Glenn Kirschner – Trump lashes out at Jack Smith’s understanding of the law. Here’s why Trump is yelling into the void
PoliticsGirl – What we can Learn from the Titan Sub Tragedy
The Lincoln Project – Same Case
Randy Rainbow for President! (2023-2024 Tour Announcement)
Cat Hides From Her Foster Mom For A Year — Then She Does This
Beau – Let’s talk about Biden, the rails, and sick days….
Yesterday, It was pretty quiet. Hot, but quiet. I did manage to get my carts out to the curb for pickup tpday, but then,I was highly motivated – they pick up trash every week, but recyclables only every other week, and I always have more recycleables than trsh, and if I didn’t get them out yesterday, I’d have had to wait two more weeks, not one. And the contents were starting to push the lid up already.
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The New Yorker – Does It Matter That Neil Gorsuch Is Committed to Native American Rights?
Quote – In most areas of law, notably those to do with guns and abortion, Gorsuch has been the Justice that conservatives wanted him to be. Not so with tribal law. Adam Liptak, of the Times, recently called him “the fiercest proponent of Native American rights” on the Court. There are various theories about the source of Gorsuch’s commitment, including his childhood in the West, his textualism-based judicial philosophy (if one reads the text of the treaties that the U.S. signed with the tribes, one will find a lot of unkept promises), and his experience dealing with tribal-law cases while a judge on the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals, based in Colorado. But there are Westerners and textualists who have little time for the tribes, and Gorsuch stood out on the Tenth Circuit, too. (A number of Native American organizations and tribes supported his confirmation.)
Click through for full article. If you are paywalled out, I’ll be happy to email you a copy. I’m sure it will come as no surprise to anyone here that this matters to me – a lot. I”m exceedingly glad to see this article.
US Senate Committee on Homeland Securiy and Governmental Affairs – Planned in Plain Sight
Quote – [Finding of Fact] 6. FBI and I&A failed to follow agency guidelines on the use of open-source intelligence. The Special Agent in Charge of the Intelligence Division at the FBI Washington Field Office on January 6th conflated the Bureau’s standards for what type of information is actionable for further investigation (a higher standard) versus what is merely reportable to partner agencies (a lower standard), and as a result, FBI did not share certain tips and intelligence about January 6th. FBI also did not develop certain tips about January 6th because they were deemed not credible, contrary to FBI policy that requires every tip received to be logged as long as it meets an “authorized purpose” for investigation, regardless of credibility
Click through for full report. It’s a bit over 100 pages, so I don’t expect anyone to read it in full. But both the Executive Statement at the beginning and the Conclusions at the end are packed with facts we suspected. And the Findings of Fact and Recommendations (just after the Executive Summary) are stark and chilling.
Food For Thought
Glenn Kirschner – Trump audio recording REVEALED; proves his classified documents crimes AND his declassification lie
The Lincoln Project – When Dems Fight: Ted Lieu
Farron Balanced – Republican House Speaker Held Orgies With People Seeking Political Favors
Rocky Mountain Mike – Runaway Coup (Parody of “Runaround Sue” by Dion)
Training Dogs in Prison Changed This Man’s Life
Beau – Let’s talk about learning from ERCOT’s advice….
Yesterday, the Supreme Court handed down a decision in Counterman v. Colorado – known as “the stalking case” here – which I find upsetting, to say the least. It was not decided along party lines – far from it – so one would presume actual thought went into the decision. But I can’t help but wonder how it would have been decided had the victim been male. On the other hand, SCOTUS also decided Moore v. Harper by rejecting the “Independent State Legislature Theory,” which would have been far more damaging – could have spelled the end of democracy. In personal news, I got an email from my utility company that my rates are going down. Not a whole lot – but any at all is jaw-dropping.
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The New Yorker – After Affirmative Action Ends
Quote – We have some legal clues from which to piece together what may happen next…. A preview of what such lawsuits will look like came in a recent case about Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology (T.J.), a selective magnet school in Fairfax County, Virginia, that is often described as one of the top high schools in the U.S. In 2020, during the national racial reckoning that followed the murder of George Floyd, the Fairfax County school board, frustrated with T.J.’s lack of diversity, considered a number of proposals to change its admissions, in order to increase the enrollment of underrepresented and disadvantaged groups. The board thus resolved to alter T.J.’s racial composition…. The board ultimately decided to eliminate standardized tests and mandated that each public middle school in four Virginia counties and the city of Falls Church would be entitled to send a set percentage of its students to T.J…. The new admissions process was race-neutral in that an applicant’s race was not considered, and, in fact, evaluators were not provided any applicant’s name, race, ethnicity, or sex.
Click through for more. The problem is, whether we are talking about education or government contracts or corporate hiring or almost anything else, any program that works is going to be sued by some B-list or C-list white person with an inflated ego and a victim complex, and we will be at the mercy of the courts.
Robert Reich – Putin, Trump, and the privatization of tyranny
Quote – Why did Putin authorize Prigozhin to lead a private army to attack Ukraine outside the Russian military chain of command in the first place? Presumably because Putin didn’t trust Russian generals to do the job. And he didn’t want to risk that the generals might turn on him…. Throughout history, tyrannical rulers have created their own private operations outside normal chains of command, run by people like Prigozhin, who are personally loyal. This give tyrants flexibility to do what they want without bureaucratic opposition. It protects them against revolt by their subordinates in the chain of command. And it gives them deniability when operations go badly.
Click through for full case. (As always, click “continue reading” on the pop-up.) Heaven only knows what’s going on in Russia – but it’s interesting to realize that it isn’t just good government which is destroyed by privatization. Bad government can also be – ultimately – destroyed by it.
Food For Thought
Glenn Kirschner – Current Republican member of Congress calls out Trump for his lies, says Trump committed crime
The Lincoln Project – A Clear Crime
Thom Hartmann – Right To Vote Ended For People With These Common Disabilities
Brent Terhune – Dodgers Pride Night (a week late but way too good not toshare)
Starving Cat Shows Up To Guy’s Backyard Asking For Help
Beau – Let’s talk about a GOP mistake with over energizing their base….
Yesterday, the Club Q shooter pled guilty to all changres, and was handed five life senrences, to run consecutively. Parole was not mentioned, and I don’t know whether Colorado sentencing law even includes the phrase “without possibility of parole.” If he ever does come up for it, there will be a whole lot of people watching – and protesting. But I’d rather not dwell on him. So I picked a couple of articles about remarkable women to share instead.
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Short Takes –
Colorado Public Radio – Miss Cummins goes to Washington: A Colorado teen’s journey into DC lobbying
Quote – When she was two years old, Maddy was diagnosed with Rett Syndrome, a neurological disorder. She now gets around in a wheelchair and is non-verbal. She communicates with the help of an iPad-like device she operates with her eyes. In between meetings, Maddy practiced. As her eyes flicked across the boxes on the screen, the device recited, “Hi, I’m Maddy Cummins and I am representing Children’s Hospital Colorado.” Around her neck was a nametag, with a green ribbon underneath with the words “I’m fearless” on it.
Click through for story. This story pushes a lot of buttons – but you can’t help but admire Maddy.
ProPublica – How a Grad Student Uncovered the Largest Known Slave Auction in the U.S.
Quote – “The silence of the archives is deafening on this,” [Bernard Powers, the city’s premier Black history expert] said. “What does that silence tell you? It reinforces how routine this was.”… When Davila emailed him, she also copied Margaret Seidler, a white woman whose discovery of slave traders among her own ancestors led her to work with the college’s Center for the Study of Slavery to financially and otherwise support Davila’s research. The next day, the three met on Zoom, stunned by her discovery.
Click through for details. I can’t even begin to imagine how much more there is to uncover by someone who has the patience and determination to go through old newspapers (let’s hope DeSaster doesn’t take a match to the ones in his state.) It wasn’t even the sheer number which impressed me so much as the family connections uncovered by her research. Femily connections beyond what even the family knew (and the family had looked. Hard. Not every family does.).
Food For Thought
Glenn Kirschner – Special Counsel Jack Smith files motion seeking Dec. trial date for Trump’s crimes: 5 key takeaways
The Lincoln Project – Last Week in the Republican Party – June 20, 2023
Ring of Fire – Jim Jordan Threatens Legal Action Against Fact Checkers
Brent Terhune – Hunter Biden is guilty
Camel So Skinny His Humps Collapsed Gets Strong Enough To Run Free
Beau – Let’s talk about the $6.2 billion error….
Yesterday, I promised that if I found out anything more about what the heck is going on in Russia I would share. There is no consensus, but I’m going to refer you to two links – Heather Cox Richardson, who spends a few paragraphs on it from an historian’s viewpoint before changing the subject, and the other a video from Beau. Be aware you do NOT have to watch the video to get the content. If you click on the three dots to the right of the Share and Save buttons, you will be offered the opportunity to view a transcript. It won’t be perfect, but it will give you a solid idea. Bottom line is this isn’t over, and no one knows what is next. But we can’t rule out an opportunity to see “Swan Lake” (which is traditionally performed for a regime change.)
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SPLC – Advocates Register Voters after Supreme Court Victory over Gerrymandering
Quote – “I’m gonna go out on a ledge and say over 90% of our students were not registered to vote,” [Monica] Clarke said. “It was this huge wakeup call for me and others who were working with me. We were kind of shocked, kind of scared, kind of surprised – all of the above – and not just that they weren’t registered, but they didn’t even want to register. They had such a negative view of voter registration, of voting, of the government and police.” That was when she became an activist for voting rights, growing the university’s voter registration service into a mission unto itself. And, as the nation notes the 10th anniversary of the Shelby decision this weekend, Clarke sees the same forces that created the need for the Voting Rights Act still threatening people of color.
Click through for article. My BFF, who is black, has worked for the election department (and believe me, she votes) but has troble getting her young adult sons to regiter, so I get it. I don’t like it, but i get it. Maybe the FFT would help?
The Warning – Steve Schmidt – What is No Labels doing?
Quote – No labels lacks basic transparency around its donors, motives and strategy. They are purposely opaque. For example, they decry the imminence of a Biden-Trump rematch as unacceptable without ever being clear whether they measure Biden as similarly unacceptable as Trump. Why the mystery? Would they abandon their plans if Gretchen Whitmer or Gavin Newsom were the Democratic nominee? What exactly is the basis of the emergency? Is it Trump running again? Is it Trump winning again? Is the effort built around the belief that Biden can’t beat Trump? Perhaps the premise is that Biden is fueling demand for Trump? Does No Labels view Biden and Trump as equivalent figures, men, leaders and threats? Shouldn’t they say, or perhaps more importantly, shouldn’t someone ask?
Click through for article. I have said it before, and I will keep saying it whenever I needto, for as long as I need to: NEVER TRUST ANYONE WHO WILL NOT TELL YOU WHERE THEY STAND. I get it that many people are tired of labels (mostly because crooks and liars have achieved that end by design.) I get it that left and right do not fully describe posotions (although if you add up and down to that mix, the result comes much, much closer.) But the very name “No Labels” screams “I will not tell you who I am.”
Washington Post (no paywall) – He wanted to pet dogs for his 100th birthday. Hundreds lined up.
Quote – “We live in a nice little community, and I thought I could get some of my neighbors and friends to come,” said Alison Moore, adding that she planned for her father to sit outside her home with a banner and assemble a small line of dogs for him to admire and cuddle. Human treats and dog treats would be served…. “I was shocked,” said Alison Moore, explaining that some people drove more than 10 miles to attend the celebration.
Click through. I had planned to stop at two, but my cousin sent me this link – and I felt I had to share
Food For Thought
