014, Peterbilt cut a $13,000 check to Snyder. The FBI and federal prosecutors suspected that the payment was a gratuity for the City’s trash truck contracts. But Snyder said that the payment was for his consulting services as a contractor for Peterbilt. A federal jury ultimately convicted Snyder of accepting an illegal gratuity in violation of §666(a)(1)(B). The District Court sentenced Snyder to 1 year and 9 months in prison. On appeal, Snyder argued that §666 criminalizes only bribes, not gratuities. The Seventh Circuit affirmed Snyder’s conviction.
But in a 6-3 decision (guess which six, just guess!), beer-lover Brett Kavanaugh wrote for the majority that it’s only really bribery if someone shows up with a bag of cash with a dollar sign on it and both parties recite at the same time, “this is a bribe.” But a post-dated check, why, that’s just a sparkling gratuity! Wrote he:
“The question in this case is whether §666 also makes it a crime for state and local officials to accept gratuities—for example, gift cards, lunches, plaques, books, framed photos, or the like—that may be given as a token of appreciation after the official act. The answer is no.”
Ketanji Brown Jackson penned a real ass-scorcher of a dissent, which starts on page 23. Pull quotes:
“Snyder’s absurd and atextual reading of the statute is one only today’s Court could love.”
OOF.
And,
“The Court’s reasoning elevates nonexistent federalism concerns over the plain text of this statute and is a quintessential example of the tail wagging the dog.”
Yeah, we ALL know EXACTLY which Milk-Bone-gobbling dogs she happens to mean. But bow wow wow and yippie-yo-yippie-yay, whip open those checkbooks, boys! If you billionaires liked the way your Justices ruled this year, or appreciate how your governor or mayor steered contracts your way, it sure would be nice if you left them an appreciative tip so they can buy extra beer this summer, just saying!
Disgusting.
The court already laid waste to federal bribery rules in 2016 by reversing the federal conviction of former Virginia Gov. Robert “Bob” McDonnell, ridiculously ruling that the $175,000 he got from the CEO of a tobacco-extract company to pay for his extravagant wedding was $175,000 of free speech. What Roberts and Breyer wrote back then sure seems extra interesting, in light of what we now know:
[Chief Justice John] Roberts, for instance, mentioned a hypothetical example of a governor who goes trout fishing with the head of a company seeking tax incentives to relocate to that governor’s state. [Justice Stephen] Breyer offered the example of an expensive bottle of wine bought at a lunch to thank an official for a courtesy.
And Breyer wrote, “For better or for worse, it puts at risk behavior that is common.”
Yeah, it sure was! We came to learn that going on $$$ fishing trips with billionaires and chugging their thousand-dollar bottles of wine is what Samuel Alito calls “a Tuesday.”
The other case the holy untouchable Justices graced us with today was Vivek Murthy, Surgeon General Et Al. vs. Missouri, courtesy of the cuckoo Fifth Circuit.
During the pandemic, the surgeon general was like, yo Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, you got some whacked-out COVID-19 fake news on your platform telling people to eat horse pills and drink bleach and shit. Do you maybe want to do something about it? Enforce some kind of policy, or something? That would be nice! And from 2020-2023, the FBI and Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) “alerted the platforms to posts containing false information about voting, as well as pernicious foreign influence campaigns that might spread on their sites. Shortly before the 2020 election, the FBI warned the platforms about the potential for a Russian hack-and-leak operation.”
Missouri, Louisiana and five social media users were pissed! How dare the federal government suggest to social media companies that they might want to maybe moderate some of the wilder lies circulating on their sites that were killing people and undermining democracy? [Yes, exactly. Well said.]
[…] And in a 6-3 ruling penned by Amy Coathanger Coney Barrett — decided correctly, so we shall use her nonpejorative name in this instance — the Supreme Court found that the states could not show they were harmed by Facebook deciding to restrict some anti-vaxx loon’s rantings, because they fucking weren’t. Alito’s dissent was all THIS IS GOVERNMENT COERCION!! Unlike when you take a Justice on a pricey fishing trip, of course. That’s just giving the government a little massage.
So, what’s the holdup on these other cases? […] Whatever is going on, the Justices sure are scooping up one Great Dane-sized bag of dog poo to leave flaming on America’s porch at the end of this week, before they put their pedals to the metal and peel off for their luxurious summer homes.
Here’s some biggies still left […]:
Fischer v. United States: Was it tampering with an official proceeding when Trump and rioters tried to tamper with an official proceeding?
Harrington v. Purdue Pharma: Should the pill-pushing Sackler family be free from liability and get to keep their dirty billions as part of their bankruptcy settlement?
Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo and Relentless v. Dept. of Commerce: Should government agencies be able to set rules, or nah?
NetChoice v. Paxton (Texas) and Moody v. NetChoice (Florida): Can states restrict social media platforms’ content moderation?
Ohio v. EPA: Seriously, can the EPA set rules, or nah?
[…] Can’t wait to see what the next two days of decisions bring! […]
lumipunasays
In my recent update on the sorry state of Finnish politics (see 92 upthread), forgot to mention some things I’d meant to write about the Russian border situation.
In the spring, there were signs that Russia had more or less quit facilitating the entry of African/Middle Eastern asylum seekers to the Finnish border. It was predicted that the migrants seeking entry to EU via eastern Europe will again continue focusing exclusively on the route established in 2021, via Belarus to Poland, Lithuania and Latvia. The border situation in these three countries has been highly problematic for almost three years now, and very little talked about in international media since early 2022 (partly due to an obvious distraction in Ukraine).
The Finnish article I linked above, from last week, confirms that the situation in Poland is escalating, and getting perhaps worse than ever. People are getting used to the fact that the Belarusian border is indefinitely closed and heavily militarized, and the migrants are often violently pushed back. Then the Belarusian border guards exert even more brutal violence on said migrants until they feel motivated to attempt crossing the border again (or die trying).
Though some of the migrants are undoubtedly in genuine need of asylum, most of them seem to prefer seeking an undocumented life in Germany etc. rather than the asylum application process in Poland’s prison-like reception centers. Thus, they try to evade border guards and instead contact human smugglers after crossing the border. There are reports that they increasingly resort to violence (using knives etc.) when apprehended by border guards. There are all kinds of worrying developments.
Meanwhile, the Finnish border to Russia remains closed. A few people with cross-border family etc. are increasingly suffering from the situation, while most of us are just gradually getting used to the new situation. Or old situation, like it was during the Cold War. “The border gapes like a chasm”, to quote an old Finnish poem.
Reportedly, intelligence sources say that about 1000 migrants still linger in northwestern Russia, despite Russian authorities trying to smoke them out. It’s not much, but there is concern that if the border were opened, Russia might very well resume admitting new migrants to the border. Just allowing the entry of those thousand people would be a serious political problem for our current racist populist government. Finnish parliament is currently debating a proposed law that’d allow pushing back “apparently illegitimate” asylum seekers at the border, in the same fashion as is routinely done in Poland etc. And thus, fascism creeps in.
T-Minus 33 Hours Until Tomorrow’s Debate And MAGA World Is Sh*tting Bricks
Christian extremist lie-clown House Speaker Mike Johnson made a confession on CNN last night, namely that literally nobody actually thinks President Joe Biden is going to be on cocaine during Thursday night’s debate. […] The part he didn’t admit is that they’re only saying this because they’re terrified that all the fanciful stories they’ve made up about Biden being sleepy and senile are going to come back to bite them in the ass when Biden appears normal and Trump starts babbling about sharks.
“Look, there’s a lot of things that are said in jest,” Johnson answered. “Of course no one expects that Joe Biden will be on cocaine.” [Tell that to the QAnon doofuses.] He nevertheless said he believes people are asking legitimate questions about whether the president will “be on some sort of energy drinks or something.”
It was just a joke, said Johnson, a funny guy. But maybe he’s going to just be on Red Bull or Mountain Dew or something. No, seriously, those are things other Republican pig sharts have been suggesting on TV this week. Mountain Dew, said Rep. Eric Burlison. They’re “experimenting with just the right dose of Red Bull, caffeine pills, or whatever,” said Sean Hannity. [eyeroll] (We’ll get to Drunky Dr. Pill Pusher Rep. Ronny Jackson’s part in all this in a minute.)
Johnson […] added that he has legit questions whether Joe Biden can really go 90 minutes against Trump, “who, as you know, goes to rallies and talks for two hours on end without any break and any notes.”
Does one need notes to [bloviate] about sharks, say a bunch of Nazi shit about migrant fight club, and make the same stupid joke about Hannibal Lecter that doesn’t land no matter how many times he tells it?
Trump himself whined this weekend that the man who will beat him had gone “to a log cabin to ‘study’” — AKA debate prep at Camp David — and that he’d get “a shot in the ass” just before the debate. He said at a rally that Biden would “come out all jacked up, right?” and then insinuated Biden might do “all that cocaine that was missing a month ago from the White House.” (Bless his heart, Trump thinks July 2023 was “a month ago.” Brain damage. Also, that cocaine wasn’t missing, it was found. Does he know somebody who was missing some cocaine?)
Trump, who still frequently brags about a dementia test he says he aced in 2018 — he had to pick out which one was “camel” — also this weekend has been ALL-CAPS-ing out half-literate demands for Biden to take a drug test.
This came after similar demands from batshit former White House pill-pusher and current Republican Rep. Ronny Jackson, who likes to go on TV and show-and-tell what your brain looks like on drugs, and if he isn’t fucked up on camera, then he sure does a mighty fine impression of it. […]
Jackson appeared on Fox Business this weekend with slurring rage muppet Maria Bartiromo, claiming that there are drugs Biden could take that “treat the cognition part of it, they try to make it where he can think straighter, and he’s not lost and confused as much.” Jackson, prissily listing off all his Dr. Feelgood knowledge of performance enhancers, added, that there are other drugs that “increase alertness, like Adderall and other types of amphetamine-type drugs, maybe Provigil, things like that, and then there’s a host of drugs that try to take the agitated edge off of most of these cognitive disorders.” He said he thinks they’re probably giving Biden all these things. [video at the link]
Acyn from MeidasTouch commented, “The stuff in here is oddly specific and lines up with accusations about the previous White House essentially being a pill mill.”
This, of course, is the same Ronny Jackson who has kept trying to call himself an “admiral,” even though the Navy quietly stripped him of his rank after that Pentagon Inspector General report came out in 2021 — the one that said Jackson was a drunken shitshow as White House doctor, sexually harassed subordinates, dosed on Ambien even while he was on call traveling with the president, and so much more. Of course, there was also allllll the pill-pushing and the stories — you know, just your average inspector general reports — about the Trump White House being “awash in speed,” while under the caring medical eye of Dr. Ronny.
You might not be surprised to learn that, during the Trump years, one of the pills that was just fucking flying around the White House was Provigil. (Along with ketamine and morphine and tramadol and …) Just look at this: [X post from Mrs. Betty Bowers, along with chart showing that “In the first 8 months of 2019, 2,390 Prodigal pills were dispense. After Ronny Jackson was hired in February the amount increased significantly.]
Every Republican accusation — literally every one — is a confession. If they’re talking about things, they’re talking about the things they do, and that’s why they know about them.
Shockingly, more qualified doctors than the sobriety test blooper reel up there spoke to Philip Bump at the Washington Post and explained that actually, that’s not how such performance-enhancing drugs work at all. There are not drugs that would just temporarily reverse the wandering dementia Joe Biden doesn’t have.
“There are no medications or stimulants that can reverse a dementing process transiently,” said Thomas Wisniewski, director of the NYU Langone Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center. Actually, he said, what happens is that some kind of alertness drug would confuse a dementia patient more. He said the things Trump people are saying right now are “spurious” and “nonsensical.”
Then there was this guy:
Adam Brickman, associate professor of neuropsychology at Columbia University Irving Medical Center, concurred with that assessment.
“I’m not aware of any medications that would reverse or mask cognitive decline,” Brickman said. What’s more, he noted that “the association between energy and cognition is a very weak one. In other words, someone could have low energy but totally intact cognition and vice versa.”
Brickman and Wisniewski agreed that if they came out with drugs that do what these Republicans claim, that would be really fucking neat!
As Jeff Tiedrich notes, all this messaging about Biden on drugs is happening on top of all the other Republican screaming and caterwauling about how the debate will be rigged somehow, by CNN. Trump spox Karoline Leavitt was so obnoxiously thirsty and desperate with those accusations when she went on the network the other day. […] Host Kasie Hunt just told her to fuck off and ended the interview: [video at the link]
As we mentioned, Joe Biden has been doing debate prep, like presidential candidates do, before debates.
lumipuna @201, thanks for that update/explanation … though the facts are depressing.
People are getting used to the fact that the Belarusian border is indefinitely closed and heavily militarized, and the migrants are often violently pushed back. Then the Belarusian border guards exert even more brutal violence on said migrants until they feel motivated to attempt crossing the border again (or die trying).
Sheesh!
Finnish parliament is currently debating a proposed law that’d allow pushing back “apparently illegitimate” asylum seekers at the border, in the same fashion as is routinely done in Poland etc. And thus, fascism creeps in.
Sigh. Same old story. That’s awful.
John Moralessays
Yeah, thanks, lumipuna. Always good to get a report from a local.
John Moralessays
KG,
\*Or a “sacred mystery” to use the Catholic terminology.
:) yes. Exactly.
I think you’re an unconscious Protestant, John!
Now, now… no need to get insulting!
But yes, it’s is very very silly, right? Can’t dispute that.
Still, that’s the official doctrine.
It’s all very fuzzy, all very fideistic.
(Also, did you get the iota joke? I think you might have)
Hi, everyone! Hope you’ve all been doing well! I’ve just been too busy to keep up and comment. To add to the zillion things happening this week, there was just an attempted coup in Bolivia. It was widely denounced and appears to have been defeated fairly quickly.
Regarding the interfaith squabbles between RCC and protestants.
I went through a period dissecting the belief underlying islam but it became exhausting. Now I go by the motto “why go deep into the rabbit holes offered by theology if the upper layers are repulsive enough?”.
.
It is of course interesting to read the next book by Bart Ehrman about just how much the church altered the beliefs of the original christians (and I look forward to any scholarship on the evolution of early judaism or early islam) but I leave it to others to really dig into the thinking of pre-modern people [who tended to be intolerant assholes anyway. It is no fun reading about Cotton Mather ].
Let the assholes fight each other Yuimbo -style while I eat popcorn.
A dangerous strain of mpox that is killing children and causing miscarriages in the Democratic Republic of the Congo is the most transmissible yet and could spread internationally, scientists have warned.
The virus appears to be spreading from person to person via both sexual and non-sexual contact, in places ranging from brothels to schools.
Hundreds of people with the disease, formerly known as monkeypox, have attended hospital in the mining town of Kamituga, South Kivu province, in what is likely to be the “tip of the iceberg” of a larger outbreak, doctors say.
A young African woman with her face, neck, arms and torso covered by small fluid-filled blisters
A patient with mpox, showing the pus-filled lesions caused by the virus. Photograph: Handout
Mpox is a virus from the same family as smallpox, and causes flu-like symptoms and pus-filled lesions.
Two years ago, an outbreak in Europe and the US that centred on the gay community prompted the World Health Organization to declare a public health emergency. It was the first time mpox had been reported to have spread via sexual contact.
That outbreak was caused by clade II of the virus, one of three recognised groupings of mpox and one that has a relatively low death rate.
The new DRC outbreak is a mutated form of clade I mpox. Doctors report a fatality rate of about 5% in adults and 10% in children, as well as high rates of miscarriages among pregnant women.
John Moralessays
I have been told I sometimes have a jejune sense of humour, too juvenile for my age.
And this bit tickled me, because of nominative serendipity (well, from an English perspective).
Which means maybe people like Tina He, a 25-year-old product designer-turned-startup CEO, will be right. Six months ago, He co-founded Station, which she’d like to be the Web3 version of LinkedIn, connecting workers anywhere in the world.
John Moralessays
(and I look forward to any scholarship on the evolution of early judaism or early islam)
As a fan of science fiction and fantasy, I have occasionally wondered what if the Catholic/other sects’ concept of transubstantiation were true.
I concluded that Jesus would consider crucifixion the easy part.
Imagine having millions of human beings drink your blood and bite and chew your flesh every Sunday, with many coming back for more on Wednesdays, and others gulping and chomping for special occasions on other days. Not even Dante imagined such torture.
A good thing such cannibal cruelty is purely hallucinatory.
whheydtsays
Re: Pierce R. Butler @ #214…
Thinking about the fate of Prometheus?
John Moralessays
Imagine having millions of human beings drink your blood and bite and chew your flesh every Sunday, with many coming back for more on Wednesdays, and others gulping and chomping for special occasions on other days. Not even Dante imagined such torture.
Ahem, you’re imagining ordinary flesh and blood, not the Glorified Flesh and Blood of Christ, which is not a physically-observable thing.
See, when you don’t get the doctrinal conceit, you don’t get how that’s not how actual Catholics think of it.
And, of course, (again!) it’s not how YOU think of it.
It’s how you think (ostensibly, but we all know better) actual Catholics should think were they you.
But they are not.
A good thing such cannibal cruelty is purely hallucinatory.
Only inside your sad little caricature of what actual Catholic doctrine entails, which you make on a purely lexical level knowing nothing about the concepts at hand.
In short, it’s your hallucination.
Ostensibly.
Because, see, I reckon you were just bullshitting and trying to diss Catholicism via that little bit of stupidity, and you got prickly when I pointed that out.
Again: there are heaps of things for which one can mock or condemn etc regarding Catholicism, but that they are supposedly being cannibals is not one of them
(So stupid!)
John Moralessays
[whheydt, nah. Have a look at the thread.]
John Moralessays
(♪) It’s a Communion, not a Consumption. (♫)
(Maybe a nice jingle can get the point through the fog of wilful incomprehension? Nah, but, still)
John Moralessays
Come on, Pierce, come clean.
Do you or do you not honestly believe that Catholics are cannibals?
Do you or do you not honestly believe that Catholics themselves think they are cannibals?
All your coyness has achieved, hitherto, is to keep the topic alive.
We both know the answer is ‘no’ to both.
#214 is just a reiteration of the very same stupid misrepresentation as before.
Works about as well, no?
Very stupid, when you know and I know you don’t actually mean any of that, it’s just the best you can think of with which to mock the RCC.
(So feeble!)
John Moralessays
BTW, Pierce, being a fan of science fiction and fantasy, you are surely aware of the Sarlacc.
C-3PO: “You will therefore be taken to the Dune Sea and cast into the Pit of Carkoon, the nesting place of the all-powerful Sarlacc.” Han Solo: “Doesn’t sound so bad.” C-3PO: “In its belly, you will find a new definition of pain and suffering, as you are slowly digested over a thousand years.” Chewbacca: “Aaarrrr!” Han Solo: “On second thought, let’s pass on that, huh?”
―C-3PO, translating for Jabba the Hutt, delivers a death sentence to Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, and Chewbacca[4]
John Moralessays
Hey, you know what, Pierce?
Here’s a Catholic thing.
It was drummed into us big-time (big-league aka ‘bigly’) that Jeezus suffered untold because he was crucified. Sorta special.
(Never mind the Appian Way, eh?)
Oh, right, and at the center of it all (“at the center of it all, ooo aaa”) is that Jesus conquered death.
If Donald Trump respected his base more, he wouldn’t send out fundraising appeals lying about having been “tortured” by officials in Georgia. [He doesn’t respect them, but he know they will believe any bullshit he spouts.]
Donald Trump is defined in large part by his dishonesty, but the lies that appear in the former president’s fundraising appeals are often hysterical, even by his standards. The Washington Post this week highlighted Trump’s willingness to use “false [and] inflammatory messages to rake in campaign cash,” adding, “Some recent pitches have raised eyebrows even among longtime Trump observers and advisers.”
It was against this backdrop that The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported:
Donald Trump has amped up false claims about his criminal case in Fulton County ahead of this week’s presidential debate in Atlanta. One that’s caught steam in recent days is a statement the former president made in a campaign fundraising appeal that “they tortured me in the Fulton County jail.”
The fundraising message, which included an offer for a $47 mug, told prospective donors, “I want you to remember what they did to me. They tortured me in the Fulton County Jail and TOOK MY MUG SHOT.”
The fact that the former president was photographed as part of the legal process wasn’t especially controversial — Trump, a private citizen, was treated like every other criminal suspect arraigned in Fulton County — so there was no obvious need to put the mugshot reference in all caps.
The local report nevertheless went on to note, “There’s no evidence that Trump was tortured or mistreated when he surrendered at the Fulton jail after being indicted on 13 felony counts last August. But it’s just the latest of many lies, exaggerations and half-truths the former president has made over the years about the Fulton case, District Attorney Fani Willis and other prosecutors who have scrutinized him in recent years.”
It’s also a timely reminder that the presumptive GOP nominee insists on always being seen as a victim, especially in those rare instances in which he’s facing possible accountable for his alleged wrongdoing.
But stepping back, it’s also worth emphasizing the fundraising controversies that have become a staple of his political operation. Ahead of Election Day 2020, for example,Trump and his team set up a default system for online donors: By adding easily overlooked pre-checked boxes and opaque fine print, the then-president’s operation was able to fleece unsuspecting donors for months.
As The New York Times later reported, banks and credit card companies were soon inundated “with fraud complaints from the president’s own supporters about donations they had not intended to make, sometimes for thousands of dollars.” Some donors even “canceled their cards” just to make the recurring payments to Trump stop.
After Election Day 2020, Trump and his team pleaded with donors to contribute to his “Official Election Defense Fund,” which didn’t actually exist.
Now, still hoping to separate his followers from their money, Trump and his team are making up “torture” claims and sending fundraising appeals falsely claiming that President Joe Biden authorized the FBI to kill him at Mar-a-Lago.
If the former president respected his supporters more, this simply wouldn’t happen. But Trump too often sees members of his base as easily fooled marks.
[…] A couple of weeks ago, Republican Sen. J.D. Vance was talking to reporters about the state of his party when he added a provocative claim. “I think that no real Republican with any credibility in the party is still blaming him [Trump] for Jan. 6,” the Ohio senator said.
Yesterday, Republican Rep. Dan Meuser of Pennsylvania appeared on CNN and conceded that Jan. 6 was “a very, very ugly day” that “certainly should be denounced.” But the GOP congressman added moments later, “[T]he idea of trying to pin [Jan. 6] on President Trump’s words, I think falls way, way short.”
The same afternoon, Republican Rep. Michael Waltz of Florida also appeared on CNN and pushed a similar line. “I don’t think he was responsible for Jan. 6,” the congressman said. [video at the link]
To be sure, three-and-a-half years after the insurrectionist riot, Republican rhetoric on the subject is all over the map. Some in the party argue that Jan. 6 was justified because of a ridiculous election conspiracy they’ve concocted. Other GOP voices insist that the assault on the Capitol was some kind of plot hatched by antifa and/or the FBI.
But Republicans such as Meuser and Waltz are members of a very different contingent: They expect Americans to believe that Trump wasn’t responsible for the attack that he instigated. The former president, the argument goes, didn’t do what he obviously did.
Sure, the public might’ve seen Trump summon a mob, fill them with lies, and deploy them to Capitol Hill with instructions to “fight like hell.” Nevertheless, that’s not stopping GOP lawmakers such as Vance, Waltz, and Meuser from going along with the gaslighting campaign, effectively telling voters that they shouldn’t believe their lying eyes.
There was a time in which the Republican Party’s line looked and sounded quite different. In February 2021, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell gave a speech excoriating the former president for a “disgraceful dereliction of duty” and said he holds him responsible for “provoking” the Jan. 6 siege of the Capitol.
“There is no question — none — that President Trump is practically and morally responsible for provoking the events of that day. No question about it,” the Senate Republican leader explained in his prepared remarks. “The people who stormed this building believed they were acting on the wishes and instructions of their president. And their having that belief was a foreseeable consequence of the growing crescendo of false statements, conspiracy theories, and reckless hyperbole which the defeated president kept shouting into the largest megaphone on planet Earth.”
McConnell went on to say, “Sadly, many politicians sometimes make overheated comments or use metaphors that unhinged listeners might take literally. This was different. This was an intensifying crescendo of conspiracy theories, orchestrated by an outgoing president who seemed determined to either overturn the voters’ decision or else torch our institutions on the way out.” [Such a clear-eyed view of what actually happened!]
A year later, the bipartisan Jan. 6 committee made clear to everyone — the public, history, federal prosecutors who appear to be working possible criminal indictments — exactly who bore responsibility for one of the most serious instances of political violence in American history.
“In the Committee’s hearings, we presented evidence of what ultimately became a multi-part plan to overturn the 2020 Presidential election,” the House select panel concluded. “That evidence has led to an overriding and straight forward conclusion: the central cause of January 6th was one man, former President Donald Trump, whom many others followed. None of the events of January 6th would have happened without him.”
The apparent fact that “no real Republican with any credibility in the party is still blaming him for Jan. 6” says a great deal about the state of the party.
The Supreme Court overturned the bribery conviction of a former Indiana mayor on Wednesday, the latest in a series of decisions narrowing the scope of federal public corruption law. The high court’s 6-3 opinion along ideological lines found the law criminalizes bribes given before an official act, not rewards handed out after.
Bolivian President Luis Arce warned Wednesday that an ‘irregular’ deployment of troops was taking place in the capital, raising concerns that a potential coup was underway. He called for ‘democracy to be respected’ on a message on his X account came as Bolivian television showed two tanks and a number of military in front of the government palace.
President Joe Biden pardoned potentially thousands of former U.S. service members convicted of violating a now-repealed military ban on consensual gay sex, saying Wednesday that he is ‘righting an historic wrong’ to clear the way for them to regain lost benefits.
The summary in comment 227 is from a Washington Post article. Here is another excerpt:
News videos showed former Gen. Juan Jose Zuñiga, who was fired this week as commander of the Bolivian Army, entering the Palacio Quemado, confronting Arce face-to-face and rejecting the president’s order that he withdraw the troops. With soldiers storming the plaza, Zuñiga told reporters the military sought to install a new cabinet and “restore democracy.”
As the chaos unfolded, Arce named new commanders of the army, navy and air force, who ordered all personnel to return to their units. In less than two hours, they had retreated from the government palace.
Zuñiga was arrested as he left a military command center. He told reporters as he was detained that Arce had instructed him to “bring out the tanks.”
NATO allies on Wednesday selected Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte as NATO’s next boss, as the war in Ukraine rages on its doorstep and uncertainty hangs over the United States’ future attitude to the transatlantic alliance. Rutte’s appointment became a formality after his only rival for the post, Romanian President Klaus Iohannis, announced last week that he had quit the race, having failed to gain traction.
birgerjohanssonsays
Sabine Hossenfelder (content guaranteed to not adress trans or other social issues. Yours Birger):
I finally saw the final episode of season 3 (& last? Far as I know) of this robot dogs – not quite a scute as Aibo version of War of the Worlds and just .. WTF?! So many unanswered questions and so much still doesn’t make sense.
A series that had its moments and its atmospheric moody power and tension and thoughts-provoked but also just .. hang on that’s not how things work and doesn’t compute momenst too..
So wondering
1 ) Anyone else on here watched that?
2) if so what did youthink and did it make more sense to you?
The Supreme Court is putting the Environmental Protection Agency’s air pollution-fighting “good neighbor” plan on hold while legal challenges continue, the conservative-led court’s latest blow to federal regulations.
The justices in a 5-4 vote on Thursday rejected arguments by the Biden administration and Democratic-controlled states that the plan was cutting air pollution and saving lives in 11 states where it was being enforced and that the high court’s intervention was unwarranted.
The rule is intended to restrict smokestack emissions from power plants and other industrial sources that burden downwind areas with smog-causing pollution. It will remain on hold while the federal appeals court in Washington considers a challenge to the plan from industry and Republican-led states.
Writing for the court, Justice Neil Gorsuch said the states are likely to win in the end […]
In dissent, Justice Amy Coney Barrett was joined by her three liberal colleagues. Barrett said she doubted the states and industry would ultimately prevail.
Yet the high court’s order, “leaves large swaths of upwind States free to keep contributing significantly to their downwind neighbors’ ozone problems for the next several years,” she wrote.
In a statement, the EPA noted that court’s action was not a final decision. “The EPA is disappointed in today’s ruling, which will postpone the benefits that the Good Neighbor Plan is already achieving in many states and communities,” the EPA said.
[…] The court is currently weighing whether to overturn its 40-year-old Chevron decision, which has been the basis for upholding a wide range of regulations on public health, workplace safety and consumer protections.
[…] The issue came to the court on an emergency basis, which almost always results in an order from the court without arguments before the justices.
[…] The EPA has said power plant emissions dropped by 18% last year in the 10 states where it has been allowed to enforce its rule, which was finalized a year ago. Those states are Illinois, Indiana, Maryland, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Wisconsin. In California, limits on emissions from industrial sources other than power plants are supposed to take effect in 2026.
The rule is on hold in another dozen states because of separate legal challenges. Those states are Alabama, Arkansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Nevada, Oklahoma, Texas, Utah and West Virginia.
States that contribute to ground-level ozone, or smog, are required to submit plans ensuring that coal-fired power plants and other industrial sites don’t add significantly to air pollution in other states. In cases in which a state has not submitted a “good neighbor” plan — or in which the EPA disapproves a state plan — the federal plan was supposed to ensure that downwind states are protected. […]
More about that Supreme Court decision to delay the decision concerning Idaho’s anti-abortion law(s):
As accidentally previewed Wednesday, the Supreme Court Thursday decided to allow emergency abortions to continue in Idaho. Instead of deciding Moyle v. United States on merits—should federal law say emergency room doctors can provide abortions to stabilize pregnant patients—the court dismissed the case as “improvidently granted,” meaning they shouldn’t have taken it in the first place while it was still being litigated. They are sending it back down to the lower courts. Additionally, it reinstated an injunction that requires Idaho to allow abortions in the case of major health crises.
That’s kicking the can down the road. A cynical person would say the conservatives are postponing making a decision about saving pregnant people’s lives until after the election for political purposes, to avoid a repeat of the Dobbs fallout from 2022. They’d likely be right.
The decision is 5-4, with Chief Justice Roberts and Justice Amy Coney Barrett joining Justices Sonya Sotomayor and Elena Kagan to dismiss the dispute from their docket, for now. That means that pregnant patients in Idaho won’t have to be airlifted out of the state for abortions to save their health and lives because doctors there don’t have to worry—as much—about being prosecuted for saving them. It is a small relief for doctors in Idaho.
“This teeny tiny little carveout allows us as physicians in very specific scenarios to provide the care and hopefully not Life Flight people out of the state so they can go somewhere else to get the care that we can easily provide here, but it does not fix our problem here,” Dr. Loren Colson told the Idaho Capital Sun. “We still have a huge problem when it comes to being able to access abortion.”
At least six pregnant patients have been flown out of Idaho for abortions since the Supreme Court lifted the stay on Idaho’s ban on emergency abortions in January.
Justice Kentaji Brown Jackson acknowledged this in her partial dissent. She wanted a decision now, on the merits. “[T]o be clear: Today’s decision is not a victory for pregnant patients in Idaho. It is delay,” she wrote. “While this Court dawdles and the country waits, pregnant people experiencing emergency medical conditions remain in a precarious position, as their doctors are kept in the dark about what the law requires.”
This Court had a chance to bring clarity and certainty to this tragic situation, and we have squandered it. And for as long as we refuse to declare what the law requires, pregnant patients in Idaho, Texas, and elsewhere will be paying the price. Because we owe them—and the Nation—an answer to the straightforward pre-emption question presented in these cases, I respectfully dissent.
Also in dissent—on the opposite side in favor of torturing women—are Justices Samuel Alito, Clarence Thomas, and Neil Gorsuch. Alito is typically ghoulish and sneering toward his colleagues, calling them too “emotional” about the issue. “[T]he Court has simply lost the will to decide the easy but emotional and highly politicized question that the case presents,” he wrote.
As Slate’s Mark Joseph Stern writes, his dissent “is unyielding in its cruel disregard for women’s health; he acknowledged, for instance, that Idaho’s ban may require doctors to stand by and wait for a pregnant patient to develop ‘infection and serious risk of sepsis’ before terminating her failing pregnancy.”
The case is going to come back to the court since litigation continues. Barring a dramatic shift on the court, Alito will likely prevail. The court did, after all, refuse to keep the lower court’s injunction on Idaho’s ban in place for months while it was deciding what to do about it.
It’s also possible that Donald Trump will win in November, and the case will be mooted. Project 2025 explicitly says the Department of Health and Human Services should reverse its guidance on the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act, that puts the lives and health of pregnant women above the fetus.
SEC v. Jarkesy could render much of the federal government unable to function.
On Thursday, the Court handed down a 6-3 decision, on a party-line vote, that could render a simply astonishing array of federal laws unenforceable. As Justice Sonia Sotomayor writes in dissent, “the constitutionality of hundreds of statutes may now be in peril, and dozens of agencies could be stripped of their power to enforce laws enacted by Congress.”
The dispute in Securities and Exchange Commission v. Jarkesy turns on whether a hedge fund manager accused of defrauding investors is entitled to a jury trial to determine whether he violated federal securities law, or whether the government acted properly when it tried him before an official known as an “administrative law judge” (ALJ).
The charges against this hedge fund manager, George Jarkesy, are civil and not criminal, which matters because the Constitution treats civil trials very differently from criminal proceedings. While the Sixth Amendment provides that “in all criminal prosecutions” the defendant is entitled to a jury trial, the Seventh Amendment provides a more limited jury trial right, requiring them “in suits at common law” (more on what that means later).
If the question of whether Jarkesy is entitled to a jury trial arose in the absence of any precedent, then he’d have a reasonably strong case that he should prevail. But, as Sotomayor lays out in her dissent, nearly 170 years of precedent cut against Jarkesy’s position.
Congress, moreover, has enacted a wide range of laws on the presumption that many enforcement proceedings may be brought before administrative law judges and not juries. According to one somewhat dated review of federal law cited by Sotomayor, “by 1986, there were over 200” federal statutes calling for trials before ALJs.
Some of these laws, including the one allowing the SEC to bring enforcement actions against people like Jarkesy, give the government a choice. That is, they allow federal agencies to bring a proceeding either before an ALJ or before a federal district court that may conduct a jury trial. So the SEC, at least, has the option of retrying Jarkesy in a district court.
But, as Sotomayor warns, many federal agencies — including the “Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, the Federal Mine Safety and Health Review Commission, the Department of Agriculture, and many others” — may only seek civil penalties in administrative proceedings. That means that a wide array of laws guaranteeing workplace safety and advancing other important federal goals could cease to function after Jarkesy.
The Jarkesy case, in other words, is an example of the Roberts Court at its most arrogant. […] the federal government has operated for an exceedingly long time on the assumption that many disputes can be adjudicated by ALJs.
By upending this longstanding assumption, the Court may have just thrown huge swaths of the federal government — particularly enforcement by those agencies Sotomayor listed — into chaos.
So when does a civil defendant have a right to a jury trial?
The Seventh Amendment provides that civil litigants generally have a right to a jury trial “in suits at common law,” but what does that mean?
Broadly speaking, the common law refers to the body of judge-made law developed by English courts, much of which was imported into American law and which still governs many American lawsuits involving matters such as contracts and torts. Common law courts typically had the power to award money damages to a victorious plaintiff, which distinguishes them from courts of “equity” that had the power to issue injunctions and other non-monetary relief.
[…] The term “common law” refers to judge-created law developed over the course of many centuries, as distinct from law created by acts of a state legislature or Congress. The somewhat unhelpfully named public rights doctrine provides that many lawsuits that arise under federal statutes are not subject to the Seventh Amendment, and thus the government is free to try these cases in an administrative proceeding without a jury.
The earliest Supreme Court case applying this public rights doctrine was handed down in 1856, so it isn’t exactly an idea invented by 20th-century Progressive Era reformers who wanted to eliminate barriers to law enforcement. As the Court explained in Atlas Roofing v. OSHA (1977), the doctrine applies when Congress passes a law authorizing suits by the federal government that are “unknown to the common law.”
In “cases in which the Government sues in its sovereign capacity to enforce public rights created by statutes within the power of Congress to enact,” Atlas Roofing held, “the Seventh Amendment does not prohibit Congress from assigning the factfinding function and initial adjudication to an administrative forum with which the jury would be incompatible.”
Thus, this public rights doctrine does have limits. It applies only to suits brought by the federal government, and only when the government sues to enforce a federal statute authorizing a kind of suit that did not already exist under the common law. But, in those circumstances, trial before an ALJ is permitted.
[…] In light of the Court’s newfound appreciation for civil jury trials, it’s worth noting that the Court’s Republican appointees have historically read the Seventh Amendment very narrowly in cases that do not involve hedge fund managers.
The Court has long held that companies may force their workers and consumers to sign away their right to sue that company in a real court — one that can conduct a jury trial — and instead have the case heard by a private arbitrator. The Court has, at times, claimed that forced arbitration is lawful because workers and consumers nominally consent to arbitration when they decide to do business with the company. But many of the Court’s arbitration decisions raise very serious questions about whether the justices understand what the word “consent” means.
In Epic Systems v. Lewis (2018), for example, the Court held that an employer can simply order their employees to give up their right to a jury trial, under pain of termination.
So the Court’s approach to the Seventh Amendment is incoherent, and after Jarkesy, it could lead to dozens or even hundreds of federal laws arbitrarily ceasing to function.
Supreme Court: This Place Could Use More Fraud And Pollution!
But you peasants can have a little bit of emergency abortion, as a treat.
The Conservative Supreme Court justices are working hard to get some fat tips from their sponsors after today’s opinion dump, which was a gift tied up in a bow for fraudsters and polluters. […] And there is more to come tomorrow, plus they have now added next Monday, July 1, to drop more bombs.
Here’s a summary of today’s bullshit, in order of appearance:
Dirtier Air
Ohio v. EPA: Is it legal for the federal government to try to reduce smog-forming pollution that drifts across state lines? The “Good Neighbor” provision of the Clean Air Act and common sense might say yes, but Ohio, West Virginia, and Indiana, as well as polluting companies, say no!
The Court took up this case on an emergency basis, even though it was still pending in the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit and isn’t set to take effect until mid-2026 anyway. Then, they decided 5-4 that they shouldn’t have taken it up after all, with Neil Gorsuch delivering the opinion and Amy Coney Barrett joining the liberals, and they stayed the rule, letting polluters keep on a-polluting while it plays out in the Court of Appeals. At least they didn’t smother the entire EPA completely, yet? Give them a day or two!
This Court sure does hate the EPA. In 2022 and 2023 they limited the agency’s ability to limit greenhouse gases and protect wetlands from runoff, because fuck you and your lungs, that’s why.
Not-so-fun fact: Neil Gorsuch’s mom Anne once ran the EPA under Reagan, as in, came in to destroy it. She fired 30 percent of the workforce there, slashed their budget by nearly a quarter, and was forced to resign after she mismanaged a Superfund cleanup site. She was so devoted to polluting that she smoked two packs of Marlboro reds a day, back when people could smoke in the office, and died of cancer. Her ghost is surely very proud. [Doonesbury Cartoon]
Dirtier Frauds
SEC vs. Jarkesy: And in a win for securities-fraudsters everywhere, the Court held 6-3 that the Securities and Exchange Commission doesn’t have the right to adjudicate matters in-house, the way Dodd-Frank said that it did. Instead, people or companies who get an SEC fine have a right to a jury trial under the Seventh Amendment. This obviously will make enforcement slow and expensive, and will restrict the powers of other government agencies to levy fines also.
What other “alphabet agencies” might this effect? The FEC, the FCC, the Department of Labor, any agency that hands out fines? Flash a nipple at the Super Bowl, jury trial. Don’t pay your employees overtime? Jury trial. Your boss, the head of a public agency in a government building, smokes two packs a day in the office with the windows closed against OSHA rules, jury trial! You can see how this could lead to effective non-enforcement of all but the most egregious offenses, so the conservative justices love it.
The flim-flam man whose rights they’re so worried about, “investment advisor” George Jarkesy Jr. and his firm Patriot28 LLC, swindled investors with monkeyshines like “arbitrarily inflating the value of certain holdings from $0.30 per share to $3.30 per share — so that they could charge higher management fees,” telling suckers that they were investing in different things than where the money actually went, and representing “to brokers and investors that a prominent accounting firm served as the funds’ auditor and that a prominent investment bank served as their prime broker, even though the firm never audited the funds and the bank never opened a prime brokerage account for them.” The SEC ordered the sleazebag operation to pay a $300,000 civil penalty and Patriot28 to disgorge nearly $685,000 of its ill-gotten gains. [SLEAZE!]
So unfair! Need jury! […]
Dirty Money
Then there’s Harrington vs. Perdue Pharma LP. The Sackler family own Perdue Pharma, which aggressively and knowingly pushed opioids to the masses.
Perdue was hit with thousands of lawsuits totaling billions of dollars, and the Sackler family began a “milking program,” taking $11 billion — about 75 percent of Perdue’s total assets — out of the company over the next decade. Then in 2019, the drained Perdue filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, and the Sacklers proposed to generously return approximately $4.3 billion to Purdue’s bankruptcy estate in exchange for the family being released from all opioid-related claims, and enjoining victims from bringing such claims against them in the future. Truly the sleaziest people on earth.
The Bankruptcy Court approved this, and most of the victims wanted it. But the Second Circuit was like, the Bankruptcy Court doesn’t have the power to let some non-party to the bankruptcy off the hook.
Which makes sense, why should they be able to shell-game the bankruptcy system like that? But this decision also effectively screws over the opioid victims and creditors, who are now left starting over with no settlement at all. On this one, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson joined the Evil Three and Coney Barrett (who is currently trying mightily to differentiate herself from Alito and Thomas and fairly succeeding), and Boof and Roberts joined Sotomayor and Elena Kagan. It is a muddle!
And finally, we got, Moyle vs. United States […] Can Idaho ignore the federal Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA) that requires most hospitals to provide emergency care to patients who need it, if that emergency care is an abortion? Can they delay care for women who are going into sepsis with an ectopic pregnancy while they get airlifted to a sane state, if she might not die, and just lose an organ or two? In a 6-3 opinion (Alito, Thomas and Gorsuch being the assholes), the court lifted the stay while the case goes back to the Ninth Circuit. So, they didn’t clear up anything they were asked to clear up like “does a state law bigfoot a federal law? Check one box y/n.” And just wasted a bunch of time when they could have not bothered. And the opposite ruling from the Fifth Circuit in Texas, which found yay sepsis, still stands.
Great work there, SCOTUS! Can’t wait to see what you destroy tomorrow! SIGH.
What’s Up With Bolivia And Kenya? Coup-Coup-Catchoo!
[…] things have gotten kind of dicey in some other nominal democracies on other continents in the last few days. Yesterday in Bolivia, members of the military attempted a coup against the government of President Luis Arce, but the coup failed in a matter of hours.
And in Nairobi, Kenya, this week, nearly two dozen people were killed by police who fired on crowds of protesters marching on the Parliament building in opposition to a proposed bill that would have raised taxes. Some demonstrators got inside the Parliament building and tried to burn it down. President William Ruto withdrew the bill, which was aimed at stabilizing the country’s economy.
[…] Briefly, here’s where things stand today:
Bolivia
As the AP reports, the coup attempt in Bolivia barely got underway before it ended, as armored vehicles crashed through the doors of the government palace and the head of the army, Gen. Juan José Zúñiga, declared he would “restore democracy,” which is what coup leaders always say. But within three hours, Arce named a new commander of the Army, who ordered the troops to withdraw, and — always an important factor in ending a coup — they did. Arce supporters then rushed the square outside the palace, waving Bolivian flags, singing the national anthem, and cheering, and that was that.
Zúñiga and a former navy vice admiral, Juan Arnez Salvador, were arrested […]
Bolivia has been in an economic mess, made worse, the AP says, by “months of tensions and political fights between Arce and his one-time ally, former leftist president Evo Morales, over control of the ruling party.”
The clashes have paralyzed the government’s efforts to deal with the economic crisis. For example, Morales’ allies in Congress have consistently thwarted Arce’s attempts to take on debt to relieve some of the pressure.
Hence Zúñiga’s explanation to reporters that the coup would “restore democracy,” although as an outsider, we’re inclined to think a military coup is a lousy way to break a legislative impasse […]
Also too, as the coup failed to draw popular support and things were fizzling, Zúñiga went with a conspiracy theory to explain it all, insisting to reporters that
Arce himself told the general to storm the palace in a political move. “The president told me: ‘The situation is very screwed up, very critical. It is necessary to prepare something to raise my popularity’,” Zúñiga quoted the Bolivian leader as saying.
Zúñiga said he asked Arce if he should “take out the armored vehicles?” and Arce replied, “Take them out.”
We don’t know Bolivian politics, but we can smell a Very Convenient Story when we hear it. We just hope nobody passes that one on to Donald Trump.
Kenya
The unrest in Kenya has been building up since last month, the New York Times reports, when President William Ruto’s government introduced a bill he said was needed to “pay the country’s enormous debt, avoid defaulting on loans and to cover the costs of roads, rural electrification and farming subsidies.”
Many Kenyans were outraged over the proposed tax increases, which they said would make the cost of living intolerable, and also what the hell is the government doing taking more of our money when Ruto and his cronies in government are living it up? People tend to notice that sort of thing anywhere, even in backwards countries where a wealthy political kingmaker gives away a quarter-million-dollar motorhome to a leading judicial official.
The Times explains that
Young protesters, who observers say largely initiated and guided the demonstrations, were also incensed by the dismissive way in which some leaders had addressed their concerns. Mr. Ruto said his government would engage with the young people and a broad range of groups in the next two weeks to chart a new economic course.
Police and military troops in Nairobi fired tear gas and live ammo into crowds of protesters approaching Parliament yesterday, killing at least 23 protesters and wounding “scores” of people according to Reuters, or “over 300” according to the Times. Protesters returned to the streets of Nairobi and other cities Thursday, although in smaller numbers, and police in Nairobi used tear gas to disperse “several dozen people who had gathered in the centre of the city.”
The focus of the protests has for many demonstrators shifted from defeating the finance bill to calling for Ruto and his administration to leave office and call new elections.
Ruto announced that with the option of raising revenue closed off by withdrawing the bill, he would probably have to launch austerity measures to bring down Kenya’s deficit, and if there’s one thing people in a time of economic instability love, it’s budget cuts.
So yes, everything looks ducky in Kenya, and we assume things ought to calm right down. There’s probably a moral here for Americans too, like maybe something about oligarchy and an economy that benefits a few at the expense of everyone else, huh?
Kevin McCarthy’s contradictions are emblematic of a larger truth: President Biden’s Republican detractors are struggling to keep their stories straight.
While presidential hopefuls routinely try to raise expectations for their rivals ahead of debates, Donald Trump has done largely the opposite, telling the public that President Joe Biden “can’t put two sentences together” and is “the WORST debater“ the former president has seen.
Complicating matters is the fact that Trump and his allies have pushed similar messages throughout Biden’s term, eagerly trying to convince the electorate that the Democratic incumbent is borderline comatose. In May 2022, for example, Sen. Rick Scott declared, “Let’s be honest here: Joe Biden is unwell.” The right-wing Floridian went on to say at the time, “He’s unfit for office. He’s incoherent, incapacitated, and confused. He doesn’t know where he is half the time.”
The problem for Republicans isn’t just that such rhetoric is ugly and offensive. What’s more, the problem isn’t just that the attacks are wrong and contradicted by officials — from both parties — who’ve interacted with the incumbent president. The politically salient problem is that the GOP has lowered expectations so low for Biden that he’s likely to pleasantly surprise viewers to tonight’s debate if he manages to stay awake for the entire event.
With this in mind, some Republicans, just over the last few days, have decided to start pushing back in the opposite direction — claiming that the president might not be in such bad shape after all.
Take former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, for example. Media Matters noted:
On the eve of the first presidential debate, McCarthy took to Fox News to urge the pro-Trump network not to lower expectations for Biden, highlighting instances where he previously found the president “really engaging.” … McCarthy also told Watters he was “concerned” about how “serious” Biden was treating his rigorous debate prep and recounted an anecdote in which he said the president was “fully engaged” after attending the 2023 G7 summit.
Hmm.
When then-House Speaker Kevin McCarthy launched a debt ceiling crisis last year, the California Republican offered to bring “soft food” to the White House, suggesting that Biden was too old to eat anything else.
Politico reported, however, that McCarthy made entirely different comments in private, “telling allies that he found the president sharp and substantive in their conversations.”
Earlier this month, the former House speaker nevertheless served as a key source to The Wall Street Journal for a report about Biden showing “signs of slipping.” [Oh FFS. McCarthy is an obvious hypocrite. Speaking of incompetence: McCarthy slipped so much that he lost the Speakership of the House.]
[…] it appears McCarthy — who’s eyeing a job on Trump’s team in a possible second term — will apparently say that Biden is sharp as a tack or falling apart, depending on what suits the former speaker’s interests at the moment.
But McCarthy’s contradictions are also emblematic of a larger truth: As the president and his immediate predecessor prepare to share a stage, Biden’s GOP detractors are struggling mightily to keep their stories straight.
in modern-day England and France. […] a compelling if derivative dystopian survival series. […] remarkably talky […] doesn’t spend much time fretting about its aliens […] much more interested in how people bond and persevere through shared trauma and survival instinct, not unlike The Walking Dead […] relentless cynicism […] The performances are uniformly great
From the comments:
Focusing more on interpersonal drama than the alien threat seems highly French.
“Marcel, the Martians are coming. We must run or we will be killed.”
“Pff. Since you told me I no longer arouse you, Yvette, I have been dead inside. What more can these Martians do?” *takes fifteen minute long drag on Gitane*
creators of the series addressed criticisms of the show’s first season and corrected them accordingly. Upping the ante […] season 2 introduced […] time travel and alternate universes […] season 3 continued that trend […] to the point that the season finale was a culmination of heady themes and well-written techno-jargon.
[…]
astronauts devise a dangerous plan to close the black hole for good which will ostensibly end the invasion timeline […] the presence of the black hole at the edge of Earth’s atmosphere was causing temporal disturbances that manifested as visions in people’s minds.
Alrighty then.
birgerjohanssonsays
Myself @ 241
A thorough dissection of the opportunist piece of shit sexual abuser Russel Brand. Also, news from Louisiana and suggestions of how to deal with the 11-12 ten commandments BS in schools.
John Moralessays
@232: “John Morales @ # 216: … you don’t get how that’s not how actual Catholics think of it.
No, I just don’t consider their version definitive. Or coherent. Or even interesting.
”
Which is why you called it “ritual cannibalism”, having brought it up out of nowhere.
So uninteresting, that you had to bring it up.
Obviously intended as an attempted jibe, but now you’re stuck with it.
Again: Come on, Pierce, come clean!
Do you or do you not honestly believe that Catholics are cannibals?
Do you or do you not honestly believe that Catholics themselves think they are cannibals?
Now, you have conceded that you do not honestly believe that Catholics themselves think they are cannibals (“I just don’t consider their version definitive” implies you know their version is not your version), so all you have to concede now is that do not honestly believe that Catholics think they are cannibals.
I’d offer sympathy for your fixation on same, if not for your gratuitous – and yes, tedious – insults.
To what supposed fixation do you intend to refer?
(Why you claim to feel insulted by the truth is pretty obvious, no? Weak, but obvious)
John Moralessays
Regarding “gratuitous – and yes, tedious – insults”:
certain bishops feel should not receive his ritual cannibalism
John Moralessays
StevoR, what CA7746 wrote, basically.
It’s cobbled up derivative glurge based on an actual work, but has pretty much zero similiarity from the synopses I’ve seen. So, derivative fanfic.
“The series takes place in contemporary Britain and France, but it serves as a re-imagining of the classic H. G. Wells novel”
(I reckon so, and it would be ritualistic if the feeding were also ritualistic)
Pierce R. Butlersays
John Morales @ # 244: … having brought it up out of nowhere.
Having reported on a weird, large-scale, staged event with political ramifications (and even a Minnesota connection).
… all you have to concede now is …
That I don’t accept the Vatican party line, unlike (so far) one other rather obsessive commenter here.
Take a break.
(Speaking of which, I will be offline tomorrow, during which I hope you can find a new fixation.)
John Moralessays
Having reported on a weird, large-scale, staged event with political ramifications (and even a Minnesota connection).
Whilst referring to Communion as “ritual cannibalism”.
Can’t hide from it, you know. There it is in black and white.
(How needful do you reckon it was to your report, then?)
That I don’t accept the Vatican party line, unlike (so far) one other rather obsessive commenter here.
<snicker>
I accept that the Catholic party line is the Catholic party line, which is theirs.
No cannibalism in “the Vatican party line”, as you call it.
That’s something you made up.
Take a break.
Your piteous plea has been heard.
(Speaking of which, I will be offline tomorrow, during which I hope you can find a new fixation.)
What, you imagine responding to your comments to me is a fixation?
Heh. It’s not a fixation, maybe I should get one?
I reckon free-range fixations are the go, no? Mmm.
(You can stop it whenever you want by not commenting at me about it, since then I can’t respond to the comments you didn’t make to me about it; takes two to tango)
Donald Trump’s pal in Buenos Aires: “Argentina entered a recession in the first quarter of the year as President Javier Milei’s brutal spending cuts sent consumption and activity plummeting.”
Campaigners angry that marital rape is not to be criminalised under India’s long-awaited new penal code have been promised a ruling on the issue by the supreme court next month.
Human rights organisations, including the All India Democratic Women’s Association, have been petitioning India’s supreme court to make it a criminal offence. The court has in turn asked the government for a response.
The new code is due to come into effect on 1 July. The court has the power to ask for a legal amendment if it disagrees with the government’s argument that to criminalise marital rape would violate the “sanctity of marriage”.
Three new laws will replace the penal code inherited from the British colonial era, which was drafted under Lord Macaulay from the 1830s and enacted in 1860.
Join me and John Poljak, founder of Keynumbers, as we dive into Australia’s nuclear debate in our livestream titled “Australia’s Nuclear Debate: Are We Getting the Costs Wrong?”
We’ll address common complaints about modelling from reports like AEMO’s Integrated System Plan (ISP) and CSIRO’s Gencost report. Using John’s powerful Keynumbers tool, we’ll calculate how the Levelized Cost of Energy (LCOE) for nuclear power changes with varying assumptions, including project life, cost of finance, and capacity factor.
[…] During last night’s presidential debate, CNN’s Dana Bash asked Trump a question he doesn’t often hear: “Will you take any action as president to slow the climate crisis?” Trump initially ignored the question, before eventually replying:
“So, I want absolutely immaculate clean water and I want absolutely clean air, and we had it. We had H2O. We had the best numbers ever.”
Right off the bat, it appears that Trump remains convinced that addressing pollution is the same thing as addressing the climate emergency. As anyone with even a passing familiarity with the issue knows, that doesn’t make any sense — and that the Republican has peddled this line repeatedly for several years makes matters worse.
As for the argument that the United States “had H2O” during Trump’s term, I will gladly concede the point, though this was an odd thing to brag about during a debate.
Stepping back, the exchange served as a timely reminder about the stakes in the 2024 race. The former president remains an unrepentant climate-denier — he described the crisis as a “con job“ late last year — who is running on an anti-climate platform, all while touting what he sees as the benefits of an intensifying planetary catastrophe.
What’s more, Politico reported earlier this year that Trump’s second term would be even more regressive on the issue than his first: “Former President Donald Trump pulled the U.S. out of the Paris climate agreement, staffed his environmental agencies with fossil fuel lobbyists and claimed — against all scientific evidence — that the Earth’s rising temperatures will ‘start getting cooler.’ Expect a second Trump presidency to show less restraint.”
[…] In the year’s first presidential debate, the presumptive GOP nominee returned to the subject. The New York Times reported:
As the evening wore on, Mr. Trump’s discipline slipped. He began making wilder claims, asserting that Mr. Biden was a “Manchurian candidate” who was “being paid by China.”
The obvious problem, of course, is that there’s literally no evidence of Biden “being paid by China.”
The less obvious problem is that Trump is drawing attention to one of his own vulnerabilities.
In January, Democrats on the House Oversight Committee released a devastating 156-page report called “White House For Sale.” Relying on documents from Trump’s former accounting firm, congressional researchers determined that the Republican’s businesses received “at least” $7.8 million from 20 foreign governments — over a two year period — while Trump was in the White House, despite the prohibitions in the Emoluments Clause of the U.S. Constitution.
An NBC News report added that China was “the leading spender, paying more than $5.5 million to Trump-owned properties.”
In other words, the former president is falsely accusing his successor of taking Chinese money, despite the millions of dollars China spent — during Trump’s White House tenure — at properties Trump owns.
To be sure, this has barely registered as a campaign issue, and the Biden campaign doesn’t appear to have made much of an effort to draw attention to it. But the more the Republican candidate brings it up, the greater the likelihood that the attack will backfire.
President Biden’s campaign said he had a cold. Yes, his voice was weaker even than usual. He looked pale and sick.
It looks to me like it only takes a cold to knock Biden off his game. He had trouble speaking in another way: the stutter he overcame in his youth has always negatively affected the smoothness of his communication skills, but now that he is older it seems like the stutter is back. That stutter just shuts him down completely sometimes.
Could have been worse I guess. He could have died on the stage instead of just looking like he was about to die.
President Biden answered most of the policy questions correctly, but it was hard to hear him and hard to understand him.
Trump spewed a tsunami of lies… and he did so confidently and forcefully.
[…] I don’t doubt that much of the political world’s focus will be on Biden’s halting performance, but Trump’s brazenly dishonest demagoguery mattered just as much. […]
[…] It’s important to hold fast onto the idea that what happened last night was not anything like the Access Hollywood tape in real life. It was an old man who acted old. He still has the same agenda, the same moral scruples, and the same team he did before. He’ll still do the same stuff if he’s re-elected.
Do I wish we had a better fighter in the fight? Sure! But the reason we don’t is deeply complicated by cross-coalitional pressures that are hard to resolve. You know who else has cross-coalitional pressures that are hard to resolve? The other side! That’s why they’ve got an out-and-out misogynist bigot at the top of their ticket even though not all of them are misogynist bigots.
So what I’m saying is, take some time. Don’t confuse means and ends. Could Biden lose? Of course! But he hasn’t lost yet and he could actually use our help […] instead of flailing around helplessly. So like the man says, get up off the floor, dust yourself off, and get back to work.
The White House, which typically refers to the campaign for 2024 matters, weighed in Friday morning about the chatter surrounding dropping out.
“That’s not happening. The only things being replaced are recession-causing MAGAnomics and radical abortion bans. […]” a White House official told The Hill.
“Biden ain’t going nowhere,” former South Carolina state Rep. Bakari Sellers posted on the social platform X. “It’s June. Let go of your pearls and dry your bed. He lost a debate. Bad. But it’s June. You’re not replacing him. So leave your random combinations in your chats. You’re not nominating Gretch or Gavin or Wes over Kamala. Stop it.” […]
Looking at the USA from afar, I seriously doubt the Democrats have the flexibility to have a brokered convention where they pick another candidate than Biden.
They are set in their ways and hope to return to the days of Bill Clinton when it was possible to pretend the system was working. They consistently tend to underestimate the threat posed by the Republicans.
The thoughts of many Americans who tuned in to Thursday night’s first 2024 presidential debate were perhaps best summed up by an Arizona voter and self-identified Republican named Jeff.
“The feeling I had inside was, Trump, hell no—he lied through the whole thing,” Jeff told MSNBC, “and Biden is like, oh no—he is really in bad shape.”
Jeff is exactly the type of swing voter President Joe Biden needs to win over in November and who the Biden campaign clearly hoped to assuage at the very least. Stylistically, however, Biden routinely stuttered and stumbled and generally reminded voters of one of their biggest hesitations about him: that he’s old.
But while Biden may have fallen short of expectations on that count, the live primetime face-off did appear to have the desired effect of reminding persuadable voters what a menace Donald Trump is. Trump lied liberally throughout the debate, but his most disqualifying moments came on questions related to the rule of law and the preservation of democracy.
On the subject of Jan. 6, Trump tried to sell himself as an innocent bystander who merely had incidental contact with the rioters.
“They asked me to go make a speech,” Trump explained during the debate.
Then Trump took several cracks at blaming former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for failing to stymie the attack, claiming she turned down his offer of sending 10,000 national guard troops to defend the Capitol and has since taken responsibility for not being more prepared.
Trump’s entire explanation is sheer fantasy that surely plays great to the MAGA masses but reads as patently false to anyone who isn’t living in the Fox fever swamps.
Trump also defended the Jan. 6 rioters while taking aim at Biden.
“What they’ve done to some people that are so innocent, you ought to be ashamed of yourself,” Trump said to Biden during the debate. “What you have done, how you’ve destroyed the lives of so many people.”
There’s a reason no pollster has ever asked voters if they believe Biden has mistreated the Jan. 6 rioters—no sane person believes that. Also, defending the people who brutalized police officers and ransacked the Capitol that day is a deeply unpopular cause. […]
It’s like Biden was knocked over by a tidal wave of bullshit and tried to address some of it with facts, but there as just too much baloney to keep track of and he got overwhelmed
——————–
This is…by all measures….a disaster for the Democrats. Joe’s performance will supercharge the right’s relentless rhetoric that Biden is too old.
———————-
the glass half full view: President Biden had a cold. Donald Trump did not pickup a single vote. On to the conventions.
—————–
It’s not a one-man act. Biden has assembled a competent team. He’s been one of the best presidents in my lifetime, and that’s quite a few presidents. Not because he’s infallible, but because he built and presides over a good team. What’s the problem with his being old? That he might die in office? If he dies in office, the team will continue — the United States government will continue on the same path Biden set it on.
You don’t like Kamala Harris? Get over it. She will be fine. She’s not a one-woman act either. She’ll still have the advice and counsel of Pete Buttigieg and the rest of the Biden team, of which she is already an integral member. The US Gov will continue to be in safe hands.
What’s the alternative? Trump is being used by the billionaires who want no taxes and no regulations. Trump is stupid enough to think those who are showering him with money actually like him. His own plan is merely to try to stay out of jail, but if he gets elected, jail will be the least of his worries. Trump should be as scared of the possibility of his winning the election as we are.
Bits and pieces of campaign news, as summarized by Steve Benen:
* President Joe Biden’s re-election campaign is making a new effort to draw attention to Donald Trump and Project 2025, adding a dedicated page on the Democratic incumbent’s website to the issue.
* As expected, Democratic Sen. Bob Menendez, on trial for corruption, this week filed the paperwork with the Federal Election Commission to run for re-election in New Jersey as an independent. His candidacy runs the risk of splitting the center-left and putting the seat in contention for a Republican pickup.
* In Texas, the latest statewide poll from the University of Texas at Tyler found a highly competitive Senate race, with incumbent Republican Sen. Ted Cruz narrowly leading Democratic Rep. Colin Allred, 45% to 42%.
* Speaking of closely watched Senate race, the latest Marquette Law School poll in Wisconsin found incumbent Democratic Sen. Tammy Baldwin ahead of Republican Eric Hovde, 52% to 47%.
* In a preliminary move, election officials in North Carolina voted against giving ballot access to new parties supporting independent presidential candidates Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Cornel West this week.
Oklahoma will require schools to teach the Bible and have a copy in every classroom, the state’s top education official announced Thursday. Effective immediately, Oklahoma schools are required to incorporate the Bible as part of the curricula in grades five through 12, according to a memo Superintendent of Public Instruction Ryan Walters sent to all school districts. Schools are instructed to refer to the Bible and the Ten Commandments for their “substantial influence on our nation’s founders and the foundational principles of our Constitution.”
Commentary:
[…] To be sure, this new policy is brazenly unconstitutional, but it’s not out of character for Oklahoma’s top education official. Over the last couple of years, Waters has cultivated a reputation as a right-wing Christian nationalist — even some Republicans have expressed discomfort with his radicalism — prompting discussion among Democratic legislators about possible impeachment proceedings.
Indeed, last summer, Walters not only argued that he wanted Bibles in public schools, he also expressed public indifference to court rulings related to the separation of church and state. […]
Obviously, for those who take religious liberty seriously, Walters’ culture war crusade is exceedingly difficult to defend, but he’s not doing his ostensible allies any favors either.
In case this isn’t obvious, people of faith in Oklahoma shouldn’t even want public school teachers to give Bible-based instruction in classrooms. What if educators interpret Scripture differently from your family and church? What if the teachers aren’t Christians? What if instructors feel inclined to draw children’s attention to Biblical controversies or contradictions that you’d prefer schools stay out of? […]
He falsely claimed that “all legal scholars” wanted Roe overturned, and that Democrats intend to execute newborns.
[…] Trump did manage to say one accurate thing about abortion at Thursday night’s CNN presidential debate: He’s responsible for overturning Roe v. Wade. “I put three great Supreme Court justices on the court,” Trump said, “and they happened to vote in favor of killing Roe v. Wade and moving it back to the States.”
This isn’t the first time Trump has boasted about yanking the constitutional right to abortion from Americans. As I’ve written, he previously has bragged about appointing three of the five Supreme Court justices who overturned Roe.
But otherwise, Trump’s lied constantly about the realities of abortion in the US during the first debate. For example, Trump insisted that “all legal scholars” wanted Roe v. Wade overturned. As reproductive rights scholar and NYU Law Professor Melissa Murray said when I asked her for comment: “Yeah, that’s a lie.” In fact, several legal scholars have noted the overturning of Roe undermines the legitimacy of the court given the blatant disregard for precedent, or stare decisis, that the conservative justices showed in issuing the Dobbs decision. Legal scholars also filed several amicus briefs in the Dobbs case urging the court not to overturn Roe. [video at the link]
Trump also falsely claimed that the Supreme Court “just approved the abortion pill,” referring to the recent case FDA v. Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine, brought by anti-abortion extremists, which sought to roll back some rule changes by the FDA that made mifepristone, the first of two pills used in a medication abortion, easier to access. In fact, as my colleague Nina Martin wrote, the court did not “approve” the pill, but instead ruled that the plaintiffs did not have standing to bring the case, since it was based on several hypotheticals:
The Alliance [Defending Freedom, a right-wing religious law firm] contended that a patient might be one of the rare people for whom the abortion pill didn’t work as intended, that she might then seek emergency care at a hospital, where she might encounter a provider who might belong to one of the anti-abortion groups in the lawsuit, who might be put in the position of having to perform an emergency procedure to remove the fetus.
This matters because other plaintiffs could try to bring a challenge to mifepristone back to the Supreme Court in the future—and, as some reproductive scholars have written, the conservative justices appeared to signal that they’d be other to hearing other challenges to mifepristone in the future.
[…] Perhaps most egregiously—and preposterously—Trump insisted that Democrats “will take the life of a child in the eighth month, the ninth month, and even after birth, after birth.” Let’s break that down. First, federal data shows more than 90 percent of abortions take place in the first trimester. Research has shown that abortions in the third trimester are extremely rare—constituting only one percent of abortions—and they typically only occur when there are major medical concerns regarding the health of the mother or the fetus, or as KFF states, “barriers to care that cause delays in obtaining an abortion.” And regarding his claim that Democrats or physicians kill newborns, that procedure is already outlawed at the federal level.
So Trump spewed a lot of lies about abortion tonight. But, as I’ve written, the facts about what he’s responsible for thanks to the overturning of Roe—young victims of rape or incest being forced to give birth or travel across state lines to access abortion, and women facing life-threatening pregnancy complications due to inability to access abortion, just to name a few—are simple facts, far away from political posturing.
Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan offered a scathing dissent Friday as her conservative colleagues transferred the power of federal agencies to the courts in a major decision overturning the Chevron deference.
In overruling that doctrine, Kagan argued that “the majority turns itself into the country’s administrative czar.”
Joined by fellow liberal Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson, she wrote that the majority replaced a rule of “judicial humility” with one of “judicial hubris.”
“In one fell swoop, the majority today gives itself exclusive power over every open issue—no matter how expertise-driven or policy-laden—involving the meaning of regulatory law,” Kagan wrote.
She added that the decision puts the courts at the center of a wide variety of policy issues, ranging from climate change to artificial intelligence.
“The Court has substituted its own judgment on workplace health for that of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration; its own judgment on climate change for that of the Environmental Protection Agency; and its own judgment on student loans for that of the Department of Education,” Kagan wrote
.
The 6-3 decision by the court upended a 40-year administrative law precedent in which federal agencies were given leeway to interpret ambiguous laws through rulemaking.
Now, judges will substitute their own best interpretation of the law, instead of deferring to the agencies — effectively making it easier to overturn regulations that govern wide-ranging aspects of American life. […]
[…] former acting Solicitor General Neal Katyal sounded the alarm on Friday after the Supreme Court overturned a 1984 precedent referred to as “Chevron deference” that empowered federal agencies to regulate large swathes of American life, everything from healthcare standards to the environment to financial protections.
[…] “These are momentous major decisions. The Supreme Court has done an extraordinary thing, an extraordinarily dangerous thing,” Katyal began, adding:
They sound technical. But here’s what they’re about. Most government regulation in this country is not done by Congress. It’s done by administrative agencies. So a climate regulation done by the EPA, food and drug regulation by the FDA, you know, kind of economic issues by the SEC and other organizations, even how much your phone bill is, as you know, by the Federal Communications Commission. All of those regulations are interpreted against the backdrop of a decision in 1984 called Chevron, which is agencies deference in determining just how much power they have and what they can do.
What the Supreme Court did today by a 6 to 3 vote is overturned Chevron. That is going to make it much more difficult to regulate businesses, to protect consumers, to protect the environment, to protect our healthcare. This is as momentous a decision as it comes. I know we’re all been focused on the Trump immunity case, and there are many good reasons why. But in terms of influencing Americans’ daily lives, this decision, which sounds technical, is a major, major big deal, and is going to change government as we know it.
[…] Already this week we’ve had dirty air, dirty money, federal agencies losing regulatory powers, gee, how much worse can it get? Welp, it’s always the darkest before it turns pitch black. It’s now okay to criminalize homelessness. Fuck the regulatory powers of government agencies. And those January 6 rioters, they weren’t obstructing an official proceeding, because they did not touch documents or records, or some bullshit. […]
The first case the Supreme Court dumped was about fining and/or imprisoning people for being unhoused, and you know a certain six justices are all for that. In City of Grants Pass Oregon vs. Johnson et al., on Behalf of Themselves and Others Similarly Situated, the city wanted the power to fine unhoused people for violating its “public camping” ordinance, and imprison them for 30 days after they racked up a certain number of violations, even if there’s no shelter space for them.
In Grants Pass, Oregon, there’s too few beds for the city’s unhoused population of about 600, so they’ve been camping. Johnson et al. argued that the fining and/or imprisonment was a violation of the Eighth Amendment’s whole “cruel and unusual” thing, and that unhoused people were being punished for their status. In a 6-3 ruling (you already know which six), the Court said no it wasn’t, because people get fines and go to jail all the time, that’s NBD. Wrote Gorsuch, “it makes no difference whether the charged defendant is currently a person experiencing homelessness, a backpacker on vacation, or a student who abandons his dorm room to camp out in protest on the lawn of a municipal building.” Oh, they would definitely love to lock up some student protestors. BUT WAIT! Shouldn’t unhoused dudes and ladies have to get a jury trial before they are fined? We heard that somewhere, yesterday, it was the Supreme Court.
Next, OH FUCK, the Chevron defense is overruled, in a massive power grab for the judiciary, and a huge crap on decades of precedent. Say goodbye to government regulatory agencies being able to regulate anything! Even with the lowest expectations for this corrupt court, this is still disappointing. Fuck your federal agencies, fuck your precedent, and don’t forget to tip your six conservative justices, who were definitely not swayed in this opinion by luxury fishing trips with billionaires, and definitely did not discuss this at any retreats at Bohemian Grove! It’s only bribery if you write “THIS IS A BRIBE” in the subject line of the check!
Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo and Relentless v. Dept. of Commerce asked whether federal agencies are the experts at determining federal law, or are judges? Is the National Labor Relations Board an expert on labor relations? Is the National Marine Fisheries Service an expert on fishing? No, we’d better leave the details to Judge Ho of the Fifth Circuit, or better yet Matthew Kacsmaryk.
The absolute balls-out pomposity of Chief Justice John Roberts here:
“Chevron’s presumption is misguided because agencies have no special competence in resolving statutory ambiguities. Courts do.”
[WTF!?]
Sure, if going out on a billionaire’s yacht makes you an expert in marine wildlife! How convenient that they just made bribery by post-dated check legal on Wednesday. And this will go nicely with the air pollution that they gifted us yesterday.
Justice Elena Kagan’s ass-scorching dissent says it best:
“Today, the majority does not respect that judgment. It gives courts the power to make all manner of scientific and technical judgments. It gives courts the power to make all manner of policy calls, including about how to weigh competing goods and values. (See Chevron itself.) It puts courts at the apex of the administrative process as to every conceivable subject—because there are always gaps and ambiguities in regulatory statutes, and often of great import. What actions can be taken to address climate change or other environmental challenges? What will the Nation’s health-care system look like in the coming decades? Or the financial or transportation systems? What rules are going to constrain the development of A.I.? In every sphere of current or future federal regulation, expect courts from now on to play a commanding role. It is not a role Congress has given to them, in the APA or any other statute.”
Welp, if Trump gets elected and fires every bureaucrat who doesn’t sign a purity pledge, guess there really won’t be any experts left anyway.
INTERESTINGLY this position is a 180 for Thomas, who wrote the exact opposite in his opinion for National Cable & Telecommunications Association, et al. v. Brand X Internet Services, et al., holding that Chevron was great and the FCC should follow it. Surely his vote was not bought and paid for, his opinion just coincidentally evolved, sometime after his billionaire friends started funding his entire lifestyle.
And JESUS FUCKING CHRIST, next they overturned Fischer vs. US. Joseph Fischer is a former Boston police officer, and here you can watch him trying to beat Capitol Police officers with a flag while screaming in their faces. Sure looks like he was trying to obstruct something there! But he didn’t tamper with any records, so it’s fine. Roberts wrote this 5-4 decision, in which Amy Boney Carrot, oddly, wrote the dissent.
Roberts:
“To prove a violation of Section 1512(c)(2), the Government must establish that the defendant impaired the availability or integrity for use in an official proceeding of records, documents, objects, or as we earlier explained, other things used in the proceeding.”
We’re going to go to the Google and copy-and-paste Section 1512(c)(2) for you right here, because we can fucking read:
(c) Whoever corruptly—
(1) alters, destroys, mutilates, or conceals a record, document, or other object, or attempts to do so, with the intent to impair the object’s integrity or availability for use in an official proceeding; or
(2) otherwise obstructs, influences, or impedes any official proceeding, or attempts to do so,
shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than 20 years, or both.
Did you catch that up there? It says “or.” You don’t have to hide Trump’s stolen nuclear secrets to be guilty. You can also “otherwise obstruct[,] influence[,] or impede[] any official proceeding, or attempt[] to do so.”
John Roberts is unutterably full of shit.
This is a gift to more than 350 rioters who were charged under this statute, including 27 who are sitting in prison right now. And of course it’s a big gift to the obstructor in chief, that rapist fraudster former president.
[…] all of us decent and sane people are going to need every one of our remaining brain cells and all of our energy to fight the hellscape that is to come. As long as we’re alive there is hope! Right? Right??
[…] I will get back to work being my best self to fight evil!
Another look at the mess that was last night’s debate:
If you didn’t watch last night’s teevee debate between […] you’ve probably heard about it by now.
Either way, you undoubtedly know that, putting it kindly, Biden’s debate performance started out pretty awful and then improved to only mildly awful, with a few actually good moments but not enough. Depending on what news you ingest, you may also have heard that Donald Trump started out with a lot of lies and fearmongering, and somehow managed to get far, far, worse. He knew he could get away with it, because Trump has worked enough in TV and politics to know that all the news coverage would be about Biden’s gaffes and verbal stumbles, so why not just lie as outrageously and rapidly as possible? […]
You do not under any circumstances have to hand anything to Trump, especially not if you want it back, but yes indeedy, the media reaction has been 99.8 percent Is Joe Too Old and Feeble to Remain President, Let Alone Have a Second Term? — generally followed by also, Trump sure lied a lot, as is his habit.
So let’s take a look at this mess, while keeping in mind that there are four and a half months to go before the election, and that that President Mondale, President Kerry, and President Romney all vaulted into office after their opponents had terrible first-debate performances and nothing else happened the rest of the campaign. [Nice bit of sarcasm.]
There’s simply no getting around how, for much of the first half hour of the debate, Biden sounded terrible, and not only because he had a cold. He rambled, meandered, and like Barack Obama in his first debate against Mitt Romney, was obviously over-briefed trying to cram too much stuff into his answers with no apparent organization. He sounded old, and that wasn’t what he needed to sound like last night.
Worse, he flubbed moments where he should have been able to destroy Trump, especially early on, like when Trump lied that every legal scholar and leader of every political stripe agreed that Roe v. Wade was terrible and had to be overturned and he returned the issue to the states, where everyone agreed it should be — even the Founders, if they had known about abortion in those days. Biden did manage to call hooey on that last, but he missed the opportunity to actually get into just how horrible many states have been in denying healthcare to women who need it.
Instead, Biden started with a good point, that we don’t leave civil rights up to states to decide, but then, while trying to get at the point that victims of rape have little recourse in some states, confused the issue, rambling, and making a weird reference to a woman murdered by an immigrant, opening a door that Trump barreled through with all the lies and fearmongering he could muster. [Yep.]
On climate, an issue that should have been an easy layup because he’s done so much, Biden dismissed Trump’s nonsense claim about how America never had such clean air and water before him, then started to talk about his own climate plan, but then got sidetracked again.
Biden got a bit better as the debate progressed, with that memorable line about Trump having the “morals of an alley cat,” and giving a perfectly clear explanation of why NATO matters. He managed to throw Trump off his game by calling him a “whiner” who refused to say he’ll accept the outcome of the election, but that came too late, just before the final commercial break.
[…] After the break, Trump was clearly rattled, and his closing statement was confused and snippy, as he tried to turn back the insult on Biden with “this man is just a complainer,” […]
If the second scheduled debate in September actually goes forward — Trump may blow it off, as many thought he might the first — we’re betting that Biden’s debate prep will involve more strategic efforts to hit Trump’s ego. Call him a loser in the first 15 minutes, maybe.
As for Trump, the man started with lies and simply ramped up their frequency and outrageousness as the night progressed, from the familiar bullshit about allowing post-birth abortions, to the bizarre, repeated lie that not only hadn’t he called fallen troops “suckers” and “losers,” but that Joe Biden had personally made it all up, a completely unhinged lie that of course the CNN moderators didn’t bother correcting, just like all the others.
Trump didn’t just lie a lot; by halfway through the debate, he was simply ignoring the moderators’ questions altogether, even when they pointedly reminded him that he hadn’t addressed them. And even then, Trump continued lying and fearmongering, at one point claiming that “hundreds of thousands” of Americans have been murdered by undocumented immigrants. Not gonna look it up, but I believe that was in “response” to a question about how he would help people find affordable daycare, or something equally unrelated to migrants coming out of the pavement and killing you.
And here’s where we close by reassuring you: Joe had a crappy debate night, and we don’t need to make excuses for it, because it was in fact only a debate, in June, and while his flubs will reignite all the media age discourse, most voters are already decided on who they’ll vote for. As MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell observed following the debate, Biden has always been better at governing than at communicating. Nothing Trump said was true, and for all his lies, Trump never actually criticized Biden about any thing that’s true. And no matter what, Trump remains a convicted felon.
It was a crappy night for Joe Biden, and it probably won’t matter in the big picture.
Good news: The Supreme Court denied Steve Bannon’s request to remain free pending an appeal of his contempt conviction. The full court denied Bannon’s application. Bannon is required to report to prison on July 1. That’s Monday.
Thursday night’s debate was a microcosm of where we are. It told you everything you need about the two presumptive nominees as human beings, everything about the two political parties they represent, everything about the media that both provided and described the event, and everything about America in 2024.
On stage were one man who derives sick pleasure from breaking things, one man who tries to make everything better, and a network that invited them both into a glass house and handed them mallets. Then, after 90 minutes of watching the first man send shards in all directions, we got to listen to everyone complain that the second man didn’t swing his mallet with sufficient vigor.
If you give a minute to Donald Trump, he will use it to lie. If you give a minute to President Joe Biden, he will use it to try and correct the lie—and answer the original question that Trump ignored. [True.] If it seems like Trump has the easier task, you’re right. […]
In a YouGov survey published on Wednesday, Americans said they trusted Joe Biden more than Donald Trump to babysit their kids. They think Biden would be a more thoughtful houseguest. That he would give better advice on parenting and relationships.
And they think, by a large margin, that Biden would be more willing to return a lost wallet.
That’s who they are: the guy who would seek you out if he found your wallet on the street, and the man who would pocket the cash and move on. That, in a nutshell, is the choice America faces.
Before Trump walked onto the debate stage Thursday evening, CNN had already explained that they would do no fact-checking. Not because this was impossible—after all, NPR teamed up with PolitiFact and ran real-time fact-checking right down to the candidates’ respective golf handicaps—but because … because. Sorry, it’s impossible to think of any good reason that CNN didn’t choose to do this.
It took Trump about one second to begin exploiting this by simply lying. It took less than five minutes for him to discover that CNN would also not attempt to make him answer the question asked. Better still, they would respond to anything he said—anything—with “Thank you, President Trump.” […]
Biden made the huge mistake of trying to answer the questions. From the very first moment, he was running a hundred miles an hour, trying to fit in an evening’s worth of policy discussions into the one- or two-minute space when his light was green.
And when Trump started piling on lies, Biden tried to correct Trump and answer the questions. On multiple occasions, Biden tried to deal with all the lies Trump had just spat out, then jump to a completely different topic—the actual topic of the question—and then deal with that as well. All in one or two minutes. [And Biden was sick and not up to the task; or maybe he is too old to be up to that kind of task.] […]
Trump didn’t just drive the nation into a ditch during his administration, he left behind a devastated economy, thousands of Americans dying each week from a pandemic he mishandled, and international alliances in shambles. Biden has spent every moment since his inauguration rebuilding that economy, mending those alliances, and—oh yeah—saving those lives.
If you think that Biden should be more willing to let Trump’s lies slip past, let the questions go unanswered, and concentrate instead on the optics, you are always, always going to be disappointed.
The trouble is, pundits watched an hour of a convicted felon lying his ass off—and not just small lies, not just stories or fibs or misstatements. If there was anything to admire about Trump’s performance on Thursday evening, it was the sheer scale of his lies: Democrats want to abort babies after they are born, Nancy Pelosi took full responsibility for Jan. 6. These are the King Kong and Godzilla of lies.
Oh, excuse me. I did that wrong.
Democrats want to abort babies after they are born. “Thank you, President Trump.”
Nancy Pelosi took full responsibility for Jan. 6. “Thank you, President Trump.”
There. That’s the CNN way.
Pundits—even some supposed Democratic pundits—are admiring the massive, nonchalant lying of a convicted criminal while clutching their pearls over Biden trying to set things right, and that tells you everything about them.
If the Democratic Party fails to dust itself off, stand in front of the cameras, defend Biden, and explain how a lying felon is worse than laryngitis and some verbal stumbles, then it will say everything about us.
Matt McDermott:
Turns out it is possible for the press and pundits to push a coordinated effort to get a presidential candidate to drop out of the race. Who knew, given the silence after the Republican nominee for president was convicted of 34 felony counts.
in a contested federal election, after running as part of a protest over the lack of electoral reforms in the country.
“When I saw the result, I was like: ‘Well, I am the true unity candidate. Everyone agrees not to vote for me,'”
[…]
As a key campaign promise, Justin Trudeau promised that if his party won power, the 2015 federal election would be the last under the first-past-the-post system. After his government won a landslide majority, however, he abandoned the promise.
The Longest Ballot Committee says the current system skews power […] In protest, the group successfully put 77 names on the Toronto ballot, bringing the total to 84 and slowing efforts count […] paper ballots measuring a meter in length: the longest ever in Canadian history.
[…]
because he lives outside Toronto, he couldn’t vote for himself.
14million grassroots donors from 6pm to 12am for Biden Harris, and focus groups across all demos and networks (univision, MSNBC, CNN) said they still vote for Joe Biden as Trump still offers no solutions, didnt answer questions that Tapper & Dana coddled Trump with. The AZ focus group & Philly focus group disliked the “Black Jobs” racist remark from Trump
—————————–
Hope you caught Biden’s rally in NC this morning, Cmae. He was the guy you sure wish was there last night, but point is, he is right back out there taking his next serve, and has many, many more serves to come.
———————-
I agree that Biden is the better man in every way, and that CNN let the other guy behave like the monster he is without making him stop.
We know that. But do swing state voters know that? That’s really the question.
I also wish that we didn’t have to say all this and try to make ourselves feel better after that embarrassment of a debate last night.
X post and video:
“WHEN YOU GET KNOCKED DOWN, YOU GET BACK UP!”
Love this speech. 🇺🇲💪💙
The video from the North Carolina rally is well worth watching. It is short: 1:16 minutes long.
President Biden on Friday condemned the decision by Iowa’s Supreme Court to uphold the state’s six-week abortion ban, saying it puts women’s health in jeopardy.
The court, in a 4-3 ruling, overturned a lower court’s temporary block on the state’s six-week ban on abortion, saying that the ban is legal.
The move on Friday allows the law, which bans abortions once fetal cardiac activity can be detected, to take effect in Iowa. The law includes some exceptions for rape and incest if reported to the police or health provider within a specific time period.
Biden, in a statement, noted that Iowa is the 22nd state to have an abortion ban go into effect since the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision, noting that the bans are “imposed by Republican elected officials.”
“This should never happen in America,” Biden said. “Yet, this is exactly what is happening in states across the country since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. And it’s not stopping at the state level — Republican elected officials in Congress have proposed four national abortion bans while refusing to protect nationwide access to IVF and contraception.”
The president also reupped calls for Congress to codify Roe into federal law, legislation that would be dead on arrival in the GOP-controlled House and face a narrow margin in the Senate.
He also called on Democrats to “stand firm against efforts made by Republican elected officials to undermine Americans’ fundamental freedoms.”
After months of reduced library funding and fears that more would be on the way, New York City’s public libraries are getting their funding restored, in a deal announced Thursday night by Mayor Eric Adams and City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams. Mayor Adams forced the spending cuts back in September, claiming the city couldn’t have nice things because of the cost of providing emergency shelter to migrants being bused to the city from Texas and other red states.
As Gothamist reports, the plan, which the City Council is expected to pass this weekend to beat a Monday deadline, will reverse $58 million in cuts to the libraries, which had to close on Sundays and cut back other operations even as they were considered a bulwark against people melting to death in the heat. Even better, the agreement will protect near-term library funding as well:
As part of the 11th hour negotiations, the Adams administration also agreed to provide $43 million annually for the libraries in future years, according to the sources. The change represents a significant concession from the mayor, who has seen historically low approval ratings tied in part to budget cuts. The decision to guarantee a portion of the library budget could help spare libraries from the annual budget dance because they have traditionally been used as a bargaining chip in negotiations.
On top of restoring the library funding, another $53 million in funding will be restored to “cultural institutions through the Cultural Institutions Group and Cultural Development Fund recipients,” according to a statement from the mayor’s office.
The library cuts had become a political liability for Adams, a walking political liability all on his own. His poll numbers fell as library supporters, members of the City Council, and library leaders — a population you should never ever piss off, honestly — mounted a high profile campaign against the cuts:
[They] organized rallies and enlisted support from high-profile individuals, including Hillary Clinton and Whoopi Goldberg. A heatwave that lasted through the weekend further spotlighted the Sunday closures of libraries, which serve as cooling centers.
[…] the crisis has been averted, the libraries will open on Sundays again and they’ll restore programs and materials they’d had to put off, and it’s a good summer for literate folks in the City. After this week, that’s pretty welcome news!
I know I’m not a young man. I don’t walk as easy as I used to. I don’t speak as smoothly as I used to. I don’t debate as well as I used to, but I know what I do know — I know how to tell the truth! […] When you get knocked down, you get back up!
Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro:
I’ve had the opportunity to work closely with both the former president and President Biden, and you know what I can tell you, Joe Biden is up to the job.
It looks like the debate after the debate is going to go on for some time. President Biden has both backers and detractors.
House Speaker Mike Johnson—an architect of Donald Trump’s plan to overturn the 2020 election who had to be evacuated from the Capitol as the mob descended on Jan. 6, 2021, and who stood with Trump as a New York jury convicted the former president on 34 felony charges—says President Joe Biden should be removed from office because he had a bad debate night.
“I would ask the Cabinet members to search their hearts. … And we hope that they will do their duty, as we all seek to do our duty to do best by the American people. These are fateful moments,” Johnson told reporters Friday. “If I were in the Cabinet … I would be having that discussion with my colleagues at the Cabinet level. I would. … We’ll see what action they take. It’s a serious situation.”
This is the same Mike Johnson who voted against removing Trump from office after the Capitol insurrection. He’s for removing a president because he’s old, and he’s against removing a president who is old and who tried to overthrow the government. Good to know.
Trumpstood on a debate stage and lied more than 30 times, according to CNN’s fact-checking guru Daniel Dale, including:
Democratic-led states allow babies to be executed after birth, that every legal scholar and everybody in general wanted Roe v. Wade overturned, that there were no terror attacks during his presidency, that Iran didn’t fund terror groups during his presidency, that the US has provided more aid to Ukraine than Europe has, that Biden for years referred to Black people as “super predators,” that Biden is planning to quadruple people’s taxes, that then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi turned down 10,000 National Guard troops for the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, that Americans don’t pay the cost of his tariffs on China and other countries, that Europe accepts no American cars, that he is the president who got the Veterans Choice program through Congress, and that fraud marred the results of the 2020 election.
Facts First: Trump’s claims arefalse. Poll after poll has shown that most Americans – two-thirds or nearly two-thirds of respondents in multiple polls – wish Roe would have been preserved. And multiple legal scholars have told CNN that they had wanted Roe preserved.
A CNN poll conducted by SSRS in April 2024 found 65% of adults opposed the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe. That’s nearly identical to the result of a CNN poll conducted by SSRS in July 2022, the month after the decision. Similarly, a Marquette Law School poll in February 2024 found 67% of adults opposed the decision that overturned Roe.
A NBC News poll in June 2023 found 61% opposition among registered voters to the decision that overturned Roe. A Gallup poll in May 2023 found 61% of adults called the decision a bad thing.
And “any claim that all legal scholars wanted Roe overturned is mind-numbingly false,” Rutgers Law School professor Kimberly Mutcherson, a legal scholar who supported the preservation of Roe, said in April.
“Donald Trump’s claim is flatly incorrect,” another legal scholar who did not want Roe overturned, Maya Manian, an American University law professor and faculty director of the university’s Health Law and Policy Program, said in April.
Trump’s claim is “obviously not” true, said Mary Ziegler, a law professor at the University of California, Davis, who is an expert on the history of the US abortion debate. Ziegler, who also did not want Roe overturned, said in an April interview: “Most legal scholars probably track most Americans, who didn’t want to overturn Roe. … It wasn’t as if legal scholars were somehow outliers.”
It is true that some legal scholars who support abortion rights wished that Roe had been written differently; the late liberal Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was one of them. But Ziegler noted that although “there was a cottage industry of legal scholars kind of rewriting Roe – ‘what Roe should’ve said’ — that isn’t saying Roe should’ve been overturned. Those are very different things.”
Imagining the ostensible target audience for the debate:
“At first, I was worried about the violent misogynist who wanted to nuke hurricanes, sell state secrets, bomb Mexico then pretend it wasn’t him, withhold disaster relief to US territories he didn’t like, give away Puerto Rico to acquire Greenland, shoot civilians who protest against state violence, round up millions of people into camps, and purge the government of anyone who’d rein in his darkest, stupidest impulses… but his confident zingers swayed me.”
“This analysis is a follow-up to the comprehensive report “From Bad to Worse: The Continuing Effects of Sanctions on Russia”, which was published by the Wilfried Martens Centre for European Studies in June 2023. We continue to analyse the nuanced effects of Western sanctions against Russia two years since the beginning of Putin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, and, in contrast to the widespread international optimistic assessment of “Russia’s economic resilience” to sanctions, paint a very different picture: behind the facade of a handful of positive macroeconomic indicators like strong GDP growth and low unemployment, Russia’s actual economic reality is much bleaker, and the situation is getting worse.
This paper intends to provide Western policymakers with realistic in-depth analysis of multiple effects of sanctions on the Russian economy, helping to identify areas where sanctions are truly working, and Putin’s main economic vulnerabilities, an un-derstanding of which is crucial to further strengthening the Western response to Putin’s war of aggression against Ukraine, and limiting Russia’s ability to finance the war.”
—
A bit of context, the author:
Vladimir Milov is a Russian opposition politician, publicist, economist & energy expert. Former Deputy Minister of Energy of Russia (2002), adviser to the Minister of Energy (2001-2002), and head of strategy department at the Federal Energy Commission, the natural monopoly regulator (1999-2001).
Author of major energy reform concepts,
including the concept of market restructuring and unbundling of Gazprom,
which was banned from implementation by President Vladimir Putin.
Founder and president of the Institute of Energy Policy, a leading
independent Russian energy policy think tank (since 2003).
Columnist of major Russian political and business editions, including Forbes Russia, frequent commentator on Russian political and economic affairs in major Western media outlets (The New York Times, The Financial Times, The Washington Post, The Economist, etc.).
Since leaving Russian Government in 2002,
Mr. Milov had became a vocal public critic of Vladimir Putin’s dirigiste
and authoritarian course. Mr. Milov is also active in the Russian
opposition politics, serving as Chairman of the Democratic Choice opposition party, and is also known as co-author of the critical public report on Vladimir Putin’s Presidential legacy called Putin. The Results, written together with Boris Nemtsov (several editions published since 2008).
An important economic measure for the Federal Reserve showed Friday that inflation during May slowed to its lowest annual rate in more than three years. The core personal consumption expenditures price index increased just a seasonally adjusted 0.1% for the month and was up 2.6% from a year ago, the latter number down 0.2 percentage point from the April level, according to a Commerce Department report.
Longer excerpt of comments made by President Biden:
“I know I’m not a young man, to state the obvious,” President Joe Biden told a North Carolina audience today, in a far more vigorous tone than the one we saw last night. “I don’t walk as easy as I used to. I don’t speak as smoothly as I used to. I don’t debate as well as I used to. But I know what I do know: I know how to tell the truth. I know right from wrong. And I know how to do this job. I know how to get things done. And I know, like millions of Americans know, when you get knocked down you get back up.”
Conservative justices this week confused nitrous oxide with nitrogen oxides and then insisted that they, not the EPA, were the final word on environmental regulations.
It’s hard to overstate how bad this week has been for (among many other things) environmental regulations. On their own, the Supreme Court’s rulings on either Ohio v. EPA or Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo would be bad news. Together they spell out a new reality where our country’s robed clerics—guaranteed employment until death—have final say over how and whether government agencies can do their job.
On Thursday, the justices ruled in favor of Ohio and several other states that challenged the Environmental Protection Agency’s plan to bring them into compliance with ozone pollution–control requirements. The justices’ ruling allows the EPA’s plan to remain paused as the states’ challenge proceeds through the courts. Laying out the context for that decision, Justice Neil Gorsuch—who authored the majority opinion—noted that the EPA “set as its target the reduction of the emissions of one ozone precursor in particular: nitrous oxide,” going on to explain that the agency “sought to impose nitrous oxide emissions control measures that ‘maximized cost-effectiveness.’”
Nitrous oxide is a colorless, odorless gas used for sedation and pain relief, commonly referred to as “laughing gas” and administered by dentists. It’s also a greenhouse gas and ozone precursor that can be generated by industrial activity, but Gorsuch presumably meant to refer to nitrogen oxides, the broader category of nitrogen-oxygen compounds that the EPA is trying to regulate through the Good Neighbor Plan. In total, Gorsuch—writing on behalf of the court’s conservative majority—mistakenly referred to nitrous oxide rather than nitrogen oxides five times in his decision.
[…] Gorsuch seemingly didn’t look closely enough at case documents to get the name of the chemical compound in question right. He didn’t google it. Opinions are circulated multiple times among the justices before being released to the public, and none of them—or their clerks—seemed to catch the mistake, either.
[…] In just about any other document, mixing up nitrous oxide and nitrogen oxides would be an innocuous, even trivial typo; the Supreme Court eventually corrected the error. But on Friday morning, the man responsible for that error also effectively awarded himself and his colleagues veto power over ozone regulations and a whole bunch of other shit they know nothing about and don’t bother looking up. […]
CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captainsays
@Lynna #288:
Speaking of libertarians corrupting the Fourth…
as America first descended into and then crawled its way out of the Great Depression, […] titans of industry had been told, time and time again, that they were to blame for the nation’s downfall. Fifield, in contrast, insisted that they were the source of its salvation.
They just needed to do one thing: Get religion. […] As men of God, ministers could voice the same conservative complaints as business leaders, but without any suspicion that they were motivated solely by self-interest. […] a new blend of conservative religion, economics and politics that one observer aptly anointed “Christian libertarianism.”
[…]
Before the New Deal, the government […] had never loomed large in Americans’ thinking about the relationship between Christianity and capitalism. […] When Roosevelt launched the New Deal, politically liberal clergymen echoed his arguments, championing his proposal for a vast welfare state as simply the Christian thing to do. […] When businessmen realized their economic arguments were no match for Roosevelt’s religious ones, they decided to beat him at his own game.
That’s where Revered Fifield came in. Nicknamed “The Apostle to Millionaires” […] Fifield dismissed the many passages in the New Testament about wealth and poverty, and instead assured the elite that their worldly success was a sign of God’s blessings. […] Fifield founded Spiritual Mobilization […] gaining attention from leading conservatives across America who were eager to enlist ministers in their fight against the New Deal.
[…]
the phrase “freedom under God”—contrasted with what they saw as oppression under the federal government—became an effective new rallying cry
[…]
in June 1951, the leaders of Spiritual Mobilization announced the formation of a new Committee to Proclaim Liberty to coordinate their Fourth of July “Freedom Under God” celebrations[, a massive series of events all week]. […] Its two most prominent members […] Hoover […] and Gen. Douglas MacArthur […] joined by military leaders, heads of patriotic groups, conservative legal and political stars […] Bing Crosby, Cecil B. DeMille, Walt Disney and Ronald Reagan. But the majority came from corporate America. J. Howard Pew was joined by other business giants, including household names such as Harvey Firestone, Conrad Hilton, James L. Kraft, Henry Luce, Fred Maytag and J.C. Penney, as well as lesser-known leaders at giant corporations including General Motors, Chrysler, U.S. Steel and Gulf Oil.
The committee’s corporate sponsors took out full-page newspaper ads to promote a pinched version of the [Declaration of Independence]. Dropping the founding fathers’ long list of grievances about the absence of effective government in the colonies, the sponsors reprinted just the preamble alone. This approach allowed them to reframe the Declaration as a purely libertarian manifesto, dedicated solely to the removal of an oppressive government.
[…]
17,000 minister-representatives of the organization were encouraged to compete for cash prizes and other rewards by writing an original sermon on the theme of “Freedom Under God” and delivering it to their congregations on “Independence Sunday,” July 1, 1951.
[…]
The Christian libertarianism that propelled this religious rhetoric into American politics proved short-lived, but its slogans thrived long after it was gone. Ironically, language designed to discredit the federal government was soon used to sanctify it instead. […] In 1953, the first-ever National Prayer Breakfast […] In 1954, the previously secular Pledge of Allegiance was amended […] “In God We Trust,” spread just as quickly. Congress added it to stamps in 1954 and then to paper money in 1955; in 1956, the […] official motto.
[…]
As this religious revival swept through American politics, many in the United States began to believe their government was formally and fundamentally religious. In many ways, they’ve believed it ever since.
(46:15): the specific way Fifield justified Christian capitalism was to argue that God had imbued people with certain rights and responsibilities. We had the right to private property and the freedom of choice—including the choice to be poor. So if the government were to take private property from the rich and give it to the poor, that is a violation of God’s law. The church then has a duty to defend against this. […] an ideology called Christian Libertarianism […] “Letting rich people do whatever they want and saying that’s what God wants.”
KGsays
I know, like millions of Americans know, when you get knocked down you get back up. – Joe Biden
But Biden didn’t get knocked down. He didn’t even fall down. He just subsided onto the ground as if a stopper dropped out and he deflated.
birgerjohanssonsays
One good news item: A poll taken after the debate gives Biden a 1% advantage, predictably making Trump angry.
And here is another tidbit to cheer you up.
“Fox pup plays peek-a-boo in fox dens”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=FhTydr_2AYU
I go to SaveAFox at Youtube when I need a bit of comfort.
CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain @289, thanks for that historical information. Makes sense. “Letting rich people do whatever they want and saying that’s what God wants.”
In a way, it reminds me of Rachel Maddow’s “Ultra” series. People in power doing similar nefarious stuff, and rich people being a combination of remarkably gullible/stupid and conniving.
birgerjohansson @292, thanks for that. Maybe that information should have been part of the Biden/Trump debate.
“He’s a fool. He thinks I planned my own assassination? He’s sicker than I thought…”
That’s Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) reacting to former President Trump blaming her for the Jan. 6 riot during Thursday night’s disastrous presidential debate.
If you missed the debate or tuned out parts of it here is what happened: CNN’s Jake Tapper asked Trump what he would say to “voters who believed that you violated your constitutional oath through your actions and inaction on January 6, 2021, and worried that you’ll do it again.”
Trump, of course, deflected the question, instead blaming Pelosi for the violent riot.
The former president claimed that at the time, he offered the National Guard to Pelosi, anticipating that hundreds of his supporters would come to Capitol Hill that day and that the Speaker told him that the resulting violence was on her.
“Nancy Pelosi — if you just watched the news from two days ago — on tape to her daughter who’s a documentary filmmaker … she’s saying, ‘Oh, no, it’s my responsibility. I was responsible for this.’ Because I offered her 10,000 soldiers or National Guard, and she turned them down,” Trump said.
Just like most of what he said throughout the night, Trump’s statement about Pelosi is a lie. He is referring to a video House Republicans released earlier this month where the former House Speaker says she “takes responsibility” for what happened on Jan. 6.
What the video House Republicans released didn’t show, however, was that the clip was cut up and presented out of context. It was actually part of a roughly 45 minutes long recording — which Politico reviewed — where Pelosi grilled her staff about why Capitol Police were so unprepared the day of the attack.
Same old propaganda from Republicans … doing anything and everything but holding Trump accountable for his actions.
Link. Scroll down to view the text quoted above. That link includes other news.
When Milton Kidd leaves work at the end of the day, he slips out the back door of the domed Douglas County Courthouse, avoiding the public entrance where people might berate him or demand his home address.
He never takes the same route home two days in a row, and he makes random turns to avoid being followed.
Kidd, a Black man, has a very dangerous job: He is the elections and voter registration director for Douglas County.
“Milton Kidd is a nasty n***** living on tax money like the scum he is,” one voter wrote in an email Kidd shared with Stateline. “Living on tax money, like a piece of low IQ n***** shit.”
Another resident from Kidd’s county of 149,000 west of Atlanta left him a voicemail.
“I don’t know if you’re aware, Milton, but the American people have set a precedent for what they do to f***ing tyrants and oppressors who occupy government office,” the caller said. “Yep, back in the 1700s, they were called the British and the f***ing American people got so fed up with the f***ing British being dicks, kind of like you, and then they just f***ing killed all the f***ing British.”
Kidd smiled incredulously as he shared his security routine and the hate-filled messages that inspired it. He is dumbfounded that he’s the target of such vitriol for administering elections in 2024—but he knows where it originated.
The lies told by former President Donald Trump, who faces state felony charges for trying to pressure Georgia officials to change the 2020 results, have resonated with many Douglas County voters, Kidd said. Now this nonpartisan official, like many others across the country, is forced to face their ire. […]
As he prepares for the next presidential election, Kidd said he will continue to press his state’s elected officials for more leadership and money to protect him, his staff and the democratic process.
“If this office fails, then our democracy has failed,” he said. “I will never let a detractor who calls with vile language deter me from the work that I do.”
LIKE STANDING IN A PUDDLE OF GASOLINE
Kidd is far from the only election official who has faced threats inspired by the lies of Trump and his allies, who continue to claim without evidence that the 2020 presidential election was stolen.
Nationally, 38% of local election officials have experienced threats, harassment or abuse since 2020 just for doing their jobs, according to a survey released in May by the Brennan Center for Justice, a voting rights nonprofit housed at the New York University School of Law. More than half of the over 900 respondents said they are concerned about the safety of their colleagues and staff.
Kidd’s colleagues in neighboring counties also have felt the hostility.
In the green hills of Bartow County, a rural community in northwest Georgia, Election Supervisor Joseph Kirk has taken steps to protect himself, though he won’t disclose specifics. While harassment has not reached the level it has in other counties, he said he has lost staff members who left their positions because of the changed atmosphere. […]
Cobb County Director of Elections Tate Fall is also fortifying her suburban Atlanta elections office. In the coming weeks, her office will install a shatterproof safety film on the glass that shields the front desk. More access points will require key cards for entry, and there will be additional panic buttons.
[…] This month, Georgia officials announced a first-in-the-nation requirement that all new police officers undergo a course on election security, partly focusing on protecting election officials from threats.
This is part of a broader mission to build more coordination between sheriff’s offices and elections offices, said Chris Harvey, deputy executive director of the Georgia Police Officer Training and Standards Council, which will lead the effort.
Harvey, a former detective, also served as Georgia’s state elections director for six years, including through the 2020 presidential election.
After the January 2021 U.S. Senate runoff, he was doxed—his home address and a picture of his house were posted online. He also received an emailed death threat that included a photo of him with crosshairs over his face.
While he says he wasn’t worried about his safety, he did worry about his wife and four children at home. He called the local police, who posted a car in front of his house for two weeks.
“In this supercharged environment, it’s like standing in a puddle of gasoline,” he told Stateline. “Anything can set it off. It didn’t used to be like that.”
THE DEMOCRATIC PATH
Democracy’s fragile promise has always been part of Kidd’s life.
Kidd, 39, grew up in East St. Louis, Illinois, a former manufacturing hub of 18,000 people along the Mississippi River.
His family was part of the Great Migration, moving north from Southern states such as Arkansas and Mississippi looking for work and safety. But shortly after his ancestors’ arrival, white mobs killed hundreds of Black newcomers during several months of 1917, displacing 6,000 Black people in the southern Illinois city.
His grandmother was a sharecropper in Luxor, Arkansas, and instilled in his mother the importance of voting. Growing up, he heard stories about civil rights activists Fannie Lou Hamer, who was beaten for registering voters, and Medgar Evers, who was assassinated. It made Kidd a student of history, able to recite the Declaration of Independence and parts of the Constitution.
“The importance of the ballot box has always been something that has been stressed to me,” he said. “I know in my own family individuals have tried to register to vote and had dogs sicced on them. These are not words in a book. It’s not that far off.”
[…] Kidd earned his master’s degree in public administration from Southern Illinois University Edwardsville in 2010.
He then did what he called a “reverse migration” back to the South to begin working elections in various counties in the Atlanta area, including Douglas County. He started there in 2015 and was promoted to lead the office three years later.
[…] He and his eight full-time staff members have attempted to bolster their public standing by going to local churches, fairs and political party meetings of both parties to share details about how they run elections and tabulate the vote securely.
But he needs more resources from the state. The same lawmakers who wink and nod at the lie that massive fraud is stealing elections do not support additional funding for local election administration, he said, especially for the safety of election administrators.
Every one of the security enhancements he made to his office—including a series of magnetic locks on the doors—came through outside grant funding, a practice the state later outlawed in 2021.
[…] Kidd was encouraged by Georgia’s announcement that it would require all new police officers to undergo a course on election security. Does Kidd feel supported by his local sheriff’s office? He chuckled and said there’s a lot more that could be done.
Cpt. Trent Wilson of the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office said the office took Kidd’s complaints seriously. Though they were concerning, he said, there was nothing criminal in the voicemails and emails Kidd received.
“It was very distasteful,” Wilson said. “But just because they’re distasteful don’t mean they’re criminal.”
Pressed about what constitutes a threat, he added: “Look, I’m a Black man. So, we don’t like to be called a n*****. But calling someone a n***** is not a crime.”
[…] “In 2024, I work a job that I have to allow myself to be called a n*****,” Kidd said. “But I do it because I want to make sure people have access to the ballot box.”
Georgia Recorder is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Georgia Recorder maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor John McCosh for questions: [email protected].
The New York Times has posted so many articles calling for Biden to drop out, and other wise focusing on Biden’s flaws, that I do not think I can list them all here. It would be too many links in one comment.
Somebody help me out here, but I can’t find a link to when the New York Times must have called for Trump to drop out of the race for the good of the nation?
Maybe it was way back when he announced his campaign on November 15, 2022 less than two years after leading a deadly insurrection at the Capital on January 6th?
Maybe it was after he was criminally indicted in New York for falsifying records in order to hide hush money payments after cheating on his wife with a porn star?
Maybe it was after he was criminally indicted in Florida for stealing classified documents and obstructing justice so he could keep them for unknown reasons?
Maybe it was after he was criminally indicted in DC for trying to block the certification of the electoral votes by Congress after the 2020 election?
Maybe it was after he was criminally indicted in Georgia for conspiring to corrupt the result of a free and fair 2020 Presidential election there to subvert democracy?
Surely they must have called for him to drop out after he was convicted on 34 felony counts in the hush money case, I mean that happened right in New York?
Alright, maybe it was more recent, maybe when Trump was shown to have lied over 30 times in the debate on Thursday, a new low for any candidate, surely the New York Times must have called for Trump to drop out of the race at that point?
For some reason I can not find a link or reference […]
It’s almost as if the NYT cares more if someone can lie forcefully and effectively, as opposed to caring about the truth or a candidate’s qualifications and track record?
Maybe they should drop this quote from their web site for the good of the nation? [“We seek the truth and help people understand the world.”]
As a cardiologist in the largest city in the nation’s fastest-warming region, Ethan Katznelson has daily, first-hand knowledge of how high temperatures can put stress on the human heart.
Katznelson, who practices at New York Presbyterian Weill Cornell Medical Center, regularly sees the cardiovascular stress suffered by patients who live in homes without air conditioning, or climb steep stairs in multi-story apartment buildings with no elevators, or rely on public assistance to help cope with the heat in a city where residents feel almost 10 degrees hotter than their suburban neighbors because of the urban heat island effect.
[…] he and a team of research associates [examined] roughly 500 observational studies of the effects of high temperatures, extreme weather and wildfire smoke—all factors amplified by climate change—on cardiovascular problems.
Their findings, published in June in JAMA Cardiology, noted an increased risk for cardiovascular problems related to high heat that intensified the longer populations were exposed to the heat, particularly in normally cooler locations where buildings often don’t have air conditioning and heart patients aren’t as used to high heat.
The research team also found that extreme weather events such as hurricanes and floods not only increased the risk of cardiovascular health issues, but that the dangers exist long after the event itself. [Hmm. I didn’t now that “the dangers exist long after the event itself”]
The research team cited one study of the health impact of Hurricane Sandy in 2012, after which the risk of death from cardiovascular disease remained elevated for up to a year after the storm.
With cardiovascular disease already the leading cause of death worldwide, members of the research team said that they hope their work can help people take steps to address their health as the planet continues to warm.
[…] I think we can advance the conversation on climate change. If we point out to people that there are these effects on cardiovascular health, cardiovascular disease is not theoretical or something that is going to happen in the future. This is here and now.”
Kazi said that among the most surprising findings by the research team was how high temperatures can affect people living in communities with older housing stock where central air conditioning is not already in place.
[…] The researchers were also struck by the wide reach of such extreme weather events such as the Canadian wildfires, which blanketed much of the nation with smoke last summer.
“People are going to get exposed, you know, hundreds of miles beyond where the fires are,” said Kazi, who also serves as the associate director of the Richard A. and Susan F. Smith Center for Outcomes Research at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston.
[…] While the research team was able to determine that people of color and those with low incomes are disproportionately affected by the threats of cardiovascular problems, Kazi said that it was essential that researchers continued to study how heat affects those communities, as well as those who live in the Global South.
“There’s a really glaring lack of data from low-income countries, in particular,” Kazi said. “There’s very little data coming out of Africa. And this is both a missed opportunity and a real threat because we know that lower wealth communities, particularly in the tropics, are going to have a pretty marked exposure to climate change related events and have limited resources to climate change resilience. And so there really needs to be a systematic effort to understand how that works.”
[…] In May, a team of researchers at the University of California-Irvine announced that they had identified the molecular components that adversely affect the brain, liver and digestive tract during heat waves.
By studying the heat-stressed tissues of mice, the study’s authors were able to identify changes in genes in the brain that are linked to motor dysfunction, cognitive impairment and a weakening of the blood-brain barrier.
[…] And in March, another group of researchers announced they had found that short-term exposure to high temperatures could increase inflammation and adversely affect the body’s immune system.
The research, which was presented at a conference hosted by the American Heart Association, found that for every 5 degree increase in the Universal Thermal Climate Index—a measurement of how the human body responds to air temperature and a range of other conditions—there was an increase in the levels of killer T-cells and other markers of inflammation and a decrease in B cells, which help regulate the body’s response to germs and disease. […]
“In 2024, I work a job that I have to allow myself to be called a n*****,” Kidd said. “But I do it because I want to make sure people have access to the ballot box.”
Bet he wouldn’t do it if the job did not come with remuneration.
(Cynical? Maybe, maybe just realistic)
birgerjohanssonsays
Emma Thorne dissects ‘Joshua And the Promised Land’ : “Is this the Best Worst CG Movie Of All Time?”
Sorry, Birger — after recently watching and posting a link to the contents of #299, I can’t ignore the shitty headline you adduced. Bad timing on your part. No biggie.
“Best Worst” is incoherent; clearly, the intended meaning is probably simply ‘Worst’, but could also mean the ‘Best of the Worst’ rather than the ‘Worst of the Worst’.
Also, you know the rule: if something is being asserted, one doesn’t do it in the form of a question, so I already know the answer: “no”. Which I would in any case, since that’s purely a subjective belief.
John Morales, in my defence I was so taken aback by the non-quality of the CG in this christian film that I had no neurons left to comment on the title. It is like watching a compilation of Trump and/or the crazy lady in the House. Ouch!.
birgerjohanssonsays
A problem I have with this study (by William Crockett at the Santa Fe Institute) is
1- what prevented the Earth to freeze all over, and
2- if Earth did freeze all over, how did the organisms get oxygen or the light needed for photosynthesis?
Birger, heh. Honestly, I admire your sang-froid and your demeanour in general.
Quite a contrast with other commenters! Bit more excitable, they.
(Contrast with me, that’s for sure)
I don’t doubt it’s amongst the worst of that type, nor do I blame you for liking the content.
Not my thing, but that’s not the thing, is it?
To be clear: I’m happy you like what you like and you share that.
(I do the same!)
—
BTW, I appreciate your tolerance and your restraint, Lynna.
(But you already knew that)
Pierce R. Butlersays
birgerjohansson # $ 305: … if Earth did freeze all over, how did the organisms get oxygen or the light needed for photosynthesis?
The (hypothetical but with some strong evidence) Snowball Earth scenario happened before the Cambrian era, hence before much in the way of multicellular organisms, hence before anything alive needed oxygen or could photosynthesize. Then, it seems, volcanoes broke through the ice and released enough carbon dioxide to warm things up.
Pierce R. Butlersays
Re: my # 307 – On re-reading my link, I note they postulate the existence of algae before the snowball, so that implies at least some photosynthesis and some free oxygen in the pre-Cambrian atmosphere.
birgerjohansson@295,
I gave up on your favourite, “Phil”, when he claimed anyone criticising Starmer from the left just wanted to be in permanent oppositon – which is utterly dishonest and ridiculous. And focusing purely on minimising the number of Tory seats neglects the key questions about the future actions of the Starmeroid Labour government which we know is going to be in power in less than a week.
KGsays
Lynna, OM@297,
If it was just the NYT that was calling for Biden to drop out, that would be one thing; but that’s far from the case.
I understand there’s much uncertainty on how total the most extreme freezing was. Presumably, if the Earth’s entire ocean was covered in 1 km thick ice (as in some estimates), that’d insulate well enough for geothermic heat to keep the underlying ocean water mass unfrozen. Chemosynthetic microbe communities could survive around deep sea vents.
Unclear whether photosynthetic bacteria and algae could survive that. Some modern microalgae are able to survive inside ice and snow, with minimal access to liquid water. Also, perhaps there were oases of life around hot springs? Anyway, the phylogeny of life suggests that many lineages of photosynthetic microbes survived.
Also presumably, for most of the Cryogenian period (1,000 to 750 million years ago), there were varying levels of ice age severity, but no total freezing. Varying levels of photosynthesis limitation and biological resource scarcity. The Cryogenian was followed by Ediacaran (750 to 540 million years ago), with much more favorable conditions and rapid appearance of the first known simple multicellular animals. This was followed by Cambrian, with the famous explosion in animal diversity and complexity.
In the wake of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, many leading Minnesota businesses announced they were pausing their political donations to review their giving strategy.
Some went further, vowing not to bankroll political candidates who supported Donald Trump’s attempt to overturn the 2020 election.
But today, three and a half years later, nearly all of them have resumed giving money to politicians engaging in election denial, according to an analysis by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a nonprofit that investigates government corruption.
Among them were some of Minnesota’s blue-chip mega corporations: UnitedHealth, Target, Best Buy, 3M, U.S. Bancorp, Ameriprise and Ecolab, which all promised not to donate to members of what CREW calls the “sedition caucus.”
But as of today, they’ve given hundreds of thousands of dollars to politicians who voted against certifying the 2020 election, opposed the establishment of the Jan. 6 committee, or otherwise supported Trump’s attempt to undo the 2020 results.
A number of other Minnesota companies, including CHS, C.H. Robinson, Thrivent and Polaris, never promised to suspend donations and have continued giving money to candidates who sought to undermine the rightful, peaceful transfer of power after the 2020 election.
One of those companies, Moorhead-based American Crystal Sugar, has for years been one of the biggest financial supporters of the sedition caucus. According to CREW’s analysis, they’ve given over $1 million since 2021, the third highest amount in the nation. Among other things, they’re focused on maintaining the federal program that keeps sugar prices high and undergirds their profitability.
Only one current Minnesota lawmaker voted against certifying the 2020 election results: Rep. Michelle Fischbach of the 7th District, who falsely told Fox News shortly after the 2020 election that vote tabulators were “finding votes” when in fact they were counting them.
In a sign of the state Republican Party’s post-Jan. 6 radicalization, she was unable to obtain the party’s endorsement this year and is now facing a primary challenge from a Christian nationalist who says his goal is to “harness God’s power to lead ordinary Americans and their legislators in Washington back towards the Lord.”
CREW said the companies should mind the value of a stable democracy.
“Corporations depend on the stability and laws of a strong democracy in order to do business,” CREW writes. “Taking a stand against lawlessness aligns with the long-term interests of companies benefiting from government protection of intellectual property, contract enforcement and support for American business interests at home and abroad.”
According to their analysis, just one Minnesota company has so far upheld a promise to not give money to election deniers: Golden Valley-based Cheerio maker, General Mills.
Trump, 78, has been on the political stage for eight years marked by chaos, corruption, and incivility. Why go back to that?
To build himself up, Trump constantly tears the country down. […]
Trump told more than 30 lies during the debate to go with the more than 30,000 mistruths told during his four years as president. He dodged the CNN moderators’ questions, took no responsibility for his actions, and blamed others, mainly Biden, for everything that is wrong in the world.
The debate served as a reminder of what another four years of Trump would look like. More lies, grievance, narcissism, and hate. Supporters say they like Trump because he says whatever he thinks. But he mainly spews raw sewage.
Trump attacks the military. He denigrates the Justice Department and judges. He belittles the FBI and the CIA. He picks fights with allies and cozies up to dictators. […]
Jon Allsop of Columbia Journalism Review:
f much of the pre-debate chatter focused on CNN’s changes to the format, the lack of live fact-checking that earned the network the most scrutiny on the night was in no way a new invention; CPD-era debate hosts also explicitly steered clear of it. In fairness to them and CNN, live fact-checking is hard, especially where Trump is involved, and the question of where to draw the line is inevitably contentious. But it’s hard to conclude that the alternative—a debate in which Trump can, for example, state without pushback that Biden is weaponizing the legal system against him—was satisfying either. Some observers have suggested that it’s the job of candidates to fact-check each other. But this risks politicizing the notion of truth. In the end, an addled-sounding Biden fact-checking Trump was unlikely to carry due weight—even when he was factually right. And the less said about Trump fact-checking Biden, the better. […]
Live fact-checking might have helped expose Trump’s incoherent answers, but journalists across the media landscape are also responsible for how they frame the debate after the fact. Again, Biden’s shakiness is a big story. But it is, in no small part, one of optics (at least in the continued absence of much evidence that his decision-making is impaired)—and coverage of those all too often drowns out substance, particularly in the wake of debates. In some respects, this debate has crystallized in miniature what is emerging as an oversimplified broader picture of this presidential race in the media: in one corner, Biden, old; in the other, Trump… […].
Russian dictator Vladimir Putin visited fellow autocrat Kim Jong Un earlier this month, resulting in a new Russia-North Korea defense pact. As part of the deal, Russia agrees to provide North Korea with higher-precision weapons it can aim at Seoul. In return, Russia gets a unique rendition of the Russian anthem and more of the unreliable artillery shells it needs to fill out its dwindling stockpile.
However, Putin also seems to have emerged from the deal with something that many were not expecting—North Korean troops on the ground in Ukraine.
On Wednesday, the Kyiv Post reported that Pyongyang had announced that it was sending “a military engineering unit” to Donetsk Oblast. Russia has controlled portions of this region since 2014, but this is also the area where it recently forced Ukrainian troops from the ruined town of Avdiivka after months of hard fighting. Russian forces partially occupied the village of Novooleksandrivka this week as they continue to press forward in this area. It’s unclear whether the North Korean unit would be deployed inside the long-occupied areas of Donetsk, or positioned closer to the front lines.
While the official line is that North Korean troops will help Russian forces rebuild some of the areas they destroyed through bombardment with heavy artillery and glide bombs, a U.S. Defense Department briefing on Tuesday offered a different possibility: Russia may use North Korean forces as “cannon fodder.”
At the briefing, Pentagon spokesperson Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder was asked about news of North Korean forces being deployed in Ukraine.
Gen. Ryder: So, just to clarify, you’re asking what do I think about Russia assigning North Korean forces to the battlefield in Ukraine?
Q: North Korean Army.
Gen. Ryder: Yeah, sending North—yeah, I mean, that’s certainly something to keep an eye on. I think that if I were North Korean military personnel management, I would be questioning my choices on sending my forces to be cannon fodder in an illegal war against Ukraine. And we’ve seen the kinds of casualties that Russian forces–so–but again, something that we’ll keep an eye on.
Russian casualties continue to be massive; As The New York Times reports, Russia is still practicing its human “wave” attacks, and the result is an average of over 1,000 Russian soldiers killed each day. “It is a style of warfare that Russian soldiers have likened to being put into a meat grinder, with commanding officers seemingly oblivious to the fact that they are sending infantry soldiers to die.”
There’s nothing new about this kind of assault. This is how Russia took Severodonetsk early in the war. It’s what finally drove Ukraine from Bakhmut just over a year ago. It’s how they have generated over 540,000 casualties.
Russia needs cannon fodder. Their tactics are completely reliant on cannon fodder. And that may be the one thing Kim can supply in abundance.
On paper, North Korea has the fourth largest military in the world. Nearly 5% of the entire population—1.3 million people–-are considered to be active military. Another 600,000 are in the reserves.
There’s a phrase that Sen. Joe Biden used to describe the North Korean military in 2006 that still applies today: “paper tiger.” North Korea is extraordinarily dangerous because of the artillery, bombs, and handful of nukes it could deliver in an opening salvo of any conflict across its southern border. But that first shot might also be its last. North Korea’s forces are ranked far behind those of South Korea. In addition to being impoverished, underequipped, and outdated, North Korea’s military shares some major weaknesses with Russia, like poor training and miserable skills at logistics.
But hey, when all Putin wants is someone to run forward and catch a bullet, North Korean fighters can do that as well as Russians.
North Korea’s move comes as there are increasing reports that, despite claims of recruiting tens of thousands each month, Russia is actually facing a new personnel shortage. That shortage may be generated in part because brutal tactics—including reports that Russia is sending wounded troops back to the front as part of their “meat waves” have generated ever larger factions unwilling to fight. [X post and images at the link.]
The North Koreans wouldn’t be alone. Ukrainian Pravda reports that Russian authorities have begun rounding up migrants and shipping them to the front lines. Over 10,000 have reportedly already been dispatched to Ukraine.
“We started implementing the provisions of the Constitution,” said Russian official Alexander Bastrikin, “and our laws under which the individuals who obtained Russian citizenship must be put on military record and, if needed, participate in the special military operation.”
Though precise numbers aren’t known, it currently doesn’t seem that Kim intends to hand over that many of his troops—probably not enough to see Putin through even a single day of losses. But if those trains from Pyongyang to Vladivostok start running more regularly, North Korean troops may do more than help clean up Moscow’s mess.
[…] 2023 was reportedly the closest North Korea has come to widespread famine since the 1990s, sending a good portion of that military off to Ukraine might even seem like a grand idea.
But the biggest immediate effect of the buddy act between Kim and Putin is how it is drawing South Korea closer to Ukraine. So far, Seoul has limited its support to humanitarian aid. However, South Korea is a growing exporter of weapons that are both inexpensive and reliable.
As with every step in this illegal invasion, Putin may have just signed up Russia for a bleaker, more isolated future with a new partner that’s a lot more trouble than he’s worth.
Though I hear Kim writes beautiful love letters.
————————-
There’s a tendency to lean into the idea of operations in Ukraine shutting down in the fall and spring “mud seasons,” but previous years have seen a big decline in activity over the summer. This time last year confirmed Russian losses of hardware each day were in single digits. The rate of losses in the summer of 2022, following Russia’s withdrawal from the area around Kyiv and before Ukraine launched its successful counterattack in Kharkiv, were not much higher.
But in 2024, the casualty rate for both men and equipment remains high right into summer. [chart of losses at the link]
The Ukrainian general staff has also been regularly reporting significant Russian losses in an area that had been relatively quiet in recent months: artillery [list of losses at the link]
I had previously speculated that decreased losses in the artillery category showed how Russia was becoming more dependent on glide bombs to do the work previously handled by aging D-30 howitzers. But now D-30s are back on the busted list and … I don’t know what it means.
The hardest fighting is still reported to be in the area north of Kharkiv and around Chasiv Yar.
Ukraine has successfully pushed Russian forces back from several towns and villages north of Kharkiv, including much of the highly battered Vovchansk. Troops on the ground report that Ukrainian forces are well positioned and that, after getting permission to use U.S. weapons across the Russian border, they’re doing well at Lyptsi, Starytsya, and other locations in the north.
Ukrainian forces also reportedly made an advance to the south, in the direction of Kreminna, pushing back Russian forces that occupied the area east of Terny. [map at the link]
However, for the past two weeks Russia has reportedly been digging in and building defensive fortifications on the Ukrainian side of the border in the north, attempting to hold onto a buffer that provides protection to air strips established near Belgorod. This could make it very difficult for Ukrainian troops to drive Russian forces completely back from their initial gains in the north.
[Note: Ukrainian open intelligence group DeepState UA was reporting that Ukraine had made some significant advances in the north, but details and maps were not available at the time this article was written.]
—————————
Financial Times reported on Thursday that the U.S. was working on a deal that would see up to eight Israeli Patriot batteries transferred to Ukraine. Not only would this be a big step in protecting Ukrainian cities from renewed Russian attacks on civilian infrastructure, it would represent a huge shift in relations between Israel and Moscow.
Some of the systems under consideration are reportedly armed with older missiles that are still effective but close to “aging out.”
————————-
[X post and video from Volodymyr Zelenskyy: Another new security agreement that will give Ukraine more strength.
In Brussels, Estonia’s Prime Minister @kajakallas and I signed an agreement on security cooperation and long-term support between our countries.
The agreement covers cooperation in the supply of arms and military equipment, training, activities within the IT Coalition and other Capability Coalitions, as well as in-depth defense industry cooperation.
I am grateful to Estonia for its unwavering support for Ukraine.]
“Hell is very silly,” my friend from Michigan said. “There’s nothing there really.”
Hell, Michigan, is one of those tourist traps where the journey is more thrilling than the actual location. And when you finally get there, all you do is use a functioning toilet and buy a kitschy bumper sticker. It’s a middle of nowhere town where good ol’ boys like to drive their oversized pick-up trucks like reckless assholes.
Hell has a gift shop with an ice cream counter, and a bar. [photos at the link]
The friendly woman behind the ice cream counter at the gift shop in Hell explained that this was the best job she’s ever had. She said she grew up in the area, and that this was just a side job.
“I do taxes,” she says with a hearty laugh. “Sometimes, at my other job, I answer the phone and almost say, ‘Welcome to Hell!'”
A handful of aging bikers sipping domestic bottles out front explained that the bar has been there “forever.” The guy who owns the gift shop bought the bar some years back, fixed it up, and turned the whole place into a destination.
“I mean, this place was a dump,” a biker tells me. “You really didn’t want to use the bathroom. It was a biker bar, a dive. Now, the bathroom’s real nice, there’s pretty good food, and a bunch of different beer.”
As I sat down at the bar to once again ponder the rationale of a bar that requires you to drive to it, a waitress greeted the man next to me with a warm smile and shouted, “Hey, decided to come to Hell?”
He was a veteran, 11 Bravo, an infantryman, he explained. He joked that at bootcamp, whenever he told people he was from Hell, people would say, “Oh, that’s why you’re such a pain in the ass!”
A few drinks later, he explained that the Army never taught him how to do much beyond soldiering. So he went back home, back to Hell, and didn’t know what to do with himself.
About 15 minutes outside of Hell is Dexter, Michigan. According to the US Census Bureau, there’s only about 4,500 people in Dexter, and just over 1,700 families. It’s very much the type of Andy Griffith-Mayberry place where everyone knows everyone, and they’re all up in each other’s business, a local woman tells me.
Dexter was celebrating its bicentennial. A city councilman beamed that the town spent three years planning it, and that they couldn’t be more proud of the execution and turnout. There was free parking, a cover band, rides and games; local shops were filling their tills and an orchestra was playing classic and contemporary American standards, including that goddamn Lee Greenwood song Trump uses at every rally.
“Honey, you’re in Trump country,” the local woman explained. “You gotta be careful what you say, and who you say it to. These guys drivin’ around with the flags on their trucks and tractors? That’s Michigan Militia. You’re in their backyard.”
She grabbed my arm and leaned in to whisper, “You know everyone in town’s watching you, right?” [videos and more photos]
During the 2016 election, practically every political journalist was traveling around the United States looking for Trump supporters. The media was struggling to explain why anyone could support an openly racist carnival barker who hailed from the notorious and dastardly world of New York real estate. We kept asking ourselves: Who are these Americans flocking to shitty little airports in the middle of nowhere to suffer heatstroke on a sweltering tarmac in the dead of summer while waiting for “Trump Force One” to deliver a mediocre reality TV star who just screams in sentence fragments and hashtags?
[…] Overworked and road weary, reporters just wanted to get their three quote minimum so they could file a story and be done. Digging into census data, or speaking with what was left of a gutted local newsroom for context, was not in the budget. Reporters HAVE to meet deadlines. Whoever didn’t tell you to “fuck off” is who made it into the report because the whole song and dance would repeat the next day, sometimes at three or four different rallies in as many towns.
And when the vacuous human pencils sent from New York and Washington tried talking to folks in “fly-over country,” the reporters couldn’t understand why, “… and I’m with the New York Times” was worse than introducing yourself as Hester Pryne.
[…] It doesn’t matter what Trump is lying about because he was actually there, and dragging throngs of media with him. People feel seen and heard. Sure, Trump’s simple solution to complicated problems are nothing more than racist fearmongering and idiotic catchphrases, but these people don’t worry about that liberal media, egghead bullshit.
They’re thinking, “What’s the worst that could happen?”
General Juan José Zúñiga led armored vehicles to the doors of Bolivia’s government palace vowing to “restore democracy.” He now faces charges of terrorism and starting an armed uprising.
The Bolivian general accused of leading a failed coup was sent Saturday to a maximum-security prison as he faces charges of terrorism and starting an armed uprising.
“At some point the truth will be known,” a handcuffed Gen. Juan José Zúñiga told journalists as he was escorted by two guards to the vehicle that will take him to the Chonchocoro maximum-security prison on the outskirts of La Paz.
“The rest are innocent. The are innocent people,” he added. Two other former military chiefs, including former navy Vice Adm. Juan Arnez Salvador, were also taken to the same prison.
Zúñiga, who was arrested Wednesday after the rebellion, said before being taken into custody, without providing evidence, that President Luis Arce ordered him to carry out the rebellion — something that the Bolivian leader and his government have vigorously denied.
[…] Authorities have arrested 21 people, including Zúñiga, who were in custody in police facilities in La Paz. All of them face charges of armed uprising and terrorism.
Fourteen of the detainees appeared on Saturday before a judge. […]
Hurricane warnings have been issued for Barbados, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Grenada and Tobago, according to the National Hurricane Center.
[…] Beryl strengthened into a category 4 Sunday afternoon and is expected to continue to strengthening as it travels west across the Atlantic.
Its center is expected to move across the Windward Islands early Monday […]
About 15 million pounds of aid is on the beach waiting to be distributed, officials say. The U.N. suspended distribution amid security concerns.
[…] The U.S. military has continued to deliver aid to the beach in Gaza via its floating dock and temporary pier, known as the JLOTS system, but the aid has piled up for weeks because the U.N. suspended distribution amid security concerns.
There are now an estimated 15 million pounds of aid on the shore, officials say, awaiting movement to nearby warehouses.
“The current environment here is complex and more challenging than anything I’ve seen,” said Doug Stropes, chief of the USAID’s Bureau of Humanitarian Assistance. “There is a tremendous challenge right now with trucks that are being looted.”
Friday’s distribution followed a successful test run, according to the U.S. officials. The U.S. military monitored the movement of the goods to make sure they were secure.
“There was a plan, then a test, and the test was successful,” a U.S. official said. U.S. officials are hopeful the aid distribution can continue, but said they will take that day by day.
[…] The JLOTS system itself was taken offline on Friday and towed back to port in Ashdod, Israel, as the sea became rough enough to damage the temporary pier.
NBC News also reported Thursday that the system was likely to be taken offline this weekend because of rising sea states. This is the fourth time it has been moved because of weather concerns or damage to the pier since the system became operational on May 17.
U.S. officials have also been discussing a possible alternative route for aid delivery, two defense officials said. Future deliveries could go via a fixed pier in Ashdod, about 20 miles above the Gaza Strip’s northern border, instead of the JLOTS system.
If the new route is approved, aid would go to Cyprus to be scanned by Cypriot and Israeli officials, with the help of a U.S. military scanner called a T25, the defense officials said. Once checked and cleared, officials would spray paint each pallet and load it on U.S. military ships to transit to Ashdod. The aid would be moved immediately to a crossing into Gaza without further screening.
Photos and video at the link.
birgerjohanssonsays
KG # 310
I am aware of the shortcomings of the podcaster doing “A Different Bias” He is against Corbin and the left, and has no problem with the purging and blatantly unfair treatment of those who don’t think the sun shines out of Keir Starmer’s backside.
I know that.
The thing is, Starmer is pretty much the British Joe Biden. The only current option.
.
And ‘A Different Bias’ provides accurate detailed coverage of the British polls (he knows statistics which.makes him far more competent than most media pundits).
Although he is an unapologetic Starmerite his predictions about tory mishandling the last five years have been mostly spot on. The times he has been off is usually when the tories were even more insane than predicted!
.
And my non-paywall sources in Britain are much more limited than for USA. The Guardian is mostly good, but gives the Nasty Party the benefit of doubt.
So if you live in Scandinavia and want to keep up with conditions in Old Blighty you have to make do with the sources, but be aware of their shortcomings and biases.
I can only hope Brexitstan finally introduces a modern voting system. This will 1: bury the tories, and
2: create the possibility for smaller parties to get a proportional vote. This will give Starmer et al less of a hegemony of the left.
Private sector workers gutted it out in 2023. Their overall compensation rose 4.1%, according to data reported last week by The Associated Press—just enough to keep pace with inflation after getting pounded by rising costs the year before.
Corporate executives, on the other hand, had a field day. The study, a collaboration between the AP and the research firm Equilar, found that median total compensation among S&P 500 CEOs in 2023 rose 12.6%, more than three times the rate of inflation and their workers’ increases.
Leading the way were Silicon Valley tech and entertainment giants. Broadcom Inc. CEO Hock E. Tan topped the list, with a pay package valued at about $162 million. William J. Lansing, CEO of Fair Isaac Corp. (better known as FICO), took in $66.3 million, while Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos’ pay package was $49.8 million.
Apple CEO Tim Cook’s total compensation was $63.2 million—yet it represented a 36% decline from 2022, in part because Cook’s deal that year was loudly criticized by some Apple shareholders.
The median pay package for the CEOs last year was $16.3 million, according to the study assembled by Equilar. At half of the companies surveyed, a worker at the mid-level pay scale would need almost 200 years to earn what the CEO made in a year.
Jarring as that is, this dynamic is not new. The pay gap between corporate top executives and the workforces that design, create, produce, and deliver their products has been diverging wildly for decades, economists said.
Top executives have always made multiples of what the average private sector worker received, but recent years have kicked that into hyperdrive. Research by the Washington, D.C.-based Economic Policy Institute showed that between 1978 and 2021, CEOs at the top 350 public firms in the U.S. saw their average compensation package grow by 1,460%, adjusted for inflation. For comparison, the S&P stock market grew by 1,063% in that time; the top 0.1% of U.S. earners’ growth was a healthy 385%, and a typical U.S. worker’s wages rose 18.1%.
Study after study has shown that large companies’ performance, including stock price, bore almost no relation to how much the companies paid their CEOs, said Josh Bivens, the EPI’s chief economist.
[…] The wild payouts have corrosive effects. Among other things, the vast majority of CEO megadeals consisted largely of stock awards, either current or future. It is increasingly common for companies to goose their stock prices by using profits to buy back their own shares, leaving fewer publicly available shares and artificially increasing their value—a CEO-led decision that, while legal, directly benefits the CEO.
The extra tens of millions of dollars spent on executives also represented money that could have been distributed elsewhere, including to workers themselves, but wasn’t. […]
Top executive pay continues to skyrocket, but companies generally don’t perform any better, not even for their shareholders. That is one slick deal for the people at the top. But is there a way to curb such pay?
[…] Many economists have also argued that when the U.S. had higher rates of unionization, such public ire was more frequent and more focused because unions were good at raising the issue during labor negotiations. The decline of unions has meant less attention paid to CEO deals.
Recently, shareholders have become more vocal about their opposition to galactic CEO payouts, though their effect is muted because they don’t have the final say. Boards of directors, not shareholders, set CEO pay—and, as Bivens pointed out, CEOs largely handpick board members.
But the tide may be turning. Cook’s lower pay package at Apple for 2023, while still staggering, came about in part because 36% of the company’s shareholders voted against his nearly $100 million deal the year before. The shareholders’ votes didn’t count when the board finally met and approved Cook’s payout because they are considered advisory only—but it’s clear they were heard. Cook himself asked for a reduction in compensation for 2023.
Others, including Live Nation shareholders last year, are following suit, even in nonbinding votes. Perhaps they are becoming aware of the truth. “Speaking generally, you just do not buy higher returns by paying your CEO more money,” Bivens said.
Toxic PFAS absorbed through skin at levels higher than previously thought
Though modeling and research has suggested the dangerous chemicals are absorbed through skin, University of Birmingham researchers say they used lab-grown tissue that mimics human skin to determine how much of a dose of PFAS compounds can be absorbed.
The paper shows “uptake through the skin could be a significant source of exposure to these harmful chemicals”, said lead author Oddný Ragnarsdóttir.
PFAS are a class of about 16,000 compounds used to make products resistant to water, stains and heat. They are called “forever chemicals” because they do not naturally break down and have been found to accumulate in humans. The chemicals are linked to cancer, birth defects, liver disease, thyroid disease, plummeting sperm counts and a range of other serious health problems.
[…]
PFOA is a relatively larger compound, and smaller “short-chain” PFAS that industry now more commonly produces and claims are safer were absorbed at higher levels – up to nearly 60% of one short chain compound dose was absorbed by the skin.
“This is important because we see a shift in industry towards chemicals with shorter chain lengths because these are believed to be less toxic – however the trade-off might be that we absorb more of them, so we need to know more about the risks involved,” said study co-author Stuart Harrad.
The man’s torso and visible arm show a swath of pucker-patterned skin. He looks half-aquatic, like a member of some superhero universe. […] Pétur Oddsson, is a power station worker. In 2020, he endured a 60,000-volt electrical shock; it left almost half his body covered in deep thermal burns that charred layers of his skin off. Such deep and extensive burns can be fatal—skin damaged in this way can’t make new cells to regenerate, and infections can easily set in. But Oddsson’s life was spared by an ingenious invention: grafted cod skin—7,000 square centimeters of it. The procedure adorned Oddsson’s upper body with the permanent, distinct imprint of scales.
[…]
The skin grafts are just one of a slew of products—including Omega-3 capsules, cold virus pretreatment sprays, and dog snacks—made from what was once Iceland’s cod catch detritus. […] Icelanders have unlocked uses for almost 95 percent of a cod—a pretty recent jump forward. In 2003, people only knew what to do with about 40 percent of the fish.
whheydtsays
Re: CompulsoryAvccount7746 @ #330…
They could probably make garum out of the remaining 5%. Not sure how big the market for it is, though.
John Moralessays
whheydt, ahem.
Heard of Worcestershire sauce?
(Also, fish sauce is ubiquitous in certain parts of Asia)
Shortly after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine it was revealed that the Russian Mercenary Group WAGNER were recruiting soldiers directly from Russian Prisons and prior to his death Wagner’s leader claimed that they had recruited over 50,000 prisoners. It has now been revealed that Russia has also been recruiting directly from prisons into its STORM Z and STORM V units. The latest figures for Russian Prisons show that prisoner numbers are falling sharply which is in direct contrast to the majority of other countries around the world. In this video I provide more details on this topic, look at the implications for Russia and ask the question Is Russia Running Out of Prisoners?
Chapters:
0:00 Intro
2:29 GLOBAL PRISON STATS
6:16 COUNTRY PRISON STATS
10:16 RUSSIAN PRISONS
12:56 WAGNER
17:38 STORM Z
22:13 STORM V
24:18 SUMMARY & CONCLUSION
John Moralessays
Gotta love the democratisation of journalism in this, the third decade of C21.
So young, he looks; so well produced, it is!
But earnest and admirable. Great English, too.
In this video we take a look at the now over four years old closed ecosystem that is always illuminated and therefore never sees darkness. The constantly lit ecosphere is now a year old, and in this update we take a look at how the ecosystem in the jar has developed so far and how it’s doing now. We also talk about the effect constant light and the absence of darkness has on the animals, algae and ecosystem as a whole.
The thing is, Starmer is pretty much the British Joe Biden. The only current option.
This is misleading because we already know Starmer is going to be PM in less than a week – despite the pretences by both the Labour and Tory parties that this is not the case (both have to pretend this in order to motivate those who might vote for them, but might not). Show me a psephologist (independent of party) who considers anything other than a clear Labour majority a real possibility. The concern of the left should have shifted months ago to how to pressure a Starmer government to limit their obeisance to the rich and the corporate elite, and actually take some worthwhile actions, on environmental and social justice issues, because it’s been obvious for that long that the Tories are toast as far as this election is concerned.
I can only hope Brexitstan finally introduces a modern voting system.
We can be absolutely sure it won’t as long as it’s up to Starmer.
“Wow. This is apparently what was supposed to be a STATIC FIRE TEST today of a Tianlong-3 first stage by China’s Space Pioneer. That’s catastrophic, not static. Firm was targeting an orbital launch in the coming months.”
The Supreme Court on Monday extended the delay in the Washington criminal case against Donald Trump on charges he plotted to overturn his 2020 presidential election loss, all but ending prospects the former president could be tried before the November election.
In a historic 6-3 ruling, the justices said for the first time that former presidents have absolute immunity from prosecution for their official acts and no immunity for unofficial acts. But rather than do it themselves, the justices ordered lower courts to figure out precisely how to apply the decision to Trump’s case.
The outcome means additional delay before Trump could face trial in the case brought by special counsel Jack Smith.
The court’s decision in a second major Trump case this term, along with its ruling rejecting efforts to bar him from the ballot because of his actions following the 2020 election, underscores the direct and possibly uncomfortable role the justices are playing in the November election.
The ruling was the last of the term and it came more than two months after the court heard arguments, far slower than in other epic high court cases involving the presidency, including the Watergate tapes case.
The Republican former president has denied doing anything wrong and has said this prosecution and three others are politically motivated to try to keep him from returning to the White House.
In May, Trump became the first former president to be convicted of a felony, in a New York court. He was found guilty of falsifying business records to cover up a hush money payment made during the 2016 presidential election to a porn actor who says she had sex with him, which he denies. He still faces three other indictments.
Smith is leading the two federal probes of the former president, both of which have led to criminal charges. The Washington case focuses on Trump’s alleged efforts to overturn the 2020 election after he lost to Democrat Joe Biden. The case in Florida revolves around the mishandling of classified documents. The other case, in Georgia, also turns on Trump’s actions after his defeat in 2020.
If Trump’s Washington trial does not take place before the 2024 election and he is not given another four years in the White House, he presumably would stand trial soon thereafter.
But if he wins, he could appoint an attorney general who would seek the dismissal of this case and the other federal prosecution he faces. He could also attempt to pardon himself if he reclaims the White House. He could not pardon himself for the conviction in state court in New York.
The Supreme Court that heard the case included three justices appointed by Trump — Amy Coney Barrett, Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh — and two justices who opted not to step aside after questions were raised about their impartiality.
Justice Clarence Thomas’ wife, Ginni, attended the rally near the White House where Trump spoke on Jan. 6, 2021, though she did not go the Capitol when a mob of Trump supporters attacked it soon after. Following the 2020 election, she called it a “heist” and exchanged messages with then-White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, urging him to stand firm with Trump as he falsely claimed that there was widespread election fraud.
Justice Samuel Alito said there was no reason for him to step aside from the cases following reports by The New York Times that flags similar to those carried by the Jan. 6 rioters flew above his homes in Virginia and on the New Jersey shore. His wife, Martha-Ann Alito, was responsible for flying both the inverted American flag in January 2021 and the “Appeal to Heaven” banner in the summer of 2023, he said in letters to Democratic lawmakers responding to their recusal demands.
Trump’s trial had been scheduled to begin March 4, but that was before he sought court-sanctioned delays and a full review of the issue by the nation’s highest court.
Before the Supreme Court got involved, a trial judge and a three-judge appellate panel had ruled unanimously that Trump can be prosecuted for actions undertaken while in the White House and in the run-up to Jan. 6.
“For the purpose of this criminal case, former President Trump has become citizen Trump, with all of the defenses of any other criminal defendant,” the appeals court wrote in February. “But any executive immunity that may have protected him while he served as President no longer protects him against this prosecution.”
U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan, who would preside over the trial in Washington, ruled against Trump’s immunity claim in December. In her ruling, Chutkan said the office of the president “does not confer a lifelong ‘get-out-of-jail-free’ pass.”
“Former Presidents enjoy no special conditions on their federal criminal liability,” Chutkan wrote. “Defendant may be subject to federal investigation, indictment, prosecution, conviction, and punishment for any criminal acts undertaken while in office.”
Posted by readers of the article quoted in comment 339:
Absolute immunity for official acts would allow Trump, if elected, to round up millions of people. The guise of cracking down on immigrants without documentation could be used to round up pretty much everyone and that would be ok with the Supreme Court.
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People are totally missing the court just said that President can do anything they want and then direct their AG to not do anything about it. And if the AG speaks up, the conversation can’t be used for evidence in any prosecution. So it is essentially the opening for a President to do whatever they want…demand bribes, assassinate people, fire civil servants, break campaign finance laws..anything.
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It sounds like the court says the lower courts have to prove that what trump did AFTER he lost the election trying to steal it back, was one of his official acts. But can’t use any evidence against him. What the ever love F!
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Per this decision, President Biden would have presumptive immunity if he officially declared a national emergency created by the judicial coup by the Federalist majority of the Extreme Court assault on democracy, and locked up the perpetrators.
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If Biden ”believes” that a current presidential candidate is intentionally undermining the United States, he could ask his Attorney General to take actions against the candidate. Why not throw Trump in jail to prove just how easily this could be abused. If anyone complains, they will need to bring it up with congress.
This is essentially what Trump is arguing with Jan 6. He believed vote fraud occurred, he took actions based off of beliefs.
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And “presumptive immunity” equals absolute immunity per the ruling. I don’t even think they covered acts leading to impeachment and removal from office, which the Constitution seems to imply should be prosecutable.
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the Jan 6 events were NOT official acts. A lower court now has to waste time to determine that and that decision can be appealed.
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The Circuit Court said “no immunity.” The Supreme Court says “maybe immunity, but we won’t tell you what our answer on THAT is in the current case, even though all of the facts were presented to us. So any judgment that the president is NOT immune can be appealed all the way up to the supreme court a second time, and we’ll send it back, and if we leave any vagueness in it, it can be appealed all the way up to the supreme court a third time.” It seems to me that it’s a get-out-of-jail-for-the-duration-of-your-natural-life card. I’m not a legal expert, so let’s see if that’s how it functions. The three dissenters seem to think it was a terrible decision.
———————- You have been mislead by the supposed bottom line which is for a lower court to determine what is official and not official. But Roberts did so much more — he created a huge presumption of acts being official, he forbids the use of any presumptively official act as evidence, he has forbidden any inquire into motives. Combine all this together and the Court has given Trump permission to use Seal Team 6 to assassinate rivals with immunity. […] They have created a King who basically can do anything he wants including murder if it is somehow tied to the workings of the government. The breadth of what Roberts said is staggering and Democracy died today. […]
————————————- Justice Sonia Sotomayor did not hold back in her dissent.
“Let the President violate the law, let him exploit the trappings of his office for personal gain, let him use his official power for evil ends. Because if he knew that he may one day face liability for breaking the law, he might not be as bold and fearless as we would like him to be. That is the majority’s message today. Even if these nightmare scenarios never play out, and I pray they never do, the damage has been done. The relationship between the President and the people he serves has shifted irrevocably. In every use of official power, the President is now a king above the law.”
“Orders the Navy’s Seal Team 6 to assassinate a political rival? Immune. Organizes a military coup to hold onto power? Immune. Takes a bribe in exchange for a pardon? Immune. Immune, immune, immune.”
The justice did not end the dissent with the traditional “respectfully” language.
“With fear for our democracy, I dissent,” Sotomayor wrote.
[…] Trump is celebrating the Supreme Court’s decision Monday that ruled former presidents have broad immunity from criminal prosecution.
“BIG WIN FOR OUR CONSTITUTION AND DEMOCRACY. PROUD TO BE AN AMERICAN!” Trump wrote on Truth Social minutes after the decision was released.
The Supreme Court delivered a major win to the former president, sending the federal case connected to his efforts to overturn the 2020 election back to a lower court to determine whether his actions meet the qualifications for immunity protection.
Trump and his legal team have argued that he should be immune from criminal prosecution related to actions he took while in office. In a 6-3 ruling along ideological lines, the high court ruled Trump has wide immunity when it comes to official acts he took in office.
“At least with respect to the president’s exercise of his core constitutional powers, this immunity must be absolute. As for his remaining official actions, he is entitled to at least presumptive immunity,” Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in his majority opinion.
The opinion noted later on that there is “no immunity for unofficial acts.”
This decision will send the federal election interference case back to district court, where proceedings have been paused while the Supreme Court weighed Trump’s immunity claims. Judge Tanya Chutkan, who is overseeing the case, will now need to rule on the matter for the second time, as well as other arguments by Trump to toss the case.
…is the crazy new evidentiary standard that prosecutors can’t even use conversations related to official acts to prove intent in the prosecutable non-offical ones. As Sotomayor satarizes:
“Imagine a President states in an official speech that he intends to stop a political rival from passing legislation that he opposes, no matter what it takes to do so (official act). He then hires a private hitman to murder that political rival (unofficial act). Under the majority’s rule, the murder indictment could include no allegation of the President’s public admission of premeditated intent to support the mens rea of murder. That is a strange result, to say the least.”
It’ll also make Smith’s job in proving the case with the small slice of conduct still available to him after all of this much more difficult.
“Trump asserts a far broader immunity than the limited one the Court recognizes,” i.e parts of case can still be brought but sharply limited and no way it can be worked out in 2024
Following the first presidential debate of 2024, the editorial board of a major American newspaper called on one of the two candidates to drop out of the race.
“There was only one person at the debate who does not deserve to be running for president,” The Philadelphia Inquirer wrote. “The sooner Trump exits the stage, the better off the country will be.”
Unfortunately, the Inquirer seems to be the only major media outlet to recognize that, while President Joe Biden had a “disaster” of an evening, Donald Trump delivered a “litany of lies, hyperbole, bigotry, ignorance, and fear mongering” that showed he was unfit for office.
That Inquirer editorial was a nice moment of relief from a long weekend in which many editorial boards and political pundits shared their wisdom about how Biden should drop out of the race. Those editorials were full of expressions of sadness over the supposed end of a long career of public service. They were full of hand-wringing and pearl-clutching in defense of democracy or the nation.
But mostly they seemed like a toxic mix of hubris and a dark desire for chaos.
On Friday, The New York Times editorial board called on Biden to “serve his country” by dropping his reelection bid. That editorial begins by saying that Biden is correct in identifying Trump as “a significant jeopardy” to American democracy and runs through a list of some of Trump’s past misdeeds as well as how a second term would allow Trump to “carry out the most extreme of his promises and threats.” But it’s Biden the Times asks to withdraw.
The next day, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution followed suit, writing, “Biden should withdraw from the race, for the good of the nation he has served so admirably for half a century.”
From there it seemed like a pile-on. At The New Yorker, editor David Remnick declared Biden’s continued candidacy “a national endangerment.” On CBS’ “Sunday Morning,” John Dickerson was willing to admit that Trump had “delusions” and “a mind that prefers fiction to inconvenient facts.” Still, he said it is Biden who needs to “look in the mirror” and decide whether he would be “the agent or the impediment” to keeping Trump from office.
Many pundits seemed to have some thoughts on Biden’s “ego.” Others were happy to bask in earlier predictions that Biden’s age would be the dominant issue of the cycle. Others were content to wax lyrical about Biden’s need to step aside for “the sake of democracy.”
The New York Times may have struck first and garnered the most well-deserved hate, but it was actually The Washington Post that walked away from the weekend with the Most Pearls Clutched Award.
First, the Post featured Steve Bannon doing his best imitation of Brer Rabbit as he explained that Biden withdrawing would be so very bad for Trump. According to Bannon, Trump was going to rue the day he forced Biden to withdraw.
“You’re going to take out a guy you know you can beat and beat badly,” Bannon said, “and we’re going to have a wild card.” So please don’t throw Trump into that briar patch.
Then the Post hit a ridiculous peak in calling on Biden to do the popular thing—like Lyndon Johnson.
“Johnson surprised the nation by taking himself out of the 1968 campaign,” wrote deputy opinion editor David Von Drehle. “Johnson’s decision to honor the public mood and take himself off the ballot was hugely popular. Far from sending the system into chaos, it gave Americans an event to applaud and a leader to approve of.”
And then it gave the nation Richard Nixon, Watergate, and a cycle of political instability that created much of the divisive politics that exist today. Hardly the moment of history anyone would want to repeat. And Von Drehle seems to be ignoring the fact that Johnson’s action came after the first presidential primary, meaning that voters had a means of choosing his successor. Even had Biden wanted to imitate LBJ, the time for that is long past.
Nearly all of these voices calling on Biden to get out of the way for the sake of the country or democracy acknowledge that Trump is far worse. But the Inquirer editorial may be alone in suggesting Trump is the one who should withdraw from the race.
Maybe that’s because no one believes Trump would respond to any plea, no matter how strident or universal. Maybe it’s an acknowledgment that there is no “sensible center” of the Republican Party remaining to pressure Trump the way Barry Goldwater and John Rhodes laid it out for Nixon.
Maybe it’s because the narrative of a good man enacting enormous self-sacrifice for the sake of his nation simply appeals to their English major hearts.
It’s not that Biden’s performance wasn’t painful. It’s not even that whether he can or should continue as the Democratic candidate isn’t a valid topic for discussion.
It’s that the same media that published a flood of articles in 2016 declaring Democrats were panicking because the 69-year-old Hillary Clinton had a cough may not be the most trusted source of advice to the president.
When it comes to reports of panic behind the scenes following the debate, there’s no doubt that some Democratic advisers and operatives are hysterical, just as they were during “cough-gazi.” It’s not difficult to find people upset over any statement or event. If you go looking for panic among political insiders, you can always find it.
Pundits and editorial boards are paid to have opinions. They certainly have them. And they have barrels full of ink and pixels to make sure their opinions are heard.
But it’s astonishing how little thought they give to using that platform in ways that might actually save America—joining their voices to report the truth about Trump, highlighting his lies, and focusing on the danger he represents, without somehow turning his inadequacies into Biden’s responsibility.
birgerjohanssonsays
Another reason for western Australia to be independent- even the rocks in the east are vulgar newcomers!
On May 19, 1977, millions of Americans tuned in to watch an installment of David Frost’s multipart interview with former President Richard Nixon. This was nearly three years after the Republican was forced to resign in disgrace, and public interest in Nixon and the Watergate scandal remained high.
Viewers to the third part of the Frost/Nixon Q&A saw the former president deliver one of the most memorable political claims of the generation: “When the president does it, that means it is not illegal.”
For nearly a half-century, Nixon’s claim has stood as a classic example of political and legal radicalism. In the United States, no one is above the law, and the idea that a president’s official actions, by definition, are legal — even when they’re not — represented obvious madness.
Indeed, it’s not as if there was a spirited public conversation in 1977 about whether or not Nixon was correct. He plainly was not. The former president’s assertion, nearly five decades later, still seems shocking, dangerous, and in a rather literal sense, un-American.
Alas, Republican Supreme Court justices have come to the conclusion that Nixon was onto to something. In a 6-3 ruling in Trump v. U.S. — an oddly fitting case name, given the circumstances — the high court’s dominant far-right majority concluded that some of Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn his 2020 defeat are immune from criminal prosecution. As my MSNBC colleague Jordan Rubin explained:
In the majority opinion by Chief Justice John Roberts, the court said former presidents are entitled to “absolute immunity” from criminal prosecution for actions within their conclusive and preclusive constitutional authority. Former presidents, Roberts wrote, are entitled to at least presumptive immunity from prosecution for all their official acts. There is no immunity for unofficial acts, the court said.
It’s notable that the court’s GOP-appointed members chose to issue the decision the same week as the Fourth of July holiday — an occasion in which Americans have traditionally celebrated the time when we forcefully rejected the idea that we would be ruled by an accountable king.
[…] To put it mildly, few saw this coming. In fact, it was widely assumed that Trump would lose the case, but the defeat would be inconsequential because the Supreme Court ran out the clock, ensuring that the presumptive GOP nominee’s case wouldn’t go trial before Election Day 2024. This, many observers assumed, was the real scandal.
[…] it was easy to argue that the litigation was hardly a real case to begin with. Trump’s lawyers, desperate to delay the legal proceedings, appeared to concoct a bizarre legal claim as a transparent stalling tactic.
To the extent that this ever was a legitimate question, it was answered emphatically by the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, which issued a unanimous ruling in February.
“It would be a striking paradox if the president, who alone is vested with the constitutional duty to take care that the laws be faithfully executed, were the sole officer capable of defying those laws with impunity,” the judges concluded, adding, “We cannot accept that the office of the presidency places its former occupants above the law for all time thereafter.”
The D.C. Circuit went on to describe Trump’s position as “irrational,” adding that under the Republican’s preferred approach, presidents would be “free to commit all manner of crimes with impunity.”
As hard as it is to believe, six sitting justices [on the Supreme Court] disagreed.
[…] Donald Trump — a man who has repeatedly raised the prospect of creating a temporary American “dictatorship,” and who has talked about “terminating” parts of the U.S. Constitution that stand in the way of his ambitions — learned today that he enjoys at least some immunity from prosecution, no matter how obvious his alleged crimes might be.
[…] the Biden campaign unveiled a new 60-second ad this morning, which featured footage from the event, followed by an excerpt from the Democratic incumbent’s remarks in North Carolina a day later.
Small detail: President Joe Biden arrived at the debate with a summer tan (you can see that tan in his appearances the next day). Someone in the debate prep area applied makeup that made him look pale. That, and the fact that he was sick, exacerbated his stumbles and stuttering.
Bits and pieces of campaign news, as summarized by Steve Benen:
NBC News reports that Republican operatives are collecting signatures on behalf of left-wing presidential candidate Cornel West in Arizona. The hope, obviously, is to use West’s candidacy to help divide GOP opponents and swing the state back to Trump.
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Last week, a barbershop in Atlanta hosted a roundtable discussion for the Trump campaign. Now, the owner of that shop is saying he feels “betrayed” by the Republicans who organized it, insisting that he didn’t realize it’d be a campaign event. [Summarized from a New York Times article.]
————————
On a related note, Trump sparked a controversy on Thursday night with a reference to immigrants taking “Black jobs.” The former president doubled-down on the rhetoric soon after, despite the fact that no one seems to know what a “Black job” is.
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Late last week, the secretary of state’s office in Nevada certified petition signatures and confirmed that an abortion-rights measure will appear on the statewide ballot in the fall.
If the Roberts’ Court is right about the Constitution, it’s hard to imagine what the authors of the Constitution had in mind when they proposed that a President could be guilty of “high crimes and misdemeanors.” Yes, that is in a non-criminal context wherein criminal penalties aren’t possible. [A reference to impeachment.]
But they clearly meant this to be inclusive of official acts. Indeed, it almost certainly is primarily about official acts. Yes, you can kind of thread a needle to maybe work your way out of this contradiction. But you don’t need much of an acquaintance with the period in which the Constitution was written to know that the people of the time would have found this decision [by the Supreme Court, on immunity] shocking. The mere words of the impeachment clause itself tell you that.
[…] This decision creates two classes of presidential immunity for official acts, one absolute, the second presumptive. This is much closer to total immunity than many seem to understand. It is precisely the President’s official actions, actions taken with official powers, that we’re most concerned about. We’re not worried that the President will steal a toaster. If a President beats their spouse that is an outrage and he or she should be held accountable to the full extent of the law. But that doesn’t threaten the state itself. It is precisely official acts which matter most with a President and where legal accountability is necessary because the Constitution gives Presidents such vast powers and their conferral is personal and will-based in nature. [True]
[…] Trying to remain in office after losing an election is very clearly not a legitimate presidential act or anything the Constitution provides sanction to do.
[…] I would argue that even though this is clearly not blanket or absolute immunity that it’s close enough that with good lawyering you’re all but there.
Barrett Tips Her Hand On Acts She Thinks Trump Can Be Prosecuted For
– Pressuring state officials: “The President has no authority over state legislatures or their leadership, so it is hard to see how prosecuting him for crimes committed when dealing with the Arizona House Speaker would unconstitutionally intrude on executive power”
– Fake elector scheme: “Take the President’s alleged attempt to organize alternative slates of electors. In my view, that conduct is private and therefore not entitled to protection”
Barrett still voted with the conservative majority.
Thomas Would Throw The Special Prosecutor Out With The Bathwater
He wrote to argue that the appointment of special prosecutors is unconstitutional — a finding which, obviously, would stop Smith’s prosecution altogether. He wrote alone though, suggesting a lack of buy-in from his peers (for now, at least — Thomas’ fringe opinions have a disconcerting recent habit of becoming much closer to the Court’s center).
Jackson: Committing Crimes During ‘Official Acts’ Is Actually More Concerning Than During ‘Unofficial Acts’
Though the Court will now always give some amount of immunity to the official ones.
“Quite to the contrary, it is when the President commits crimes using his unparalleled official powers that the risks of abuse and autocracy will be most dire,” she wrote.
birgerjohanssonsays
Britain. Yes, I know this guy is a Starmerite/Blairite but he knows ststistics and he knows how to interpret polls.
(Others may watch porn, I watch coverage of tories failing the election campaign while I laugh like an insane killer)
It will be another couple of days before the next “God Awful Movies” arrives at Youtube but here are Heath and Noah in their other podcast.
.
“Skepticrat 227 Debated Breath Edition”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=dFxxd4qFdgY
John Moralessays
I think A Different Bias is a quite good channel, though obviously strongly biased.
(it’s there in the title!)
I must have seen dozens of his videos regarding Brexit and its consequences over the last few years.
Strangling a partner during sex is widely perceived as normal especially among young people, with more than half of adults aged 35 and under reporting they have been strangled, many of them unaware of potentially serious health consequences.
It is a finding that has sexual violence experts so concerned that they launched the “Breathless” campaign and website on Tuesday to highlight that strangulation – often referred to as “choking” – is unsafe, and often occurs with no or inadequate communication or consent.
An Australian survey of 4,702 people aged from 18 to 35, published in the journal the Archives of Sexual Behavior on Tuesday, found 57% had been strangled during sex at least once, and 51% had strangled a partner at least once.
Bloody hell!
John Moralessays
Another good YouTuber, in my estimation, is Tom Nicholas. I do like his enthusiasm.
(And I’m pretty darn picky, I assure you)
Anyway, clickbaity titles are a thing (and very important to the income of YouTubers, I know!), but if one reads beyond the title and everything is explained, then I give that a conditional pass.
Needful things, alas.
A bit like the current trend of promotions being included within the content, actually.
I can live with it if they just use a chunk of it to spruik, and the moment I notice it’s on, I can just skip to the remainder of the substantive content.
Can’t blame them for earning a living, after all.
But I can have standards.
*Chapters*
00:00 Introduction
02:36 David Cameron’s Cuts Cuts Cuts
11:43 The Brexit Boys
22:53 Covid & Consequences
33:55 Keir Starmer, or, David Cameron Mk II
36:42 A Very Exciting Announcement!
*Blurb*
Britain kinda sucks now. Over the past 14 years, it’s become a poorer, nastier and far less hopeful place. As the country prepares to head to the polls in the 2024 general election, I thought I’d review exactly how we got here.
This is the story of how the British Conservative Party under David Cameron, Theresa May, Boris Johnson, Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak subjected the UK to a series of unhinged free-market experiments which ate away at the very foundations of British economic, social and political life.
This is the story of how Britain became a poor country.
—
So nice to have context instead of a naked link and a clickbait title, no?
Jeansays
John Morales @360;
And I’m pretty darn picky, I assure you
You don’t say…
So nice to have context instead of a naked link and a clickbait title, no?
However on this, I totally agree with you. (I won’t click on your link though because I’m not really interested in the subject and I like to check more video titles from the same youtube channel before clicking on a new one).
John Moralessays
Jean, ta.
I confess that, after the fact of your comment, I’m thinking I was kinda justifying (and) apologising for appearing mean to Birger and Stevor and (ahem) others.
(It is satisfying to think that I am getting through to some people)
John Moralessays
… and sharing.
(Like Birger and others)
John Moralessays
Ah well, might as well become personal.
Hey, Reginald, should you care to come back and resume your postings here, I promise to (try) to never ever upset you about them.
The political earthquake that France woke up to Monday was no less seismic because it may have been predictable. The far-right swept to victory in the first round of legislative elections after President Emmanuel Macron’s almighty gamble backfired.
Now the centrist leader and the country’s left, reeling from the historic results, were scrambling to thwart the National Rally (RN) in the decisive second round and prevent France’s first far-right government since the Nazi occupation in World War Two.
[…] Today’s decision almost certainly means there’s no limits to what a president can do. This is a fundamentally new principle and it’s a dangerous precedent.”
[…] For Biden, who hates attacking the Court, this is notable. He cited its attacking of voting and abortion rights.
[…] a potent brushstroke in the characterization of Trump as unbridled, dangerous, despotic.
[…] You need the wisdom to respect “limits” of the office of the presidency (you can see the split screen he’s developing).
As Biden wrapped up, he gave this take on his new status as president-king, wielder of power the Supreme Court thrust on him that his government did not ask for, but that is ripe to be abused.
“I know I will respect the limits of the presidential powers. I have for three and a half years. But any president including Donald Trump will now be free to ignore the law.”
[…] “So should the American people dissent,” he said.
Scroll down to view the video. The video is 4:53 minutes long.
Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts admonished liberal members of the court in his opinion that vastly expanded the idea of presidential immunity on Monday. The court’s three liberal members were only “fear mongering on the basis of extreme hypotheticals,” he wrote.
That finger-wag toward terrified, dissenting justices came only a few hours after Donald Trump signaled his desire for “televised military tribunals” that would try former Rep. Liz Cheney for treason.
In less than a week, the Supreme Court has issued a string of rulings that demolish the ability of the government to regulate safety, labor, and the environment. Effectively, they’ve made being homeless illegal and being a Trump insurrectionist perfectly fine. And now they’ve presented a vast expansion of presidential power that exceeds the greatest dreams of Richard Nixon.
Everything that the Supreme Court has done in these rulings paves the way for Trump and his allies’ Project 2025 to complete the purge of democracy that this court has already begun. And it all makes defeating Trump infinitely more important.
There was a time when Roberts was seen as a moderating voice on the Supreme Court, as someone who was concerned about the court being accused of partisanship, and who was willing to ally with the court’s more liberal elements to keep a new conservative majority under control. But the court-watchers who made such predictions could not have been more wrong.
Despite his odes to stare decisis, Roberts has consistently voted to overturn long-standing precedent. Since gaining the support of three Trump-appointed radicals, Roberts has become a reliable member of a series of 6-3 decisions that have redefined the traditional role of the three branches of government.
In the decision on presidential immunity, Roberts is trying to dismiss the dissents of the three remaining liberal judges as overblown, but if anything, they are a subdued response to this ruling.
The ruling extends absolute immunity to anything that falls within the “‘outer perimeter’ of the President’s official responsibilities, covering actions so long as they are ‘not manifestly or palpably beyond [his] authority,’” Roberts writes.
In determining whether an act is official, “courts may not inquire into the President’s motives.”
Also, courts can’t “deem an action unofficial merely because it allegedly violates a generally applicable law.”
If you’re having trouble seeing how anyone is permitted to question any action of the president under this ruling, you’re not the only one.
As Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson writes in her dissent, “Departing from the traditional model of individual accountability, the majority has concocted something entirely different: a Presidential accountability model that creates immunity—an exemption from criminal law—applicable only to the most powerful official in our Government.” She makes it clear that the court creates a “multilayered, multifaceted threshold” that would have to be cleared to charge a president under any circumstance, meaning that “no matter how well documented or heinous the criminal act might be,” it can still be dismissed.
And when it comes to the theoretical example that was raised during oral arguments, yes, “a hypothetical President who admits to having ordered the assassinations of his political rivals or critics” or who “indisputably instigates an unsuccessful coup” still has “a fair shot at getting immunity” for those actions.
[…] The damage this court has done, in just a matter of days, is inestimable, and those horrific decisions are stacked on top of years of increasingly nonsensical rulings, including the overturning of Roe v. Wade.
This is a highly partisan court whose primary interest is in enacting a radical MAGA agenda. It’s also a court that has repeatedly made clear that it holds itself above the law and has nothing but contempt for anyone trying to hold it accountable. Now it wants to extend that privilege to Trump.
This court must be tamed. But most of all, this court must be prevented from joining the man whose throne they have been preparing. This nation can’t survive this court and Donald Trump. […]
John Moralessays
In that mood, so… this will be mysterious to some, apparent to others.
A YouTube guilty pleasure: Kruggsmash playing and narrating Dwarf Fortress.
After the Biden administration took steps to raise the cost estimate of carbon emissions, Republican attorneys general filed suit and took their case to the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Louisiana.
There, they found Judge James Cain, tapped for the federal bench by Donald Trump, who predictably ruled in 2022 against the Democratic White House and its climate agenda.
A year later, the same Louisiana judge sided with oil companies in a closely watched case related offshore drilling leases in the Gulf of Mexico.
Now, Cain is again making headlines — and for similar reasons. The Washington Post reported that the conservative jurist blocked President Joe Biden’s pause on approving new facilities that export liquefied natural gas, “dealing another legal blow to the president’s ambitious climate agenda.”
In a decision issued late Monday, U.S. District Judge James D. Cain Jr. ruled in favor of Louisiana and 15 other Republican-led states that had challenged the move. The judge, who was appointed by Donald Trump, wrote that the pause “is completely without reason or logic and is perhaps the epiphany of ideocracy [sic].”
I’ll leave it to others to determine whether the conservative judge meant “epiphany” or “epitome.” Similarly, it’s not altogether clear in context whether Cain intended to use the word “ideocracy” — given its meaning, this seemed like a curious choice of words — or if he was trying to reference “Idiocracy.”
[…] Biden has had some important and impressive successes on combatting the climate crisis, but Republican-appointed judges haven’t exactly made his job easier.
On the contrary, Republican-appointed Supreme Court justices in 2022 curbed the Environmental Protection Agency’s options for limiting greenhouse gas emissions from existing power plants, and as the Post’s report added, those same far-right jurists issued a pair of decisions last week “that sharply curtailed the power of federal agencies to address climate change, air pollution and other pressing environmental problems.”
Earlier this year, meanwhile, U.S. District Judge James Wesley Hendrix of Texas, another Trump appointee, struck down a Biden administration climate policy that required states “to measure and set declining targets for greenhouse gas emissions from vehicles using the national highway system.”
The New York Times reported two years ago on “a coordinated, multiyear strategy by Republican attorneys general, conservative legal activists and their funders, several with ties to the oil and coal industries, to use the judicial system to rewrite environmental law, weakening the executive branch’s ability to tackle global warming.”
The article added, “Coming up through the federal courts are more climate cases, some featuring novel legal arguments, each carefully selected for its potential to block the government’s ability to regulate industries and businesses that produce greenhouse gases.”
Those plans appear to be advancing apace, which is great news for the oil and coal industries, and bad news for life on Earth.
[…] It was clear from the outset that Trump’s unlawful conduct was somehow beyond the imagination of the people most immediately responsible for protecting and preserving our constitutional framework and the legal system it undergirds.
That was deeply alarming, but it also felt fixable, with the consistent application of a more dextrous imagination coupled with clear-headed thinking, the relentless gathering of evidence, a sober assessment of the consequences of an auto-coup attempt, and an emotional appeal to the underlying principles imperiled by Trump’s conduct and further imperiled by the failure to hold him to account under the law for that conduct.
For a time, it was thrilling to watch the needle move as the public imagination broadened and deepened and officials of good faith began to come to grips with what had happened and what now needed to happen to preserve the rule of law. The work of the House Jan. 6 committee was pivotal in this regard. While the Justice Department moved quickly against the Jan. 6 rioters, it moved more slowly on other fronts; but it eventually brought to bear the full weight of its resources and professionalism to the enormous task of prosecuting a former president.
As the needle started to move on the Jan. 6 front, an astonishing new development further reinforced the growing consensus in official Washington that Trump’s lawlessness could no longer be ignored let alone excused. The mind-boggling revelation that Trump had squirreled away at Mar-a-Lago classified documents he had pilfered upon leaving the White House and the FBI search of his home to retrieve them demonstrated the extent of his criminality, the risk he posed not just to the rule of law but to national security, and the consequences of not holding him to account under the law.
Still, even with the needle moving during this period, it was becoming obvious that there was a fundamental failure at many levels of government to grapple with the political calendar and the fact that we were in a race against the clock. There is no justice in failing to hold to account in a timely fashion the man who illegally used the powers of the presidency to try to overturn the last election, especially when he is running again for the very same office, is the standard-bearer for his party, and remains a threat to democratic order and the peaceful transfer of future power.
At this point in our national narrative, holding Trump to account shifted to the province of the courts. Speed is not their forte, and usually for good reason. Still, it felt like an important milestone. […] Given how remote it seemed in the days immediately after Jan. 6 that such an accounting would ever happen, indictments in Washington, D.C., South Florida, Atlanta and to a lesser extent in New York City felt like a vindication of sorts for the rule of law and the ability of the justice system to rally to the historical moment.
I needn’t tell you what happened next. The wheels came off.
Sensing that we were losing the race against the clock, advocacy groups made a strategic decision to invoke the 14th Amendment’s Disqualification Clause against Trump to keep him off the ballot in key states. If it didn’t apply to Jan. 6 insurrection, when would or could it ever apply? In so doing, we got our first taste of how the Supreme Court — with its six-justice “conservative” majority, half of them appointed by Trump — viewed Jan. 6. It couldn’t bring itself to confront the reality of Jan. 6 at all. With a dyspeptic hand-wave, it rendered the clear language of the Constitution a nullity and foreshadowed where things were headed next.
Back in the real world, the work of holding Trump to account was proceeding unevenly. At one extreme, you had U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon corruptly mishandling the Mar-a-Lago trial after she had impermissibly intervened in the underlying investigation via a Hail Mary civil action by Trump. On the other hand, the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals had brought Cannon up short, and U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan and the DC Circuit Court of Appeals were making quick work of Trump’s absurd claims of absolute presidential immunity in the Jan. 6 case. Meanwhile, Trump would go to trial in the Manhattan hush money case and be convicted.
But the clock kept ticking. The Supreme Court had taken notice of it in the Disqualification Clause case, where it quickly ruled in Trump’s favor, but it was mostly indifferent to it in the immunity case. By taking the case initially, the court used up valuable pre-election time. By putting it on less than the fastest track for argument and decision, it chewed up even more time.
Oral arguments on immunity did not go great, but the range of possible outcomes on the immunity question still felt safely within the bounds of our constitutional structure and the rule of law. From the outside looking in, the greatest mischief the high court seemed to be engaged in was buying Trump enough time to push his Jan. 6 trial past the November election. It was egregious, unforgivable even, a sop to the man to whom they owed their majority. It was an abdication of the justices’ duty to the rule of law.
But it was only a taste of the historically bad decision still to come. [video of President Biden's remarks on the SCOTUS ruling]
At this point in the narrative, it feels necessary to orient the reader to the narrator. I’m not by nature or temperament a hair-on-fire personality type. I counsel calmness under pressure. I value clear-eyed assessments of difficult situations. I can find pleasure in puzzling though solutions to hard problems. I’m more inclined to take the long view and try to prevail through perseverance. What I am about to say is uncomfortable, painful even.
Yesterday’s immunity decision by the Supreme Court took a sledgehammer to the constitutional foundation of American democracy and eviscerated the rule of law. It will, in my view, go down in the annals of wretched Supreme Court decisions alongside Dred Scott, Plessy v. Ferguson, and Korematsu. It makes Bush v. Gore look like a piker.
Three days ahead of the 248th anniversary of the American colonists formally shucking off monarchial rule in revolutionary style in Philadelphia, the Supreme Court gilded the U.S. presidency with monarchial powers the likes of which we’ve never had before, never sought, and thought we had rid ourselves of two and half centuries ago.
The American presidency now exists outside of the law and beyond the reach of the criminal law. In the Supreme Court’s view, the President is the law. This is new, it’s unprecedented, and the consequences are almost beyond our ability to imagine or foretell.
The rule of law, as the saying goes, must exist for everyone; otherwise, it exists for no one. […]
It is a shock to the system that is going to take a long time to come to grips with and decades or longer to remedy. […] There is no immediate recourse against it or against the new and alien structure it has foisted upon us. Short of a new constitutional convention or a series of constitutional amendments, we are stuck with it. That is going to take time to settle into elite consciousness.
The conceit that I began this monologue with — that vigilant watchdogs applying steady public pressure could rally those in authority to uphold the rule of law even in the extreme situation of a failed auto-coup — collapsed upon itself yesterday. What began as an effort to validate the rule of law ended up being the grim task of bearing witness to its demise.
As a former lawyer, I can tell you we are outside of the legal realm now. This is no longer the work of lawyers or judges. […] My friend Dahlia Lithwick, a relentless defender of the rule of law, recognized yesterday’s seismic shift. “As an official representative of the legal commentariat I want to suggest that tonight’s a good news cycle to talk to the fascism and authoritarianism experts. This is their inning now …”
[…] The door is now wide open to the kinds of fascism and authoritarianism we spent much of the 20th century and hundreds of thousands of American lives combatting overseas. Many of you will be skeptical of this. I will take no joy in being right about this. You can wait and see, but don’t wait too long. It may already be too late.
Prosecutors from the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office agreed on Tuesday with a request from former President Donald Trump to postpone his criminal sentencing. Trump’s lawyers requested Monday that the judge entertain arguments that the Supreme Court ruling on presidential immunity might have bearing on his conviction.
Sentencing is scheduled for Thursday, July 11, 2024. The final decision on whether to postpone it lies with Judge Juan Merchan.
“Although we believe defendant’s arguments to be without merit, we do not oppose his request for leave to file and his putative request to adjourn sentencing pending determination of his motion,” Joshua Steinglass, an assistant district attorneys who worked the case, wrote.
In May, Trump was convicted of 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in the New York hush money trial.
The Supreme Court’s ruling in Trump v. United States on Monday means that Donald Trump gets absolute immunity on many things, presumptive immunity on most things, and a series of tall hurdles that must be cleared to hold him accountable for anything.
In other words, there is very little chance of Trump ever facing consequences for the majority of his crimes, and even in the narrow circumstances where he could still be held accountable, prosecuting Trump is now much more difficult. This will have a direct effect on both federal cases against Trump.
But even the hurdles that this ruling creates aren’t enough for Justice Clarence Thomas. In his concurrence to the immunity ruling, Thomas goes out of his way to give Trump a get-out-of-all-charges-free card that even the majority opinion didn’t grant.
Trump faces a total of 44 charges in two federal cases.
One of these, the D.C. case about Trump’s attempts to overturn the 2020 election, now heads back to the district court where Judge Tanya Chutkin will determine which of the four charges in that case can still move forward.
In her dissent, Justice Kentanji Brown Jackson makes it clear that Trump stands a “fair shot” at finding immunity on several, if not all, counts because of the “multilayered, multifaceted threshold” that a court must now meet to get past immunity. One charge may be particularly difficult to continue after the court’s Friday ruling in Fischer v. United States, which severely tightened the requirements for finding obstruction.
In the other federal case, Trump faces 40 charges in the Southern District of Florida for mishandling classified documents and a conspiracy to obstruct the investigation. That case was regarded as a “slam dunk” for special counsel Jack Smith, but it has been repeatedly delayed by Trump-friendly decisions from Trump-appointed Judge Aileen Cannon.
In his concurrence in the immunity ruling, Thomas explains how Cannon could give Trump a pass on everything and dismiss the case.
Over the past two weeks, Cannon has been hearing arguments from Trump’s attorneys that special counsel Jack Smith wasn’t properly appointed. Trump’s legal team argued that Attorney General Merrick Garland had “set up a shadow government” in appointing Smith, which apparently resonated with the judge.
“That sounds very ominous,” Cannon said.
However, even Cannon has admitted that there are well-defined regulations concerning how the Department of Justice appoints and administers special counsels. Other courts have already ruled against Trump’s effort to eliminate the special counsel, and Cannon was reportedly skeptical about their efforts to attack an office going back over 150 years.
Still, even if the odds seemed long, trying to have Smith removed was definitely a gamble worth making for Trump. Winning on this point would mean that the Florida case could be thrown out. And even if Trump’s motion ultimately failed, Cannon’s agreeing to hear it would at least give Trump the gift of further delay.
Thomas’ concurrence doesn’t just signal his enthusiastic agreement with the idea that Trump should not be prosecuted; it includes what might as well be a letter directly to Cannon. And while Thomas’ concurrence is not binding, it could still be an invitation to bring this particular question—whether the role of the special counsel is unconstitutional—back to the Supreme Court.
I write separately to highlight another way in which this prosecution may violate our constitutional structure. In this case, the Attorney General purported to appoint a private citizen as Special Counsel to prosecute a former President on behalf of the United States. But, I am not sure that any office for the Special Counsel has been “established by Law,” as the Constitution requires. Art. II, §2, cl. 2. By requiring that Congress create federal offices “by Law,” the Constitution imposes an important check against the President—he cannot create offices at his pleasure. If there is no law establishing the office that the Special Counsel occupies, then he cannot proceed with this prosecution. A private citizen cannot criminally prosecute anyone, let alone a former President.
[Oh FFS]
The first independent counsel was appointed by President Ulysses S. Grant in 1875. A dozen more were appointed before the Office of Special Counsel was formally instituted under the post-Watergate Ethics in Government Act in 1978. But that act expired in 1999. Since then, special counsels have been appointed under the guidelines of Title 28 of the Code of Federal Regulations.
Thomas appears to believe that every independent or special counsel since 1999 isn’t legitimate because they don’t hold an office created by law. That should come as a surprise to Hunter Biden, who was prosecuted by special counsel David Weiss.
But now Thomas is providing Cannon with a basis on which she can dismiss all charges brought by the special counsel against Trump, and assuring her that, should such an issue find its way to the Supreme Court, it would find at least one receptive justice.
A Supreme Court decision that all special counsels are unconstitutional might seem extremely unlikely. But then, so did the idea of the court giving a president nearly unfettered immunity. Three months ago, the idea that a president could shoot his opponents and still enjoy immunity was a joke. Now, as Jackson’s dissent warns, it seems well within the bounds of what the court awarded Trump.
No one should be acting as if this court is bound by common sense, the Constitution, or past rulings.
Rudy Giuliani, the former New York mayor and personal attorney to former president Donald Trump, was disbarred Tuesday in New York over his false statements about the 2020 election.
“The seriousness of respondent’s misconduct cannot be overstated,” a state appeals court said in a ruling, adding that Giuliani “baselessly attacked and undermined the integrity of this country’s electoral process.”
Giuliani was already suspended from practicing law in New York, where he was admitted to the bar in 1969.
The court ordered Giuliani to be “disbarred from the practice of law, effective immediately, and until the further order of this Court, and his name stricken from the roll of attorneys and counselors-at-law in the State of New York.”
[…] Giuliani faces potential disbarment in Washington, D.C., where he also been suspended from practicing law.
U.S. Rep. Jim Clyburn campaigned in Milwaukee Monday in support of President Joe Biden’s reelection as many Democratic voters worry about the president’s age and ability to inspire enthusiasm after a rough debate performance last week.
Clyburn, a South Carolina Democrat whose endorsement of Biden in 2020 was instrumental to his campaign, met with faith leaders, voting rights activists and local officials for a roundtable discussion at Coffee Makes You Black, a Black-owned business and community space.
Clyburn, a top Biden ally, has stood behind the president after the debate, as have local officials like Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson. Clyburn has said he recognized “preparation overload” as soon as Biden answered the first debate question.
“Nothing is wrong with his brain. The people who looked at those answers from both (candidates) came to the conclusion that on substance, Joe Biden was the winner far and away,” Clyburn said. “Joe Biden has never been a show horse, he’s always been a work horse. Just the opposite is true with his opponent.”
Clyburn said he has not spoken to Biden since the debate but will speak with him “in the next day or two” and tell him to “stay the course.”
NBC News included Clyburn in a list of senior Democrats in Congress who have privately expressed concerns about Biden’s viability, despite all publicly backing the president. A spokeswoman for Clyburn said any reports alleging Clyburn “has expressed anything other than firm support of President Biden are completely untrue.”
[…] “The appearance does not matter when you look at the substance of what was being talked about,” Crowley said. “There’s a stark contrast related to governing under Trump and governing under Biden … (Biden is) speaking to the future. He’s speaking to the soul and spirit of America.”
Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-Texas) on Tuesday became the first House Democrat to publicly urge President Biden to remove himself from the 2024 race following his poor performance at last week’s debate.
Doggett — who has served in the House since 1995 — said he had hoped the debate against former President Trump would “provide some momentum” to turbocharge Biden’s poll numbers.
“It did not,” Doggett said in a statement. “Instead of reassuring voters, the President failed to effectively defend his many accomplishments and expose Trump’s many lies.”
“I represent the heart of a congressional district once represented by Lyndon Johnson. Under very different circumstances, he made the painful decision to withdraw,” he later said. “President Biden should do the same.”
“Recognizing that, unlike Trump, President Biden’s first commitment has always been to our country, not himself, I am hopeful that he will make the painful and difficult decision to withdraw. I respectfully call on him to do so,” Doggett added.
Doggett, who is 77, just four years younger than Biden, lauded the president’s legislative achievements in his years in Washington, but argued that now is a moment to pass the torch in the Democratic Party.
“While much of his work has been transformational, he pledged to be transitional,” Doggett said. “He has the opportunity to encourage a new generation of leaders from whom a nominee can be chosen to unite our country through an open, democratic process.”
“My decision to make these strong reservations public is not done lightly nor does it in any way diminish my respect for all that President Biden has achieved,” he continued.
“Recognizing that, unlike Trump, President Biden’s first commitment has always been to our country, not himself, I am hopeful that he will make the painful and difficult decision to withdraw. I respectfully call on him to do so.”
[…]
[…] Also yesterday, while facing possible contempt from the bankruptcy court, Giuliani converted his chapter 11 bankruptcy to chapter 7, so his assets can be liquidated in a process overseen by a trustee. […]
Roodles’ law license was suspended in New York in 2021, after the Appellate Division found that his blarblings and fartings of false claims about how the 2020 election was stolen from former President Dickweed J. Trump “threatened the public interest, democracy, and the legal profession.”
In their decision, the Appellate Division recounted how he lied that people were brought from Camden, New Jersey, to vote illegally in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He lied that 30,000 dead people voted, including boxer Joe Frazier, who died in 2011. He lied that non-citizens voted in Arizona. He lied about voting machines being manipulated in Georgia, that votes had been altered, and that Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss were “serial criminals.” He lied that felons had voted in Georgia, and underaged people voted. He lied that in Michigan, trucks delivered ballots in garbage receptacles and paper bags. Lied that he had recordings of 1000 people admitting to committing fraud in the 2020 election, and that 2,000 affidavits attesting to firsthand knowledge of fraud had been filed. Lied that Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said the election was perfect, and when busted, Rudy claimed that “the postelection stress he was under may have affected his memory and caused him to misspeak.”
Yep, that’s a lot of fucking lies!
[…] So now he’s officially disbarred, and liquidating, like so much shoe polish melting down a liver-spotted temple. His request to file chapter 7 came a day after lawyers for his creditors asked the judge in his bankruptcy case to hold him in contempt and make him possibly pay sanctions, because he and his “business associate” Maria Ryan (aka the married lady he’s allegedly schtupping) refused to produce any business or personal documents. A bankruptcy that he himself asked the court for that he wouldn’t cooperate with. His little Roodles-a-roo shell game to avoid consequences was getting a little too obvious to ignore.
[…] Somehow, for reasons still mysterious, Roodles was unable to stick to a $43,000-a-month budget, with expenses that included $5,000 in alimony, $425 for “personal care products and services,” plus “60 transactions on Amazon, multiple entertainment subscriptions, various Apple services and products, Uber rides and payment of some of his business partner’s personal credit card bill,” and still, thousands of dollars of expenses every month that were simply unaccounted for.
And there’s his other woes. He still faces lawsuits from Dominion and Smartmatic, and for false arrest from Daniel Gill, the guy who tapped him on the back at a grocery store and said, “What’s up, scumbag?” and was charged with third-degree assault after Giuliani claimed Gill hit him. His former assistant Noelle Dunphy filed a $10 million sexual harassment claim, alleging he said and did things too gross to type in this family mommyblog, but read em yourself, if you can stand it.
He’s been on the outs with his daughter Caroline for years, and in a 2019 recording, he griped that his son Andrew doesn’t talk to him anymore either, after Giuliani spent two holidays in a row with his married mistress.
Consequences, they still exist sometimes! In these troubled times, it’s a little dose of happiness when bad things happen to that guy.
The storm, which is currently in the Caribbean Sea south of Puerto Rico, has already claimed four lives in Grenada and St. Vincent and the Grenadines.
[…] The National Hurricane Center said in an update early Tuesday that the storm, which remains a Category 5 and is currently in the Caribbean Sea some 235 miles southeast of the Dominican Republic, had sustained windspeeds of almost 165 mph — making it the strongest July hurricane ever recorded, beating Emily from 2015. In an afternoon update, the center said maximum sustained winds had gone down slightly to 160 mph with higher gusts.
[…] A large swathe of the Caribbean is now preparing for significant impact and damage this week. Jamaica remains subject to a hurricane warning, with heavy rain and flooding likely there on Wednesday.
[…] Beryl is the first hurricane classed as category 4 or higher to appear in June and the earliest category 4 storm of the Atlantic hurricane season. It’s also the strongest hurricane to pass through the Windward Islands, which include Grenada, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Saint Lucia and Martinique.
The Security Service of Ukraine said the group plotted to seize the country’s parliament.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s security service said Monday that it foiled a coup that would have “played into Russia’s hands” as his Ukrainian forces battled their Russian counterparts in the east of the country.
[…] The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) said in a Telegram post Monday that a group of people were preparing “a series of provocations” in capital Kyiv.
It added that the group was led by a co-founder of a public organization known for its “anti-Ukrainian actions” since 2015, although it did not name either the individual or the group.
After calling for a public gathering in central Kyiv on Sunday, the suspects were planning to announce the removal of the country’s military and political leadership from power, the SBU said. Then they plotted to seize the building of the Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine’s parliament, the statement added.
The perpetrators “hoped to stir up the social and political situation within our country, which would work in Russia’s favor,” the Security Service said, although it did not explicitly say whether the Kremlin was behind the group or its plans.
[…] Ukrainian investigators said in May that they foiled a Russian plot to assassinate Zelenskyy and other top military and political figures. Two colonels in the State Guard of Ukraine, which protects top officials, were detained on suspicion of enacting the plan.
And ahead of the Russian invasion, Zelenskyy claimed to have intelligence and recordings of a coup plot involving Russians and a Ukrainian billionaire oligarch.
[…] Elsewhere, in eastern Ukraine, fierce battles between the country’s forces and their Russian rivals continued. However, Moscow’s counteroffensive in the northeastern Kharkiv region appeared to stall as newly committed U.S. military supplies have started to trickle in.
In case you were worried about the Supreme Court’s blank check to do presidential criming, never fear! Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson, a chief enabler of a certain criminal former president, is here to reassure Americans that there’s nothing to worry about because—get this—it’s not as if we’d ever have a president who is “prone to this kind of crazy criminal activity.”
Yeah. He said that.
Johnson had a good chuckle about the misplaced concerns of non-MAGA Americans during a Fox News interview with Kayleigh McEnany, the former mouthpiece for Donald Trump, on Monday.
“There’s all sorts of hyperbole tonight, and this fantastical—these hypotheticals they’ve made up,” Johnson said. “Future presidents are going to turn into assassins, and all the rest. It’s madness.”
Hmmm. Where could anyone have gotten the idea that a president could turn into an assassin? Oh yes. From Trump attorney John Sauer, who told an appellate court during oral arguments in January that a president should be able to order SEAL Team Six to assassinate a political rival without fear of prosecution. Maybe that’s where the madness came from.
But even if the Supreme Court says it’s okay to murder your enemies as long as you did it while you were president, Johnson’s not worried.
“The president and the vice president are the only two offices in our constitutional system that are elected by all the people,” he said. “No one who is elected to that office is going to be prone to this kind of crazy criminal activity.” [permanently raised eyebrows.]
Not to get all hung up on facts, but we did have someone elected to the office of the president who is prone to criminal activity: Donald J. Trump. And he was recently convicted of 34 felonies.
[…] To Johnson, though, our entire democracy is dependent upon former presidents retroactively receiving that get-out-jail-free card.
“You have to have the president with the ability to make difficult decisions hourly, daily, and not be worried about rogue prosecutors going after them at some point in the future,” he said. “The president can’t operate if he has that kind of sword of Damocles hanging over his head. And that’s very simply what the court ruled today.”
Funny that no presidents before Trump felt hamstrung by the invisible sword supposedly hanging over their heads. But suddenly, for the first time in our nation’s history, a president simply will not be able to do the job without the unfettered freedom to crime. One would think that the oath a president swears— to “preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States”—would be in direct contradiction to the need for criminal activity.
But no. Trump has repeatedly insisted that a president must be allowed to commit crimes, and the speaker of the House, second in line to the presidency, agrees. And so, tragically for our country, does the Supreme Court.
Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said Tuesday that both President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump should provide the American public with test results regarding physical and mental health.
“Both candidates owe whatever test you want to put them to, in terms of their mental acuity and their health — both of them,” Pelosi, still a prominent member of the House Democratic Caucus, said in an interview on MSNBC’s “Andrea Mitchell Reports.”
Pelosi said she believes it’s a “legitimate question” to ask whether Biden’s poor performance at the debate Thursday night was just “an episode” or “a condition.” […]
Monday’s Supreme Court ruling on presidential immunity invites the nation’s leader to participate in a four-year crime spree, including doing away with opponents, while secure in the knowledge that they enjoy blissful elevation above the law.
Republicans are, of course, extraordinarily pleased.
Donald Trump started the ball rolling on his Truth Social site, calling the ruling a “BIG WIN FOR OUR CONSTITUTION,” even though there is no direct mention of presidential immunity in the Constitution. Other Republican lawmakers are piling on, expressing their satisfaction with a ruling that sets the president up to be a dictator.
So long as it doesn’t apply to the actual sitting president.
Every Republican lawmaker who’s spoken on the matter seems to agree that this ruling means that special counsel Jack Smith, who has indicted Trump in two different investigations, has to pack it up and go home. [Examples at the link]
While there are plenty of other Republicans eager to show Trump that they’re happy about his new, shiny armor, two of the responses are extra special. [X posts available at the link]
While House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer shakes a fist at weaponizing the legal system for political gain, and House Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan takes a punch at “hyper-partisan prosecutors,” neither says a word about the multiple investigations Republicans have run into President Joe Biden and members of his family.
Because, of course, they don’t read this ruling as protecting the sitting president. They read it as being specific to Donald Trump.
Even as they’re cheering for how this ruling allows presidents to act now and worry about the consequences never, Republicans are still complaining that Biden is a “dictator.” [laughable]
The “Biden dictatorship” has become the way that Republicans talk about the incumbent president. It both gives their base something to whine about, and helps defuse Democratic statements warning about Trump’s actions should he return to power.
Here’s Doug Burgum, North Dakota’s governor and a shortlisted candidate for Trump’s vice president, appearing on Sunday’s edition of “Meet the Press”:
“Going into 2024, I think both parties are going to be very focused on [the election],” Burgum said. “I think the threat to democracy, as a governor in North Dakota today, I’ve been living under what I call the Biden dictatorship because of all the rules and regulations.”
Burgum was called out on this statement by host Kristen Welker, who pointed out that not only has Biden issued far fewer executive orders than Trump, he’s also issued fewer than Burgum has as governor. So does that make Burgum a dictator?
Burgum changed the subject.
To make it a little extra clear, another of Trump’s potential VPs, Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance, was over at “Face the Nation” on Sunday, explaining that without a ruling of absolute immunity, presidents might be prosecuted for almost anything.
But when it came to Biden, Vance had a different message. When host Margaret Brennan asked if Biden might be prosecuted under a Trump administration, Vance replied that it “would be the responsibility of the attorney general, Margaret.”
Republicans seem to have read this ruling as if it said “Trump” everywhere the Supreme Court wrote “president.” To be fair, that’s probably what this partisan court meant. However, there is one former Republican official who seems to understand that this ruling can be applied more broadly. [John Dean’s X post at the link]
It’s a tale as old as time, or at least as old as Ayn Rand collecting Social Security checks. A right-libertarian finds themselves in a situation in which — surprise! — they need to rely on government programs to help themselves or someone they care about.
Over the weekend, “non-partisan” op-ed site Tangle published an essay titled “When Your Karma Runs Over Your Dogma” from an anonymous libertarian who suddenly discovered the magic of government subsidized health programs when his own child’s health was at risk.
Let’s call him Al, because it just works on multiple levels.
Here, allow Al the Anonymous Libertarian to explain his worldview to you:
I believe in a government of limited scope with strictly defined powers, and I view almost every government program with skepticism if not outright antipathy, from the federal government all the way down. Even when government programs start with good intentions, I tend to see them as simply crowding out more effective charities, commercial groups, or other private actions. And that’s not even getting into my concerns about regulatory capture, bureaucratic overreach, etc. Whenever I hear someone looking to the government for help, my instinctive question is “What else have you tried first?” Suffice it to say that I don’t have a very favorable view of government programs and those who try to make them bigger.
I want you to keep in mind here, as we fisk this essay, that the operative phrase here is “more effective.”
Alas, one day, Al the Anonymous Libertarian and his wife had a child — a child born with cerebral palsy, unable to move the left side of his body.
Luckily, we caught it early (credit where credit is due, my wife caught it early) and, through the miracle of neuroplasticity and a lot of hard work, our son was able to “rewire” his brain and gain full function on both sides of his body. These days, you’d probably never notice that anything was ever wrong if you didn’t know to look. We may never know what caused his cerebral palsy; neither of us smokes, neither of us drank for months before we started trying to get pregnant, my wife ate everything right, she took all the recommended supplements, and we did everything else to give our son the best shot at a fully healthy infancy. And still something happened in utero or during birth.
Yes. Incredibly enough, “doing all the right things” is not actually any guarantee that everything will work out in one’s favor. Lots of people do all of the right things and still end up in very bad situations, which is actually the precise reason why “people just need to take personal responsibility” is a deeply irresponsible alternative to a robust social safety net.
It seems that Al’s question of “What else have you tried first?” has been answered here for him. When people are dealing with a serious health issue, the last thing they should have to do is try a bunch of other options before doing the thing that is most effective.
Very often, libertarians suggest that the solution to our healthcare woes are for hospitals and other medical services to provide upfront pricing so that consumers can compare and to drive prices down by making things competitive. The problem with this plan, however, is that it is fucking stupid.
Upfront pricing is fine, considering our current situation — I surely would not have gotten tested for anemia that one time, had I known it was going to cost me $600 and not be covered by my insurance. However, in the grand scheme of things, it is fucking insane to expect people bleeding out in an ambulance to compare the pricing schemes of various hospitals in the area (especially the 16 percent of Americans who live 30 miles or more away from an emergency room).
So what do you do when your child needs help, but that offer of help conflicts with your closely held beliefs? You take the money. You receive the help. You say thank you, and you don’t ask yourself too many questions. What parent would do any different?
No parent! And he made the absolute right decision for his child in this case, as he should have. Except …
What have I learned from my experience? Have I had an Ebenezer Scrooge-like complete change of heart? Am I now a fan of Big Government? Sorry to disappoint, but beliefs are stubborn things: I’m still skeptical of most government programs, I still wish there were more limits on government power, and I still grumble about how high taxes are (even though I got some of my money back, so to speak). But I have become a little wiser and more compassionate, especially toward those who find themselves genuinely dependent on the help — or at least beneficiaries of help that probably wouldn’t come from any other program.
So — he learned that his ideas did not work, but he’s sticking to them. The compromise here is that he’ll be less judgy about people making the exact same choices he did. Nice!
He caps it off with this:
Now I understand that when you’re hit with a difficult situation, you may not have the time or mental capacity to go looking for other avenues of help when you already know a government program exists to do just that. And I’ve met too many genuinely caring therapists and other wonderful staff to simply dismiss the whole lot as soulless bureaucrats; you have to take them as they are, individuals just like everyone else. I may still intellectually believe that private insurance and charity would be better without government programs crowding them out, but I fully understand why someone would take the help from the government and not ask too many questions.
Sir, I hate to tell you this, but that does not actually help anyone else who might find themselves in a situation similar to yours. Your empathy, unacted upon, is not remotely helpful to anyone, for any reason.
The reasons this Al the Anonymous Libertarian chose to utilize California’s Regional Centers instead of sticking with what he could piece together with charities and private health insurance was that, at the end of the day, it was the most simple, direct solution to his problem. Nothing is ever going to be more effective than that.
I always say that Americans are weirdly committed to doing things the most ass-backwards, needlessly complicated, expensive and ineffective way possible. I stand by that. People, for the most part, are fiercely uninterested in the shortest journey from Point A to Point B. But there is a caveat! When it comes to their own shit, even people like our friend Al the Anonymous Libertarian actually prefer things that way.
Perhaps someday, those who have learned the lessons that Al should have learned here will outnumber those who refuse, and … nah, the private health insurance companies will still have more lobbying money and power than the rest of us.
And the only good abortion is the one a rightwing Republican woman has.
Queensland’s health ombudsman has ordered the destruction of thousands of frozen sperm donations, as a new report reveals 42% of all audited samples in the state were of medium or high risk of being misidentified.
The state had more than twice as many potential errors identified in audits as the next worst state, Victoria.
Examples or errors included “identification mix-ups, loss of viability of gametes or embryos, and suspected deterioration beyond laboratory standards,” the Office of the Health Ombudsman found.
“Some incidents, such as incorrect labelling of frozen semen and unclear labelling of straws, were not reported” to the regulator by one provider “potentially indicating lapses in reporting protocols,” the report found.
It recommended that all clinics in the state “dispose of stored donor material not meeting current identification standards” and compliance be required in future audits. [gotta love the passive voice]
It’s unknown exactly how many donations would be destroyed, but the ombudsman found there were “thousands” of samples frozen before 2020 that were at high risk due to lack of double witnessing discovered in an audit at just one clinic.
The purge will add to an already significant shortage of donated sperm in Australia.
“The impact on consumers and the donor-conceived children in cases of gamete mix-ups cannot be underestimated,” the report found.
(Had they contacted me, I could have underestimated it for them, it being rather doable)
John Moralessays
[all those wasted wanks! Oh, wait, no. Wanks are never wasted]
The sentencing hearing, previously scheduled for July 11, will now take place on September 18 at the earliest, according to a letter posted on the court’s docket. […] less than two months before the presidential election
[…]
prosecutors said […] the effort to toss the verdict is “without merit.” […] Trump’s team argued that prosecutors wrongly used evidence of his “official acts” at trial, which is now immunized
[…]
the issue for Merchan will now come down to whether some of the evidence, like the testimony of former Trump aide Hope Hicks describing a conservation she had with Trump while he was president, is off limits. If so, a new trial could be required unless the judge finds the error was harmless because Trump would have still been convicted. […] He said would issue a ruling related to the immunity decision on Sept. 6.
birgerjohanssonsays
“Why Bill Gates’ New Natrium Reactor is a Big Deal”
It can rapidly compensate for fluctuations in power production by wind ir solar power.
(And by separating the reactor from the power generation equipment [it is a low-pressure design] you can use much cheaper simpler off -the-shelf (not nuclear rated) equipment in the generator part of the powerplant)
And the chosen design can burn up plutonium.
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=ixSCZwFCQlc
birgerjohanssonsays
“Physicists Claim They Can Send Particles Into the Past” (the headline is wrong – the physicists did not claim it but New Scientist fucked up)
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=hZoxLVx_OE8
The big deal is actually the storage system:
“Alongside its 345-MW reactor, the facility will have a molten salt-based energy storage system that can achieve power output of 500 MW for more than five and a half hours. The storage system is unique among advanced nuclear reactor designs and “allows the plant to integrate seamlessly with renewable resources,” TerraPower said.”
“Was May 2024 Geomagnetic Storm a Carrington Event?”
No.
So simple!
“The Carrington Event was the most intense geomagnetic storm in recorded history, peaking on 1–2 September 1859 during solar cycle 10.”, quoth wikipedia.
I mean, the Carrington Event was a particular geomagnetic storm, so I suppose in some sense every geomagnetic storm can be considered a Carrington Event.
From the abstract:
“Unequal exchange theory posits that economic growth in the “advanced economies” of the global North relies on a large net appropriation of resources and labour from the global South, extracted through price differentials in international trade. Past attempts to estimate the scale and value of this drain have faced a number of conceptual and empirical limitations, and have been unable to capture the upstream resources and labour embodied in traded goods”
It posits a theory, and then quantifies the numbers of that posited theory.
Thing is, from any given premises, I can give you a valid argument for the truth of any proposition that follows those premises.
Pelosi said she believes it’s a “legitimate question” to ask whether Biden’s poor performance at the debate Thursday night was just “an episode” or “a condition.” – nbcnews quoted by Lynna, OM@384
The most likely answer: an episode revealing a condition – as I’ve said elsewhere, it is characteristic of conditions associated with aging that they can vary considerably even from hour to hour – and I’d add, tiredness and minor infections can exacerbate them far beyond what a younger person would experience. I see the excuse for Biden’s catastrophic performance has now been shifted from “a cold”, to “exhaustion due to excessive global travel”. Meanwhile, the first elected Democrat has come out for Biden’s withdrawal, reportedly with more in the wings, worrying poll findings, and (not at the link) so-far anonymous claims that the debate episode was not a one-off, that Biden has lost his train of thought and failed to finish sentences in private meetings.
KGsays
Three days ahead of the 248th anniversary of the American colonists formally shucking off monarchial rule in revolutionary style in Philadelphia, the Supreme Court gilded the U.S. presidency with monarchial powers the likes of which we’ve never had before, never sought, and thought we had rid ourselves of two and half centuries ago. – Lynna, OM@372, quoting Talking Points Memo
Actually this falls into American mythology: George III had far less power than a POTUS even before this ruling. Admittedly he couldn’t have been charged with a crime, but he didn’t run the country himself, and if he’d tried to do so (by restoring “personal rule”), he’d have been packed off to Hanover before you could say “Crown in Parliament”. Conversely, the Prime Minister (George could generally decide who to put in this position, but they had to be able to get Parliament to vote for raising money) was accountable to Parliament and not immune from prosecution.
birgerjohanssonsays
A YouGov poll in Britain shows 22% of the voters are prepared to vote tactically to purge tory MPs from parliament.
Donald Trump has an underappreciated tell: Every time he claims to have been “exonerated,” he’s lying. Indeed, it’s a surprisingly long list.
It’s been nearly five weeks since a New York jury found Donald Trump guilty of 34 felonies, though the former president is still awaiting sentencing. According to the original plan, the Republican criminal was set to learn his fate next week.
That plan has since changed: The judge in the case approved a delay sentencing until at least September 18, allowing Trump’s lawyers to review the potential impact of the Supreme Court’s immunity decision.
As USA Today reported, the presumptive GOP nominee responded to the news in an overly excited way.
Donald Trump’s sentencing in his New York hush money case was delayed to Sept. 18 to address if the historic conviction should be thrown out after the Supreme Court’s Monday ruling that presidents enjoy broad immunity from criminal prosecution. “TOTAL EXONERATION!” Trump wrote on Truth Social after the news broke, although the delay doesn’t exonerate him in the case.
The same online missive added, “It is clear that the Supreme Court’s Brilliantly Written and Historic Decision ENDS all of Crooked Joe Biden’s Witch Hunts against me, including the WHITE HOUSE AND DOJ INSPIRED CIVIL HOAXES in New York.” [Bullshit. Total bullshit. complete misunderstanding of the situation.]
At this point, we could talk about why the Supreme Court’s ruling in Trump v. U.S. was not “brilliantly written,” why Trump’s hush-money case isn’t over, why there’s literally no evidence of President Joe Biden being “crooked,” why Trump’s legal problems are neither “witch hunts” nor “hoaxes,” why the White House has nothing to do with the former president’s prosecutions, and why the Justice Department is unrelated to the Trump’s criminal case in New York.
We could even pause to marvel at the lie-to-word ratio, which was quite extraordinary, and which reflected Trump’s fractured relationship with reality.
But what stood out as especially notable was Trump’s latest claim to “total exoneration.”
The truth, of course, is that the Supreme Court concluded that official presidential acts are immune from prosecution, but that’s not the same thing as “total exoneration.” In the hush-money case, jurors still found the Republican defendant guilty of crimes unrelated to Trump’s official duties. In fact, much of the case focused on events that predated his inauguration.
At no point has any judge or court wiped the slate clean, undoing the jury’s verdict. Trump’s claims to the contrary were absurd.
But they were also familiar. […] he has some unmistakable tells. When Trump tells stories, for example, about big, burly men who profess their love for him while crying, he’s lying. When he vows to release information in “two weeks,” he’s lying.
And similarly, when Trump uses the word “exoneration,” he’s lying. […]
In March 2018, Trump claimed that the House Intelligence Committee had completely exonerated him in the Russia scandal. That wasn’t true.
In June 2018, Trump said the Justice Department inspector general’s office had “totally” exonerated him in the Russia scandal. That was both wrong and kind of bonkers.
In February 2019, Trump claimed that the Senate Intelligence Committee had also exonerated him in the Russia scandal. That also wasn’t true.
In March 2019, Trump claimed the judge in a Paul Manafort trial exonerated him, too. That also wasn’t true.
In June 2021, Trump claimed he’d been “totally exonerated” by testimony from former White House Counsel Don McGahn, which was largely the opposite of the truth.
In February 2023, Trump insisted that a special grand jury in Fulton County, Georgia had rewarded him with “total exoneration.” That not only didn’t happen, that same special grand jury criminally indicted him soon after.
In June 2023, Trump published an item to his social media platform, declaring that he’s been “totally exonerated” in the classified documents scandal that led to a federal indictment. That was also the opposite of the truth.
In June 2024, Trump claimed to have been “exonerated“ for referencing the “very fine people” he saw protesting in Charlottesville. That wasn’t true, either.
And in July 2024, pointed to “total exoneration” in the hush-money case, which didn’t make any sense at all.
[…] he’s been desperate to convince the public that he’s been cleared — in every instance — of any meaningful wrongdoing.
But either Trump doesn’t know what “exonerated” means or he’s spent years trying to deceive the public about his culpability in a variety of serious scandals.
The White House announced Tuesday that President Joe Biden will meet with congressional leaders and Democratic governors, sit for a network TV interview and hold a press conference in the coming days, a blitz designed to push back against growing pressure for the 81-year-old president to step aside in the 2024 race after his disastrous performance in last week’s debate with Republican Donald Trump.
“We really want to turn the page on this,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said of the intensifying calls for Biden to bow out of the race. She added that the president had no intention of stepping aside, characterizing his debate failings as simply evidence of “a bad night” when he had a cold.
During a campaign event later Tuesday, Biden blamed it on jet lag after two back-to-back European trips. “I wasn’t very smart. I decided to travel around the world a couple of times,” he said. The president added that he “didn’t listen to my staff” about travel and joked that he “fell asleep on stage” during the debate. [Okay. So he was really tired. He should not have been on the debate stage if he was exhausted.]
But Democratic leaders were increasingly signaling that they were not buying White House attempts to brush off Biden’s performance in the face-off as a momentary lapse, after he gave halting and nonsensical answers and trailed off at times.
[…] the White House has not satisfactorily explained how such a seasoned politician could have performed so badly.
Questions swirled about whether this was an isolated incident or part of a pattern. Two people who spend time with Biden behind closed doors described him similarly: He was often very sharp and focused. But he also had moments, particularly later in the evening, when his thoughts seemed jumbled and he’d trail off mid-sentence or seem confused. Those people spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity to discuss the president’s interactions behind closed doors.
Jean-Pierre said Biden, who has not taken questions from reporters since Thursday night’s debate, would meet with top congressional leaders, and on Wednesday would host a meeting with Democratic governors. White House Chief of Staff Jeff Zeints was set to speak again with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer Tuesday afternoon, one of the people said.
Biden also agreed to sit for an interview Friday with ABC’s George Stephanopoulos that will air at least in part later that day. He has planned trips to Wisconsin on Friday and Philadelphia on Sunday. And he will hold a press conference during the NATO summit in Washington next week.
The White House was also holding an all-staff meeting on Wednesday, billed as a morale-booster following the debate and a chance for the senior team to keep the staff focused around governing, according to three people familiar with the details who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity to discuss a private meeting.
The president’s stepped-up schedule comes after a private discussion within Biden’s campaign about what can be done to counteract the damaging impression left by last week’s debate. On Monday, Biden met with emergency management workers in Washington, jauntily walking the room and smiling and joking as he thanked the teams for their work. [So that’s what he looks like when he’s not exhausted.]
[…] Part of the anxiety for Democrats right now, some of the people said, is that with the focus so squarely on Biden, there has been less attention paid to Trump, whose debate performance was riddled with falsehoods about the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol riot, Democrats’ views on abortion rights and a 2017 neo-Nazi rally in which he said, “You had some very bad people in that group, but you also had people that were very fine people, on both sides.”
You’re over 80 years old, you fly around the world a few times to visit with world leaders, you catch a cold … and then you go into a debate with a head stuffed full of too many statistics and not enough clear, short answers. WTF?
[…] “We are in the process of the second American Revolution, which will remain bloodless if the left allows it to be,” Kevin Roberts, who has led Heritage since 2021, said in an appearance on the far-right news channel Real America’s Voice. […]
That sounds like a threat issued by the Heritage Foundation’s president after the Supreme Court ruling that Trump should be King of everything.
Biden campaign response:
“On January 6, they proudly stormed our Capitol to overturn an election Donald Trump lost fair and square—something not seen the Confederacy was able to accomplish—now they are dreaming of a violent revolution to destroy the very idea of America,” it continued. “Joe Biden rejects Donald Trump’s revenge, resentment, and retribution.”
More from the Heritage Foundation guy:
Kevin Roberts and the Heritage Foundation have laid the groundwork for [“taking our country back”] in Project 2025, their authoritarian, fascist blueprint for a second Trump administration. Roberts has called the plan an effort to “institutionaliz[e] Trumpism.”
It’s not Roberts’ first threat against the left. “People will lose their jobs,” he told The New York Times in January, speaking about federal workers who will be rooted out in favor of Trump loyalists as laid out in Project 2025. “Hopefully their lives are able to flourish in spite of that.”
But his latest comments suggest that if progressives fight back, then all bets are off. In fact, the architects of Project 2025 have reportedly been working on a plan for Trump to deploy the military as law enforcement against domestic protesters under the Insurrection Act, which was last updated in 1871. They’ve even drafted executive orders, the Washington Post reported last November.
They also plan to use the law to deploy the military along the southern border, according to Trump’s top immigration adviser, the white nationalist Stephen Miller.
“Bottom line,” he told The New York Times in November, “President Trump will do whatever it takes.”
The threat is real, legal experts argue. “It’s really up to the president to decide when to use the armed forces as a domestic police force,” Elizabeth Goitein, senior director of the Liberty & National Security Program at the Brennan Center for Justice, told NPR earlier this year. “And that is tremendous cause for concern, because an army turned inward can very quickly become an instrument of tyranny.”
Roberts and the team behind Project 2025 are creating Trump’s roadmap to tyranny. And Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts and his conservative majority just gave it the green light.
That makes the disturbing interview Trump gave Time magazine in April even worse. Asked if he thought there’d be political violence if he loses in November, Trump said only, “I think we’re going to win. And if we don’t win, you know, it depends. It always depends on the fairness of an election.”
A**hole Sues Northwestern U Law School Over Insufficiently White Male Faculty
The Right’s drive to Make America White Again reared its pointed, pillowcase-covered head again Tuesday in the form of a lawsuit against Northwestern University’s Pritzker School of Law claiming that the school discriminates against white men by hiring too many women and nonwhite faculty.
Leaning on last year’s Supreme Court ruling outlawing race-based affirmative action in student admissions at Harvard and UNC Chapel Hill, the lawsuit claims that Northwestern is letting inferior specimens of humanity teach law when it should instead hire white men who are better in every way, as Inside Higher Education reports:
“For decades, left-wing faculty and administrators have been thumbing their noses at federal anti-discrimination statutes … by hiring women and racial minorities with mediocre and undistinguished records over white men who have better credentials, better scholarship, and better teaching ability,” the suit claims.
The suit is aghast that out of the 21 most recent faculty hires, only three were white men, which kind of makes us wonder why the count ended at 21.
In one of the more interesting notes in the Inside Higher Ed piece, we learn that “An addendum to the lawsuit notes that none of the rejected job candidates named in the suit was involved in the filing.” But that’s no reason to prevent unrelated schmucks from being all aggrieved on their behalf, and as we learned from the Supremes last year, you can have standing to sue over purely hypothetical discrimination now.
The suit is the latest exercise in rightwing culture wars shit-flinging from former Texas solicitor general Jonathan H. Mitchell, who came up with Texas’s abortion bounty-hunter law as a way to avoid judicial review, and who has a glorious record of terrible Supreme Court victories. Mitchell was one of the attorneys who argued for overturning Roe v. Wade in the 2022 Dobbs case, argued to reverse Colorado’s removal of Donald Trump from the 2024 ballot, and most recently helped make bump stocks available to all would-be mass shooters again.
Mitchell is suing on behalf of a very real group that he didn’t just make up for the purpose of the lawsuit, “Faculty, Alumni and Students Opposed to Racial Preferences” (FASORP). Heck, change it to “Faculty, Alumni, Students, and Citizens Opposed to Preferences” and it’d be FASC OP.
The lawsuit itself is full of pissy rhetoric like the above, apparently aimed more at Fox News producers than federal judges […]
University faculty and administrators think they can flout these anti-discrimination statutes with impunity because they are rarely sued over their discriminatory hiring practices and the Department of Education looks the other way. But now the jig is up.
Yes, dude, we see what you did there. Go fuck yourself.
As the Washington Post reports, the lawsuit
names three White men it says were not hired despite strong qualifications, and names four Black women and one Black man who it alleges were offered faculty positions because of their race and/or gender, painting several of these academics in harshly unflattering terms.
Again, a reminder: None of those who were passed over are parties to the lawsuit. Mitchell claims that his very real club of plaintiffs nonetheless has standing because it has “members who are ready and able to apply for entry-level and lateral faculty positions at Northwestern University’s law school,” where they will no doubt be rejected for being white guys, or utterly unqualified but you know that means “white.”
The Post said most of the professors named in the suit — not as defendants, but as evidence that people were hired primarily on the basis of race or gender, not their qualifications — declined to reply to inquiries, but that Paul Gowder went on the record to dispute the claim:
“This is absolute racist garbage,” he said in an interview, making clear that he was speaking for himself and not the law school or the university. “My record speaks for itself. I would gleefully put it up against the records of any of the people who were supposedly passed over.”
The lawsuit frequently alleges that various faculty hires were made solely on the basis of the candidates’ race or gender, but it’s pretty short on specifics, including a claim that “It was made clear to the Northwestern faculty that the law school had to hire a black woman for this position,” and that if the candidate in that example wasn’t approved by a faculty vote, “then the law school would have to hire a black woman later who would almost certainly be worse.”
The Black woman candidate, the complaint claims, “would not have been considered for a faculty appointment at Northwestern if she had been white or a member of a different race,” and was hired “over white male candidates who had records demonstrating that they were vastly more capable and qualified than she was.”
No, the complaint doesn’t offer any evidence that she was less qualified; guess you’ll just have to wait until the trial or the Fox News interview.
And as the New York Times points out, some of the candidates are described in not terribly subtle racist terms, although the Times settles for the far daintier term “language that could be seen as racially coded.”
For a few of the candidates, the lawsuit claims that they lacked scholarship or did not understand material. It accuses one professor of using an exam hypothetical from a publicly available source because she was “too lazy to write her own exam question.”
Also too, WaPo also points out that by complete coincidence, Tuesday’s filing of the lawsuit coincided with “the 60th anniversary of President Lyndon B. Johnson’s signing of the landmark 1964 Civil Rights Act,” although Mitchell said the timing was just a coincidence, haw haw haw.
Jesus fuck, this is what our courts have come to, happy America Day tomorrow, barf.
While Beryl’s path is uncertain, state authorities in Texas have warned people in coastal areas to be prepared over the holiday weekend. [map at the link]
Jamaica was braced for impact Wednesday as Hurricane Beryl approaches the Caribbean island nation as a major Category 4 storm, with evacuations ordered ahead of forecasted life-threatening winds and floods.
[…] So far, at least seven people are known to have died as a result of the storm, which has destroyed homes and devastated farms on islands across the Caribbean.
The small island nation of St. Vincent and the Grenadines was badly hit, with at least one person dead and more casualties feared. In Grenada, where least three people have died, Prime Minister Dickon Mitchell said many homes had been destroyed and called the storm’s effect “Armageddon-like.” Venezuela was hit by heavy flooding and at least three people have died there, with four more missing, the country’s president, Nicolás Maduro, said.
In Barbados, the fishing community and coastline were hit hard, Prime Minister Mia Mottley said. In a video shared on X, large waves could be seen crashing over a hotel balcony in Dover Beach. [video at the link]
On Tuesday, Beryl was classified as a Category 5 hurricane with record-breaking 165 mph winds by the National Hurricane Center, making it the strongest July hurricane on record.
Beryl has continued to weaken as it moves west across the Caribbean Sea towards the Gulf of Mexico, with sustained wind speeds of near 145 mph as of 5 a.m. ET., when it was 250 miles away from Kingston, Jamaica’s capital, moving at about 22 mph. […]
This is believed to be largest no. of petition signatures ever filed. Equals half # of Biden votes in ’20. More than double 385K required to get on November ballot. […] Arizonans for Abortion Access delivers 823K voter signatures to put initiative on November ballot. Would protect reproductive rights in state Constitution.
Heritage Foundation Will Keep Biden On Ballot (IF He Wants Off), BY SUING!
Earlier today, we discussed how Heritage Foundation president Kevin Roberts is out there [exhibiting]excitement over the Supreme Court ruling that Donald Trump is allowed to commit all the crimes he wants, as long as he promises it’s part of his official plan to overthrow America and replace it with Hitler. He’s ready to have a new American Revolution, and he promises it’ll be bloodless as long as everybody who isn’t a white fascist stops fighting them and agrees to like it.
Well, sorry to hit you with two Heritage Foundations in a row, but they and their Project 2025 are after all the puppeteers of Trump’s hoped-for fascist second term.
But apparently there’s something they’re scared of: Joe Biden dropping off the ballot and being replaced with somebody else. (This is not a piece about the merits of such an idea or lack thereof. Will that happen? We don’t know. The only thing we know is that if you turn the comments into a fight about that, we’ll come in there and suggest a less controversial topic, like Gaza.)
Anyway, the Heritage (Not Hate) Foundation has a plan if the Dems try to decide on a different nominee, and it is SUE!
Now you might be thinking, wait, how does the white supremacist fascist Heritage Foundation think it has a say in who the Democrats’ presidential nominee is? Silly you the dumb idiot! Extraneous white fascists think everything should be up to them.
NOTUS reports that this plan didn’t just suddenly spring into action after last week’s debate, but rather has been brewing ever since Robert Hur completed his special counsel report that concluded Joe Biden was old.
About four months ago, after special counsel Robert Hur’s report raised more concerns about Biden’s health, staffers at Heritage’s Oversight Project started researching laws in states across the country for replacing a nominee. They laid out just how difficult it would be for Democrats to replace Biden in key swing states in a memo that was compiled in early April and released last week ahead of the debate.
“If the Biden family decides that President Biden will not run for re-election, the mechanisms for replacing him on ballots vary by state,” reads the memo. “There is the potential for pre-election litigation in some states that would make the process difficult and perhaps unsuccessful.”
The upshot was that replacing Biden on the ticket would be “extraordinarily difficult” and that “we would make it extraordinarily difficult,” Oversight Project Executive Director Mike Howell, who authored the memo, told NOTUS this week.
NOTUS quotes Zack Smith, senior legal fellow at Heritage, who notes that in some states, “the deadline for getting on the ballot has already passed.” It says they’re hanging their hopes particularly on Wisconsin, Nevada, and Georgia as good places to sue.
Now, would this work? And has the Democratic Convention already happened and we just missed the part where Joe Biden became the official nominee?
Wellllll. Mixed bag.
It’s true that Biden is not officially the nominee yet, though the Democratic National Committee has agreed to do a virtual roll call to nominate Biden well ahead of the convention, in part to make Ohio’s ballot deadline. (The Dem convention is less than 90 days before the election, which is a no-no as per Ohio’s holy laws.)
So any move to replace Biden would have to happen fast. And NOTUS quotes an election lawyer, John Ciampoli, who says if they did that, he’s not sure what these Heritage incels really think they can do. (He didn’t call them incels, we are just Wonk-guessing that there are a lot of people at the Heritage Foundation who are quite involuntarily celibate, due to reasons of unfuckable.)
“I don’t know how there’s a state law that locks Joe Biden in at this point as the Democratic candidate,” Ciampoli told NOTUS. “How can a state make someone a candidate when the party hasn’t made him their candidate yet?”
Good question!
But that doesn’t mean the Heritage Foundation wouldn’t be a fucking pain in the ass about it, trying to throw wrenches in any gears that threaten to get in the way of their white supremacist Nazi takeover of the United States. […]
For whatever it’s worth, Trumpworld really really really doesn’t want to run against somebody else (it would be Kamala Harris):
“We definitely want the dementia patient,” a source close to Trump told NOTUS. “They made their bed; they get to sleep in it. But we also love the chaos of their public decision-making process.”
That might be the real reason, and we understand why it helps them to paint Joe Biden, as opposed to the shark-battery enthusiast, as a dementia patient.
But — and we are just spitballing here — it also might be that the plans for this year’s hostile Russian attacks on the election for Trump are already in motion, and they only work if the nominee is Joe Biden.
Wouldn’t it be weird if Russian bots were all over Twitter in October, pushing lies that Joe Biden called Black people “superpredators,” or talking about Hunter Biden’s Ukrainian penis, while Vice President Kamala Harris was out there campaigning for the presidency with her running mate Bernie Sanders?
Anyway, these Heritage Foundation people are un-American human and every patriotic American’s goal for November should be to defeat the fucking fascists, no matter what. End of story, the end, you wanna know the end of the story?
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported on Wednesday the fourth human case of bird flu linked to the ongoing dairy cow outbreak in the country, marking the first such case reported in Colorado.
All four cases were reported in people who work on dairy farms where cows tested positive for the H5N1 strain of the virus. Since March, two cases have been identified in Michigan and one case identified in Texas. The cases are all unrelated, the CDC said.
The Colorado man, as with the first two human patients, reported only pink eye symptoms, which the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE) described as “mild.” In the third case, identified in Michigan in late May, the person experienced respiratory symptoms including cough without fever and eye discomfort with watery discharge.
The Colorado patient took the antiviral, Tamiflu, and has recovered, the CDC said.
The CDC said the risk to the general public remains low. There is a greater risk, however, to people with “close or prolonged, unprotected exposures to infected birds or other animals (including livestock), or to environments contaminated by infected birds or other animals,” according to the CDC.
“The risk to most people remains low,” CDPHE state epidemiologist Rachel Herlihy said in a statement. “Avian flu viruses are currently spreading among animals, but they are not adapted to spread from person to person. Right now, the most important thing to know is that people who have regular exposure to infected animals are at increased risk of infection and should take precautions when they have contact with sick animals.” […]
Israeli forces killed a senior Hezbollah commander in a drone strike in southern Lebanon on Wednesday, prompting the Lebanese militia to retaliate with a heavy rocket barrage across the border as international diplomats scrambled to prevent an all-out war.
Federal Reserve officials at their June meeting indicated that inflation is moving in the right direction but not quickly enough for them to lower interest rates, according to minutes released Wednesday.
NBC News:
Travelers heading out for the July 4 holiday can expect plenty of company this year. Nearly 71 million people will be on the move over July 4th week, according to AAA — a new record that exceeds pre-pandemic totals.
About 90% of the population of the Gaza Strip have been displaced at least once since the war between Israel and Hamas began, according to the UN’s humanitarian agency.
Andrea De Domenico, head of the UN’s OCHA agency in the Palestinian territories, said on Wednesday that about 1.9 million people are thought to be displaced in Gaza.
“We estimate that nine in every 10 people in the Gaza Strip have been internally displaced at least once, if not up to 10 times, unfortunately, since October,” he told reporters.
“Before we were estimating 1.7 (million) but since that number, we had the operation in Rafah, and we had additional displacement from Rafah,” he said, explaining the increase.
“Then we had also operations in the north that [have] also moved people,” he added.
John Moralessays
“Nearly 71 million people will be on the move over July 4th week, according to AAA — a new record that exceeds pre-pandemic totals.”
An entirely reasonable and even necessary prudent use of our vast natural resources.
Well, that’s my own headline; it’s actually the first line of the actual article, the title of which is actually “Scotland’s skies aglow with rare clouds”.
Gotta love “Noctilucent”, no?
The instant I saw that, I knew what it meant. Of course.
Such words are wondrous.
Oh, right, and there’s a photograph there showing night-time clouds, which is pretty enough.
John Moralessays
Well, more than one, but having seen a noctilucent nightscape, the novelty is no more.
Like eclipses, basically. Or rainbows. Or flutterbyes.
StevoRsays
@ ^ John Morales : Huh, I still find them novel and wondrous. Okay, maybe not exactly novel for rainbows but still beautuiful and worth looking at , pghotographing, enjoying.
Haven’t seen any eclipses despiet going up to the one in 2012 that crossed northern Australia 0- went to Cairns had a great week’s holiday there – but also got clouded out at totality. Don’t recall seeing any noticlucent clouds. Did kinda see the aurorae earlier thsi year but very faintly and was hard totellfrom skyglow except from phone camera.
StevoRsays
The public entrance to (Australia’s federal – ed) Parliament House is locked down after pro-Palestinian activists scaled the roof of the building and (Climate – ed) protesters glued themselves to the marble foyer.
Labor senator Fatima Payman is expected to confirm on Thursday afternoon that she is leaving the party to sit as an independent. The ABC understands she will not be joining any Muslim community-linked party.
The political future of Labor’s Fatima Payman hangs in the balance as reports have emerged today that the suspended senator has been talking to a well-known strategist to independents and may be aligning herself with the Muslim group organising candidates to oppose Labor at the next election. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese speaks to 7.30’s Sarah Ferguson.
Instead, Labor has found itself under pressure from both the left and the right and is grappling with internal disunity. Here’s chief political correspondent, Laura Tingle.
Which reminds me that The 7.30 Report recently had an interview with MTG – yeah that MTG – too :
Julian Assange has always been a lightning rod – inspiring strong devotion and criticism from all ends of the political spectrum. In the US, Donald Trump supporter Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene was part of a bipartisan group of US lawmakers that urged President Joe Biden to drop the case against Assange.
I don’t she came over too well esp once challenged with questions outside of her support for Assange.
birgerjohanssonsays
To put our problems in perspective…
World’s oldest cave painting has been found in Indonesia. 51.000 years old.
Earth abides.
John Moralessays
Huh, I still find them novel and wondrous. Okay, maybe not exactly novel for rainbows but still beautuiful and worth looking at , pghotographing, enjoying.
I might’ve snarkily say that your woundrousness-juice glands must be pretty swollen, but of course it might be that mine are atrophied. Apart from the fact I respect you too much for that, of course. :)
Really.
Anyway, for you, I hereby take the time to explain my stance, hopefully to your satisfaction.
I might just indulge in a bit of flourish, but hey.
Might it hypothetically be that (novel and wondrous and beautiful) is not a single signifier, but rather a conjunction of such? I mean, more like ((novel) and (wondrous) and (beautiful)).
Right?
I hereby consider the consideration at hand, and think thus:
Might it hypothetically be that (novel and wondrous and beautiful) is not a single signifier, but rather a conjunction of three such? I mean, more like ((novel) and (wondrous) and (beautiful)).
I think so.
There is only a first time one sees a dog.
Sure. All dogs are different, and one sees many dogs.
So that “novel” attribute in the can apply, in my personal estimation, only the once.
After that, sure. Each image is novel, each arrangement of pixels is different, etc.
But they are images of dogs and (gotta love it!) noctilucent nightscapes.
Anyway, I know I’ve taken my time, but the point is that, novelty aside, only the beauty and wondrousness remains.
Right?
John Moralessays
Gack! Garbled. :|
((novel) and (wondrous) and (beautiful)) ⇉ ((wondrous) and (beautiful)) after exposure.
Also, please spare me potential embarrassment, O distant friend.
Is ‘Birger’ acceptable?
I want to know.
birgerjohanssonsays
My apologies.
“Birger” is perfectly OK
(in Swedish the g is sometimes pronounced “j” because language drift.
So, “birjer”
It is the same with our pronounciation of Sweden : “Sverige” (reich of the swedes) is pronounced “Sverje” .
birgerjohanssonsays
A little something to keep your minds off current miseries.
.
Hanna Reitsch was a pioneering “dare anything” test pilot*. Unfortunately, she flew for the nazis (in 1945 she even landed a small aircraft on a Berlin street, hoping to evacuate you-know-who from encirclement. That was the last aircraft to and from Berlin before the surrender).
“Operation Crossbow | Pulse Jet Rocket Flight Test” (manned version of V-1)
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=UtDHLsB2Ksc
*She even flew a prototype of the Flettner helicopter indoors inside a big dome. The only woman to be awarded an iron cross, but it turned out not to be a merit for post-war aviation.
I found Fred Schneider and Steven van Zandt are both 10 years older than me, give or take a few days. And this reminds me, is it true the two most memorable individuals of the 19th century – Lincoln and Darwin – were born the same day the same year?
If I was not a materialist through and through that would make me believe in fate. But if you look for coincidences, you will eventually find them.
Whatever else happens in the coming days with the presidential election, the whole saga will permanently affect my understanding of the culture of The New York Times. It is not the first time that in the midst of a presidential contest the Times has deployed and leveraged all its editorial resources to achieve a desired goal. We saw it in 2016 on a couple occasions. Tonight a TPM Reader suggested I look at the front page, telling me …
Eight out of 8 top articles are about whether Joe Biden should drop out, whether he’s doomed to be defeated by Trump, etc. Five out of 10 op-ed articles are about the same topic […]
Number of articles about any of the Supreme Court’s decisions this term, including the immunity decision: zero. It was literally a one-day story in the Times.
Perhaps it changed a bit since this reader wrote in. I see the top five articles and even more op-eds and then yet other newsletters which are also about Biden needing to drop out of the race. One of the op-eds appears to be adding to the three other articles about the new Times/Siena poll and saying how awful it is for Biden.
We’re pretty far into this story. I spent most of the day thinking Biden’s departure from the race was inevitable. So it’s certainly not that this isn’t a huge, historic story or that the tide hasn’t turned significantly against Biden in the last 48 hours. […] when I went to the Post and the Journal, two stories on each front page. There’s just a blaring difference at the Times. And with an editorial line in all the news stories that is clear throughout.
[…] I can only say, will only say again, that it is not the first time the Times has, in a presidential campaign, leveraged all its institutional and editorial muscle to engineer a desired goal.
A panel of three federal judges blocked Mississippi’s legislative gerrymanders on Tuesday, determining that Republicans violated the Voting Rights Act by discriminating against Black voters. The decision is the latest in a string of rulings in several states where courts have overturned Republican gerrymanders for discriminating against voters of color after the 2020 census.
Tuesday’s ruling ordered lawmakers to draw two new state Senate districts and one new state House district where Black voters could elect their preferred candidates, who would almost certainly be Black Democrats in what is one of the nation’s most racially polarized states. Several surrounding districts may also have to be redrawn to implement those changes.
Mississippi used its new maps for the first time last fall to elect lawmakers to four-year terms, resulting in Republicans winning a veto-proof two-thirds supermajority in the Senate and just shy of one in the House. While the court ruled that special elections must be held for any redrawn districts and expressed its desire to “have new legislators elected before the 2025 legislative session convenes” on Jan. 7, that outcome’s likelihood is remote if Republicans appeal, as appears likely.
In recent years, the U.S. Supreme Court’s far-right majority has repeatedly paused similar rulings on the dubious grounds that several months or less is too little time before an election to implement a new map, rulings that have almost always favored Republicans. However, if Tuesday’s decision survives an appeal, new elections will eventually take place using redrawn maps, though it’s unclear exactly when.
Mississippi joins a list of states where courts found Republicans discriminated against voters of color in recent years. Alabama, Georgia, and Louisiana are using new maps this fall after courts overturned their 2022 maps for violating Black voters’ rights, while North Dakota is using new legislative maps after a court determined Republicans had discriminated against Native American voters.
Lower courts also overturned maps in South Carolina and Florida for harming Black voters, but the Supreme Court reversed the South Carolina ruling in a June decision that will make it much harder for voters to challenge certain racial gerrymanders. In Florida, far-right appellate judges have dragged out the appeals process and ensured that no new congressional map will be used until at least after the 2024 elections. Litigation is ongoing in North Carolina, Texas, and other states, including over Georgia’s newest maps.
Motoko Rich of The New York Times writes about concerns that America’s allies have with the presidential immunity ruling handed down by the U.S. Supreme Court.
“If the U.S. president is free from the restrictions of criminal law, if he has that level of criminal immunity, the other leaders of the allied nations cannot trust the U.S.,” said Keigo Komamura, a professor of law at Keio University in Tokyo. “We cannot maintain a stable national security relationship.” […]
Though some give limited immunity to leaders while in office, Japan, South Korea, Australia and Great Britain — among the United States’ closest allies in the world — offer nothing like the sweeping protections the Supreme Court appears to have granted in its ruling this week.
The court’s decision to give the president immunity from criminal prosecution for official conduct — which was itself vaguely defined by the court — was “out of line with global norms,” said Rosalind Dixon, a professor of law at the University of New South Wales in Sydney. “I think that what is occurring in the United States in terms of the court’s ruling and the presidential election should be of grave concern to all of America’s allies.”
Quinta Jureic and Benjamin Wittes of Lawfare write that the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling is especially reckless with Donald Trump being poised to retake power.
The notion that there is some form of presidential immunity for some official acts—or at least some constitutional limit on Congress’s authority to criminalize the conduct of presidential acts—is not horrible in and of itself. Whether one calls this a limitation on Congress’s legislative authority or calls it a presidential “immunity” is a largely semantic distinction, though it’s a semantic distinction with an important procedural consequence. If we think of this protection for presidential action as merely a constitutional limitation on congressional power, it doesn’t convey an interlocutory appeal to a former president charged with a crime, whereas if we call it an immunity, these issues have to be resolved pretrial.
Had the Court merely contended that there is some irreducible core of presidential conduct that Congress cannot regulate, this likely would have been an uncontroversial decision, perhaps garnering unanimity as even the dissenters seem to concede it. Moreover, it would not either have gravely encumbered the prosecution or handed Trump a loaded weapon should he return to office.
But the Court went a lot further. […]
The bottom line is that the Court has created a profoundly muddled test that provides woefully insufficient guidance for lower courts—and for Judge Tanya Chutkan’s court in particular. In doing so, the majority also extinguishes whatever vestige of deterrence might have remained for presidents considering using their office as a shield for criminality. The standards set out in this opinion are so vague that an enterprising defendant could contort them in all kinds of ways, particularly given the limitations on inquiry into motive and available evidence. It’s hard to imagine that a president would, in light of this, be much discouraged by the ever-dimmer prospect of criminal liability.
Timothy Noah of The New Republic points out how the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo could, specifically, prevent OSHA from enforcing heat standards and could, generally, tank the economy.
Since Congress never ordered OSHA, when it created the agency in 1970, specifically to write a standard protecting workers from extreme heat—the word “heat” appears nowhere in the statute—business groups will argue that the standard flunks the Loper Bright test. The standard’s defenders will answer in court that OSHA’s founding statute requires it “to set mandatory occupational safety and health standards” and that these should be “reasonably necessary or appropriate.” But who decides what’s “necessary or appropriate”? Before last week, OSHA (mostly) did. Under Loper Bright, a regulation-hating judge can. Let the states decide this, the judge may say, and strike down the standard. Spoiler alert: Red states are already barring local governments from protecting workers from excessive heat.
The heat-injury standard illustrates how Loper Bright may strengthen business’s hand in defeating rules it deems economically harmful (i.e., pretty much all of them). But in weakening the administrative state, Loper Bright will cause much greater economic harm because an economy can’t be strong if it operates without sufficient regulatory guardrails. If, for example, there are no rules to prevent employers from killing workers by exposing them to excessive heat, those employers who address the problem responsibly will be placed at a competitive disadvantage. An economy that requires 40 workers per year to die from heat exposure is not (at least in that respect) strong. It is recognizably backward and weak.
Joe Biden said, after a NYT fueled media feeding frenzy out to get his scalp, “FU, I’m staying in.” [paraphrase]
The New York Times in response, does not cover or put Biden’s remarks on its front (digital) page. This is legit journalistic malpractice. A candidate, which a paper claims is on the ropes, saying I am not going is clearly news. Instead, the paper runs 5 negative stories about Biden and ignores the most salient news, the candidate is staying.
[…] Politico kept this story going by finding two Biden “allies” who said, off the record, that Biden said he might need to drop out and, even though the Biden campaign denied he said any such thing, then used that to build a narrative that Biden was going to/had to drop out because they [the New York Times] said so.
a veridical paradox: it seems wrong at first glance but is, in fact, true. While it may seem surprising that only 23 individuals are required to reach a 50% probability of a shared birthday, this result is made more intuitive by considering that the birthday comparisons will be made between every possible pair of individuals. With 23 individuals, there are 23 × 22/2 = 253 pairs to consider, far more than half the number of days in a year.
Though that only accounts for a day (of any year) in common for an arbitrary group.
that would make me believe in fate.
That date was not special, as just about everybody born on that day (or any day, of any year) was not world famous centuries later.
birgerjohanssonsays
The journalist Linda Tirado is dying of complications fron the brain injuries she got after the police shot her in the eye with a sponge bullet some years ago.
KGsays
The New York Times played a part in defeating Hillary Clinton by running endless “But Her Emails” stories. I don’t trust them. – Lynna, OM@445
Nor do I. But I trust my eyes and ears – up to a point.
– 1.9T American Rescue Plan
– $1400 stimulus checks for adults, children, and adult dependents
– 1 year child tax credit expansion – $3600 0-5, $3000 6-17, removed income reqs and made fully refundable
– One year EITC expansion
– $350 billion state and local aid
– $130 billion for schools for safe reopening
– $40 billion for higher ed, half of which must go to student aid
– Extended $300 supplemental UI through September 2021
– Expanded eligibility for extended UI to cover new categories
– Made $10,200 in UI from 2020 tax free
– $1B for Head Start
– $24B Childcare stabilization fund
– $15B in low-income childcare grants
– One Year Child and Dependent Care credit expansion
– $46.5B in housing assistance, inc:
– $21.5B rental assistance
– $10B homeowner relief
– $5B for Sec 8 vouchers
– $5B to fight homelessness
– $5B for utilities assistance
-Extended Eviction moratorium through Aug 2021 (SC struck down)
-2 year ACA tax credit expansion and ending of subsidy cliff – expanded coverage to millions and cut costs for millions more
100% COBRA subsidy through Sept 30th, 2021
– 6 month special enrollment period from Feb-Aug 2021
– Required insurers to cover PrEP, an HIV prevention drug, including all clinical visits relating to it
– Extended open enrollment from 45 to 76 days
– New year round special enrollment period for low income enrollees
– Restored Navigator program to assist with ACA sign up
– Removed separate billing requirement for ACA abortion coverage
– Eliminated regulation that allows states to privatize their exchanges
– Eliminated all Medicaid work requirements
– Permanently removed restriction on access to abortion pills by mail
– Signed the Accelerating Access to Critical Therapies for ALS Act to fund increased ALS research and expedite access to experimental treatments
– Rescinded Mexico City Policy (global gag rule) which barred international non-profits from receiving US funding if they provided abortion counseling or referrals
– Allowed states to extend coverage through Medicaid and CHIP to post-partum women for 1 year (up from 60 days)
– 42 Lifetime Federal judges confirmed – most in 40 years
– 13 Circuit Court judges
– 29 District Court judges
– Named first openly LBGTQ woman to sit on an appeals court, first Muslim American federal judge, and record number of black women and public defenders
– $1.2T infrastructure law, including $550B in new funding $
– 110B for roads and bridges •$66B for passenger and freight rail
– $39B for public transit, plus $30.5B in public transit funds from ARP
– $65B for grid expansion to build out grid for clean energy transmission
– $50B for climate resiliency
– $21 for environmental remediation, incl. superfund cleanup and capping orphan wells
– $7.5B for electric buses
– $7.5B for electric charging stations
– $55B for water and wastewater, including lead pipe removal
– $65B for Affordable Broadband
– $25B for airports, plus $8B from ARP
– $17B for ports and waterways
– $1B in reconnecting communities
– Rejoined the Paris Climate Accords 50% emission reduction goal (2005 levels) by 2030
– EO instructing all federal agencies to implement climate change prevention measures
– Ordered 100% carbon free electricity federal procurement by 2030
– 100% zero emission light vehicle procurement by 2027, all vehicles by 2035
– Net Zero federal building portfolio by 2045, 50% reduction by 2032
– Net Zero federal procurement no later than 2050
– Net zero emissions from federal operations by 2050, 65% reduction by 2030
– Finalized rule slashing the use of hydrofluorocarbons by 85% by 2036 – will slow temp rise by 0.5°C on it’s own.
– Set new fuel efficiency standards for cars and light trucks, raising the requirement for 2026 from 43mpg to 55mpg.
– Protected Tongass National Forest, one of the world’s largest carbon sinks, from development, mining, and logging
– Revoked Keystone XL permit
– Used the CRA to reverse the Trump administration Methane rule, restoring stronger Obama era standards.
– EPA proposed new methane rule stricter than Obama rule, would reduce 41 million tons of methane emissions by 2035
– Partnered with the EU to create the Global Methane Pledge, which over 100 countries have signed, to reduce methane emissions by 30% by 2030 from 2020 levels
– US-EU trade deal to reward clean steel and aluminum and penalize dirty production
– Ended US funding for new coal and fossil fuel projects overseas, and prioritized funding towards clean energy projects
– G7 partnership for “Build Back Better World” – to fund $100s of billions in climate friendly infrastructure in developing countries
– Restoring California’s ability to set stricter climate requirements
– Signed EO on Climate Related Financial Risk that instructs rule making agencies to take climate change related risk into consideration when writing rules and regulations.
– $100M for environmental justice initiatives
– $1.1B for Everglades restoration
– 30 GW Offshore Wind Plan, incl: Largest ever offshore wind lease sale in NY and NJ; Offshore wind lease sale in California; Expedited reviews of Offshore Wind Projects; $3B in DOE loans for offshore wind projects; $230M in port infrastructure for Offshore wind
– Solar plan to reduce cost of solar by more than 50% by 2030 including $128M in funding to lower costs and improve performance of solar technology
– Multi-agency partnership to expedite clean energy projects on federal land
– Instructed Dept of Energy to strengthen appliance efficiency rules
– Finalized rule to prevent cheating on efficiency standards
– Repealed Federal Architecture EO that made sustainable federal buildings harder to build
– Reversed size cuts and restored protections to Bears Ears, Grand Staircase-Escalante, and Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monuments
– Restoring NEPA regulations to take into account climate change and environmental impacts in federal permitting
– Extended public health emergency through at least April 15, 2022
– $50B in funding for FEMA for COVID Disaster Relief including vaccine funding
– Set 100% FEMA reimbursement to states for COVID costs, retroactively to start of pandemic
– $47.8B for testing
– $1.75B for COVID genome sequencing
– $8.5B to CDC for vaccines
– $7.6B to state and local health depts
– $7.6B to community health centers
– $6B to Indian Health Services
– $17B to the VA, including $1B to forgive veteran medical debt
– $3B to address mental health and substance abuse
– Over 500 million vaccine shots administered in a year
– Established 90,000 free vaccination sites
– Raised federal reimbursement from $23 to $40 per shot for vaccine sites
– 6000 troops deployed for initial vaccination
– Cash incentives, free rides, and free childcare for initial vaccination drive
– 400 million vaccines donated internationally, 1.2 billion committed
– $2B contribution to COVAX for global vaccinations
– Funded expansion of vaccine manufacturing in India and South Africa
– Implemented vaccine mandate for federal employees, contractors, and employees at healthcare providers that receive Medicare/Medicaid funding.
– Implemented vaccine/test mandate for large businesses (SC struck down)
– Invoked DPA for testing, vaccine, PPE manufacturing
– Federal mask mandate for federal buildings, federal employees, and public transportation
– Implemented test requirement for international travel
– Implemented joint FDA-NIH expedited process to approve at home tests more quickly
– Over 20,000 free federal testing sites
– 8 at home tests per month required to be reimbursed by insurance
– 1B at home tests available for free by mail
– 50M at home tests available free at community health centers
– 25M high quality reusable masks for low-income residents in early 2021
– 400M free N95 masks at pharmacies and health centers
– Military medical teams deployed to help overburdened hospitals
– Rejoined the WHO
– Ended the ban on trans soldiers in the military
– Reversed Trump admin limits on Bostock ruling and fully enforced it
– Prohibited discrimination against LGBTQ patients in healthcare
– Prohibited discrimination against LGBTQ families in housing under the Fair Housing Act
– Prohibited discrimination against LGBTQ people in the financial system to access loans or credit
– Justice Department declared that Title IX prohibits discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity in education.
– Revoked ban on Federal Diversity Training
– Instructed the VA to review its policies to remove barriers to care for trans veterans
– First Senate confirmed LGBTQ Cabinet Secretary
– First trans person confirmed by the Senate
– Extended birthright citizenship to children of same sex couples born abroad
– State Department allows X gender marker on passport for non-binary Americans
– Banned new contracts with private prisons for criminal prisons
– Justice Department reestablished the use of consent degrees with police departments
– Pattern and Practice investigation into Phoenix, Louisville, and Minneapolis
– Banned chokeholds and limited no-knock raids among federal law enforcement
– Initiative to ban modern day redlining
– Doubled DOJ Civil Rights Division staff
– Increase percentage of federal contract for small disadvantaged businesses from 5% to 15% ($100B in additional contracts over 5 years)
– Sued TX and GA over voting laws. Sued TX over abortion law. Sued GA over prison abuse.
– Signed law making Juneteenth a federal holiday
– Signed EO to use the federal government to improve voting access through federal programs and departments.
– Signed COVID-19 Hate Crime Act, which made more resources available to support the reporting of hate crimes
– Signed EO for diversity in the federal workplace
– Increased federal employment opportunities for previously incarcerated persons
– Banned ghost guns
– New regulations on pistol-stabilizing braces
– First annual gun trafficking report in 20 years
– New zero tolerance policy for gun dealers who willfully violate the law
– Signed COPS act, ensuring confidentiality for peer counseling for police officers
– Signed Protecting America’s First Responders Act, expediting benefits for officers disabled in the line of duty
– Signed bill making it a crime to harm US law enforcement overseas
– Student loan freeze through April 30th, 2022
– Changed criteria so an additional 1.14M borrowers qualified for the loan pause (retroactively forgave interest and penalties)
– Forgiven $11.5B in student loans for disabled students, students who were defrauded, and PSLF
– Fixed PSLF so that it is much easier for previous payments to apply.
– Determined that the paused months will apply to PSLF
– Student loan debt forgiveness is tax free through 2025
– Ended Border Wall emergency and cancelled all new border wall construction and contracts
– Repealed Trump’s Muslim Ban
– Set FY 2022 refugee cap to 125,000, the highest in almost 30 years
– Prohibiting ICE from conducting workplace raids
– Family reunification taskforce to reunite separated families. Reunited over 100+ families and gave them status to stay in US
– Granted or extended TPS for Haitians, Venezuelans, Syrians, and Liberians
– Lifted moratorium on green cards and immigrant visas
– Ended use of public charge rule to deny green cards
– Loosened the criteria to qualify for asylum
– Changed ICE enforcement priorities
– Reinitiated the CAM Refugee program for Northern Triangle minors to apply for asylum from their home countries
– $1B+ in public aid and private investment for addressing the root causes of migration
– Ended family detention of immigrants and moved towards other monitoring
– HHS prohibited working with ICE on enforcement for sponsors of unaccompanied minors
– Got rid of harder citizenship test
– Allowed certain visas to be obtained without an in person consulate interview
– Rescinded “metering” policy that limited migrants at ports of entry
– Ended the War in Afghanistan
– First time in 20 years US not involved in a war [depends on your definition of “involved”]
– Ended support for Saudi offensive operations in Yemen
– Airstrikes down 54% in 2021 from 2020.
– Issued policy restricting drone strikes outside of warzones
– Restored $235M in aid to Palestinians
– AUKUS defense pact with Australia and UK
– New rules to counter extremism within the military
– Signed law funding capitol police and Afghan Refugees
– EO on competitiveness to write consumer friendly rules, such as right to repair
– EO on improving government experience, including Social Security benefits will be able to be claimed online; Passports can be renewed online; Makes it easier for low-income families to apply for benefits; Increase telehealth options; WIC recipients can use benefits online
– $7.25B in additional PPP funds
– Signed PPP extension law to extend the program for 2 months
– Changed criteria to make it easier for small and minority businesses to qualify for PPP loans
– $29 Restaurant Recovery Fund to recover lost revenue
– $1.25B Shuttered Venue fund
– $10.4B for agriculture
– 30 year bailout of multiemployer pension funds that protects millions of pensions through 2051.
– Pro-labor majority appointed to NLRB
– Established task force to promote unionization
– Restored collective bargaining right for federal employees
– Negotiated deal for West Coast Ports to run 24/7 to ease supply chain
– Signed EO to secure and strengthen supply chains
– Investing $1B in small food processors to combat meat prices
– Extended 15% SNAP benefit increase through Sept 30, 2021; Made 12 million previously ineligible beneficiaries eligible for the increase
– Public health emergency helps keep benefits in place
– Largest permanent increase in SNAP benefit history, raising permanent benefits by 27% ($20B per year)
– Made school lunches free through for all through the 2021-2022 school year
– Extended the Pandemic EBT program
– Largest ever summer food program in 2021 provided 34 million students with $375 for meals over the summer.
– Restarted the FHA-HFA risk sharing program to finance affordable housing development
– Raised Fannie/Freddie’s Low-Income Housing Tax Credit from $1B to $1.7B a year to invest in affordable housing
– $383M CMF grant program for affordable housing production
– Prioritizing owner-occupants and non-profits as purchasers of FHA-insured and Distressed HUD properties, rather than large investors
– Paid a 10% retention incentive to permanent federal firefighters and a $1000 bonus to seasonal firefighters
– Transitioned hundreds of federal firefighters from part time to full time and hired hundreds more
– $28.6B in supplemental disaster relief approved for natural disasters
– $8.7B in funding to increase lending to minority communities
– Released $1.3B in Puerto Rico disaster aid previously held up by Trump admin and removed restrictions on $8.2B housing disaster aid
– Forgave $371M in community disaster loans in PR
– Released $912M in previously withheld education aid to PR
– Permanently made all families in PR eligible for the CTC (previously only families with 3 or more children were)
– Provided permanent funding to quadruple the size of PRs local earned income tax credit
– Permanent $3B per year boost to funding for PR’s Medicaid program
– Raised the minimum wage to $15 an hour for federal contractor, eliminated the minimum wage exception for certain contractor positions, and ended the tipped contractor wage.
– Ordered the minimum wage for federal employees to be raised to $15 an hour
– Medicaid drug rebate change to discourage excessive price increases and save Gov $23.5B
– Incentives for states to expand Medicaid
– Finalized the rule that bans surprise medical bills for out of network medical services
– Instituted a moratorium on the federal death penalty
All of those accomplishments do not mean he should not drop out. Things change. People change. The health of older people usually changes. But those accomplishments do earn President Biden and his administration time to right the ship in my opinion.
Re: birgerjohansson @ #434…
Hanna Reitsch was in command of a unit of test pilots during WW2, which led her to be the first person to successfully fly a jet-propelled aircraft. It was modified V-1 (they were trying to locate an instability in the guidance system). She took one herself after some of her subordinate test pilots were killed trying to do so. She was also the first person (note: no gender qualification) to fly a glider across the Alps.
Paul Ksays
It’s just so absolutely clear and obvious to me, as an American who’s been active in politics his entire life, and who comes from a family where that was just the norm (my grandfather was a Minnesota state legislator for 37 years; politics was just the background of my childhood) that, if Biden drops out, Trump wins. And if Trump wins, the world is fucked for some long time to come.
Making the argument — ANY argument — that Biden should drop out, even if the argument is sound and sensible, only aids Trump. Is Biden losing it? I don’t care. No other person, at this ‘late’ point in our ridiculous, complicated, long, and stupidly expensive election system, would have any chance of defeating Trump. Even if there were some obvious super candidate waiting in the wings — and I don’t see one with anything like the appeal of the known candidate we already have — they would not have time to raise enough money to organize in enough places to win. And they would be fighting the notion that the Democrats are ‘weak’ and disorganized and unable to choose a leader. This argument would be pushed by the Republicans, of course, but also by the NYT and other ‘mainstream’ media.
Democrats calling for Biden to withdraw are, in my view, fucking idiots. Biden is the only thing that can stop Trump. Do I like that? Not at all. I have never been a strong supporter. But it is what it is. If Biden were a turnip, I’d still be voting for him at this point. There is simply no other realistic option. And, the fact that people are still treating this like any other election blows me away. Like, boy, Biden is really not up to the task so let’s calmly discuss whether he can win against the perfectly legitimate other choice in the race.
Obviously, this is all just my own opinion. But it seems so patently obvious to me. Everyone’s hair should be on fire right now with the effort to prop up an old, not-so-very liberal, war-crimes-supporting, possible dotard. Because LOOK AT THE OTHER GUY.
birgerjohanssonsays
“Entothyreos synnaustrus a Remarkable New Cambrian Taxon”
Burgess shale yet again.
Paul K @452, I agree. And after giving it some thought, I think Biden is still astute enough, and politically savvy enough, to know that he should not drop out.
For one thing, just look at the timing.
For another, people are comparing this to Lyndon Johnson dropping out and that is just not right.. It is just not the same. See comment 346,
[…] It’s easy to romanticize revolution on the day celebrating this nation’s own war of independence. Yet unshackling from colonial masters is distinctly different from an ideological revolution. The former is essentially a war of independence against outside forces. The latter? There is nothing romantic about them.
Ideological revolutions are essentially civil wars. They pit family and friends against each other. They are bloody, messy, and brutal—and the wounds often last for generations. And given how easy ideologies are to warp, revolutions based in them seldom deliver the results expected. Egypt’s 2011 revolution was spurred by President Hosni Mubarak’s brutal regime, lack of freedom of speech, harsh political repression, and other economic concerns. The end result? The Muslim Brotherhood was popularly elected in the aftermath, enacting additional repressions. Indeed, the entire Arab Spring delivered not a single victory for freedom or democracy.
[…] Of course, many of you may be thinking, “American politicians and activists are not talking about that kind of revolution, sheesh.” And of course they’re not. But revolution isn’t democracy—it’s taking what one desires based on some other mechanism.
Indeed, that is why the right has worked so diligently to subvert our democracy, and there’s nothing more undemocratic right now than our illegitimate Supreme Court. [video at the link]
“We are in the process of the second American Revolution, which will remain bloodless if the left allows it to be,” said Kevin Roberts, the president of the influential Heritage Foundation.
That’s the crux of “revolution” talk: the belief that democracy has broken down and thus extraordinary means are required. This asshole understands that Republicans don’t have the popular support to enact their agenda, so they’re using the Supreme Court to dismantle our political and electoral system. They can afford to remain bloodless because they control some of the key institutions. And now, with court-approved lawlessness, a second Trump presidency can do just about whatever it wants.
Sanders or Bowman want a revolution in the face of that? Good luck. The only thing protecting us from tyranny is our democracy. Any attempt to undermine it, even rhetorically, is a boon to right-wing fascists.
[…] Winston Churchill, the former prime minister of the United Kingdom, famously said, “Democracy is the worst form of government except for all those other forms.” It certainly is challenging, and the frustrations from our own system are real. There is much that needs to be structurally reformed, like the Electoral College, the inequitable Senate, and the lawless Supreme Court (and now the lawless presidency). But imperfect democracy is preferable to chaotic, destructive revolution—a revolution where the right has all the advantages (not just structurally but also … guns).
Democracy is hard work. Right now, it’s particularly unpleasant given all the drama around a Biden campaign that has truly shit the bed.
But it’s the best chance we have of succeeding. Talk about “revolution,” and you’ve lost me; I’m tapping out. Winning in November is the only way we avoid catastrophe.
Stormy Daniels had a 2-hour interview with Rachel Maddow on MSNBC last Monday, and the show is set to replay tonight at 8 p.m. It’s worth watching.
In the interview, Stormy went into detail about the campaign both to terrorize her and also to ruin her financially that is being carried out by TFG and his minions. I was outraged by the extent of the campaign to punish Stormy for speaking out.
As a short version, here are some excerpts from the Go Fund Me Website for Stormy.
“Since the verdict was announced on May 30, 2024, she’s received countless death threats. The New York Post doxed her by leaking her home address, and the legal battles have just begun. It’s become unsafe for her family and her pets. Her horses have been shot twice now by protesters and even mainstream media paparazzi trying to provoke her out of her home. As if that’s not bad enough, Trump is still tangling her up in lawsuits in an effort to bleed her dry financially because his cult of minions will foot the bill for him to do so.
“Recently, Stormy was sent discovery documents to aid in collection of the attorney fee judgment. It is standard practice to request a list of assets, accounts, property, etc. HOWEVER, the forms Stormy was given also required that she provide her minor child’s personal information including legal name, father’s address and more. This information is not only a violation of a child’s privacy but has the potential of becoming very real and immediate danger. In response to her own doxing and fearing for her daughter’s safety, Stormy declined to provide those details unless a confidentiality agreement was granted. The court denied her request and a motion to compel hearing scheduled. No mother should be forced to choose between protecting her innocent child and being held in contempt of court.”
As far as I could tell, Stormy Daniels is still suffering some form of PTSD from that encounter with Trump. On top of that, she has been harassed continually for the last six years. Someone even shot one of her horses with a pellet gun. So MAGA cult followers are harassing her animals as well. Trump is still working hard to make her pay, in part by ruining her financially. She should be protected.
Another followup to comment 455 and 456: Hunter, writing for Daily Kos, chimes in:
Remember the time in 2015 when the press declared that Hillary Clinton was absolutely, super-for-sure probably maybe dying?
For those who don’t remember, back during the 2016 campaign Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton had a bout of pneumonia that nobody would even have noticed except that it caused her to stumble and she hit her head and the press immediately decided that this was it, she was definitely or at least probably or at least maybe going to die and the Democratic Party was said to be be scrambling to find a replacement before her corpse went cold. It was a game of telephone, by the press, each using each other’s speculation to ratchet up the drama and get the frontpages to the place they always want to go, in every election: What if things got exciting? What if we had a brokered convention?
And then the pneumonia went away and she was fine and Our Damn Press had to find some new reason why the Republican Party running a transparently incompetent and incoherent and crooked oaf was just as valid a choice as the Democratic Party running a former Secretary of State […] They landed on “but her emails,” and they drove that story into the ground and then some before traipsing merrily through four years of the Trump and Kushner White House using private emails for whatever they wanted to and nobody giving a damn.
[…] But what’s still missing, in all this new tabloid speculation about whether or not Biden is secretly incoherent and has just been amazingly good at hiding it from everyone, is any evidence of this supposed incoherence that’s not based on a handful of debate responses during a performance just as notable for his overpreparedness and over-responding to the asked questions.
Biden’s made multiple appearances since the debate. He’s been on the campaign trail plenty before then, too—more so than the sluggish Trump. And we haven’t seen a return of this supposed incoherence. There’s been no evidence for it. […]
That’s what’s most eyebrow-raising about all of this. We certainly ought to be prepared for the possibility that either Biden or Trump will become incapacitated between now and November, either because of speedy mental declines or physical ones. There are three candidates on the presidential campaign trail right now, and two of them are known for giving speeches peppered with obvious lies and apparent delusions, bizarre rants on spur-of-the-moment subjects that are very like what the early throes of dementia can manifest as. Two of the current candidates are known for such speech patterns, and the third candidate is Joe Biden. […]
I’ve got my own theory of the Biden debate disaster, and it’s one that I’ve completely pulled out of my hat but still benefits from having a bit more evidence to it than “secretly Joe Biden is mentally unfit and has been just doing an amazing job of hiding it during every public appearance but that one.”
We know Joe Biden is a stutterer, because he’s talked about it plenty. We know that he was feeling under the weather on debate night, with his campaign blaming it on a “cold” he picked up from his family. And we know that stuttering can be much harder to control when you’re fatigued or feeling ill, because Just Ask A Stutterer, and that a severe stutter isn’t just stumbling over a word here and there, it can cause the omission of entire words or phrases, leaving what’s left difficult for listeners to parse.
Given that Biden was perfectly coherent throughout all but a handful of debate answers (though again, his debate preparation team needs to be raked over some coals for thinking the right answer to debating Donald Trump was “flood the zone with memorized rebuttals”), doesn’t “lost control of his stutter in a very visible way, but by the end of the evening it was already getting better” fit the facts more than “secretly is no longer mentally sound?”
[…] so long as the Republican drive for a fascist presidency is averted, not just once but forever, I’d be content to put a Furby at the top of the campaign ticket and would still crawl over broken glass to vote for it. No, what chafes here is that as time goes on and the “free press” continues to chew the scenery on this, it feels more and more like the sort of salacious and dishonest yellow journalism that the “press” continues to use as its neutral balance for “and also the Republican side is calling for military tribunals targeting Trump’s critics.”
We’re getting follow-on stories that give us such juicy tidbits as “after doing the double jobs of being president and campaigning for reelection, Joe Biden may get noticeably more tired after 4pm,” which Christ I dunno what to tell you people but on days when I have to meet a bunch of people and be nice to them I’m worn out by 3:30. We’re getting the same “even the candidate’s own allies are coming to the candidate with tears in their eyes, big strong allies with tears in their eyes begging the candidate to step aside so that The New York Times won’t be so bored.”
[…] Both candidates are, biologically speaking, Equally Old. One of them has been spewing incoherent nonsense in every public appearance and is clearly far less fit for the presidency than he was when he first ran—and it ain’t Joe Biden.
That, right there, is proof that this story is manufactured rather than honestly reported. Because our fine free press could tear their hair out over any of the half-dozen things that make Trump absolutely and unquestionably unfit for office in 2024, and they are clamming up about all of them.
Guardian liveblog: “If the Conservatives do get just 131 seats, it will be their worst result in terms of seats since they started calling themselves the Conservative party in the 1830s, under Robert Peel. Previously their lowest total was in 1906, when they had 156 seats.”
Keir Starmer, the leader of the Labour Party, will be prime minister, replacing Rishi Sunak, polls show.
As voting stations close in the U.K. tonight, exit polls indicate a decisive victory for Britain’s center-left Labour Party. Kier Starmer, the party leader, will be prime minister, replacing Rishi Sunak.
Exit polls indicate a huge win for Labour, which looks poised to take 410 seats in Parliament, versus 131 for the Conservatives, according to the polls.
Broadcasting rules prevent discussion or analysis of election issues after the polls open at 7 a.m. local (2 a.m. ET). An exit poll produced by three broadcasters is published when voting closes at 10 p.m. local time, and in recent years it has provided an accurate prediction of how the parties have fared.
Starmer is set to face a whirlwind 24 hours — celebration, the official appointment by King Charles III and moving into No. 10 Downing Street, within hours of Sunak’s departing. He is inheriting a stagnant economy, crumbling public services, rising child poverty and homelessness, a beloved National Health Service that has become decrepit and dysfunctional, and a string of bankruptcies of city governments.
Starmer is a former prosecutor and a centrist who supports NATO and Ukraine — foreign policy views that align closely with President Joe Biden’s. […]
Right-wing commentators are praising former President Donald Trump for managing to “keep his mouth shut” and “remaining completely silent” after President Joe Biden’s June 27 debate performance, which triggered widespread concern about Biden’s fitness for office and ability to win reelection. [Well, that’s bullshit.]
“Donald Trump has run the most disciplined campaign, maybe, over the last 25 years,” Fox & Friends co-host Brian Kilmeade said on July 3. “The fact that he is laying out during this whole news cycle shows a discipline at a whole new level.” [And that is another layer of bullshit.]
That strategically silent, disciplined Trump does not exist. Since the debate, the former president and presumptive Republican presidential nominee has repeatedly promoted calls from his supporters to jail his perceived political enemies for “treason” and other purported crimes.
On Sunday, Trump “ReTruthed” a post calling for former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) to face a “televised military tribunal” for her purported “treason.”
He also “ReTruthed” a post stating that 15 current or former lawmakers, including Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, former Vice President Mike Pence, and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), “SHOULD BE GOING TO JAIL.”
Trump also “ReTruthed” a post urging him to “BRING DOWN THE ENTIRE SOROS FAMILY AND ALL THESE TREASONOUS TRAITORS THAT HE FUNDS” as part of a “COUP AGAINST AMERICA.”
And Trump “ReTruthed” a post describing Judge Juan Merchan, who oversaw the former president’s New York hush-money trial, as a “corrupt globalist judge” and called for Merchan to be “removed and charged.”
The latter three posts were from accounts that promote QAnon, continuing the former president’s habit of using his Truth Social platform to amplify the phraseology and adherents of a conspiracy theory which calls for mass violence directed at his foes. Indeed, Trump also once again “ReTruthed” a post using the QAnon slogan, “Where we go one, we go all.”
At a Friday rally, Trump also called for the release of rioters who had been prosecuted for storming the U.S. Capitol in response to his 2020 defeat, saying, “Free the J6 hostages now. They should free them now for what they’ve gone through.” The Associated Press also noted that “Trump repeated several of the false claims he made” during Thursday’s debate in his speech.
Pundits and journalists have spent the last eight years predicting Trump would change, or prematurely declaring that he had done so. But he is what he is — an unhinged demagogue with an authoritarian’s view of American institutions. No amount of wishful thinking from his right-wing media allies promoting a new, more disciplined Trump will change that.
Russian media report that Artem Gorodilov, commander of the Russian 83rd assault brigade, has been detained. He is accused of large-scale fraud.
In 2022, Gorodilov and his military unit were involved in the murders of Ukrainian civilians in Bucha, according to the New York Times investigation. He is under US sanctions.
A nine-year-old chess prodigy is set to make history as the youngest person ever to represent England internationally in any sport.
Bodhana Sivanandan, from Harrow, north-west London, will join the England Women’s Team at the Chess Olympiad in Hungary later this year.
She is almost 15 years younger than the next-youngest teammate, 23-year-old Lan Yao.
“I found out yesterday after I came back from school, when my dad told me,” Bodhana told the BBC. “I was happy. I hope I’ll do well, and I’ll get another title.”
Malcolm Pein, manager of the England chess team, says the schoolgirl is the most remarkable prodigy British Chess has ever seen.
(Colour me impressed)
Paul Ksays
Lynna, at 455: If one comparison between Lyndon Johnson and Biden makes sense, it’s that the person eventually chosen by the Democrats at the (horrible, controversial, surrounded by violence) convention, Hubert Humphrey, even with backing from loads of leaders, lost. Yes, much of the cause for his loss was Vietnam, and people associating him, as Johnson’s vice-president, with Johnson’s war (which was not really fair: Johnson chose him as his running mate to attract particular voters who might not have liked Johnson; the two had little interaction, from all I’ve read). Much was also due to people being angry that he had not taken part in any primaries. But part was also due to his late entrance into the race, and not having the folks on the ground needed to organize the campaign in all the places necessary in order to win in the time remaining before the election.
But, yeah, even that might be a stretchy comparison. It was an utterly different time and situation. And Nixon was a fantastic choice compared to Trump. For me to think and write that hows just what crazy times we’re living in.
The Conservative Party is facing “electoral Armageddon”, a former cabinet minister has warned.
Sir Robert Buckland, the first Tory of the night confirmed to have lost his seat, said too many in his party were focused on “personal agendas and jockeying for position” instead of “concentrating on doing the job that they were elected to do”.
The exit poll for the BBC, ITV and Sky suggests the Conservatives will hold on to 131 seats, down 241, while Labour will emerge as the largest party with 410.
If confirmed, it would be the worst result for the Conservatives in modern history.
Speaking to the BBC, Sir Robert said he was “fed up with performance art politics”.
“I’ve watched colleagues in the Conservative Party strike poses, write inflammatory op-eds, and say stupid things they have no evidence for, instead of concentrating on doing the job that they were elected to do,” the former justice secretary said.
Asked whether he was referring to former home secretary Suella Braverman, who days before polls opened published an article in the Daily Telegraph strongly critical of the government, he said: “Yes, and I’m afraid that’s not an isolated example.”
“I’m fed up of personal agendas and jockeying for position. The truth is now with the Conservatives facing electoral Armageddon, it’s going to be like a group of bald men arguing over a comb.
“It’s not about left and right. It’s about those who want to come into politics to do things, rather than to be something.”
Sir Robert added that for the party to move further to the right because of the result would be a “disastrous mistake and it would send us into the abyss”.
The description of what is wrong with the British Conservatives sounds like an accurate run down on the US Republicans. One can only hope that the electoral results this November will be similarly devastating to the Rs.
President Biden spoke with Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu Thursday morning about progress on a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas.
“Earlier I spoke with Prime Minister Netanyahu to discuss ongoing efforts to finalize a deal that would result in a ceasefire together with the release of hostages – a deal that I have outlined and is endorsed by the UN Security Council, the G7, and countries around the world,” Biden wrote on X.
[…] The United Nations Security Council approved a U.S.-sponsored resolution last month that called for an immediate, temporary ceasefire. The text of the resolution noted Israel had “accepted” the framework laid out by Biden in May and called on Hamas to accept the deal as well.
The call comes less than three weeks before Netanyahu is slated to address Congress on July 24. […]
I don’t think Netanyahu should be given the honor of addressing Congress.
The National Weather Service predicts temperatures of 110 to 115 degrees in inland California on Friday and Saturday.
An “extremely dangerous” heat wave is set to break daily temperature records across Western and Southern states through the holiday weekend, the National Weather Service warned Thursday.
The extreme heat comes as 28,000 people were forced to evacuate their homes because of a raging wildfire in Northern California. The Thompson Fire in Oroville, about 65 miles north of Sacramento, had grown to 3,568 acres and was only 7% contained Wednesday night. […]
In total, more than 100 million people spent Thursday under heat alerts.
In the West, it will only get hotter and more dangerous.
The National Weather Service forecast temperatures of 110 to 115 degrees in inland California on Friday and Saturday. Parts of the desert Southwest could reach 120 degrees.
[…] Las Vegas is forecast to reach 117 degrees Sunday and 118 on Monday, each higher than the city’s current all-time temperature record of 116.
The weather service advised people to stay hydrated and out of direct sunlight and in air-conditioned buildings where possible.
Records have already been broken: Livermore, on the eastern edge of California’s Bay Area, reached 110 degrees, while San Rafael in Marin County, California, reached 100.
Parts of Arizona, Nevada and Texas just endured their hottest June on record.
whheydtsays
Re: Lynna, OM @ #476…
Where I live, the NE corner of SF Bay (north side of where the Sacramento River enters the Bay), it hasn’t quite cracked 100. Tomorrow is forecast to be the last day over 90’F at 92. Sunday to Tuesday are all forecast for a high of 79’F, which will be welcome, indeed. Highest past that is 83 on next Thursday.
John Moralessays
Not sure what I did to deserve this, but there it was.
On my feed, unashamed, after a recent restart.
“The History Of Violence: From The Stone Age To The Present Day” on YouTube
Steven Pinker
8.1K subscribers
1,164 views 8 hours ago
—
BTW, for those of you who use Windows, as of some time ago, it became the case that ‘Shutdown’ basically puts your Windows instance to sleep, whereas ‘Restart’ does actually reboot your PC.
Anyway, after a reset, I got that.
(I only reset this session for the algorithm a few days ago!)
John Moralessays
Completist, here, sorry.
Oowerwise, ‘hibernate’ is better. And the ultimate resort is the power cord.
FWTW.
(Also, your router/modem. Power switch, at least 10s for those capacitors to discharge before restoring power)
Of course if the Norwegians are successful in their pilot project injecting CO₂ into former oil reservoirs under the sea, this is a useful supplement.
Akira MacKenziesays
I ask again, how can you call a party of posh capitalists, who have driven out the socialists using false accusations of antisemitism because they had to guts to call out Israel for its colonialist genocide, “Labour?”
birgerjohanssonsays
Passage of time…
Eva-Marie Saint turns 100 today.
She was in North By Northwest (1959) with James Mason and Cary Grant.
[…] With much of the country in the grip of a heat wave that is set to break daily temperature records and make conditions dangerously hot during the holiday weekend, a large and uncontained blaze near Yosemite National Park has triggered evacuations and forced hospital patients to shelter in place.
The French fire, in Mariposa County, California, began Thursday and was 0% contained by Friday morning, having burned through 791 acres, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection said.
Almost the entire town of Mariposa was under a mandatory evacuation order, with a large area to the east under an evacuation warning. […]
The rise of the radical far right in Europe poses a threat not only to the continent but also to Americans at home and abroad.
But while the U.S. government tends to be quick to use sanctions against perceived bad actors across the globe, when it comes to the transnational threat that far-right violence poses, successive U.S. administrations have been more coy about using another critical and effective tool: terrorist designations.
It wasn’t until mid-June 2024 that the Biden administration’s State Department sanctioned its first violent far-right group, the Nordic Resistance Movement. A neo-Nazi group based in Sweden but with a footprint that extends throughout Scandinavia, the NRM has built a reputation for brutality and espousing a vision of totalitarian rule. As the State Department noted in its designation, the group is also stockpiling weapons and explosive materials.
Prior to the Nordic group’s listing as a terrorist entity, the Trump administration designated the far-right Russian Imperial Movement as a terrorist group in 2020.
Both groups are now officially deemed “specially designated global terrorists” by the United States. As a result, the groups are subject to an asset freeze, and anyone trying to support them risks prosecution for financing terrorism.
As a former State Department counterterrorism official with more than a decade of experience sanctioning terrorists under U.S. law, I know that it’s no accident that the groups U.S. officials are targeting now are based in Europe rather than in America.
The threat posed by violent far-right actors is certainly as serious in Europe as in the United States. But United States agencies do not have authority to legally sanction groups such as the U.S.-based Oath Keepers, Proud Boys or the Atomwaffen Division as terrorists.
Constitutional rights that protect freedom of speech, assembly and the right to bear arms make it exceedingly difficult to sanction domestic groups. Further, all of the relevant executive orders and statutory laws in the anti-terrorism space are explicit that the State Department must designate foreign-based groups.
With limited power to crack down on far-right groups in the U.S., agencies are instead looking to curtail the influence of violent far-right ideology from overseas.
Yet the designations of only two violent far-right groups as “specially designated global terrorists” – separated by four years – is disappointing to me, especially when considering the range of far-right threats that dot the European continent.
[…] the United States has been less inclined to sanction far-right groups than many of its partners. For example, the United Kingdom has designated seven far-right organizations as terrorist organizations; for Canada, the count is nine.
Simply put, the United States, despite its penchant to sanction enemies – from hostile states such as Russia to terrorist groups such as ISIS – appears reluctant to fully take advantage of its terrorist designation tools against violent far-right actors. […]
Ballot drop boxes returning to Wisconsin following top court decision.
After President Donald Trump’s narrow loss in 2020, conservatives who then controlled the Wisconsin Supreme Court banned drop boxes. The liberals who now control the court reversed that decision.
Liberals on the Wisconsin Supreme Court cleared the way Friday for the use of absentee-ballot drop boxes, changing the rules for voting four months before the presidential election and reversing a decision made by conservatives two years ago when they controlled the court.
The 4-3 ruling came a year after liberals took a majority on the top court in a crucial swing state and six months after they undid a gerrymander that had long given Republicans huge majorities in the state legislature. The prospect of other major decisions became clear this week because the justices agreed to hear two abortion cases and an appeal appeared headed their way over striking down portions of a law that has crippled the powers of unions for government workers for more than a decade.
Ballot drop boxes were available for years in some Wisconsin communities, and their use was greatly expanded for the 2020 presidential election as voters turned to absentee voting because of the covid-19 pandemic. Top Wisconsin Republicans supported them at the time but turned against them after Joe Biden narrowly beat President Donald Trump in the state.
[…] “It’s a big victory for voters across Wisconsin,” said David Fox, who argued the case for Priorities USA. “It restores for them the ability to use drop boxes to return absentee ballots reliably, conveniently, securely.” […]
Former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) said in a post Thursday on social platform X that former President Trump “threatens to unravel our Republic.”
“Take a few minutes today to read David McCullough’s speech: ‘The Glorious Cause of America.’ For 248 years, our freedom has survived. Now, its defense is up to us. We must defeat the former president who threatens to unravel our Republic,” said Cheney, who’s emerged as a vocal Trump critic.
“We must not fail.”
Last Sunday, Cheney, who was one of 10 House Republicans to vote to impeach Trump in the wake of the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol and served on the panel investigating the incident, went after Trump for reposting a meme in which he indicated that the Wyoming Republican committed “treason.”
“Donald — This is the type of thing that demonstrates yet again that you are not a stable adult — and are not fit for office,” she said at the time in a post on X.
Cheney’s post came in response to a post from MeidasTouch, which shared a screenshot of the former president reposting a meme on Truth Social indicating that she should face prosecution via televised military tribunals.
Cheney’s PAC in early June made a subtle dig at the former president in an advertisement centered around D-Day.
“America deserves a president as good and steadfast as our nation, a president of character, driven by a noble purpose, one who honors the sacrifices of our troops,” Cheney said in the ad.
“Not a man consumed by spite, revenge and self-pity,” continued Cheney, who lost her primary to a Trump-backed challenger.
Steven Cheung, a spokesperson for the Trump campaign, said in response to Cheney’s latest post that she “has decided not to seek treatment for Trump Derangement Syndrome.”
“She lives a miserable existence befitting a loser of the highest order,” Cheung added in an emailed statement to The Hill.
[…] several weeks ago, after obsessing over yet another concern-trolling column on President Joe Biden’s maddening inability to walk on water or cast the demons out of Peter Doocy, I decided to get off my ass and do something. Or, rather, stay on my ass and do something. Because while I want to save democracy as much as—or even more than—anyone else, staying on my ass is a nonnegotiable part of the strategy.
And I’m in luck! There’s a perfect, pretested action plan for people like me, and you need look no further than this link. All the deets are there, but the gist is this: A small army of volunteers—hundreds of thousands of us!—has signed up with the Progressive Turnout Project’s Postcards to Swing States Initiative, which is partnering with Daily Kos. It’s pretty much what it sounds like. We mail postcards to states where Biden is either uncomfortably ahead or within shouting distance of the ocher arschloch, and if we’re successful, we’ll help give Joe the margins he needs to stay in office and keep the fascists at bay.
And it’s super easy. Cookie-cutter, even. Effective, proven, brief messages are provided for you (the states may be purple, but the prose most definitely is not), and you need only copy them down, add the addresses from the voter list provided (they’re all “voters who are extremely likely to support Democratic candidates but might not vote without a nudge,” according to the PTP), and voilà—democracy is saved! Or could be, anyway, if enough of us participate in this and similar get-out-the-vote efforts.
It’s as simple as that. No fretting, no raging, no hair-pulling. Just easy, direct, proven action that can make a real difference, and perhaps save your fingernails from the perduring depredations of Trump-induced angst.
[…] As the Progressive Turnout Project notes, “Our award-winning research proves that postcards increase Democratic turnout by 1.3%. In 2020, our postcard program added thousands of votes in states critical to President Biden’s victory. In the 2022 midterms, our postcards added 22,500 votes in key races across the nation.” And while a 1.3% boost in turnout might not sound that big, in a close election it could literally be the difference between winning and losing. And like the past two presidential elections, this one could be very close.
[…] “Do more, worry less” is the mantra Hopium Chronicles’ Simon Rosenberg has adopted for his expansive boost-Biden campaign, and it’s one we can all fall back on as we face an uncertain future.
In short, we should all rally around the words of Jen O’Malley Dillon, chair of the Biden reelection campaign, who was recently interviewed in Puck:
Can I just add one thing? We are going to win. But it is because the people of this country take action and take action now. For every single person who is worried, go do something about it. Get a yard sign. Go on Facebook and say you support Joe Biden. Go do your own fucking TikToks. That is what we need now. … And every single person that’s bed-wetting—hate to use that phrase, thanks for putting it back in my head—take action. Do something. You have power. Take it.
[…] And while we’ll never be anything like the Trump cult, it turns out it is kind of fun to be part of a big, change-making movement—so long as it’s not focused on petty revenge and unwittingly improving the fortunes of venal billionaires. […]
Tonight, at 8 p.m., ABC News’s George Stephanopoulos will air his interview President Biden.
[…] The interview will be aired in its entirety at 8 p.m. EDT and PDT on ABC. The first clip of the interview will air on “World News Tonight with David Muir” at 6:30 p.m.
The full interview will be aired again Sunday on “This Week with George Stephanopoulos.” ABC said it would also make an edited transcript of the interview available Friday.
Biden is sitting down with Stephanopoulos for the interview while he is in Wisconsin for campaign events earlier Friday. […]
…Every day brings new examples of the horror the country is plunging into and which an RN victory would exacerbate. Since the dissolution of parliament on 9 June, there has been an increase in racist and homophobic incidents….
This is a foretaste of the kind of atmosphere the National Rally would make mainstream. According to the National Consultative Commission on Human Rights, the normalisation of racism is rising alongside support for the far right. That is hardly surprising when you consider that Mediapart and Libération have investigated RN candidates and have not had to dig far to find examples of the crudest forms of racism – including antiziganism, antisemitism and Islamophobia, sexism, homophobia, conspiracy theories and Nazi nostalgia – fuelling their social media feeds.
Marine Le Pen has managed to rebrand her party, but maintains strong ties with groups and builds allyship with European parties that are less cautious about hiding their extremism. She tries to distance herself from the legacy of the party co-founded by her father, Jean-Marie Le Pen, with former Nazi collaborationists. He has long been accused of torturing civilians while serving as a paratrooper during the Algerian revolution and was convicted on charges of minimising the Holocaust.
But Le Pen’s party not only pursues a hardline anti-immigrant policy. It aims to create different categories of French nationals, stripping dual citizens of rights.
This is what the RN represents at its core and why it must be prevented from prevailing next Sunday. Stopping the far right takes courage and moral clarity: politicians need to put their individual interests aside in the interest of everyone. We cannot waver on our principles, and risk pushing France into a situation from which it will not recover. For those who are privileged, failing to do everything in their power to block the RN may seem acceptable. But they need to think about those millions whose lives are at risk.
“We’ll argue later” has become the motto of the leftwing parties that have coalesced against the far right. This should be applicable to everyone across the political spectrum who is capable of defeating the far right. The priority must be to make sure this party never crosses the threshold of power.
…A far-right victory represents a major threat to our basic social contract and our liberties. We face the implementation of policies that discriminate against foreigners, migrants, women, minorities and more. Because it has no credible economic platform, the far right will revert to the only thing it knows – the exacerbation of tensions and the politics of hate.
What is the alternative? The left alliance, the New Popular Front (NFP), is France’s best chance….
…
The NFP’s policy platform credibly addresses how to finance a strategy of inclusive investment. By contrast, the far right argues in favour of repealing the existing tax on real-estate multi-millionaires. It claims it will finance its policies by targeting foreigners and welfare recipients, but this will simply generate more economic disillusionment and more tensions.
The only threat in France next Sunday is the one posed by far-right victory. We hope that centrist voters understand what is at stake and turn back to the left.
Plusieurs milliers de militants participent partout en France à des opérations de terrain pour convaincre les électeurs de circonscriptions à fort enjeu de faire barrage à l’extrême droite, dimanche, au second tour des élections législatives anticipées. Ils ont été mis en relation grâce à des groupes d’action ayant émergé sur les réseaux sociaux durant la campagne….
whheydtsays
Re: Lynna, OM @ #487…
There are reasons for the cooling trend where I live. First factor is that, in the north temperate zone, weather tends to move west to east. Second, off the coast of much of California is the Japan Current, which sweeps down from the very cold water of the Gulf of Alaska. As hot weather in the Central Valley persists, pressure drops and pulls the air from the ocean across the cold current into the Bay Area (this is also where much of our fog comes from). The typical pattern is about three days of warm to hot weather, then the “natural air conditioning” kicks in and the Bay Area cools off. I should note that, by and large, people don’t swim in the Bay or ocean around here…unless they’re wearing wetsuits. The water tends to run around 40’F.
Same issue from another source:
“Trump cornered by incriminating text revelations of his inner circle after staffer turns on him”
We learn about a person who paid money after a lawsuit for sexual harassment, an analyst named Boris Epshetyn in the 2020 campaign who is still in the inner circle around Trump.
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=HyRR8PaL4k8
birgerjohanssonsays
I do not have the background to assess the credibility but the company has been able to raise $ 120 million.
Aerial footage from Miami beach 4th of July showed sharks loitering just outside the line of swimmers. I do not include the link, it is just blurs moving under the water.
whheydt @493, “I should note that, by and large, people don’t swim in the Bay or ocean around here…unless they’re wearing wetsuits. The water tends to run around 40’F.”
So, so different from the bathtub water near Florida, and in the Gulf near Texas.
In other news, Biden says that he felt so terrible the day of the debate that he had a COVID test. It turned out that he only had a bad cold. Biden said he did not recover properly from all his world travels in part because he had a cold … apparently he was sick for many days.
[…] Trump attempted Friday to publicly distance himself from Project 2025 — an initiative referred to as the “presidential transition project,” spearheaded by the conservative think tank, the Heritage Foundation. Over the course of the Biden administration, Project 2025 has put out a series of proposals for how a second Trump administration might radically reshape executive branch power, remaking the federal workforce and instituting a wide range of far-right policies on topics ranging from abortion to climate change to immigration.
In a post on Truth Social on Friday, Trump claimed that he knows “nothing about Project 2025.”
He added: “I have no idea who is behind it. I disagree with some of the things they’re saying and some of the things they’re saying are absolutely ridiculous and abysmal. Anything they do, I wish them luck, but I have nothing to do with them.” [Sounds like bullshit and lies to me. He could go to the website, that tells him who founded Project 2025 and who is working on it. His friends. Trump’s former staff, etc.]
Project 2025 was, in fact, founded by three alumni of the Trump White House. Its advisory board includes a host of Trump-aligned organizations, including the Center For Renewing America, which was founded by Trump’s Director of the Office of Management and Budget Russ Vought, and projects involving Stephen Miller, Trump’s former advisor.
Trump’s social media post follows an interview, aired earlier this week, in which Heritage Foundation president Kevin Roberts made alarming comments on Steve Bannon’s “War Room” podcast. The nation, Roberts said, is in the “process of the second American Revolution, which will remain bloodless if the left allows it to be.”
The comments have put Project 2025 in the spotlight once again.
The Biden campaign has, in recent months, focused its messaging more heavily on highlighting the ways in which Project 2025 proposes to infringe upon democratic checks and balances and potentially give Trump, in the campaign’s words, “more power over your daily life.”
Project 2025’s over 900-page proposal outlines what a possible Trump presidency might look like, and includes pathways to overhaul government agencies, strengthening the power of the president and weakening the administrative state. The extensive roadmap for what a new Trump presidency might look like also includes a plan to remake the federal bureaucracy, with plans to get rid of thousands of federal employees and replace them with Trump loyalists.
After Trump suddenly distanced himself from the project on Friday, Ammar Moussa, spokesperson for the Biden campaign, pointed out on X that a Trump super PAC, Make America Great Again Inc., has been running ads for a website called Trump Project 2025.
Trump would prefer to have no written agenda, no Republican policies and nothing that would require him to think or plan.
Ten to one he didn’t write that post. His minders want to distance Degenerate Leader from Project 2025, which is not at all popular.
———————-
Getting enough media traction to get a response. A step.
—————————
“I never met that project before. It’s not even my type.”
—————————
He knows NOTHING about Project 2025. But he knows some of their ideas are abysmal. ???
————————–
“and some of the things they’re saying are absolutely ridiculous and abysmal.”
– Candidate Trump, 2024
—————————-
“I don’t know anything about what you’re even talking about with white supremacy or white supremacists,” he said. “So I don’t know. I don’t know – did he endorse me, or what’s going on? Because I know nothing about David Duke; I know nothing about white supremacists.”
————————–
He’s actually endorsed the elimination of schedule F civil service jobs replacing those who won’t sign a loyalty pledge to him, with his loyalists who will. Trump lies like the rest of us breathe.
birgerjohanssonsays
Something for a satirical SF story.
“AI could prove that reality doesn’t exist, physicists say”
Followup to birger @comment #483 in the previous group of 500 comments on The Infinite thread.
As Rep. Matt Gaetz’s ethics mess intensifies, the Florida Republican is trying to turn his ordeal into an election-season fundraising opportunity.
Nooo…
Donald Surherland has died.
He was 88 years old.
For the convenience of readers, here are a few links back to the previous group of 500 comments on The Infinite Thread:
https://proxy.freethought.online/pharyngula/2024/04/07/infinite-thread-xxxi/comment-page-5/#comment-2224956
Two of Judge Aileen Cannon’s colleagues reportedly urged her to hand off Donald Trump’s classified documents case to a different jurist. She refused.
https://proxy.freethought.online/pharyngula/2024/04/07/infinite-thread-xxxi/comment-page-5/#comment-2224953
“More than 1,000 hajj pilgrims die amid temperatures approaching 52C in Mecca” | Hajj | The Guardian
https://proxy.freethought.online/pharyngula/2024/04/07/infinite-thread-xxxi/comment-page-5/#comment-2224941
World Refugee Day
Alito Keeps Head Down in Moore Case
Followup to comment 4.
Supreme Court Decision Spares Potential Future Wealth Tax — For Now
Fox News poll: Biden surging ahead. Trump: Fox News ‘is TRASH!’, by Mark Sumner.
Louisiana begs to be sued for forcing Ten Commandments on kids
Variety:
GOP lawmaker demands Biden admin declassify intel on Russia’s nuclear anti-satellite program
‘Novo Nordisk is ripping off the American people,’ Bernie Sanders says of Ozempic and Wegovy costs
The Vermont lawmaker wants to know why the drugmaker charges up to 15 times more for the blockbuster weight loss drugs in the U.S., compared to other countries.
More at the link.
The YouTuber missed a trick there – should surely have been “Gamboling Away From Sunak”!
“The Most Painful Venoms in The World”
-The Sydney Funnel Web Spider sounds like a barrel of laughs.
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=v-KggdhnyLI
Better than bad news:
“Netflix Sci-Fi Comedy Series Gives Fan-Favorite Actor His Best Role”
https://www.giantfreakinrobot.com/ent/sci-fi-comedy-best-role.html
Associated Press:
Associated Press:
Cartoon: Climate change
https://x.com/MeidasTouch/status/1803555145311285517
Seth Meyers: Trump Stuns CEOs with $1 Billion Quid Pro Quo, Lies About Biden’s Insulin Price Cap
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=RPLvoPnwwNk
Recommended 🙂
Milwaukee police show the world how to provide state funded abortions. Just carjack a vehicle while pregnant and the police will shoot you during the chase. If you are lucky, you’ll live, and the fetus aborted. All Cops Are ‘Bortionists.
Only Clarence Thomas Would Let Domestic Abusers Keep Their Guns In New Ruling
Followup to comment 21.
Josh Marshall:
Link
Outrageous facts about Louisiana’s Ten Commandments law
The Louisiana bill also includes a fake Thomas Jefferson quote.
Correction to comment 23. That fake quote in the Louisiana bill is attributed to James Madison.
More commentary: The Founder’s Fury: Ten Commandments Invade Our Schools
Much more at the link.
More about that fake Madison quote:
Making shit up.
If you want to quote one of the Founding Fathers:
Bad news for sure: Trump’s cash isn’t from the masses but the billionaire boys club
Say what now?
Link
Followup to comment 25.
Meet Timothy Mellon, The Latest Weirdo Billionaire Trying To Get Trump Elected
He also has some theories about Amelia Earhart.
https://www.wonkette.com/p/meet-timothy-mellon-the-latest-weirdo
This seems worthy of The Infinite Thread: YouTube’s algorithm more likely to recommend users right-wing and religious content, research finds
That’s NBC’s coverage of this report from the Institute of Strategic Dialogue (ISD): Pulling Back the Curtain: An Exploration of YouTube’s Recommendation Algorithm.
I know nothing about ISD so not vouching for them.
France’s soccer stars take on the far right
Captain Kylian Mbappe and other players at the European Championships have urged people to vote in a snap election that could see the surging nationalists take power. [video at the link]
Ahead of next week’s debate, Donald Trump is trying to manage expectations, especially about Joe Biden. The trouble is, the Republican is bad at this game.
That’s not going to be a problem for Trumpkins, who believe simultaneously that January 6th was a false flag operation by “Antifa” and the FBI, and that those imprisoned for their violent part in it are martyrs.
A little-noted feature of opinion polls during the UK election campaign is that the percentage recorded for Labour has dropped – only by a few points, but enough to show up clearly enough in polls-of-polls. In some polls, it is now below 40% – which was the percentage achieved by Labour in 2017 (the election before last) when it was led by one Jeremy Corbyn. This drop in no way threatens the expected huge Labour majority, but that expectation is due to the Tories haemorrhaging votes to Farage. It would be most amusing if St. Keir were to end up with a lower percentage of the vote than Corbyn got in 2017.
Talking of the Tories and Reform Party UK Ltd., many anti-Tories (including here) are still insisting that the right thing to do in all circumstances is to vote for whoever is most likely to defeat the Tory in your constituency, in hopes that they will win fewer seats than the LibDems, who would then become “His Majesty’s Loyal Opposition”, which carries with it a number of parliamentary perks to do with setting the subject of debates and chairing committees. In some cases (e.g. Clacton, where Farage is standing and will probably win) the candidate most likely to defeat the Tory is the Reform Party UK Ltd. candidate. But even setting that aside, modifying the recommendation to “Vote for the non-Faragist candidate most likely to defeat the Tories”, the result if all non-Faragist Tories follow that advice would not necessarily be all that wonderful. The Tories are likely to win fewer seats than the LibDems only if they also win a lower proportion of the popular vote than Reform Party UK Ltd. (it’s not impossible they could win fewer seats than the LibDems but more votes than Reform Party UK Ltd. but the two eventualities obviously tend to go together). In such a case, it’s likely Farage and a few of his minions would be elected. Now in such a case, while the LibDems would be the official opposition, Farage would have a good case for claiming to be the real leader of the opposition, having gained more votes than any party other than Labour. But furthermore, it’s possible that the Tories and Reform Party UK Ltd. together would have more seats than the LibDems, maximising the pressure on them to merge – and Farage would probably not accept a merger unless he got to be leader. So he could be leader of the opposition within a matter of weeks, and in an excellent position for the 2029 election.
BREAKING! ACHTUNG! DRUDGE SIREN! NEW YORK TIMES SAYS TRUMP IS OLD!
Also something about the debate.
https://www.wonkette.com/p/breaking-achtung-drudge-siren-new
Missouri attorney general to sue New York over Trump prosecutions
Andrew Bailey’s lawsuit targets New York attorney general and Manhattan DA, who both secured Trump convictions
More at The Guardian link.
Manhattan DA seeks to largely maintain Trump’s gag order, citing threats to prosecutors
Even though the hush money trial is over, Trump should still be barred from attacking prosecutors and jurors, the district attorney’s office said.
A rather good article at Vox: https://www.vox.com/world-politics/356200/israel-gaza-war-policy-klein-segal-interview
@#36, John Morales:
That article could be a lot shorter if it were honest. Here, let me give you a corrected version:
There. The end. That’s all anybody really needs to know.
Beyond CRISPR: seekRNA delivers a new pathway for accurate gene editing
.https://phys.org/news/2024-06-crispr-seekrna-pathway-accurate-gene.html
Fur farm rescue foxes
“Finnegan Fox’s reaction after not seeing me for days”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=bkI0G2OelZk
Well, singular Vicar, let’s see you put this into your Bizarro World terms:
Hey, did you get as far as the ironic bit?
(Fever dreams, eh?)
We in the media keep pretending it’s a complex issue, but it’s really that simple: Israel is a nation of treacherous murderers and thieves and always has been, and our own leaders are variously cowards and villains for siding with them.
Just checking, you reckon new-born Israeli babies are treacherous murderers and thieves?
(All that foam frothing from mouth makes you hard to understand)
[Ack!]
—
Just checking, you reckon new-born Israeli babies are treacherous murderers and thieves?
(All that foam frothing from mouth makes you hard to understand)
—
(I almost sounded stupid, for a minute there)
The Nevada Independent:
Link
Reuters:
Robert Winnett will not join The Post as editor.
Winnett, hired by Washington Post publisher William Lewis, faced questions about his U.K. work, including stories based on stolen records.
Washington Post link
New York Times:
Cartoon: Commandments for hypocrites
Charles Sykes, writing for The Atlantic:
Followup to comment 48.
Study shows a Trump economy would be even more ruinous than you’d imagine
Rapist-Worshipping Death Cult Demands Religious Supremacy
@ 48
That’s rich coming from a right-wing talk show host who sang the praises of Reaganomic and the free market for as long as I knew him!
Cartoon: Business leaders hear Trump’s predictions
Trump in 2018:
Update to 2024:
Link
Busiest transit hub in U.S. rocked by delays as infrastructure breakdowns hit during heat wave
New Jersey Transit and Amtrak rail service was severely disrupted this week, leaving some commuters stranded for hours on the hottest days of the year.
In the news: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cjjje07x35do
You can’t make this up.
“Multiple Tory Scandals Hit This Week”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=ijVz5oPfUwE
On the Ukraine war, Anders Puck Nielsen:
@John (Im)Morales, #42:
That’s a step up for you; usually the times when you only almost sound stupid last mere seconds.
Yes. They bear guilt the same way that US citizens like me, born here, bear a share in the guilt of the theft of this land from the natives. (And, for that matter, that modern Europeans bear a sliver of the guilt from that same theft, since their ancestors did it and their nations retain the profits from it.) Being the receiver of an estate looted from a corpse is still a crime, even if most people — like you — have collectively decided that it’s okay if we all look the other way.
Israel has never negotiated in good faith; pretty much everything they say on their behalf is a lie. (Consider, for example the claim they made after October 7 that Hamas had killed 40 babies and raped a bunch of Israeli women — after a few weeks, they admitted that the only dead baby (singular) to be found anywhere near the site was probably caused by fire from the IDF. Then, recently, they recanted on the rape part, too — probably because it started to look a bit suspicious that no women at all came forward, even under conditions of anonymity, to talk about it. They’ve now admitted it was all lies — but they were very useful, timely lies, and lies which Biden embraced and claimed to have seen evidence of… in fact, he even claimed that after the Israelis admitted they were lying.)
(Incidentally, Open Secrets published a list a little while ago of the largest totals of known donations to US Senators by Israeli lobbying groups since 1990; Joe Biden was number 1 on the list, with over $5.6 million in donations — and since he hasn’t been in the Senate since 2008, that number is probably more meaningful than it looks, thanks to inflation. No wonder he’s willing to tell blatant lies on their behalf; he knows which side his bread is buttered on. It’s also not surprising that Hillary Clinton has come out of her seclusion to denounce pro-Palestine protests — she’s #3 on the list, and took money from Israel at approximately the same average rate as Joe the Israeli puppet, but for only about 40% as long.)
I refuse to recognize any guilt on the part of Hamas. Palestinians live in an open-air concentration camp, where they are subject to abduction, torture, and murder essentially at the will of the colonizing government, which exists entirely on land they stole within living memory. They are stuck there against their will. The Israelis are absolutely, 100% in the wrong, and if they don’t like the fact that the Palestinians won’t bow down and cooperate with the murderers and thieves who are butchering them, they can give the land back and get the hell out of the region.
Even the neonates? The babies? The toddlers? The pre-pubescent youth? Pubescent youth?
The women, the old people, everyone!
(Listen to yourself!)
That’s got to be the clumsiest, most obnoxious bait and switch I’ve ever seen attempted.
Anyway. I certainly have never disputed what IsraEl is doing, or that it’s criminal.
That was never, ever the point that the article made, nor the point I made.
How the fuck you imagine you can jam in your stupid, counterfactual claim that I’m somehow OK with it is left to speculation. Have a look; I have made many many comments here and elseblog.
Bah. So weak! So formulaic, so… well, perfunctory.
Meh. It’s you making that claim, so it’s not credible.
Me, I reckon you at best you don’t give a shit.
(At best)
Wow, you really are a thickie.
Here:
Hey, did you get as far as the ironic bit?
(Fever dreams, eh?)
—
(I couldn’t be fucked to dismiss your Joe Biden smear job, so there’s that)
It’s probably good to keep this in mind. Orac is a bigger target now but there are people who might like to stretch this to FTB. (Trying to smear scienceblogs with supposed Epstein connections. I didn’t know about Maxwell and Seed Media.
https://www.respectfulinsolence.com/2024/06/22/so-its-guilt-by-association-again-is-it/
Farron Cousins:
“Michigan Republican Congressman Arrested For Chasing Stripper While Firing Gun”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=rPmPdu1TXDI
I am not shocked. This is just another day of weird Republicans doing bad things.
Cartoon: For sale
Ukraine Update: Striking across the Russian border is critical to Ukraine’s survival
Yahoo News:
MSNBC:
Newsweek:
Snark from USA Today:
Commentary:
Link
Link
Hawaii Settles ‘Historic’ Climate Lawsuit With Young Activists
https://www.wonkette.com/p/the-kids-are-all-right-hawaii-settles
Iran’s top court overturns death sentence of anti-regime rapper.
Toomaj Salehi, a rare voice of defiance inside Iran, was sentenced to death over his support for the protests sparked by Mahsa Amini’s death.
Washington Post link
Link
My home university goes Skynet!
“AI system successfully operates 16-ton forest machine”
https://techxplore.com/news/2024-06-ai-successfully-ton-forest-machine.html
“Study reveals evolution of human cold and menthol sensing protein, offers hope for future non-addictive pain therapies”
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2024-06-reveals-evolution-human-cold-menthol.html
“Activating a molecular target reverses multiple hallmarks of aging, new study demonstrates”
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2024-06-molecular-reverses-multiple-hallmarks-aging.html
Trump laying the groundwork to explain why he is going to lose the debate with Biden:
Sounds like another confession from Trump. Also smells like desperation. Even Trump’s campaign team seems to think he is going to lose.
Either that, or they are trying to set expectations for Trump’s performance (level of coherence?) really, really low.
Over 1,000 pilgrims died during this year’s Hajj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia, officials say. [Politico says “over 1,300” so far]
Deaths are not uncommon at the Hajj, but with temperatures up to 120 degrees Fahrenheit, this year’s tally was significantly higher than usual.
NBC News link
Time to blame everybody … but not religion.
Followup to Ukraine Update in comment 63.
Posted by readers of the article:
Happiness is: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cpvvggllp2ko
Alan Turing was born today 112 years ago.
Today is six months until Christmas, or Anti-christmas. Sweden is terrorised by angry gnomes who demand expensive gifts from all members of the family.
Look forward to the next Tory pre-election scandal. “In the second week before Votemas, my Tory gave to me…”
Oops. I promise I had not read this news before posting my previous comment.
“Tory minister accused of cronyism after associate’s firm hired as adviser | Conservatives | The Guardian”
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/article/2024/jun/24/tory-minister-accused-of-cronyism-after-associates-firm-hired-as-adviser
That lot are so bent, it is not even funny anymore when they are found out.
Crinoidea has a new species: the 20-armed Promachocrinus fragarius, the closest approximation of a facehugger nature has produced.
How Legalized Bribery Works in America I 10 Economic Myths Debunked #4
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=Xo0nFZVRs24
The next episode of God Awful Movies will bring up the 2013 film The Book of Daniel, a creation made with a budget from leftover coffee change. The guest masochists Dan and Dan were confused by the lack of cohesion.
1,2 million m3 of snow left over from the winter road clearing in Luleå town will not have time to melt before the end of the summer. I mention it in case you want to complain about your winter.
“Nigel Farage* appeared to compare Sandy Hook parents to liberals trying to curb free speech” | The Guardian
*an asshole politician in Britain
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/article/2024/jun/24/nigel-farage-parent-sandy-hook-victims-liberals-free-speech
“Oh Mummy -Sutekh’s Post-Dr Who Career”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=Q1xnU2BNryo
(I expected him to join the House of Lords, but the many Borisite ex-tories must have brought down the place. Sorta like sitting next to Matt Gaetz)
Screenrant.com: “15 Best Hard Sci-Fi TV Shows Ever Made”
https://screenrant.com/best-hard-sci-fi-tv-shows-ever-made/
Classy Donald. Trump made Nazi ‘ovens’ joke in Jewish executives’ presence, ex-employee says | The Guardian
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/jun/24/trump-nazi-oven-joke
The only one allowed to joke is Mr. Herbert in Family Guy, as he gives SS lt. Slechtnact a “German funeral”.
RNC chair picks the wrong fight comparing Biden, Trump records
The RNC’s Michael Whatley said “there’s not a single metric” that’s improved over the last four years. Reality tells a very different story.
Link
Despite his legendary lack of self awareness, does Trump know he is a loser?
Cartoon: The amazing future
Trump’s weekend of madness, and the media’s continued silence [Not “silence” exactly, just something ranging from indifference to pro-Trump spin on the part of the media. No focus on repeating the truly awful or nonsensical stuff Trump spews, but lots and lots of focus on negative stories about Biden.]
Link
I know everyone is weary of watching videos of Trump saying stupid stuff, but you have to see his current state of madness (his current unhinged, blathering awfulness] to believe it.
Plunging prices are generating a solar power boom
Link, (scroll to #2 in the list of seven)
CNN:
Scoff. And LOL.
Maybe scientists can figure out how memory works … with your help
Link, (scroll to #6 in the list of seven)
Hello.
The Finnish government (elected last year, a coalition mostly consisting of two large rightwing parties) continues to provide lots of circences while taking away all the panem from people. Many voters of the nationalist-fascist Finns party are deeply disappointed, as the fiscally-fascist Conservative party keeps slashing their benefits and the Finns in government go along. The coalition has a narrow majority in the parliament and currently a record low public approval rating.
I noted recently, in the wake of European Parliament election, how the Finns suffered badly in that election although it has precious little to do with domestic politics. Now, the party has reacted in panic while trying to appear outwardly calm, cranking up the racist dogwhistles to entertain their voter base. Prime minister Petteri Orpo, of the Conservative party, has realized he needs to concede more in the conflict between the two parties’ agendas. So now he’s tolerating more open racism, while working harder to pretend that he doesn’t tolerate, see or hear about any racism in the messaging of his coalition partners. His job is extra tricky, because lately there have been two separate, obviously ethnically motivated high profile knife attacks by obvious nazi youth on brown kids.
Meanwhile, today one of the cabinet ministers, a sleazy guy named Wille Rydman survived his second parliament vote of confidence within a year (survived more narrowly than the first time). He was long ago exposed on having tried to sexually groom underage teen girls, was expelled from the Conservative party and duly joined the Finns, who are more comfortable about openly tolerating asshole/criminal behavior from conservative white men. Subsequently, Rydman has tried to attack the media (legally and on social media) over the grooming investigations, which inspired the opposition to set up this second vote of confidence.
Farron Cousins:
“Trump Allies Say They Aren’t Bluffing And Will ‘Burn It All Down’ If He Wins The Election”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=4LTSunEzpDc
That sounds…very moderate and traditionally conservative.
lumipuna @92, thanks for that update on the political scene in Finland. As I suspected would happen, people voted in a bunch of rightwing doofuses and now they are appalled by some of the results.
I will never understand why people have to give power to rightwing doofuses before they can fully comprehend what rightwing doofuses will do. I mean, they tell you up front what they are going to do. Still, it seems the experience has to be real and in person before knowledge dawns. Meanwhile, a lot of damage is done.
Toys, spices, sewing machines: the items Israel banned from entering Gaza | Gaza | The Guardian
https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/jun/24/gaza-blockade-israel-banned-items
birger @93, I see a connection between lumipuna’s comment 92, your comment 93, and my comment 94.
Even Fox cut away from Trump rambling.
More at the link, including a partial transcript of Trump’s ramblings.
Link
That UK Report On Healthcare For Trans Kids Just Gets Eviler And Eviler
The Cass team knew. They knew and did nothing. They knew and said nothing.
Biologists discover a previously unknown salt tolerance mechanism in plants
https://phys.org/news/2024-06-biologists-previously-unknown-salt-tolerance.html
A scarce good news item – maybe this knowledge can be used to create more salt tolerant croos.
Grift update:
https://www.wonkette.com/p/michael-flynns-charity-grift-is-huge
NASA astronauts’ return on Boeing’s spaceship has been delayed repeatedly
The two NASA astronauts who flew Boeing’s Starliner capsule to the space station this month have been in orbit longer than anticipated — and will stay there for now.
“Tories Still Don’t Understand the Mess They’re In”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=CjKzZvFGeNw
The way I see it, they are lying scum who even lie to themselves. This results in a ‘Hitler in the bunker’ syndrome, divorced from reality.
‘Rebuttal’ is now ‘reFutal’ according to prez 45.
@83: “Screenrant.com: “15 Best Hard Sci-Fi TV Shows Ever Made””
Arguably, one of those is actually hard SF.
In fact, the term shows the cluelessness of the article’s author(s).
It’s a clickbait listicle.
The shows are from the last few years, of course, which makes the “Ever Made” claim risible.
Bah.
For you, Birger: https://damiengwalter.com/2018/08/07/science-fiction-vs-scifi-vs-sf-what-is-the-true-definition/
@102
How long until they blame DEI for this?
lumipuna, finland features high advancement, in my worldview.
Then, I recently saw this video (from Germany!) and the linkage is evident:
(Gotta say, solar power in Finland seems, well… I live in Qld, Australia, so let’s say etiolated)
In Australian news (Assange is Australian): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UeKSUNxZvNY
Oh, right. Assange.
Me, I reckon truth is a fucking goog defence.
What he allowed to be published was truth.
Too much truth.
Now, he is a martyr.
So it goes.
Re. @ 109
Fuck the authorities.
John Morales @ 105, @ 107
The best films can straddle several categories. Articles like this one are mainly useful for bringing up films that never caught much attention.
My own opinion is that way too many SF films are aimed at a teenage audience and never bother with quality.
.
Finland in summer has quite long days, so lots of insolation. It is just distributed in an uneven way.
.
-BTW perovskite photovoltaic panels -much easier and cheaper to make – are finally approaching a longevity that will make them viable for mass production.
I see them soon making a much bigger contribution to energy production in places like Australia or southern California. In places with more patchy sunlight you obviously need to supplement solar with other things.
“Articles like this one are mainly useful for bringing up films that never caught much attention.”
Nah. They’re listicles. El ultra cheapo “content”. Grist for the mill.
You get a list of recent movies, put a bit of generic fluff on each one, make it an “article”.
Old hat stuff, I know it when I see it.
—
Um. Australia in winter (in places) will still exceed Finland in summer in terms of insolation.
Here: https://globalsolaratlas.info/map
See the difference for yourself, compared to where I live.
BTW I know all that stuff. And much more.
One of the channels I follow in my retirement is https://www.youtube.com/@JustHaveaThink/videos
A channel where that very grid storage technology (hot sand) was featured years ago.
Important thing is that it exists, not that it can exist.
PS https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=just+have+a+think+perovskite
Well, indeed, but anywhere, not just there.
Grid-scale storage.
So, so many approaches!
Gravity stuff, hot stuff, compressed stuff, chemical stuff — so many ways to put excess energy into potential energy. Cheap approaches, some with rather low energy density and/or mass and volume, but they’re just lumps on a landscape, no? So what if they’re biggish, that’s the point, so long as they’re cheap and made with readily-available stuff.
(People who only focus on Lions are foolish)
Here in Oz, there are times and places where solar has negative value — too much juice flowing into a grid that can’t handle it. Slowly fixing that, but it’s a pain. Storage is the bleedingly obvious solution.
Here: https://reneweconomy.com.au/rooftop-solar-switch-off-why-and-where-its-being-used-and-where-its-headed/
Also, our loony mob (the equivalent of the Republicans for you USAnians) have decided nuclear is the go.
The current ‘ opposition’ — that’s the actual term. Shadow government. Who were in power until recently.
Anyway.
They claim that the fact that business and academia think it is a vastly expensive ridiculous proposal that will add fuck-all extra energy into the grid and speculative is… well, wrong.
(Doesn’t seem to be resonating with the populace)
John Morales
There is a podcast at Youtube called ‘Terry Talks Movies’ that brings up both well known films but mostly ultra-obscure films, many of the latter from his native Australia.
Many of the films are of course objectively bad but interesting as documents of the time in which they were made.
.
In regard to a smooth energy supply there is interest in new tech to drill very deep boreholes with a new technology (I think they break up the rock by microwaving it instead of using a conventional bore head).
If my memory is correct there are parts of Australia that are already interesting for geothermal energy even with the old drilling technology. Places with greater temperature gradients.
I recall the documentaries by John Pilger. Australian politics are toxic, and so is the abomination named Murdoch.
https://jpt.spe.org/microwave-drilling-sounds-like-science-fiction-but-so-does-drilling-down-to-the-hottest-rock
Yes, that’s what I mean.
There are heaps of these proposed technologies, but what matters is when they are actually implemented.
Anyway. They’ve done it, in Finland, and it can be done anywhere with sand.
(Not even high-quality sand. Just… sand)
In Ozzie news: https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/article/2024/jun/25/fatima-payman-risks-labor-membership-after-crossing-floor-to-support-greens-motion-on-palestine
Exclusive: Israeli documents show expansive government effort to shape US discourse around Gaza war | Israel | The Guardian
https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/jun/24/israel-fund-us-university-protest-gaza-antisemitism
Ah, ye merry old: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cll476qzm85o
(I hear that government is a bit on the nose, this upcoming election)
Just saw the dco mentioned here – Megafauna: What Killed Australia’s Giants? which wa sfascinatingand really well done – would recommend and oen of the things discussed there wa salso mentioned here :
Source : https://www.abc.net.au/news/science/2024-06-25/kangaroo-extinct-giant-walk-hop-megafauna-footprints-fossils/103988474
Source : https://www.space.com/china-chang-e-6-moon-far-side-samples-landing-earth
I’m pleased Assange is to be freed, but if he hadn’t evaded Swedish justice and stiffed the people who put up his bail, he’d have been home in Australia years ago even if he’d been convicted of rape.
Eucharist alert!
The Catholic Church has organized four groups of pilgrims, from Connecticut, California, Texas, and Minnesota, to march (and ride a riverboat) across the US for a mid-July National Eucharistic Congress in Indianapolis. This blessed event has not taken place in this country for 80 years, yet purely by coincidence certain bishops have resurrected it during an election year involving a Catholic president who has somehow failed to enforce Church orthodoxy on the entire population (and whom certain bishops feel should not receive his ritual cannibalism until he straightens out).
No mention made in this report of explicit criticisms of those ungodly eggheads who have dared to deface Christ Crispies.
Source : https://www.abc.net.au/news/science/2024-06-21/australias-forgotten-fungi-mushrooms-and-citizen-science/103972348
For
Thesome kids are alright.. (some adults are too for that matter..) files :Source & full story : https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/meet-the-ninth-grader-whos-helping-restore-mississippis-oyster-reefs
Citizen scientists, Respect.
NBC News:
NBC News:
Affordable housing … good that the Biden administration is addressing the issue.
Washington Post:
New York Times:
Link
Bankruptcy trustee discloses plan to shut down Alex Jones’ Infowars and liquidate assets
More at the link.
Surgeon General Declares Gun Violence a Public Health Crisis
Dr. Vivek Murthy is calling for a multipronged effort to reduce gun deaths, modeled on campaigns against smoking and traffic fatalities.
New York Times link
Cartoon: Supreme Court for Trump
Hillary Clinton: I’ve Debated Trump and Biden. Here’s What I’m Watching For.
New York Times link
Cartoon: Biden does seem older than Trump …
Link
Washington Post link
Israeli Supreme Court rules ultra-Orthodox must serve in the military
The decision could result in ultra-Orthodox lawmakers pulling out of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition and collapsing it.
Jon @#121
It would be helpful to have that PPE distributed to every household in the UK on the off-chance that a parliamentary candidate rolls up on the doorstep. I could have done with it when the local Lib Dem turned up on mine.
Oklahoma high court rejects plan for publicly funded religious school
Officials in Oklahoma tried to approve the nation’s first publicly funded religious charter school. The state Supreme Court had other ideas.
The biggest problem with Trump’s familiar pitch to Black voters
All The CEOs And Economists Hate Trump And Think He’s An Idiot [maybe not “All,” but certainly “most.”]
https://www.wonkette.com/p/all-the-ceos-and-economists-hate
Floods and extreme heat pose dual threat to Midwest as Biden approves federal aid
A SpaceX Falcon Heavy will launch 5.16 EDT .
You can watch the launch live at Youtube.
There has been a delay, the launch will happen 59 minutes from now.
The Eucharist as “ritual cannibalism”, again?
Another person making that stupid, stupid claim!
No. It’s theophagy, not cannibalism. Get it right.
Been through all that already, you keep repeating that falsehood, I will keep repeating the truth.
The UK general election descends ever further into farce. After two Tory candidates and two senior party officials (as well as 6 poice officers) were revealed to be under investigation for making bets on the date of the general election base on inside information, a Labour candidate is now under investigation for betting against himself! The seat was consideed a safe Tory one, but there scarcely seems to be such a thing anymore. All three candidates have now been suspended from their parties, although they will still appear on the ballot papers with their party affiliations. The Labour candidate, Kevin Craig, who is the founder and head of a PR company, has given £100,000 to the party – and as someone has said, we now know the price of a Labour seat!
But according to the doctrine of the hypostatic union, Jesus was both fully God and fully man – so since it’s supposed to be him Catholics are munching on and slurping, it’s surely fully theophagy and fully cannibalism!
Nope. Again, been through all that.
https://proxy.freethought.online/pharyngula/2024/01/07/infinite-thread-xxx/comment-page-4/#comment-2211097
See, people who partake (I’ve done it!) of the ritual don’t think of it as cannibalism.
And the people who don’t partake (like PZ) see it as eating a cracker, not cannibalism.
The only people who claim to see it that way are either stupid, uninformed, or trying to mock Catholicism thereby. My comments will reach the uninformed, at least. Then, they can look it up for themselves, or talk to an actual Catholic.
Making lies up as if there were not enough bad things and silly things for which to mock Catholicism annoys me.
But John, what you say at #172 at the link you give is:
So if still fully human, then fully (even if glorified) cannibalism. However Catholics see it, that’s the logic of the doctrine they (or at least their church) professes.
Further to my #148, here’s a photo of Kevin Craig with Starmer. Who (If I may borrow a bit of BDSM terminology) looks to be the dom and who the sub?
The claim is either that Catholics believe they are being cannibalistic, when in fact they are not, or that they are according to their own beliefs being cannibalistic, as you are now expressing.
Again: they don’t see it as cannibalism, you don’t see it as cannibalism, Pierce does not see it as cannibalism.
You are claiming they should see it as cannibalism based on your own understanding of their doctrinal beliefs, but you are getting it wrongity-wrong-wrong.
(And yes, Catholics can eat chocolate during Easter)
Neither, or both.
Still.
If I had to make a choice nonetheless, I suppose the taller dude with the goofy grin is the sub.
How? Assertion without argument is unconvincing.
Because I doubt you properly understand the Doctrine you claim logically leads to that belief.
Here, for you: https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/__P3W.HTM
Um, the original assertion is this:
“(and whom certain bishops feel should not receive his ritual cannibalism until he straightens out)”
Where’s the argument for that?
(Goose, gander)
Anyway.
There is an argument in what I’ve written, implicit of course.
Obviously, I cannot know what is truly the belief of people.
All I know is that I grew up in a very strict Catholic country and milieu and institutions, and after that I’ve been as irreligious as I can be.
And never, ever, ever, did anyone imagine Communion was cannibalism.
It never came up like that.
—
Here, again:
“The only people who claim to see it that way are either stupid, uninformed, or trying to mock Catholicism thereby.”
It is a proposition, no?
“The claim is either that Catholics believe they are being cannibalistic, when in fact they are not, or that they are according to their own beliefs being cannibalistic, as you are now expressing.”
It is a proposition, no?
Again: they don’t see it as cannibalism, you don’t see it as cannibalism, Pierce does not see it as cannibalism.
It is a proposition, no?
Basically, I am saying nobody actually sees it as cannibalism unless they are either stupid, uninformed, or trying to mock Catholicism thereby (that last case is a flourish, of course, and so is redundant).
So, if you want it explicit, I put it to you that no actual Catholic imagines they’re being cannibalistic, and that no informed person imagines actual Catholics imagine they’re being cannibalistic, and that for you to claim “However Catholics see it, that’s the logic of the doctrine they (or at least their church) professes.” entails you know what their doctrine actually states.
TL;DR: they think they are comsuming spiritual godhood essence and joining with the deity thereby.
(That’s why it’s called “communion”)
[well, the True Believers; most other Catholics know it’s just custom and ritual and they LARP it, as I did for a long time]
“1331 Holy Communion, because by this sacrament we unite ourselves to Christ, who makes us sharers in his Body and Blood to form a single body.”
John Morales @ # 147: It’s theophagy, not cannibalism. …, I will keep repeating the truth.
In the absence of serious supporting evidence, there is no truth in mythology.
(Was Dumbledore really gay? Was Darth Vader actually Luke’s father?)
Let’s see some of that evidence (or less of that tedious one-upmanship)!
Have I got news for you: the topic at hand is people’s beliefs regarding some mythology, and more specifically, a religion.
Whether true or not, Pierce, it is the case that either those beliefs include cannibalism in relation to a quite specific (I can cite the Catechism, that being official content of that particular mythology) sacrament.
I just gave you some.
(You do realise testimony is evidence, no?)
Duh.
They were cannibals, by the logic of their their professed doctrine. :)
Hm, evidence… evidence.
Hey, Pierce, I wrote “Again: they don’t see it as cannibalism, you don’t see it as cannibalism, Pierce does not see it as cannibalism.”
If I can confirm that you in fact do not see it as cannibalism, as I stated, that would be evidence, no?
So. Here I am, seeking evidence that will assuage your desire for some of that evidence.
You game?
Or, we could forgo all the foreplay and Socratic shit, and you could just confirm that you yourself don’t think it’s cannibalism, and that you furthermore don’t think actual Catholics think they’re being cannibals, Pierce.
(Save us all the trouble, that would)
, quoth the very same person who also posted “Let’s see some of that evidence (or less of that tedious one-upmanship)!”
You gonna try to do what you say to do?
(I reckon not)
—
See, I’m not actually accusing you of hypocrisy, Pierce.
Or even (what was it? ah, yes!) that tedious one-upmanship.
(heh)
John Morales @ # 162: … the topic at hand is people’s beliefs …
Yeah? Who said that, where? (Another assertion w/o evidence.)
I just gave you some.
You gave us more of that tedious stuff. Word games without wit tend to turn out that way.
You, @125.
That’s the Trump technique, no?
(How’s it working for you?)
Ah, yes. So, so tedious, this business of substantive testimony and citations to authoritative sources.
This is what is not tedious, as you see it:
Well, duh. Thus your unfortunate position, where you bluster and engage in Cargo Cult type argumentation.
It is not a game.
I am being factual.
I can tell you are not game. Weak.
So.
Hey, Pierce, I wrote “Again: they don’t see it as cannibalism, you don’t see it as cannibalism, Pierce does not see it as cannibalism.”
If I can confirm that you in fact do not see it as cannibalism, as I stated, that would be evidence, no?
So. Here I am, seeking evidence that will assuage your desire for some of that evidence.
But, fair enough. For you, stating either a ‘yes’ or a ‘no’ to a proposition put to you is a word game without wit.
I see it as cowardice.
But fine, remain coy about your personal belief about whether Catholics truly think they are ritually cannibalistic.
I know, you know. Everyone knows.
Heh.
Tell me more about this supposed up-manship (I reckon a better term might be ‘competitiveness’), if you care to.
(Don’t forget to account for the fact that it takes two to tango :) )
[obs, the Socratic play is at hand]
Follow-up to xxx p3 #262, about hazards of satellite pollution (by SpaceX, Amazon, etc.) and the cycle of rockets replacing them
Satellite ‘megaconstellations’ may jeopardize recovery of ozone hole
John Morales@157,
Your link does not appear relevant. If:
1) Jesus is fully human (as well as fully God).
2) The Eucharist involves eating Jesus’s body and drinking his blood.
Then:
3) The Eucharist involves eating human flesh and drinking human blood.
Are you denying that both (1) and (2) are Catholic doctrine?
Not to you.
It’s the Catechism of the Roman Catholic Church.
The rules and regulations to which adherents supposedly agree during the rite of ‘Confirmation’.
See, the RCC is not like the protestant type thingies. There’s dogma.
I’m pointing you to it.
It could not possibly be any more relevant to the topic.
Ex Cathedra</>, do you know to what that refers?
—
Look, I know you think you have it down.
But you could not be any more wrong.
Because you don’t get the doctrine.
Perhaps have a chat with anyone you know who actually is Catholic, if you disbelieve me.
Yes. Yes indeed. Verily so.
You are getting sucked in by the terminology.
This is not a physical thing, it’s a transcendental thing.
To any physical examination, it will be a cracker and (rarely for the congregation) some wine.
It’s a fucking transubstantiation! It is no longer physical flesh and blood.
It is religious metaphor, IOW.
FFS. Just talk to any practicing Catholic.
—
You know, you sound to me just like one of those creationists arguing science, when they don’t actually know the science. Exactly the same.
Bah. Keyboard, carelessness.
(One iota of difference — and therein lies a little drollery)
Not to you.
It’s the Catechism of the Roman Catholic Church.
The rules and regulations to which adherents supposedly agree during the rite of ‘Confirmation’.
See, the RCC is not like the protestant type thingies. There’s dogma.
I’m pointing you to it.
It could not possibly be any more relevant to the topic.
Ex Cathedra, do you know to what that refers?
—
Look, I know you think you have it down.
But you could not be any more wrong.
Because you don’t get the doctrine.
Perhaps have a chat with anyone you know who actually is Catholic, if you disbelieve me.
Yes. Yes indeed. Verily so.
You are getting sucked in by the terminology.
This is not a physical thing, it’s a transcendental thing.
To any physical examination, it will be a cracker and (rarely for the congregation) some wine.
It’s a fucking transubstantiation! It is no longer physical flesh and blood.
It is religious metaphor, IOW.
FFS. Just talk to any practicing Catholic.
—
You know, you sound to me just like one of those creationists arguing science, when they don’t actually know the science. Exactly the same.
I mean, ordinary people nowadays don’t get that, to the degree that any person who considers themself a Catholic adherent has beliefs that differ from those of the Catechism, then to that degree are they heretical according to the Church.
(Back in the day, people were quite aware of this, since the Church had temporal power)
OTOH, my very wife has been a lifelong adherent, a practicing Catholic who goes to church and donates and cleans up the grounds and so forth. And yet, we have successfully fucked a shit-ton of times without breeding progeny. Using other than, ahem, the doctrinally-sound rhythmic techniques of the day.
We had to promise the priest that we would try to have children and not try to avoid having children, blah blah blah. I know, you probably don’t, but it’s a thing priests do before they marry their parishioners.
So we did.
Of course, contingent commitments made under duress, or clever interpretation (sure, I tried as much as I could!). Family pressures, FWIW. My mom, especially.
Anyway. People are complicated, and people blithely deny the facts all the time. It’s obvious to me.
Let’s face it, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confirmation_in_the_Catholic_Church is basically a rite of passage for kids. In my day, it meant you got a watch, that was the thing.
Similar for other religions of the organised kind, no?
Anyway, by that time, we were supposed to have been conditioned and inculcated into saying “yes yes yes” to whatever during ordinary conversations and in church and so forth. Actually practicing any of that bullshit was left to the true loonies, who were weird.
Of course, most people were very superstitious back then, six decades and more ago.
You know that.
You don’t have to remain ignorant, KG.
I cited the beginning of a shitload of text, and furthermore adduced a rather relevant not-quite-elite section thereof.
See, that’s the thing with the RCC. All of it is codified.
Back in the day, I remember the churches and the cathedrals.
The cathedrals had more, but all had banks of candle-slots for people to place and light candles upon.
Row upon row, column upon column of them.\
The more candles you bought and lit, the more merit your pleas to the heavens.
The more dedication, the more commitment you showed, the higher the likelihood of a successful intervention. Or so went the thinking.
(I seen it!)
Just saying, but back in the old country back in the day, every hamlet, every village, every town, and so forth had a church. And they all vied for ostentatious pulchritudinous churchiness.
(Many of them retain the remnants of the rococo period)
Then I moved to South Australia in 1972, and found out every place had a pub, but churches were rarer.
(I mean, in Aussie terms, Adelaide is “the city of churches”, but believe me, it holds no candle)
—
Anyway, no cannibalism belief amongst the populace.
(Perhaps it is you who misapprehends?)
Ah, nostalgia!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rococo_in_Spain
Anyway, the conceit of the RCC is that they are the direct and uninterrupted descendants of the apostles, and that Peter (the Rock!) was the first pope.
Here, for you:
I said that a lot, both in Spanish and in English.
Never believed any of it, of course.
(Like most Catholics most of the time in most places, but you know, roleplaying for $reason$)
No cannibalism, but.
In YouTube: Modern Russian rap music is wild (and it’s about the war)
An expatriate’s view of a segment of current youth culture in Russia.
(Daniil has got cred with me, only achieved after years of content)
Sad. ☹️
University of Minnesota retracts pioneering studies in stem cells, Alzheimer’s disease
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2024-06-university-minnesota-retracts-stem-cells.html
I found this illustration of Biden’s debate preparations at Mano Singham’s blog.
Biden-debate-prep.png (780×551)
https://proxy.freethought.online/singham/files/2024/06/Biden-debate-prep.png
Republican leaders scramble, hope to keep Steve Bannon out of prison
As right-wing operative/podcaster Steve Bannon prepares to report to prison, House Republican leaders have launched a provocative new effort to rescue him.
But since the doctrine of the hypostatic union is itself necessarily false*, the whole codification collapses into gobbledegook.
*Or a “sacred mystery” to use the Catholic terminology.
GOP voters reject Trump-backed candidates in multiple primaries
“I don’t say this in a braggadocious way, but if they don’t get the endorsement, they don’t win,” Donald Trump boasted. Yeah, about that…
NBC News report, from Nairobi:
The protesters weren’t armed.
I think you’re an unconscious Protestant, John! That the Eucharist becomes the actual body and blood of Christ (in “substance” although continuing to have the “accidents” of bread and wine) was exactly what Luther, Calvin and that crew couldn’t stomach.
Link
QAnon cult followers have their own version(s) of what is going on:
Commentary:
Link
More crazy talk from QAnon doofuses:
Commentary:
Followup to comment 191.
Posted by readers of the article:
@KG 189:
Catechism – p2, s2, ch1, art3, v
Jesus said it is his body. Shut up, agree, eat the cracker.
Wikipedia – Transubstantiation
Steve Bannon…. he makes me think of the initial scenes of “Once Upon a Time In The West, where three very … pungent-looking individuals hang out at the train station. Also, that deviant film producer whose name I have expunged from memory.
.
The differences in the theology between the RCC and the member churches of the Southern Baptist organisation are less interesting than what they have in common: women are not allowed to be priests.
Cartoon: Debate prep
Small number of people come to their senses:
Link
Bad news, as summarized by Steve Benen from The Hill:
John Morales at 180 :
(My comment is not about the argument you’re having, just random musing)
Meanwhile, Protestants (at least most of them?) apparently claim to have recovered the true spirit and intent of the Apostles. Hence, the Lutheran church here in Finland likes to co-opt the term “Apostolic”, though almost nobody knows what it’s supposed to mean.
I once learned the Finnish Lutheran version of Apostle’s creed by heart. Now, I could barely remember the Finnish words when looking at the English version you quoted. Interestingly, our Lutheran version has the line about “Holy Catholic Church” rendered as “Holy shared congregation”. AFAIK that’s literally the etymological meaning of “catholic church”, but of course in that form it doesn’t have inconvenient associations with the institution known as Catholic Church.
Supreme Court ‘inadvertently’ posts opinion on emergency abortion
https://www.wonkette.com/p/supreme-court-it-aint-bribery-if
Supreme Court: It Ain’t Bribery If You Call It A Tip!
In my recent update on the sorry state of Finnish politics (see 92 upthread), forgot to mention some things I’d meant to write about the Russian border situation.
https://yle.fi/a/74-20094573
In the spring, there were signs that Russia had more or less quit facilitating the entry of African/Middle Eastern asylum seekers to the Finnish border. It was predicted that the migrants seeking entry to EU via eastern Europe will again continue focusing exclusively on the route established in 2021, via Belarus to Poland, Lithuania and Latvia. The border situation in these three countries has been highly problematic for almost three years now, and very little talked about in international media since early 2022 (partly due to an obvious distraction in Ukraine).
The Finnish article I linked above, from last week, confirms that the situation in Poland is escalating, and getting perhaps worse than ever. People are getting used to the fact that the Belarusian border is indefinitely closed and heavily militarized, and the migrants are often violently pushed back. Then the Belarusian border guards exert even more brutal violence on said migrants until they feel motivated to attempt crossing the border again (or die trying).
Though some of the migrants are undoubtedly in genuine need of asylum, most of them seem to prefer seeking an undocumented life in Germany etc. rather than the asylum application process in Poland’s prison-like reception centers. Thus, they try to evade border guards and instead contact human smugglers after crossing the border. There are reports that they increasingly resort to violence (using knives etc.) when apprehended by border guards. There are all kinds of worrying developments.
Meanwhile, the Finnish border to Russia remains closed. A few people with cross-border family etc. are increasingly suffering from the situation, while most of us are just gradually getting used to the new situation. Or old situation, like it was during the Cold War. “The border gapes like a chasm”, to quote an old Finnish poem.
Reportedly, intelligence sources say that about 1000 migrants still linger in northwestern Russia, despite Russian authorities trying to smoke them out. It’s not much, but there is concern that if the border were opened, Russia might very well resume admitting new migrants to the border. Just allowing the entry of those thousand people would be a serious political problem for our current racist populist government. Finnish parliament is currently debating a proposed law that’d allow pushing back “apparently illegitimate” asylum seekers at the border, in the same fashion as is routinely done in Poland etc. And thus, fascism creeps in.
https://www.wonkette.com/p/t-minus-34-hours-until-tomorrows
T-Minus 33 Hours Until Tomorrow’s Debate And MAGA World Is Sh*tting Bricks
lumipuna @201, thanks for that update/explanation … though the facts are depressing.
Sheesh!
Sigh. Same old story. That’s awful.
Yeah, thanks, lumipuna. Always good to get a report from a local.
KG,
:) yes. Exactly.
Now, now… no need to get insulting!
But yes, it’s is very very silly, right? Can’t dispute that.
Still, that’s the official doctrine.
It’s all very fuzzy, all very fideistic.
(Also, did you get the iota joke? I think you might have)
Hi, everyone! Hope you’ve all been doing well! I’ve just been too busy to keep up and comment. To add to the zillion things happening this week, there was just an attempted coup in Bolivia. It was widely denounced and appears to have been defeated fairly quickly.
Here’s the coverage from the Guardian.
Live coverage on YT (in Spanish).
Good long-term news.
Anton Petrov: “Nearby Supernova May Not Be That Dangerous After All (New Study)”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=1HLcJfoKOnI
Regarding the interfaith squabbles between RCC and protestants.
I went through a period dissecting the belief underlying islam but it became exhausting. Now I go by the motto “why go deep into the rabbit holes offered by theology if the upper layers are repulsive enough?”.
.
It is of course interesting to read the next book by Bart Ehrman about just how much the church altered the beliefs of the original christians (and I look forward to any scholarship on the evolution of early judaism or early islam) but I leave it to others to really dig into the thinking of pre-modern people [who tended to be intolerant assholes anyway. It is no fun reading about Cotton Mather ].
Let the assholes fight each other Yuimbo -style while I eat popcorn.
Hi SC.
What can we expect in the Biden-Trump debate? | Planet America | ABC News 30 mins long.
In the news: https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/article/2024/jun/26/democratic-republic-congo-drc-virulent-strain-mpox-monkeypox-virus-killing-children-miscarriages
Not good news. :|
I have been told I sometimes have a jejune sense of humour, too juvenile for my age.
Anyway, an interesting story: https://www.vox.com/recode/22907072/web3-crypto-nft-bitcoin-metaverse
And this bit tickled me, because of nominative serendipity (well, from an English perspective).
Have you looked at https://www.youtube.com/@UsefulCharts ?
As a fan of science fiction and fantasy, I have occasionally wondered what if the Catholic/other sects’ concept of transubstantiation were true.
I concluded that Jesus would consider crucifixion the easy part.
Imagine having millions of human beings drink your blood and bite and chew your flesh every Sunday, with many coming back for more on Wednesdays, and others gulping and chomping for special occasions on other days. Not even Dante imagined such torture.
A good thing such cannibal cruelty is purely hallucinatory.
Re: Pierce R. Butler @ #214…
Thinking about the fate of Prometheus?
Ahem, you’re imagining ordinary flesh and blood, not the Glorified Flesh and Blood of Christ, which is not a physically-observable thing.
See, when you don’t get the doctrinal conceit, you don’t get how that’s not how actual Catholics think of it.
And, of course, (again!) it’s not how YOU think of it.
It’s how you think (ostensibly, but we all know better) actual Catholics should think were they you.
But they are not.
Only inside your sad little caricature of what actual Catholic doctrine entails, which you make on a purely lexical level knowing nothing about the concepts at hand.
In short, it’s your hallucination.
Ostensibly.
Because, see, I reckon you were just bullshitting and trying to diss Catholicism via that little bit of stupidity, and you got prickly when I pointed that out.
Again: there are heaps of things for which one can mock or condemn etc regarding Catholicism, but that they are supposedly being cannibals is not one of them
(So stupid!)
[whheydt, nah. Have a look at the thread.]
(♪) It’s a Communion, not a Consumption. (♫)
(Maybe a nice jingle can get the point through the fog of wilful incomprehension? Nah, but, still)
Come on, Pierce, come clean.
Do you or do you not honestly believe that Catholics are cannibals?
Do you or do you not honestly believe that Catholics themselves think they are cannibals?
All your coyness has achieved, hitherto, is to keep the topic alive.
We both know the answer is ‘no’ to both.
#214 is just a reiteration of the very same stupid misrepresentation as before.
Works about as well, no?
Very stupid, when you know and I know you don’t actually mean any of that, it’s just the best you can think of with which to mock the RCC.
(So feeble!)
BTW, Pierce, being a fan of science fiction and fantasy, you are surely aware of the Sarlacc.
Here: https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Sarlacc
Hey, you know what, Pierce?
Here’s a Catholic thing.
It was drummed into us big-time (big-league aka ‘bigly’) that Jeezus suffered untold because he was crucified. Sorta special.
(Never mind the Appian Way, eh?)
Oh, right, and at the center of it all (“at the center of it all, ooo aaa”) is that Jesus conquered death.
(Lazarus did it first)
—
No cannibalism, but.
—
Want to educate yourself, Pierce?
Here, for you: https://aquinas.cc/la/en/%7ESent.IV.D10.Q1.A1.Obj1
[ah well, just this once; nobody is otherwise likely to get it. Bowie; Blackstar]
Goddammit, this really deacribes the situation.
“Triumph the Insult Comic Dog Unloads on Undecided Voters” | The Daily Show
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=fDryx4EM0Xg
SC @206, thanks for the Guardian link. Hope you are doing well.
In other news: In fundraising appeal, Trump claims he was ‘tortured’ in Georgia
If Donald Trump respected his base more, he wouldn’t send out fundraising appeals lying about having been “tortured” by officials in Georgia. [He doesn’t respect them, but he know they will believe any bullshit he spouts.]
Well, at least that part seems to be accurate.
Link
Associated Press:
That’s a concise and accurate description.
Followup to SC @206:
Associated Press:
Good news.
The summary in comment 227 is from a Washington Post article. Here is another excerpt:
NBC News:
Sabine Hossenfelder (content guaranteed to not adress trans or other social issues. Yours Birger):
“Superintelligent AI Will Try to Control Us, Geoffrey Hinton Warns”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=UcEyfQ1I8jg
Meh. A similar argument to that of Hinton was made by a character in Stanislaw Lem’s novel The Investigation more than 50 years ago.
whheydt @ # 215 – Yeah, Prometheus may come closest to my Jesus scenario – except Jesus has no Hercules to save him.
John Morales @ # 216: … you don’t get how that’s not how actual Catholics think of it.
No, I just don’t consider their version definitive. Or coherent. Or even interesting.
I’d offer sympathy for your fixation on same, if not for your gratuitous – and yes, tedious – insults.
So, curious but as i asked (off topic) here :
https://proxy.freethought.online/pharyngula/2024/06/27/why-i-left-facebook/comment-page-1/#comment-2225625
I finally saw the final episode of season 3 (& last? Far as I know) of this robot dogs – not quite a scute as Aibo version of War of the Worlds and just .. WTF?! So many unanswered questions and so much still doesn’t make sense.
A series that had its moments and its atmospheric moody power and tension and thoughts-provoked but also just .. hang on that’s not how things work and doesn’t compute momenst too..
So wondering
1 ) Anyone else on here watched that?
2) if so what did youthink and did it make more sense to you?
3) Anyone here mind spoilers about it?.
Supreme Court further blocks EPA’s ability to fight air pollution
More about that Supreme Court decision to delay the decision concerning Idaho’s anti-abortion law(s):
Link
The Supreme Court just lit a match and tossed it into dozens of federal agencies
SEC v. Jarkesy could render much of the federal government unable to function.
https://www.wonkette.com/p/supreme-court-this-place-could-use
Supreme Court: This Place Could Use More Fraud And Pollution!
But you peasants can have a little bit of emergency abortion, as a treat.
https://www.wonkette.com/p/whats-up-with-bolivia-and-kenya-coup
What’s Up With Bolivia And Kenya? Coup-Coup-Catchoo!
GOP’s McCarthy changes his mind (again) about Biden’s acuity
Kevin McCarthy’s contradictions are emblematic of a larger truth: President Biden’s Republican detractors are struggling to keep their stories straight.
“Is sexuality a private matter? Not for LGBTQI+ asylum seekers”
https://phys.org/news/2024-06-sexuality-private-lgbtqi-asylum-seekers.html
“Scathing Atheist 593 Off Brand Edition”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=Y-m-2JDu5Ik
@StevoR #233:
I’d not heard of it. Looked it up, if only to help others find it.
Wikipedia – War of the Worlds (2019 TV series)
3 seasons of 8 episodes, aired through 2022 in lots of countries.
AV Club reviewed season 1.
From the comments:
ScreenRant Season 3 Recap
Alrighty then.
Myself @ 241
A thorough dissection of the opportunist piece of shit sexual abuser Russel Brand. Also, news from Louisiana and suggestions of how to deal with the 11-12 ten commandments BS in schools.
@232: “John Morales @ # 216: … you don’t get how that’s not how actual Catholics think of it.
No, I just don’t consider their version definitive. Or coherent. Or even interesting.
”
Which is why you called it “ritual cannibalism”, having brought it up out of nowhere.
So uninteresting, that you had to bring it up.
Obviously intended as an attempted jibe, but now you’re stuck with it.
Again: Come on, Pierce, come clean!
Do you or do you not honestly believe that Catholics are cannibals?
Do you or do you not honestly believe that Catholics themselves think they are cannibals?
Now, you have conceded that you do not honestly believe that Catholics themselves think they are cannibals (“I just don’t consider their version definitive” implies you know their version is not your version), so all you have to concede now is that do not honestly believe that Catholics think they are cannibals.
To what supposed fixation do you intend to refer?
(Why you claim to feel insulted by the truth is pretty obvious, no? Weak, but obvious)
Regarding “gratuitous – and yes, tedious – insults”:
StevoR, what CA7746 wrote, basically.
It’s cobbled up derivative glurge based on an actual work, but has pretty much zero similiarity from the synopses I’ve seen. So, derivative fanfic.
“The series takes place in contemporary Britain and France, but it serves as a re-imagining of the classic H. G. Wells novel”
—
Me, I’d rather they redid the Triffids, or better still, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Tripods
Hm, could one call breast-feeding cannibalism?
(I reckon so, and it would be ritualistic if the feeding were also ritualistic)
John Morales @ # 244: … having brought it up out of nowhere.
Having reported on a weird, large-scale, staged event with political ramifications (and even a Minnesota connection).
… all you have to concede now is …
That I don’t accept the Vatican party line, unlike (so far) one other rather obsessive commenter here.
Take a break.
(Speaking of which, I will be offline tomorrow, during which I hope you can find a new fixation.)
Whilst referring to Communion as “ritual cannibalism”.
Can’t hide from it, you know. There it is in black and white.
(How needful do you reckon it was to your report, then?)
<snicker>
I accept that the Catholic party line is the Catholic party line, which is theirs.
No cannibalism in “the Vatican party line”, as you call it.
That’s something you made up.
Your piteous plea has been heard.
What, you imagine responding to your comments to me is a fixation?
Heh. It’s not a fixation, maybe I should get one?
I reckon free-range fixations are the go, no? Mmm.
(You can stop it whenever you want by not commenting at me about it, since then I can’t respond to the comments you didn’t make to me about it; takes two to tango)
Summary from Steve Benen:
The summary is based on a report from Bloomberg.
Meanwhile, in India: https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/article/2024/jun/27/india-supreme-court-new-penal-code-permitting-marital-rape
And, just because it looks awesome: https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/jun/27/sinkhole-soccer-field-illinois
(There’s video there, but the photo suffices)
Gotta love a true geek (in the nice, modern sense, not the chicken-head-biting sense):
The DARKEST Units in 40K – Part One | Warhammer 40K Lore
Yes, I am sometimes eclectic.
“Most pristine trilobite fossils ever found shake up scientific understanding of the long extinct group”
https://phys.org/news/2024-06-pristine-trilobite-fossils-scientific-extinct.html
The numerous mouth appendages makes me think of the various hostile organisms in the SF novels by Neal Asher.
Good discussion here (topical):
Trump and climate change:
Link
That lie about “being paid by China”:
Link
About the debate:
President Biden’s campaign said he had a cold. Yes, his voice was weaker even than usual. He looked pale and sick.
It looks to me like it only takes a cold to knock Biden off his game. He had trouble speaking in another way: the stutter he overcame in his youth has always negatively affected the smoothness of his communication skills, but now that he is older it seems like the stutter is back. That stutter just shuts him down completely sometimes.
Could have been worse I guess. He could have died on the stage instead of just looking like he was about to die.
President Biden answered most of the policy questions correctly, but it was hard to hear him and hard to understand him.
Trump spewed a tsunami of lies… and he did so confidently and forcefully.
Fucking disaster.
Steve Benen:
Link
Josh Marshall:
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/your-reactions-7
Link
Looking at the USA from afar, I seriously doubt the Democrats have the flexibility to have a brokered convention where they pick another candidate than Biden.
They are set in their ways and hope to return to the days of Bill Clinton when it was possible to pretend the system was working. They consistently tend to underestimate the threat posed by the Republicans.
Link
Trump did repeatedly blame Nancy Pelosi. It was an alarming amount of repetition … even in the midst of all those other lies.
Followup to comment 263.
Posted by readers of the article:
Bits and pieces of campaign news, as summarized by Steve Benen:
Link
NBC News:
Commentary:
Link
Trump’s Lies About Abortion in America Were Particularly Appalling
He falsely claimed that “all legal scholars” wanted Roe overturned, and that Democrats intend to execute newborns.
Scathing dissent in Chevron ruling
‘Extraordinarily Dangerous’: Legal Expert Warns Supreme Court Chevron Decision Just Changed ‘Government As We Know It’
Followup to comment 268.
Supreme Court: Fck You (The Unhoused), Fck You (The Government), F*ck You (You). Jan. 6 Rioters … You’re Cool.
https://www.wonkette.com/p/supreme-court-fck-you-the-unhoused
Another look at the mess that was last night’s debate:
https://www.wonkette.com/p/we-hear-there-was-a-debate-last-night
Oh yes, it will.
Good news: The Supreme Court denied Steve Bannon’s request to remain free pending an appeal of his contempt conviction. The full court denied Bannon’s application. Bannon is required to report to prison on July 1. That’s Monday.
CNN gave Trump a sledgehammer and thanked him for destroying the debate, by Mark Sumner
Matt McDermott:
Canadian man makes history after receiving zero election votes
Followup to comment 273.
Posted by readers of the article:
X post and video:
The video from the North Carolina rally is well worth watching. It is short: 1:16 minutes long.
Apologies. Here is the link for the video of Joe Biden speaking in NC, as mentioned in comment 275:
https://x.com/mmpadellan/status/1806745727982350743
Link
Good News:
https://www.wonkette.com/p/everybody-yelled-at-eric-adams-until
President Biden:
Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro:
It looks like the debate after the debate is going to go on for some time. President Biden has both backers and detractors.
Link
Trumpstood on a debate stage and lied more than 30 times, according to CNN’s fact-checking guru Daniel Dale, including:
Every claim listed above is false.
Link
Video at the link.
Regarding Trump’s claims about Roe:
A surprising study found people who had smoked pot as teens performed better on a memory test
https://www.psypost.org/surprising-study-found-people-smoked-pot-teens-performed-better-memory-test/?dicbo=v2-WqVBKlk
Imagining the ostensible target audience for the debate:
“At first, I was worried about the violent misogynist who wanted to nuke hurricanes, sell state secrets, bomb Mexico then pretend it wasn’t him, withhold disaster relief to US territories he didn’t like, give away Puerto Rico to acquire Greenland, shoot civilians who protest against state violence, round up millions of people into camps, and purge the government of anyone who’d rein in his darkest, stupidest impulses… but his confident zingers swayed me.”
A bit of heavy economic reading (PDF link in page):
https://www.martenscentre.eu/publication/russian-economy-still-standing-but-stuck/
—
A bit of context, the author:
CNBC:
Good News.
Followup to comment 279.
Longer excerpt of comments made by President Biden:
Link. Video at the link.
Cartoon: Have a Federalist Society fourth!
This Is Why the Supreme Court Shouldn’t Try to Do the EPA’s Job
Conservative justices this week confused nitrous oxide with nitrogen oxides and then insisted that they, not the EPA, were the final word on environmental regulations.
@Lynna #288:
Speaking of libertarians corrupting the Fourth…
How Corporate America Invented Christian America
BehindTheBastards podcast – How the rich ate Christianity, Part 1
But Biden didn’t get knocked down. He didn’t even fall down. He just subsided onto the ground as if a stopper dropped out and he deflated.
One good news item: A poll taken after the debate gives Biden a 1% advantage, predictably making Trump angry.
And here is another tidbit to cheer you up.
“Fox pup plays peek-a-boo in fox dens”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=FhTydr_2AYU
I go to SaveAFox at Youtube when I need a bit of comfort.
Only 1 in 4 people who need meds to fight opioid addiction get them
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2024-06-people-meds-opioid-addiction.html
Study reveals most Americans are unaware that primary care physicians can prescribe addiction treatment
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2024-06-reveals-americans-unaware-primary-physicians.html
CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain @289, thanks for that historical information. Makes sense. “Letting rich people do whatever they want and saying that’s what God wants.”
In a way, it reminds me of Rachel Maddow’s “Ultra” series. People in power doing similar nefarious stuff, and rich people being a combination of remarkably gullible/stupid and conniving.
birgerjohansson @292, thanks for that. Maybe that information should have been part of the Biden/Trump debate.
Link. Scroll down to view the text quoted above. That link includes other news.
NB -Flush down the corrupt bastards!
Britain: “Are You in a Top Tactical Voting Target?”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=U8SV0fkrJl8
Trigger warning for racist slurs.
Link
Georgia Recorder is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Georgia Recorder maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor John McCosh for questions: [email protected].
The New York Times has posted so many articles calling for Biden to drop out, and other wise focusing on Biden’s flaws, that I do not think I can list them all here. It would be too many links in one comment.
Here is one discussion about the approach the NYT is taking: Remember when the NYT called for Trump to drop out? I do not.
Link
Oh I’m Pedantic? I’ll Show You PEDANTIC!
(Puts my own restraint into perspective)
“In 2024, I work a job that I have to allow myself to be called a n*****,” Kidd said. “But I do it because I want to make sure people have access to the ballot box.”
Bet he wouldn’t do it if the job did not come with remuneration.
(Cynical? Maybe, maybe just realistic)
Emma Thorne dissects ‘Joshua And the Promised Land’ : “Is this the Best Worst CG Movie Of All Time?”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=pyuSNywFQZY
Sorry, Birger — after recently watching and posting a link to the contents of #299, I can’t ignore the shitty headline you adduced. Bad timing on your part. No biggie.
“Best Worst” is incoherent; clearly, the intended meaning is probably simply ‘Worst’, but could also mean the ‘Best of the Worst’ rather than the ‘Worst of the Worst’.
Also, you know the rule: if something is being asserted, one doesn’t do it in the form of a question, so I already know the answer: “no”. Which I would in any case, since that’s purely a subjective belief.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betteridge%27s_law_of_headlines)
“Researchers develop scalable synthesis of cancer-fighting compounds”
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2024-06-scalable-synthesis-cancer-compounds.html
John Morales, in my defence I was so taken aback by the non-quality of the CG in this christian film that I had no neurons left to comment on the title. It is like watching a compilation of Trump and/or the crazy lady in the House. Ouch!.
A problem I have with this study (by William Crockett at the Santa Fe Institute) is
1- what prevented the Earth to freeze all over, and
2- if Earth did freeze all over, how did the organisms get oxygen or the light needed for photosynthesis?
“Past Snowball Earth conditions drove the evolution of complex life – Earth.com”
https://www.earth.com/news/past-snowball-earth-conditions-drove-evolution-complex-multicellular-life/
[meta]
Birger, heh. Honestly, I admire your sang-froid and your demeanour in general.
Quite a contrast with other commenters! Bit more excitable, they.
(Contrast with me, that’s for sure)
I don’t doubt it’s amongst the worst of that type, nor do I blame you for liking the content.
Not my thing, but that’s not the thing, is it?
To be clear: I’m happy you like what you like and you share that.
(I do the same!)
—
BTW, I appreciate your tolerance and your restraint, Lynna.
(But you already knew that)
birgerjohansson # $ 305: … if Earth did freeze all over, how did the organisms get oxygen or the light needed for photosynthesis?
The (hypothetical but with some strong evidence) Snowball Earth scenario happened before the Cambrian era, hence before much in the way of multicellular organisms, hence before anything alive needed oxygen or could photosynthesize. Then, it seems, volcanoes broke through the ice and released enough carbon dioxide to warm things up.
Re: my # 307 – On re-reading my link, I note they postulate the existence of algae before the snowball, so that implies at least some photosynthesis and some free oxygen in the pre-Cambrian atmosphere.
Pierce R. Butler@307, 308,
Oxygenic photosynthesis by cyanobacteriais believed to go back to some 2 billion years ago.
birgerjohansson@295,
I gave up on your favourite, “Phil”, when he claimed anyone criticising Starmer from the left just wanted to be in permanent oppositon – which is utterly dishonest and ridiculous. And focusing purely on minimising the number of Tory seats neglects the key questions about the future actions of the Starmeroid Labour government which we know is going to be in power in less than a week.
Lynna, OM@297,
If it was just the NYT that was calling for Biden to drop out, that would be one thing; but that’s far from the case.
How A Spectacular Piece Of Pedantry Created An International Enclave
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=sT5GpFnRMEQ
Re: Snowball Earth
I understand there’s much uncertainty on how total the most extreme freezing was. Presumably, if the Earth’s entire ocean was covered in 1 km thick ice (as in some estimates), that’d insulate well enough for geothermic heat to keep the underlying ocean water mass unfrozen. Chemosynthetic microbe communities could survive around deep sea vents.
Unclear whether photosynthetic bacteria and algae could survive that. Some modern microalgae are able to survive inside ice and snow, with minimal access to liquid water. Also, perhaps there were oases of life around hot springs? Anyway, the phylogeny of life suggests that many lineages of photosynthetic microbes survived.
Also presumably, for most of the Cryogenian period (1,000 to 750 million years ago), there were varying levels of ice age severity, but no total freezing. Varying levels of photosynthesis limitation and biological resource scarcity. The Cryogenian was followed by Ediacaran (750 to 540 million years ago), with much more favorable conditions and rapid appearance of the first known simple multicellular animals. This was followed by Cambrian, with the famous explosion in animal diversity and complexity.
Happy (?) Asteroid day -June 30th everyone!
See : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asteroid_Day
PS. Ah. Official webpage here :
https://asteroidday.org/
Minnesota companies fund election deniers despite vowing not to
Cartoon: The surgeon general says …
The editorial board of The Philadelphia Inquirer:
Jon Allsop of Columbia Journalism Review:
Ukraine Update: North Korea commits boots on the ground in Ukraine
Wonkette Goes To Hell
We got ice cream, and met the Michigan Militia.
Followup to SC @206. See also comments 227, 229 and 238.
Bolivian general accused of failed coup is transferred to maximum-security prison
General Juan José Zúñiga led armored vehicles to the doors of Bolivia’s government palace vowing to “restore democracy.” He now faces charges of terrorism and starting an armed uprising.
Beryl becomes ‘extremely dangerous’ Category 4 hurricane expected to bring life-threatening conditions to Caribbean
Hurricane warnings have been issued for Barbados, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Grenada and Tobago, according to the National Hurricane Center.
The U.N. begins distributing food aid in Gaza brought ashore by the U.S. military for the first time since June 9
About 15 million pounds of aid is on the beach waiting to be distributed, officials say. The U.N. suspended distribution amid security concerns.
Photos and video at the link.
KG # 310
I am aware of the shortcomings of the podcaster doing “A Different Bias” He is against Corbin and the left, and has no problem with the purging and blatantly unfair treatment of those who don’t think the sun shines out of Keir Starmer’s backside.
I know that.
The thing is, Starmer is pretty much the British Joe Biden. The only current option.
.
And ‘A Different Bias’ provides accurate detailed coverage of the British polls (he knows statistics which.makes him far more competent than most media pundits).
Although he is an unapologetic Starmerite his predictions about tory mishandling the last five years have been mostly spot on. The times he has been off is usually when the tories were even more insane than predicted!
.
And my non-paywall sources in Britain are much more limited than for USA. The Guardian is mostly good, but gives the Nasty Party the benefit of doubt.
So if you live in Scandinavia and want to keep up with conditions in Old Blighty you have to make do with the sources, but be aware of their shortcomings and biases.
I can only hope Brexitstan finally introduces a modern voting system. This will 1: bury the tories, and
2: create the possibility for smaller parties to get a proportional vote. This will give Starmer et al less of a hegemony of the left.
CEO compensation skyrockets while workers’ pay barely keeps up
Hossenfelder: “AI passed the Turing Test — And No One Noticed”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=GyNaH27lX90
So Hossenfelder did not notice that AI passed the Turing Test, according to her own claim.
How then does she know that AI passed the Turing Test?
Heh.
Anton Petrov:
“Incredible New Evidence for Time Dilation In the Distant Universe”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=CTIgrgPYorg
In the news: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/article/2024/jun/30/pfas-absorbed-skin-study
[CW: Injury]
Iceland’s Quest to Use 100 Percent of Its Fish Waste
Re: CompulsoryAvccount7746 @ #330…
They could probably make garum out of the remaining 5%. Not sure how big the market for it is, though.
whheydt, ahem.
Heard of Worcestershire sauce?
(Also, fish sauce is ubiquitous in certain parts of Asia)
Silver lining? Well, not really.
Gotta love the democratisation of journalism in this, the third decade of C21.
So young, he looks; so well produced, it is!
But earnest and admirable. Great English, too.
AI model finds the cancer clues at lightning speed
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2024-06-ai-cancer-clues-lightning.html
Nanorobot kills cancer cells in mice with hidden weapon
https://phys.org/news/2024-06-nanorobot-cancer-cells-mice-hidden.html
The last one was from the Karolinska Institute in Sweden. Nice to see not all clever ones have migrated.
birgerjohansson@324
This is misleading because we already know Starmer is going to be PM in less than a week – despite the pretences by both the Labour and Tory parties that this is not the case (both have to pretend this in order to motivate those who might vote for them, but might not). Show me a psephologist (independent of party) who considers anything other than a clear Labour majority a real possibility. The concern of the left should have shifted months ago to how to pressure a Starmer government to limit their obeisance to the rich and the corporate elite, and actually take some worthwhile actions, on environmental and social justice issues, because it’s been obvious for that long that the Tories are toast as far as this election is concerned.
We can be absolutely sure it won’t as long as it’s up to Starmer.
Whoopsies: https://x.com/AJ_FI/status/1807339807640518690
“Wow. This is apparently what was supposed to be a STATIC FIRE TEST today of a Tianlong-3 first stage by China’s Space Pioneer. That’s catastrophic, not static. Firm was targeting an orbital launch in the coming months.”
[1 minute video, quite remarkable, big boom]
YouGov has a good reputation for accurate polling.
“Trump Gets Very Bad News From Unexpected Poll”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=1HQgHXQyOTQ
‘Kool & The Gang – Celebration’
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=3GwjfUFyY6M
Oh FFS.
Supreme Court delays Trump trial, sending immunity case back to lower court
Neal Katyal:
Screen grab of Sotomayor’s dissent is available at the link.
https://x.com/neal_katyal/status/1807785063657926977
Followup to comments 339 and 340.
Posted by readers of the article quoted in comment 339:
Link
https://thehill.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/07/SCOTUS-Trump-immunity-ruling.pdf
Link
Harry Lipman:
Pundits are calling for Biden to drop out. They’ve got the wrong guy, by Mark Sumner.
Another reason for western Australia to be independent- even the rocks in the east are vulgar newcomers!
“Remnants of Earth’s primordial crust found near Perth”
https://www.themandarin.com.au/249281-remnants-of-earths-primordial-crust-found-near-perth/
“When the president does it, that means it is not illegal,” Nixon said in 1977. In 2024, the Supreme Court justices came to a similar conclusion.
The 60-second ad is available at the link.
Link
Small detail: President Joe Biden arrived at the debate with a summer tan (you can see that tan in his appearances the next day). Someone in the debate prep area applied makeup that made him look pale. That, and the fact that he was sick, exacerbated his stumbles and stuttering.
Bits and pieces of campaign news, as summarized by Steve Benen:
Josh Marshall:
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/high-crimes-2
Josh Marshall:
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/official-acts-are-precisely-what-matters-most
More details:
Barrett still voted with the conservative majority.
Link
Link
Justice Jackson:
Britain. Yes, I know this guy is a Starmerite/Blairite but he knows ststistics and he knows how to interpret polls.
(Others may watch porn, I watch coverage of tories failing the election campaign while I laugh like an insane killer)
A Different Bias:
“Tories Fear the Lib Dem Surge”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=MQ7g-Zv19O0
It will be another couple of days before the next “God Awful Movies” arrives at Youtube but here are Heath and Noah in their other podcast.
.
“Skepticrat 227 Debated Breath Edition”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=dFxxd4qFdgY
I think A Different Bias is a quite good channel, though obviously strongly biased.
(it’s there in the title!)
I must have seen dozens of his videos regarding Brexit and its consequences over the last few years.
In the WTF column: https://www.theguardian.com/society/article/2024/jul/02/risk-of-serious-injury-as-strangling-during-sex-becomes-normalised-among-young-australians
Bloody hell!
Another good YouTuber, in my estimation, is Tom Nicholas. I do like his enthusiasm.
(And I’m pretty darn picky, I assure you)
Anyway, clickbaity titles are a thing (and very important to the income of YouTubers, I know!), but if one reads beyond the title and everything is explained, then I give that a conditional pass.
Needful things, alas.
A bit like the current trend of promotions being included within the content, actually.
I can live with it if they just use a chunk of it to spruik, and the moment I notice it’s on, I can just skip to the remainder of the substantive content.
Can’t blame them for earning a living, after all.
But I can have standards.
(Anton Petrov does not make the grade)
Example:
—
So nice to have context instead of a naked link and a clickbait title, no?
John Morales @360;
You don’t say…
However on this, I totally agree with you. (I won’t click on your link though because I’m not really interested in the subject and I like to check more video titles from the same youtube channel before clicking on a new one).
Jean, ta.
I confess that, after the fact of your comment, I’m thinking I was kinda justifying (and) apologising for appearing mean to Birger and Stevor and (ahem) others.
(It is satisfying to think that I am getting through to some people)
… and sharing.
(Like Birger and others)
Ah well, might as well become personal.
Hey, Reginald, should you care to come back and resume your postings here, I promise to (try) to never ever upset you about them.
Seriously. On my word.
NBC News:
President Biden Speaks On Immunity Decision
Scroll down to view the video. The video is 4:53 minutes long.
A rogue Supreme Court awaits its king
In that mood, so… this will be mysterious to some, apparent to others.
A YouTube
guiltypleasure: Kruggsmash playing and narrating Dwarf Fortress.Example:
A years-long addiction.
Though, I venture to opine, those who haven’t spent at least a thousand hours playing Dwarf Fortress won’t get it.
(I do)
—
He’s simply the best at it.
Geology
xkcd: Routine Maintenance
https://xkcd.com/2952/
Yes, this is a big annoyance where I live.
This week Gary Busey turned 80. Jamie Farr (corporal Klinger in MASH) turned 90.
Ghost – Pro Memoria
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=5xiw-hnz_JA
Trump-appointed judge undermines Biden’s climate agenda (again)
The Supreme Court Took A Sledgehammer To American Democracy
Manhattan Prosecutors Agree To Delay Trump’s Sentencing Following Immunity Ruling
Clarence Thomas previews how he’ll get rid of Trump’s federal charges
Cartoon: Above the law
Good news: Giuliani disbarred in N.Y. over false statements about 2020 election.
A state appeals court said the “seriousness of [Giuliani]’s misconduct cannot be overstated.”
Washington Post link
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel link
Link
LIVE: Is Joe Biden Too Old To Draw Dicks On Hurricane Maps With Sharpies?
https://www.wonkette.com/p/live-is-joe-biden-too-old-to-draw
Video at the link.
Followup to good news in comment 376.
https://www.wonkette.com/p/rudy-giuliani-disbarred-and-liquidating
Schadenfreude moment for sure.
Hurricane Beryl reaches record winds of 165 mph as the Category 5 storm barrels toward Jamaica
The storm, which is currently in the Caribbean Sea south of Puerto Rico, has already claimed four lives in Grenada and St. Vincent and the Grenadines.
Health officials in the Florida Keys issue a dengue fever alert
The Florida Department of Health in Monroe County reported two cases of locally acquired dengue fever.
Coup attempt thwarted in Ukraine, Security Service says, as Hungary’s Orbán arrives in Kyiv for talks
The Security Service of Ukraine said the group plotted to seize the country’s parliament.
Oh FFS.
GOP House speaker shocked at idea we’d ever have ‘crazy criminal’ president
Link. Video at the link.
GOP celebrates immunity ruling—so long as it doesn’t apply to Biden. Hypocrites.
Cartoon: Whatever
Libertarian Guy: The Only Good Use Of Subsidized Healthcare Is My Use Of Subsidized Healthcare
It’s always the way.
https://www.wonkette.com/p/libertarian-guy-the-only-good-use
And the only good abortion is the one a rightwing Republican woman has.
150-year-old conflict between Darwin and Wallace (about butterfly wing patterns) is resolved – by a machine
https://newatlas.com/biology/darwin-wallace-evolution-selection/
Seminal news from Queensland (Oz):
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/article/2024/jul/03/mass-purge-of-frozen-sperm-donations-ordered-as-queensland-audit-exposes-misidentification-risk
(Had they contacted me, I could have underestimated it for them, it being rather doable)
[all those wasted wanks! Oh, wait, no. Wanks are never wasted]
Judge in Trump’s hush money trial delays sentencing
“Why Bill Gates’ New Natrium Reactor is a Big Deal”
It can rapidly compensate for fluctuations in power production by wind ir solar power.
(And by separating the reactor from the power generation equipment [it is a low-pressure design] you can use much cheaper simpler off -the-shelf (not nuclear rated) equipment in the generator part of the powerplant)
And the chosen design can burn up plutonium.
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=ixSCZwFCQlc
“Physicists Claim They Can Send Particles Into the Past” (the headline is wrong – the physicists did not claim it but New Scientist fucked up)
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=hZoxLVx_OE8
Anton Petrov:
“Was May 2024 Geomagnetic Storm a Carrington Event? Major New Updates”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=PmUnbRu7JI8
“Trump’s Awful Past Secrets Revealed in Doc Unsealing”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=xa3K85fStBw
Birger @392, misleading.
The big deal is actually the storage system:
“Alongside its 345-MW reactor, the facility will have a molten salt-based energy storage system that can achieve power output of 500 MW for more than five and a half hours. The storage system is unique among advanced nuclear reactor designs and “allows the plant to integrate seamlessly with renewable resources,” TerraPower said.”
(https://www.utilitydive.com/news/terrapower-smr-advanced-nuclear-reactor-bill-gates/718722/)
“Was May 2024 Geomagnetic Storm a Carrington Event?”
No.
So simple!
“The Carrington Event was the most intense geomagnetic storm in recorded history, peaking on 1–2 September 1859 during solar cycle 10.”, quoth wikipedia.
I mean, the Carrington Event was a particular geomagnetic storm, so I suppose in some sense every geomagnetic storm can be considered a Carrington Event.
(Anton is really, really bad with headlines)
A study on how the global ‘North’ is still exploiting the global ‘South’, bit heavy going in places, but it is more comprehensive than anything I’ve seen before. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S095937802200005X
Jazzlet, unfortunately, it relies on https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unequal_exchange
From the abstract:
“Unequal exchange theory posits that economic growth in the “advanced economies” of the global North relies on a large net appropriation of resources and labour from the global South, extracted through price differentials in international trade. Past attempts to estimate the scale and value of this drain have faced a number of conceptual and empirical limitations, and have been unable to capture the upstream resources and labour embodied in traded goods”
It posits a theory, and then quantifies the numbers of that posited theory.
Thing is, from any given premises, I can give you a valid argument for the truth of any proposition that follows those premises.
(did you notice how often it’s been cited?)
Britain. A trip down memory lane.
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=cKAeO-5saqQ
The most likely answer: an episode revealing a condition – as I’ve said elsewhere, it is characteristic of conditions associated with aging that they can vary considerably even from hour to hour – and I’d add, tiredness and minor infections can exacerbate them far beyond what a younger person would experience. I see the excuse for Biden’s catastrophic performance has now been shifted from “a cold”, to “exhaustion due to excessive global travel”. Meanwhile, the first elected Democrat has come out for Biden’s withdrawal, reportedly with more in the wings, worrying poll findings, and (not at the link) so-far anonymous claims that the debate episode was not a one-off, that Biden has lost his train of thought and failed to finish sentences in private meetings.
Actually this falls into American mythology: George III had far less power than a POTUS even before this ruling. Admittedly he couldn’t have been charged with a crime, but he didn’t run the country himself, and if he’d tried to do so (by restoring “personal rule”), he’d have been packed off to Hanover before you could say “Crown in Parliament”. Conversely, the Prime Minister (George could generally decide who to put in this position, but they had to be able to get Parliament to vote for raising money) was accountable to Parliament and not immune from prosecution.
A YouGov poll in Britain shows 22% of the voters are prepared to vote tactically to purge tory MPs from parliament.
The Man with 1000 Kids review – yet more proof that we should raze human civilisation to the ground | Television & radio | The Guardian
https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/article/2024/jul/03/the-man-with-1000-kids-review-yet-more-proof-that-we-should-raze-human-civilisation-to-the-ground
Trump still struggling with the plain meaning of ‘exoneration’
Donald Trump has an underappreciated tell: Every time he claims to have been “exonerated,” he’s lying. Indeed, it’s a surprisingly long list.
Link
You’re over 80 years old, you fly around the world a few times to visit with world leaders, you catch a cold … and then you go into a debate with a head stuffed full of too many statistics and not enough clear, short answers. WTF?
Thanks to Supreme Court, nation’s future now hinges on candidates’ morality
That’s a thoughtful analysis written by Mark Sumner. The article also includes video of Rachel Maddow analyzing the Supreme Court’s ruling.
That sounds like a threat issued by the Heritage Foundation’s president after the Supreme Court ruling that Trump should be King of everything.
Biden campaign response:
More from the Heritage Foundation guy:
Link
https://www.wonkette.com/p/ahole-sues-northwestern-u-law-school
A**hole Sues Northwestern U Law School Over Insufficiently White Male Faculty
Jamaica braces for Hurricane Beryl, with life-threatening winds and storm surge
While Beryl’s path is uncertain, state authorities in Texas have warned people in coastal areas to be prepared over the holiday weekend. [map at the link]
Good news:
https://x.com/brahmresnik/status/1808530883806417112
Video at the link.
https://www.wonkette.com/p/heritage-foundation-nut-tuggers-will
Heritage Foundation Will Keep Biden On Ballot (IF He Wants Off), BY SUING!
Link
New York Times:
NBC News:
NBC News:
Not good news: https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/jul/03/about-90-of-people-in-gaza-displaced-since-war-began-says-un-agency
“Nearly 71 million people will be on the move over July 4th week, according to AAA — a new record that exceeds pre-pandemic totals.”
An entirely reasonable and even necessary prudent use of our vast natural resources.
<snicker>
My semiotics may not be great, but… come on!
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/jul/03/biden-white-house-missteps#img-1
Noctilucent clouds have been spotted from Scotland over the past few weeks.
Well, that’s my own headline; it’s actually the first line of the actual article, the title of which is actually “Scotland’s skies aglow with rare clouds”.
Gotta love “Noctilucent”, no?
The instant I saw that, I knew what it meant. Of course.
Such words are wondrous.
Oh, right, and there’s a photograph there showing night-time clouds, which is pretty enough.
Well, more than one, but having seen a noctilucent nightscape, the novelty is no more.
Like eclipses, basically. Or rainbows. Or flutterbyes.
@ ^ John Morales : Huh, I still find them novel and wondrous. Okay, maybe not exactly novel for rainbows but still beautuiful and worth looking at , pghotographing, enjoying.
Haven’t seen any eclipses despiet going up to the one in 2012 that crossed northern Australia 0- went to Cairns had a great week’s holiday there – but also got clouded out at totality. Don’t recall seeing any noticlucent clouds. Did kinda see the aurorae earlier thsi year but very faintly and was hard totellfrom skyglow except from phone camera.
Source : https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-07-04/federal-parliament-live-blog-july4/104054886
Breaking news just now :
Source : https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-07-04/fatima-payman-quits-labor-after-palestinian-vote-furore/104056278
Aussie ABC newés stories kinda related here :
Source : https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-07-02/pm-says-senator-paymans-actions-are-not-acceptable/104050830
Plus :
.
Source : https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-07-01/the-albanese-government-is-facing-internal-revolt/104046026
As well as Adam Bandt Greens leader interview here :
Source : https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-07-01/greens-leader-adam-bandt-speaks-to-7.30/104046042
Which reminds me that The 7.30 Report recently had an interview with MTG – yeah that MTG – too :
Interview & transcript : https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-06-26/congresswoman-marjorie-taylor-greene-claims-trump-trial-a-sham/104027386
I don’t she came over too well esp once challenged with questions outside of her support for Assange.
To put our problems in perspective…
World’s oldest cave painting has been found in Indonesia. 51.000 years old.
Earth abides.
I might’ve snarkily say that your woundrousness-juice glands must be pretty swollen, but of course it might be that mine are atrophied. Apart from the fact I respect you too much for that, of course. :)
Really.
Anyway, for you, I hereby take the time to explain my stance, hopefully to your satisfaction.
I might just indulge in a bit of flourish, but hey.
Might it hypothetically be that (novel and wondrous and beautiful) is not a single signifier, but rather a conjunction of such? I mean, more like ((novel) and (wondrous) and (beautiful)).
Right?
I hereby consider the consideration at hand, and think thus:
Might it hypothetically be that (novel and wondrous and beautiful) is not a single signifier, but rather a conjunction of three such? I mean, more like ((novel) and (wondrous) and (beautiful)).
I think so.
There is only a first time one sees a dog.
Sure. All dogs are different, and one sees many dogs.
So that “novel” attribute in the can apply, in my personal estimation, only the once.
After that, sure. Each image is novel, each arrangement of pixels is different, etc.
But they are images of dogs and (gotta love it!) noctilucent nightscapes.
Anyway, I know I’ve taken my time, but the point is that, novelty aside, only the beauty and wondrousness remains.
Right?
Gack! Garbled. :|
((novel) and (wondrous) and (beautiful)) ⇉ ((wondrous) and (beautiful)) after exposure.
Lynna, OM@406,
Biden had been back in the USA for 12 days when the debate took place on June 27.. The “jet lag” and “exhausted from global travel” excuse is bullshit.
Britain
A few final words before the election
[we all know you did not intend to embed, Birger]
[meta]
Also, please spare me potential embarrassment, O distant friend.
Is ‘Birger’ acceptable?
I want to know.
My apologies.
“Birger” is perfectly OK
(in Swedish the g is sometimes pronounced “j” because language drift.
So, “birjer”
It is the same with our pronounciation of Sweden : “Sverige” (reich of the swedes) is pronounced “Sverje” .
A little something to keep your minds off current miseries.
.
Hanna Reitsch was a pioneering “dare anything” test pilot*. Unfortunately, she flew for the nazis (in 1945 she even landed a small aircraft on a Berlin street, hoping to evacuate you-know-who from encirclement. That was the last aircraft to and from Berlin before the surrender).
“Operation Crossbow | Pulse Jet Rocket Flight Test” (manned version of V-1)
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=UtDHLsB2Ksc
*She even flew a prototype of the Flettner helicopter indoors inside a big dome. The only woman to be awarded an iron cross, but it turned out not to be a merit for post-war aviation.
Dave Allen / homosexuality
.https://youtube.com/shorts/dK43yHIUMKA
I found Fred Schneider and Steven van Zandt are both 10 years older than me, give or take a few days. And this reminds me, is it true the two most memorable individuals of the 19th century – Lincoln and Darwin – were born the same day the same year?
If I was not a materialist through and through that would make me believe in fate. But if you look for coincidences, you will eventually find them.
‘Nature Biotechnology’ has an interesting article.
“Re-engineering cancerous tumors to self-destruct and kill drug-resistant cells”
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2024-07-cancerous-tumors-destruct-drug-resistant.html
“Scientists unravel life-saving effect of dexamethasone in COVID-19”
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2024-07-scientists-unravel-life-effect-dexamethasone.html
Jews in Space
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=sz7JGCj4Q5k
(these ships cannot fly on Saturdays)
Ukraine has started to use propeller planes with rear gunners to shoot down Russian drones. This is much cheaper than missiles.
Robin Williams on Canada:
“You are a big country
You are the kindest country in the world.
You are like a really nice apartment over a meth lab.”
KG @429, thanks for the reminder of the time frame. Correct.
In related news: Times Gonna Times, by Josh Marshall
Court blocks yet another discriminatory GOP map, this time in Mississippi
Motoko Rich of The New York Times writes about concerns that America’s allies have with the presidential immunity ruling handed down by the U.S. Supreme Court.
Quinta Jureic and Benjamin Wittes of Lawfare write that the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling is especially reckless with Donald Trump being poised to retake power.
Timothy Noah of The New Republic points out how the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo could, specifically, prevent OSHA from enforcing heat standards and could, generally, tank the economy.
Followup to comment 442.
Link
If Biden does decide to drop out it will not be because the New York Times told him to do so. I hope.
The New York Times played a part in defeating Hillary Clinton by running endless “But Her Emails” stories. I don’t trust them.
@birgerjohansson #436:
Abraham Lincoln = February 12, 1809
Charles Darwin = February 12, 1809
Wikipedia – Birthday problem
Though that only accounts for a day (of any year) in common for an arbitrary group.
That date was not special, as just about everybody born on that day (or any day, of any year) was not world famous centuries later.
The journalist Linda Tirado is dying of complications fron the brain injuries she got after the police shot her in the eye with a sponge bullet some years ago.
Nor do I. But I trust my eyes and ears – up to a point.
What has Biden done?
Link
All of those accomplishments do not mean he should not drop out. Things change. People change. The health of older people usually changes. But those accomplishments do earn President Biden and his administration time to right the ship in my opinion.
It’s His Divine Right, Decrees SCOTUS — The Week in Editorial Cartoons
Re: birgerjohansson @ #434…
Hanna Reitsch was in command of a unit of test pilots during WW2, which led her to be the first person to successfully fly a jet-propelled aircraft. It was modified V-1 (they were trying to locate an instability in the guidance system). She took one herself after some of her subordinate test pilots were killed trying to do so. She was also the first person (note: no gender qualification) to fly a glider across the Alps.
It’s just so absolutely clear and obvious to me, as an American who’s been active in politics his entire life, and who comes from a family where that was just the norm (my grandfather was a Minnesota state legislator for 37 years; politics was just the background of my childhood) that, if Biden drops out, Trump wins. And if Trump wins, the world is fucked for some long time to come.
Making the argument — ANY argument — that Biden should drop out, even if the argument is sound and sensible, only aids Trump. Is Biden losing it? I don’t care. No other person, at this ‘late’ point in our ridiculous, complicated, long, and stupidly expensive election system, would have any chance of defeating Trump. Even if there were some obvious super candidate waiting in the wings — and I don’t see one with anything like the appeal of the known candidate we already have — they would not have time to raise enough money to organize in enough places to win. And they would be fighting the notion that the Democrats are ‘weak’ and disorganized and unable to choose a leader. This argument would be pushed by the Republicans, of course, but also by the NYT and other ‘mainstream’ media.
Democrats calling for Biden to withdraw are, in my view, fucking idiots. Biden is the only thing that can stop Trump. Do I like that? Not at all. I have never been a strong supporter. But it is what it is. If Biden were a turnip, I’d still be voting for him at this point. There is simply no other realistic option. And, the fact that people are still treating this like any other election blows me away. Like, boy, Biden is really not up to the task so let’s calmly discuss whether he can win against the perfectly legitimate other choice in the race.
Obviously, this is all just my own opinion. But it seems so patently obvious to me. Everyone’s hair should be on fire right now with the effort to prop up an old, not-so-very liberal, war-crimes-supporting, possible dotard. Because LOOK AT THE OTHER GUY.
“Entothyreos synnaustrus a Remarkable New Cambrian Taxon”
Burgess shale yet again.
https://blog.everythingdinosaur.com/blog/_archives/2024/06/25/a-remarkable-new-creature-from-the-famous-burgess-shale.html
Farron Cousins:
“Trump’s Sentencing Delay Could Be A HUGE Gift To Democrats”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=NItAPYPTcy0
Paul K @452, I agree. And after giving it some thought, I think Biden is still astute enough, and politically savvy enough, to know that he should not drop out.
For one thing, just look at the timing.
For another, people are comparing this to Lyndon Johnson dropping out and that is just not right.. It is just not the same. See comment 346,
A followup of sorts to comment 455.
Link
Chiming in to say I agree with Lynna and Paul K.
Waiting on the UK election poll…
“A Labour landslide.”
Stormy is Under Attack
As far as I could tell, Stormy Daniels is still suffering some form of PTSD from that encounter with Trump. On top of that, she has been harassed continually for the last six years. Someone even shot one of her horses with a pellet gun. So MAGA cult followers are harassing her animals as well. Trump is still working hard to make her pay, in part by ruining her financially. She should be protected.
From the Guardian liveblog:
SC @457, thanks. I trust your judgement.
Another followup to comment 455 and 456: Hunter, writing for Daily Kos, chimes in:
Guardian liveblog: “If the Conservatives do get just 131 seats, it will be their worst result in terms of seats since they started calling themselves the Conservative party in the 1830s, under Robert Peel. Previously their lowest total was in 1906, when they had 156 seats.”
U.K. election live updates: Britain ousts Conservative Party after 14 years in major win for center-left Labour, exit polls show
Keir Starmer, the leader of the Labour Party, will be prime minister, replacing Rishi Sunak, polls show.
Here’s a link to the Oh God, What Now? election livestream.
Media Matters link
Screen grabs of Trump’s posts that are mentioned in the article are available at the link.
Fox News ramps up attacks on Vice President Kamala Harris
Some of the attacks focus on her race and gender.
Details at the link. Awful stuff is being aired on Fox News. Ugly stuff.
https://x.com/Gerashchenko_en/status/1808799683365466232
Photo at the link.
Followup to comment 467.
Col. Gorodilov commands the Russian forces in Vovchansk. Several reports say that those Russian forces are surrounded and/or cut off.
@Lynna #459:
This is the full interview, I think. It’s an edited 80 minutes of the show.
Rachel Maddow Show Podcast – 2024-07-03 (1:29:42)
Here are the YouTube clips, omitting a few included in the highlights.
On the hush money trial, highlights (30:31)
New details of her traumatic encounter with Trump (10:01)
In the news:
(Colour me impressed)
Lynna, at 455: If one comparison between Lyndon Johnson and Biden makes sense, it’s that the person eventually chosen by the Democrats at the (horrible, controversial, surrounded by violence) convention, Hubert Humphrey, even with backing from loads of leaders, lost. Yes, much of the cause for his loss was Vietnam, and people associating him, as Johnson’s vice-president, with Johnson’s war (which was not really fair: Johnson chose him as his running mate to attract particular voters who might not have liked Johnson; the two had little interaction, from all I’ve read). Much was also due to people being angry that he had not taken part in any primaries. But part was also due to his late entrance into the race, and not having the folks on the ground needed to organize the campaign in all the places necessary in order to win in the time remaining before the election.
But, yeah, even that might be a stretchy comparison. It was an utterly different time and situation. And Nixon was a fantastic choice compared to Trump. For me to think and write that hows just what crazy times we’re living in.
Another take on the candidates for POTUS, one that (alas) I can’t really dispute:
The Senior Home Showdown: Delusional Biden vs. Demented Trump
Ah, and of course UK elections.
Here’s Vlad Vexler’s take:
The meaning of the UK election (inc. for Ukraine)
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cv2gezr05xko
The description of what is wrong with the British Conservatives sounds like an accurate run down on the US Republicans. One can only hope that the electoral results this November will be similarly devastating to the Rs.
CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain @469, thanks!
In other news: Biden speaks to Netanyahu about ceasefire talks
I don’t think Netanyahu should be given the honor of addressing Congress.
‘Extremely dangerous,’ record-breaking heat wave takes hold across much of U.S.
The National Weather Service predicts temperatures of 110 to 115 degrees in inland California on Friday and Saturday.
Re: Lynna, OM @ #476…
Where I live, the NE corner of SF Bay (north side of where the Sacramento River enters the Bay), it hasn’t quite cracked 100. Tomorrow is forecast to be the last day over 90’F at 92. Sunday to Tuesday are all forecast for a high of 79’F, which will be welcome, indeed. Highest past that is 83 on next Thursday.
Not sure what I did to deserve this, but there it was.
On my feed, unashamed, after a recent restart.
“The History Of Violence: From The Stone Age To The Present Day” on YouTube
Steven Pinker
8.1K subscribers
1,164 views 8 hours ago
—
BTW, for those of you who use Windows, as of some time ago, it became the case that ‘Shutdown’ basically puts your Windows instance to sleep, whereas ‘Restart’ does actually reboot your PC.
Anyway, after a reset, I got that.
(I only reset this session for the algorithm a few days ago!)
Completist, here, sorry.
Oowerwise, ‘hibernate’ is better. And the ultimate resort is the power cord.
FWTW.
(Also, your router/modem. Power switch, at least 10s for those capacitors to discharge before restoring power)
Current events: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TUR5Yl7nzfs
(UK general election: Prime Minister Rishi Sunak concedes defeat and says Labour has won | BBC News)
The odious Liz Truss just lost her seat to Labour.
‘Trump Goes On Sexust Rant In In Front Of His Young Son Barron’
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=jSdXTZXzeaE
Here is something more cheerful.
The story of Messi The Puma
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=cKwKysk5rEw
“Using copper nanoclusters to convert CO₂ to methane could be game changer in mitigating climate change”
https://phys.org/news/2024-07-copper-methane-game-changer-mitigating.html
Of course if the Norwegians are successful in their pilot project injecting CO₂ into former oil reservoirs under the sea, this is a useful supplement.
I ask again, how can you call a party of posh capitalists, who have driven out the socialists using false accusations of antisemitism because they had to guts to call out Israel for its colonialist genocide, “Labour?”
Passage of time…
Eva-Marie Saint turns 100 today.
She was in North By Northwest (1959) with James Mason and Cary Grant.
whheydt @477, that sounds like much nicer temperatures … less likely to kill people.
Weather news from other parts of California: Evacuations ordered as new California wildfire ignites in scorching heat wave
Excerpt:
In other news: US’s Terrorist Listing Of European Far-Right Group Signals Fears Of Rising Threat—Both Abroad And At Home
More at the link.
Washington Post link
Ballot drop boxes returning to Wisconsin following top court decision.
After President Donald Trump’s narrow loss in 2020, conservatives who then controlled the Wisconsin Supreme Court banned drop boxes. The liberals who now control the court reversed that decision.
Good news.
Liz Cheney: Trump ‘threatens to unravel our Republic’
Link
https://secure.everyaction.com/2dmhT3BW3Ua9YbvK7TJmMg2
Tonight, at 8 p.m., ABC News’s George Stephanopoulos will air his interview President Biden.
Link
A few links relevant to the second round of the French elections this Sunday (and the US elections in November):
Guardian – “France can argue later – now everyone who cares about our democracy must unite to keep the far right out”:
Guardian – “France’s ‘hard left’ has been demonised – but its agenda is realistic, not radical”:
France 24 – “Dans les circonscriptions décisives, une armée de militants déterminés à faire basculer le scrutin”:
Re: Lynna, OM @ #487…
There are reasons for the cooling trend where I live. First factor is that, in the north temperate zone, weather tends to move west to east. Second, off the coast of much of California is the Japan Current, which sweeps down from the very cold water of the Gulf of Alaska. As hot weather in the Central Valley persists, pressure drops and pulls the air from the ocean across the cold current into the Bay Area (this is also where much of our fog comes from). The typical pattern is about three days of warm to hot weather, then the “natural air conditioning” kicks in and the Bay Area cools off. I should note that, by and large, people don’t swim in the Bay or ocean around here…unless they’re wearing wetsuits. The water tends to run around 40’F.
Occupy Democrats:
“Trump Campaign Gets Rocked By leaked Incriminating Text Messages”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=Jx3_l0rcjXE
Same issue from another source:
“Trump cornered by incriminating text revelations of his inner circle after staffer turns on him”
We learn about a person who paid money after a lawsuit for sexual harassment, an analyst named Boris Epshetyn in the 2020 campaign who is still in the inner circle around Trump.
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=HyRR8PaL4k8
I do not have the background to assess the credibility but the company has been able to raise $ 120 million.
NVIDIA: EvolutionaryScale Unveils ESM3 Generative AI Model for Protein Design – Blockchain.News
https://blockchain.news/news/evolutionaryscale-unveils-esm3-generative-ai-model-for-protein-design
Aerial footage from Miami beach 4th of July showed sharks loitering just outside the line of swimmers. I do not include the link, it is just blurs moving under the water.
INCOMING:
TV interview with president Biden.
whheydt @493, “I should note that, by and large, people don’t swim in the Bay or ocean around here…unless they’re wearing wetsuits. The water tends to run around 40’F.”
So, so different from the bathtub water near Florida, and in the Gulf near Texas.
In other news, Biden says that he felt so terrible the day of the debate that he had a COVID test. It turned out that he only had a bad cold. Biden said he did not recover properly from all his world travels in part because he had a cold … apparently he was sick for many days.
Other news: Trump Tries To Claim He Has No Idea What The Deal Is With Project 2025
Trump would prefer to have no written agenda, no Republican policies and nothing that would require him to think or plan.
Followup to comment to 498.
Posted by readers of the article:
Something for a satirical SF story.
“AI could prove that reality doesn’t exist, physicists say”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=xVGI46MZ33A