The Washington Post offers tips on how to keep your EV battery running in frigid temperatures. The link at the end of this graf is supposed to be a "gift link" (from me, Marie Burns, the giftor!), meaning that non-subscribers can read the article. Hope it works: https://wapo.st/3u8Z705
Thursday
May232024
The Conversation -- May 23, 2024
Michael Shear of the New York Times: "President Biden suggested on Thursday that the decision to have Kenya lead a security mission in Haiti, without troops from the United States on the ground, was meant to avoid the fraught history of American intervention in the deeply troubled country. Mr. Biden said the United States would contribute money, logistical support and equipment as Kenya and other nations try to quell the gang violence that erupted there after the assassination of the country's president in 2021. But in response to a question about why American troops will not participate, Mr. Biden alluded to previous U.S. interventions there. 'We concluded that for the United States to deploy forces in the hemisphere just raises all kinds of questions that can be easily misrepresented by what we're trying to do,' he said during a news conference at the White House with President William Ruto of Kenya."
Marie: For once, Merrick the Unready is taking a modest piece of my advice: ~~~
~~~ Lauren Irwin of the Hill: "Attorney General Merrick Garland said former President Trump's false claim about the FBI being ready to kill him in their Mar-a-Lago search is 'extremely dangerous' in recent comments. Trump falsely claimed in a fundraising email Wednesday that President Biden was 'locked & loaded and ready to take me out,' another attack about the classified records found at his estate. His email claimed Biden or the Justice Department was 'authorized to shoot' Trump.... 'That allegation is false, and it is extremely dangerous,' Garland said. 'The document that has been referred to in the allegation is the Justice Department standard policy, limiting the use of force.... As the FBI advises, it is part of the standard operations plan for searches and in fact, it was even used in the consensual search of President Biden's home,' he continued.... Trump was not home when the FBI conducted its Aug. 8, 2022, search of his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, and [the FBI decided to execute the warrant while the Trump family was away] to avoid any potential conflict."
Luke Broadwater of the New York Times: "Senate Republicans on Thursday blocked a bipartisan border enforcement bill for a second time this year, voting down legislation they initially insisted upon to stem a surge of migrants across the United States border with Mexico but then abandoned amid a right-wing backlash cheered on by ... Donald J. Trump. The vote amounted to a political trap laid for Republicans by Senator Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New York and the majority leader. He scheduled it in hopes of using the bill's second failure on the floor to highlight an election-year contrast with the G.O.P. on immigration, an issue that polls show is a major potential liability for President Biden and his party. On a vote of 50 to 43, the measure failed to advance after falling well short of the 60 votes needed to move forward in the Senate. Four Democrats, who view the provisions in the border crackdown measures as too extreme, voted with almost all Republicans, who have condemned it as too lax, to block its advancement."
Lisa Friedman of the New York Times: "Senate Democrats opened an investigation on Thursday into ... Donald J. Trump's meeting with oil and gas executives last month to determine whether Mr. Trump offered a 'policies-for-money transaction' when he asked for $1 billion for his 2024 campaign so he could retake the White House and delete President Biden's climate regulations. The investigation is the second congressional inquiry into the April 11 fund-raising dinner at Mar-a-Lago, Mr. Trump's private club in Florida. Over a chopped steak dinner, Mr. Trump told about 20 oil and gas executives that they would save far more than $1 billion in avoided taxes and legal fees after he repealed environmental regulations, according to several people who were present and who requested anonymity to discuss a private event.... In letters sent Thursday morning to top executives of eight oil companies and a trade group, the chairmen of two Senate committees, Senator Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island and Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon, sought details of the executives' participation in the meeting and accused them and Mr. Trump of engaging in a quid pro quo." ~~~
~~~ Josh Dawsey & Maxine Joselow of the Washington Post: "In a rambling fundraising pitch to oil executives in Houston on Wednesday..., Donald Trump promised them he would immediately approve their projects and expand drilling in a second term -- just as he worked to expedite the controversial Dakota Access and Keystone XL pipelines soon after taking office in 2016.... The event, organized by three oil executives, underscores how Trump is courting an industry that ranked as a main beneficiary of his time in the White House, as he seeks to narrow President Biden's fundraising advantage."
Robert Jimison of the New York Times: "The House passed legislation on Thursday that would undo a District of Columbia law allowing noncitizens to vote in local elections, part of a broader bid by Republicans to amplify false claims by ... Donald J. Trump of widespread illegal voting by immigrants, a rare occurrence that is already outlawed in federal elections. The bill has virtually no chance of being taken up in the Democratic-led Senate or making it to President Biden's desk to be signed into law. But Republicans have used it, and other legislation aiming to crack down on voting by noncitizens, to stoke distrust in the country's election laws and infrastructure ahead of the general election in November, a key pillar of Mr. Trump's strategy to preemptively accuse Democrats of cheating him out of the presidency."
Mike Lillis of the Hill: "House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) on Thursday bashed Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito for flying far-right flags associated with the 'Stop the Steal' movement outside two of his homes, demanding that Alito recuse himself from any cases related to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol." ~~~
~~~ Marie: Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) appeared on Lawrence O'Donnell's show Wednesday night and said, "The recusal requirement is a law, passed by Congress, specifically applicable to Supreme Court justices. So when they pay no attention to it, they're actually violating statutory law. This is not one of these rules that the Supreme Court or the judicial branch come up with for themselves....' No, this is the law of the land passed by Congress, and they're just flouting it." This makes me think Merrick the Unready and Chris Wray (R) should open investigations into Sam Alito and Clarence Thomas to determine whether or not they have broken the law and should be prosecuted. While Sam & Clarence are putting their partisan thumbs on the scale of justice, you DOJ fellas need to get your own thumbs out of places the sun don't shine (she said delicately).
Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "The Supreme Court cleared the way on Thursday for South Carolina to keep using a congressional map that a lower court had deemed an unconstitutional racial gerrymander that resulted in the 'bleaching of African American voters' from a district. The vote was 6 to 3, with the court's three liberal members in dissent. A unanimous three-judge panel of the Federal District Court in Columbia, S.C., ruled in early 2023 that the state's First Congressional District, drawn after the 2020 census, violated the Constitution by making race the predominant factor. The panel put its decision on hold while Republican lawmakers appealed to the Supreme Court, and the parties asked the justices to render a decision by Jan. 1. After that deadline passed, the panel said in March that the 2024 election would have to take place under the map it had rejected as unconstitutional.... In effect, the Supreme Court's inaction had decided the case for the current election cycle." Thanks to Akhilleus for the link. See also is commentary in today's thread. The AP's report is here. ~~~
~~~ Marie: Here the GOP Court is employing a gimmick it came up with in 2019 when the confederate judges, 5-4, decided that redistricting was a political issue that the judiciary cannot decide. So, even where redistricting amounts to extreme, obvious gerrymandering, that's the prerogative of state legislatures. Now, suppose that gerrymandering happens to discriminate against minorities by giving minorities less chance to select representatives. Well, it's up to the minorities to prove the intent of the discrimination against them was racist and not, you know, political. In today's ruling, here's the icing on cake: AP: "Justice Samuel Alito, writing for the court, criticized lower-court judges for their 'misguided approach' that refused to presume that lawmakers acted in good faith and gave too much credit to the challengers." (Emphasis added.) You think Sam is feeling contrite about getting his tit caught twice in the J-6 wringer? Nope, he's giving us all the finger. And so are the other five anti-democracy "justices." They're not even pretending anymore. In fact, they're faulting us for calling them racists when they might be merely your normal, corrupt, power-grasping bullies.
~~~ Let me just add that Chief Justice Roberts wrote the opinions for the two 2019 cases. If the U.S. ever returns to being a liberal democracy, the Roberts Court will go down in history as nearly as bad as the infamous Taney Court.
~~~~~~~~~~
Democrat Spoke Irreverently Against the King. Mariana Alfaro & Jacob Bogage of the Washington Post: "The House was brought to a halt for over an hour on Wednesday after Republicans demanded that the words of Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.) be 'taken down' from the congressional record after McGovern, during House floor remarks, listed the number of criminal trials former president Donald Trump faces.... '... Republicans are skipping their real jobs to take day trips to New York to try to undermine Trump's criminal trial,' he said.... McGovern accused Republicans of having 'no time to work with Democrats, but plenty of time to put on weird matching cult uniforms and stand behind President Trump with their bright red ties like pathetic props.... Maybe they don't want to talk about the fact that the leader of their party is on trial for covering up hush money payments to a porn star for political gain, not to mention three other criminal felony prosecutions he's facing.'
"Rep. Jerry L. Carl (Ala.), the Republican presiding over the House floor, then reminded members that they should refrain from attacks directed toward 'presumed nominees for the office of the president.'... 'That's not my opinion; it's just the truth,' McGovern said. The congressman then asked Carl if it's 'unparliamentary to state a fact' on the House floor.... McGovern doubled down, noting that last week, a Republican House member called the Trump trial a 'sham' on the House floor without being admonished." After spending more than an hour consulting Thomas Jefferson's manual, which states, "In Parliament, to speak irreverently or seditiously against the king is against order," Carl struck McGovern's remarks from the record & blocked him from speaking on the House floor for the rest of the day.
Why Cameras in the Courtroom Are Imperative. Three different media outlets; three different takes on the same incident ~~~
~~~ (1) A Prosecutor & Defense Lawyer Got into an Argument. Hannah Rabinowitz & Tierney Sneed of CNN: "A hearing in the Mar-a-Lago classified documents case devolved into shouting Wednesday as attorneys battled over an alleged threat made last year to a defense attorney. The morning proceeding in Fort Pierce, Florida, had been scheduled for Walt Nauta, one of ... Donald Trump's co-defendants, to present arguments that special counsel Jack Smith's team had selectively and vindictively brought charges against him. The presiding judge, Aileen Cannon, did not issue a ruling from the bench. But the hearing quickly diverted into a longstanding disagreement over an August 2022 meeting between prosecutor Jay Bratt and Nauta's defense attorney, Stanley Woodward. Woodward has claimed in court proceedings and filings that Bratt attempted to pressure him into convincing Nauta to cooperate against Trump by threatening to affect a potential judgeship nomination. Nauta claims that he was criminally charged in the case as retaliation for declining to cooperate with the Justice Department's investigation....
"Harbach slammed Woodward, saying he chose not to report the alleged incident until months later and has repeatedly changed his recollection of the conversation. 'This is a lawyer whose allegations amount basically to him being extorted,' Harbach said of Woodward, waving his arms.... 'Mr. Woodward's story of what happened at that meeting is a fantasy,' [prosecutor David] Harbach shouted, banging his hand on the lectern in front of him. 'It did not happen.'... The judge quickly scolded Harbach, telling the attorney to 'calm down.'" (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ (Or 2) A Prosecutor & the Judge Got into an Argument. ~~~ Alan Feuer of the New York Times: "The judge handling ... Donald J. Trump’s classified documents case in Florida got into a heated exchange with a federal prosecutor on Wednesday over a minor but bitterly contested issue, highlighting again how bogged down the proceedings have become.... The topic was an unproven accusation by Mr. Trump's legal team that at an early stage of the inquiry prosecutors sought to get one of his co-defendants to cooperate against him by threatening his lawyer. The exchange occurred at a hearing where the prosecutor, David Harbach, angrily denied the accusation and the judge, Aileen M. Cannon, pressed him for details.... The testy conversation ... was emblematic of the mounting frustration that prosecutors in the office of the special counsel, Jack Smith, have evinced not only toward defense lawyers in the case, but also toward the judge herself." ~~~
~~~ (Or 3) Not Much to See Here, Folks. David Ovalle & Perry Stein of the Washington Post: "... at one point, [Cannon] told Harbach to calm down after he briefly grew animated during her questioning. But she acknowledged that she didn't see how the comments impacted Nauta.... 'The court appears to be giving the defendant every opportunity to avoid a trial,' [Miami defense attorney Philip] Reizenstein said. 'In 37 years of practice in South Florida, I have never seen a judge give so much consideration to scheduling a case in a way that benefits the defendant.'"
Kim Wehle of the Bulwark outlines Judge Beryl Howell's findings -- reached a year ago but only released to the public this past Tuesday -- that there is "strong evidence" that the "shell game" Trump played with classified documents was not merely reckless but broke the law." ~~~
~~~ AND, if you would like to see photos of a crime in progress, CNN posts "photos of [Walt] Nauta, which appear to be screenshots of surveillance footage..., dated June 1, 2022 -- shortly before the Trump attorney was slated to canvass the storage room [at Mar-a-Lago] for any documents with classified markings to be returned to the federal government." And what was Walt doing in those photos? Why, moving stacks of boxes to someplace the lawyer couldn't find them.
Sam, the J-6 "Justice." Jodi Cantor, et al., of the New York Times: "Last summer, two years after an upside-down American flag was flown outside the Virginia home of Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr., another provocative symbol was displayed at his vacation house in New Jersey, according to interviews and photographs. This time, it was the 'Appeal to Heaven' flag, which, like the inverted U.S. flag, was carried by rioters at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Also known as the Pine Tree flag, it dates back to the Revolutionary War, but largely fell into obscurity until recent years and is now a symbol of support for ... Donald J. Trump, for a religious strand of the 'Stop the Steal' campaign and for a push to remake American government in Christian terms. Three photographs obtained by The New York Times, along with accounts from a half-dozen neighbors and passers-by, show that the Appeal to Heaven flag was aloft at the Alito home on Long Beach Island in July and September of 2023. A Google street view image from late August also shows the flag. The photographs, each taken independently, are from four different dates....
"Justice Alito declined to respond to questions about the beach house flag.... The disclosure about the new flag is troubling, several ethics experts said in interviews, because it ties Justice Alito more closely to symbols associated with the attempted election subversion on Jan. 6, and because it was displayed as the obstruction case was first coming for consideration by the court." Guess who else displays the Appeal to Heaven/J-6 flag? Why, Speaker of the House Bible Mike. (Also linked yesterday.) The AP has a derivative report here.
~~~ Marie: You may remember this from the book and film All the President's Men. "Whenever [Bob] Woodward wanted to meet with Mark Felt, a.k.a. Deep Throat, he placed a flag in the flower pot on the balcony." Well, that "Appeal to Heaven" flag is Sam's version of Woodward's flag on the balcony. Sam is signaling to lower court judges -- like Miss Aileen -- that they can make egregiously partisan right-wing rulings because Sam & the Gang will have their backs.
Basta! Chris Geidner, the Law Dork: "If Alito is unwilling to recuse himself from these cases..., he must be sidelined in one way or another by his colleagues.... That can start with behind-the-scenes pressure on Alito to recuse. Next, if that doesn't work, justices can make public statements about the importance of justices adhering to the Code of Conduct when it comes to recusal. Finally, if necessary, they should stick together in the decisions themselves -- making compromises where necessary to stay as one -- and render his vote irrelevant. If he does participate, they must call out his participation in the cases as unbefitting a justice."
Presidential Race
This Is Who He Is. Marianne LeVine of the Washington Post: "In under 48 hours this week, Donald Trump's social media account promoted a video featuring a term frequently associated with Nazi Germany and later removed it. He suggested he was open to states restricting access to contraceptives and then walked that back. He falsely accused President Biden of being 'locked & loaded' to 'take me out.'" MB: Lawrence O'Donnell is pretty sure Trump didn't know what "contraception" meant. I think O'Donnell is right because Trump answered the question about contraception with a version of his standard cop-out when he has no idea of what an interviewer is talking about: "We're looking at that, and I'm going to have a policy on that very shortly, and I think it's something that you'll find interesting."
Meredith McGraw & Natalie Allison of Politico: "Nikki Haley said Wednesday that she will vote for Donald Trump, despite maintaining he has 'not been perfect' on many policies." (Also linked yesterday.)
Anjali Huynh of the New York Times: TikTok, "though still regarded as a hub for Democratic voices and liberal causes, has seen an uptick of right-wing, pro-Trump influencers since the last presidential election. The increase comes as President Biden signed legislation that would force a sale of TikTok by its Chinese owner or would have it banned in the U.S. That law has triggered a backlash from young voters who backed Mr. Biden overwhelmingly in 2020, some of whom are also opposing his administration's support of Israel's war in Gaza. An internal analysis within TikTok found nearly twice as many pro-Trump posts as pro-Biden ones on the platform since November: 1.29 million pro-Trump posts versus 651,000 pro-Biden posts."
Kirsten Grind of the New York Times profiles Nicole Shanahan, Robert Kennedy, Jr.'s, running mate. According to the article, Shanahan disappeared from a party to have sex with Elon Musk. To be fair to Shanahan, she had to take ketamine to get into it. But still. Mediate republishes the Musk part of the Times story.
Glenn Thrush of the New York Times: "The judge presiding over Hunter Biden's tax case in Los Angeles agreed on Wednesday to delay the start of his trial to Sept. 5, giving his lawyers room to prepare for a separate trial on a firearms charge in Delaware early next month. While the move came as a relief to President Biden's son, it pushes a trial likely to highlight Hunter's Biden's effort to leverage his family's name into profit into the homestretch of the campaign season, around the time mail-in voting starts in some states. Both of ... Donald J. Trump's federal trials, by contrast, have been put on hold and are increasingly unlikely to begin before the election." (Also linked yesterday.)
This Is Who We Are. Lauren Aratani of the Guardian: "Nearly three in five Americans wrongly believe the US is in an economic recession, and the majority blame the Biden administration, according to a Harris poll conducted exclusively for the Guardian. The survey found persistent pessimism about the economy as election day draws closer. The poll highlighted many misconceptions people have about the economy, including: 55% believe the economy is shrinking, and 56% think the US is experiencing a recession, though the broadest measure of the economy, gross domestic product (GDP), has been growing. 49% believe the S&P 500 stock market index is down for the year, though the index went up about 24% in 2023 and is up more than 12% this year. 49% believe that unemployment is at a 50-year high, though the unemployment rate has been under 4%, a near 50-year low." (Also linked yesterday.)
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This Is Who They Are. Colorado. Kyle Clark of KUSA (Denver): "The Colorado Republican Party is issuing a call to its members to pull their children from public school, saying Democrats are using schools to 'turn more kids trans.' The message was delivered in an email blast to Republicans statewide Tuesday. 'All Colorado parents should be aiming to remove their kids from public education,' read the directive from Darcy Schoening, director of special initiatives for the Colorado GOP." Thanks to RAS for the link. (Also linked yesterday.)
This Is Who They Are. Georgia. Ryan Reilly of NBC News: "A Capitol riot defendant who waded through tear gas behind a pro-Donald Trump mob pursuing police officers inside the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 advanced to a GOP runoff in a Georgia House district on Tuesday, NBC News projects. Charles Hand III, who goes by Chuck Hand, pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor offense in connection with the attack on Jan. 6, 2021. He is running for the Republican nomination in Georgia's 2nd Congressional District, which is held by Democrat Sanford Bishop. In Georgia, if no candidate clears the 50% threshold in a primary, the top two vote-getters move on to a runoff election. Hand will face Wayne Johnson, who served in the Trump administration's Education Department and was leading Tuesday's vote count, on June 18. The eventual GOP winner will be an underdog in the general election against Bishop in the solidly Democratic district." (Also linked yesterday.)
This Is Who They Are. Ohio. Erin Glynn of the Columbus Dispatch: "Ohio House leaders said Tuesday there will probably not be a legislative solution to getting President Joe Biden on the November ballot in Ohio. Current law says Ohio officials must certify the ballot on Aug. 7, 90 days before the election, but Biden won't be nominated until the Democratic National Convention on Aug. 19. The Ohio House and Senate each had separate proposals to fix the deadline issue but neither advanced when the legislature was last in session on May 8. Speaker Jason Stephens, R-Kitts Hill, told reporters Tuesday that the legislature has fixed the issue with convention dates in the past and he thinks it could have been fixed, but there was just not the will from the legislature this time." MB: Elections expert Marc Elias, who appeared on MSNBC Wednesday, said Democrats would employ other means to get President Biden on the Ohio ballot. (Also linked yesterday.)
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U.K. Pippa Crerar & Rowena Mason of the Guardian: Prime Minister "Rishi Sunak has called a surprise early election for 4 July in a contest that will see Keir Starmer try to take power for Labour after 14 years of Conservative-led government. The prime minister announced the election would be in the early summer, in a high-risk move for the Conservative party as it trails 20 points behind Labour in the polls. Sunak finally decided to name the date after claiming inflation was back under control and the economy was improving, saying it was 'the moment for Britain to choose its future'." (Also linked yesterday.)"
~~~~~~~~~~
Israel/Palestine, et al. The Washington Post's live updates of developments Thursday in the Israel/Hamas war are here: "Israel's war cabinet has instructed negotiators to resume talks on a deal to release hostages held in Gaza, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said early Thursday. The statement came after the families of five female Israeli soldiers released footage of their capture by Hamas on Oct. 7, in hopes it would push to restart stalled negotiations. The International Court of Justice said it would deliver a ruling Friday on emergency measures requested by South Africa -- for Israel to cease military operations in Gaza, citing the assault in Rafah.... Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza has been evacuated and is out of service, while the nearby al-Awda Hospital was 'invaded' after an Israeli siege, according to reports cited by the World Health Organization."
Ukraine, et al. David Sanger of the New York Times: "Since the first American shipments of sophisticated weapons to Ukraine, President Biden has never wavered on one prohibition: President Volodymyr Zelensky had to agree to never fire them into Russian territory, insisting that would violate Mr. Biden's mandate to 'avoid World War III.' But ... propelled by the State Department, there is now a vigorous debate inside the administration over relaxing the ban to allow the Ukrainians to hit missile and artillery launch sites just over the border in Russia -- targets that Mr. Zelensky says have enabled Moscow's recent territorial gains. The proposal, pressed by Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken after a sobering visit to Kyiv last week, is still in the formative stages, and it is not clear how many of his colleagues among Mr. Biden's inner circle have signed on. It has not yet been formally presented to the president, who has traditionally been the most cautious, officials said."
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Reader Comments (24)
Nikki Haley’s admission that she will vote for a rapist, insurrectionist, traitor, authoritarian, liar, racist, and pig offers incontrovertible evidence that she is not, and never was, a reasonable, less nuts alternative to Trump. Despite her claims to the contrary, she is a Kool-Aid guzzling MAGA follower.
It’s possible that this announcement is her way of attempting to salvage her political career with the traitors, but she must know that Fatty the Fascist is an unforgiving rat bastard who lives for revenge. He decreed that anyone who worked for Rhonda would be cast out of his party, and DeSantis bowed out right away. Haley remained to needle him. She’s dead to the Trump brownshirts.
She could have decided to go a different direction, choose self respect and decency, carve out a space for herself in the real world apart from conspiracy nuts and white supremacists. She chose, instead, to bow down before Typhoid Donald. Either way, she’s beyond redemption now.
Good riddance.
Akhilleus,
I read Haley's announcement in a similar but slightly different way.
We've heard over and over again since 2016 that the Repugnant Party has lost its way. While I would place its demise as a serious political party much earlier, it is now demonstrably untethered from any set of governing principles.
The word "transactional," which was used when folks were first trying to make sense of the Pretender, comes back to me often lately, for it seems it is only in the sense of spreading his transactional behavior that the Pretender has truly taken over the entire party.
What I say, what I do, what I support is only a matter of what I think is good for me today. That is my only principle, my only guiding light.
I am my sole cause. I pledge allegiance to nothing but myself.
@Ken Winkes wrote, "What I say, what I do, what I support is only a matter of what I think is good for me today. That is my only principle, my only guiding light. I am my sole cause. I pledge allegiance to nothing but myself."
Exactly what I was thinking this morning, though with less poetic precision. What we may wish to know now is how Mr. Winkes got hold of the secret GOP pledge. One would have thought the party would have guarded it with the same sort of reverence and secrecy Freemasons apply to their own compact and rituals.
Amanda Marcotte
"If he's elected president, Donald Trump will try to take away your birth control. We know this because he spent his first term in office attacking contraception access from many angles and, in many cases, successfully cutting people off from this necessary health care. His efforts were so dogged, it likely contributed to the alarming national outbreak of syphilis the country is experiencing.
During his first round of staffing, there was a heavy emphasis on hiring people who opposed legal contraception. One of his biggest health care policy advisors falsely claimed birth control pills cause abortion, a pretext to ban the pill alongside actual abortion. His first Health and Human Services secretary, Tom Price, called for an end of federal funding for birth control and voted to allow employers to fire women for using contraception.
Trump's administration had a two-pronged strategy to take away contraception from as many women as possible: First, defund family planning clinics that offer birth control at low or no cost. Second, gut the Affordable Care Act provision requiring insurance plans to cover contraception as they would any other preventive service. Even amid the pandemic, the Trump administration kept pushing to take away insurance coverage, taking the case to the Supreme Court. The court ruled in favor of allowing employers to block women from using their own insurance to pay for contraception.
One reason Trump's war on contraception doesn't seem to register with voters, even those on the left, is because of his personal sexual promiscuity. It's hard for people to imagine a man who likes to sleep around as much as he does would be opposed to technology that prevents some of the negative consequences. But that attitude fails to understand how much Trump simply doesn't care."
RAS: I had wondered that myself-- you'd think he would be PRO contraception due to the results of not using birth control. But, I think it all adds up to his pathological hatred of women, especially women who don't "honor" and indulge his preening self. I used to think he was a sociopath, not able to read the room, having no social instincts...I no longer think that. I am sure he is psycho through and through, and a complete danger, with his stupid, white dominionist, racist and cruel allies, to everyone poor, female, a minority, LGBTQ+ or center-to-left.
Ken and Marie,
Looks like the traitors on the Supreme Court have taken that same pledge. They’re allowing South Carolina to “Go right ahead, guys, and use that KKK drawn gerrymandered map. It’s not that we don’t care about cheating to win elections, we do. But our goal is not justice, our goal is tohelp the Party of Traitors win at all costs.
Got it, all you pro-American, constitution-loving snowflakes? So now you can all just fuck off. We do exactly what we want to achieve our goal of complete control. If Injustice Alito wants to side with traitors, we’re cool with that. We do it too. If Injustice Thomas takes open bribes from billionaires with business before the court, and supports his wife’s efforts to overthrow the government, what’s the problem? If Injustice Gorsuch wants to kneecap the ‘administrative state’, we’re fine with that. If Injustice Kavanaugh likes a beer or twelve every now and then, so what? The country belongs to us and to Trump and to our party. The rest of you can pound sand cuz there’s nothing you can do about it. Got it?”
Trump operates as a narcissist. His motivations are always explained by his character disorder. No birth control = potential offspring = virility. I suspect Nick Cannon is a special hero to Trump.
Nicky Haley, as has been pointed out, is all about Nicky Haley. “Me First”. I believe she’d be elated to accept the VP slot. Her showing in the primaries underlined her appeal to GOP voters, particularly those that Trump didn’t capture. And anyway, the VP slot will be irrelevant after the election. As long as she adequately fawns over Trump, he’ll forget her previous statements. The GOP has an amazing capacity to forget pesky details like name calling and slurs. It’s understandable though, given the bottomless swamp in which the GOP exists.
A meta answer to a meta question:
So courts created by a distinctly political process cannot decide political issues?
I'm confused.
Or maybe I should be comforted, because there's certainly nothing political about laws or constitutions. Never has been.
And why in the world should I be skeptical about legislatures acting in good faith?
@Ken Winkes: They can decide political issues only when it suits them.
For instance, what issue could be more political than deciding who can appear on a state's presidential ballot? In fact, states have always made those determinations all the time, and they are not consistent with one another. So a former governor, Chris Christie, couldn't get on Maine's 2024 primary presidential ballot, but 23 people, some of them absolute loons (like this guy), appeared on my New Hampshire 2024 presidential ballot.
But, hey, in the recent Colorado decision, where Colorado wanted to disqualify a well-known insurrectionist, all nine of the Supremes said, "Nope, states can't possibly decide that."
The GOP Supremes have no consistent judicial philosophy, no consistent rationale, just excuses for doing what they want.
Yeah, no surprise about South Carolina. Charlie Pierce (Esquire politics--) calls South Carolina the Home Office for Sedition.
These whiners spent the entire of the 90s complaining about judges who "legislate" from the bench. Gosh, whodda thunk it would come to the people pontificating about what they don't want the left to do, in every case an admission of guilt. They fussed and sued and whined about mail-in ballots, and now they embrace it, and we all know that all the "fraud" that doesn't exist will be be inflicted on us post haste.
Marie wrote: “But, hey, in the recent Colorado decision, where Colorado wanted to disqualify a well-known insurrectionist, all nine of the Supremes said, ‘Nope, states can't possibly decide that.’”
Oh, but wait! The Constitution SPECIFICALLY SAYS you incite, take part in, or support an insurrection and you are right out. No questions asked.
The meaning is 100% unambiguous, so don’t give me any bullshit about who is or isn’t an officer. It’s like a kid whining to his parents who said be home before dark, that even though they came home at ten o’clock, it wasn’t really “dark” because the street lights were on.
If these supreme injustices truly were the originalists they claim to be, they’d have taken the 14th amendment’s meaning at face value and not quibbled about the meaning of “officer”. And that complaint about how it would cause problems for certain states? They didn’t worry about problems for certain states when they ruled that no one has the right to control guns. “Ohhh…but the framers sed…”
Originalism only when it works in their favor.
They should just forget about trying to justify their bullshit and simply resort to the old standby preferred by some parents. When citizens ask why a certain unfair ruling should stand…
Because I said so.
MAGA Justice in a nutshell. Because we said so.
I listened to that incredible ruling by MAGA Congress monsters that no one can recite facts about the Orange MAGA monster, if they think it’s hurtful.
This guy, Jerry Carl, could barely talk. He stumbled over his words trying to justify this latest Kim Jong Un ruling and couldn’t pronounce “Massachusetts”. He kept calling it massatoochits.
The country is run by babbling monkeys who all bow down before a fat ape.
Or is that "massa two shits"?
@ Marie
I blame the schools for not educating the rot out of half the populace, the entire Republican Party, and more than half of the SCOTUS.
The schools must be the culprit, he said, more than a mite bitterly.
Trump headlines
Yastreblyansky On the prospect of the International Criminal Court issuing arrest warrants"
Garland did it.
https://thehill.com/regulation/court-battles/4682474-garland-calls-trumps-false-fbi-search-claim-extremely-dangerous/
Back when folks were discussing the Q of Colorado and Maine prohibiting DiJiT on the PRIMARY ballot, some eedjits said that winning a primary does not constitute "holding office" and therefore, to the 14th, pfffffthhhh!!!!.
Neither will winning a general election be "holding office".
So if DiJiT gets the requisite electors, the 14th has to come into play when the Chief Justice snatches the bible from Melania's hands and tells DiJiT it's no-go because the 14th says insurrectionists can't hold office. Unless the Congress, 2/3 of each house, has lifted the ban, and good luck with that.
If Johnnie doesn't, he doesn't have a hair.
Earlier, Marie posted a lede indicating that Congressman Jim McGovern spoke “irreverently” about the Orange Monster. While I question the appropriateness of the word, I think she had it exactly right as to how the traitors view McGovern’s listing of indisputable facts: speaking without proper reverence, meaning a lack of profound adoring awed respect for the traitor, rapist, con man, adulterer, and serial liar who heads the Party of Traitors.
“Irreverence” synonyms include blasphemy, impiety, desecration, and sacrilege, In turn, the word reverence comes from veneration, both words having a distinctly religious cast, which makes sense given the veneration traitors bestow on this vile snake.
Christianists often describe democrats and liberals as devil worshippers.
Placing such an evil piece of shit as the head of the Republican Church makes one wonder who the true devil worshippers are.
I was just getting ready to unload on Creampuff Casper Milquetoast Merrick for allowing the Fat Fascist’s screeching lie about how Biden had targeted him for assassination, stand. I’m happy he responded, but I have no faith that the corporate media will cover Garland’s correction with the gusto with which they reported Trump’s lies, abetted with equal screechiness by the howling, hair on fire harpy, MTG.
Even better (worse), Fatty is pulling in money from the drooling MAGAts who believe his lies about how “Biden’s FBI” was ready to put a cap in his thick skull during the “raid” on his home. A whole buncha lies in those few words.
First, it’s not Biden’s FBI. Second, he was never “targeted for assassination”. The reference to lethal force is boiler plate in all FBI search warrants. It was contained in the warrant they used to search Biden’s garage. Third, Qanon Man Trump wasn’t even at his gaudy mausoleum the day the FBI showed up. Fourth, it wasn’t a “raid”. Trump’s people knew they were coming. They even coordinated with the Secret Service and Fatty’s house staff. Thus I’d Joe Farty knew you hide additional boxes of documents. And fifth, that place is not a private residence, it’s a club for rich moochers and wankers. Fatty changed its category for tax purposes.
None of what Garland says will make headlines, because the MSM needs douchebag drama, not calm clarification.
Still, I’m glad he did it— two or three days later.
@Akhilleus: I borrowed "irreverent" from Rep. Jerry Carl (R-Ala.) who was chairing the House when McGovern spoke. Carl took an hour to come up with his decision to admonish Rep. McGovern & make him Mute for a Day by consulting Thomas Jefferson's parliamentary manual, in which Jefferson noted,“In Parliament, to speak irreverently or seditiously against the king is against order.”
I agree with you about the meaning of irreverence.
https://www.axios.com/2024/05/23/clarence-thomas-supreme-court-racial-segregation
He may be an Uncle Tom, but he does have rich white friends...
Marie,
Thanks for the provenance of “irreverent”. I’m wondering if Jefferson, referring to parliamentary decorum which disallowed speaking irreverently or seditiously about the king, meant to point out that, while that sort of thing was the rule in an unaccountable monarchy, it shouldn’t be so in a democracy. God knows, ol’ Tom came in for his share of irreverent attacks. But according to the MAGAts running the House, Fatty requires more gentle treatment than Thomas Jefferson.
Ken,
Can we expect Regnery, or one of those other blowhard Nazi publishers, to commission an update on an American literary classic, “Uncle Tom’s Luxury RV”?