The vice nasty guy has announced an aggressive campaign strategy. He will fly around the country to raise money for House and Senate GOP and to praise GOP accomplishments (which are, hmm, that thing that gives our taxes to the rich and, um, oh yeah, a slew of conservative judges).
Melissa McEwan of Shakesville interprets:
Setting fundraising aside, Pence will be accomplishing two things with this cross-country hobnobbing: 1. He will effectively be mounting a campaign that he's ready to be president, just in case. 2. He is laying the groundwork for the explanation when Republicans mysteriously have totally unexpected electoral success in the midterms. It won't be because Mike Pompeo rigged it with the Russians, but because Pence worked so gosh darn hard and visited all those places Washington doesn't care about blah blah fart.
A while ago I looked at the false alerts of incoming ballistic missiles that were issued in Hawaii and Japan. I shared the fear that the warning systems in those two places may have been hacked. Sarah Kendzior, who studies authoritarian states, reviews those incidents. She then discusses where the nasty guy gets his news and that he’s been duped by impostor tweets. She then shares another fear:
If a false alert goes out, and Trump hears about it through Fox News, a Fox News imposter account, or another dishonest social media account, will he launch a retaliatory nuclear strike without further verifying the information with NORAD or consulting advisers? False nuclear strike alerts are terrifying for the population in their own right–the Hawaii alert caused one man to have a heart attack–but the greatest danger may be the combined effect of the president’s gullibility, impetuousness, and enthusiasm for war.
I mentioned the Pennsylvania Supreme Court found the various district maps in that state to be highly gerrymandered. The Court ordered lawmakers to redraw the maps and do so promptly, or it would.
Senator Scarnati president pro tem of the PA Senate essentially replied: Nope! The Court usurped legislative authority and so he won’t cooperate. It looks like the Court also asked for the data used to draw the current maps. Scarnati responded with too bad, I don’t have it.
Commenters speculate Scarnati is right on one part. The Court may say the maps were unconstitutional, but they shouldn’t have said if you don’t draw the maps we will. Which leads to the question if the Senate doesn’t how does the Court enforce its ruling?
The state GOP contacted the US Supremes and asked for a stay in the ruling, because they are working on the Wisconsin gerrymandering case. Since the PA court based their ruling on only the state constitution the US Supremes should have said it isn’t up to us. But, instead, they asked the League of Women Voters, who brought the suit, for more info. That suggests a stay might be granted.
Several corporations have been proclaiming how that big tax shift law is benefiting their workers. I’ve written before the story usually isn’t what these companies proclaim it to be. Here’s another piece of the story. Only 9% of Fortune 500 companies have shared their tax cut windfalls with workers. That means for over 90% of these companies the tax cut windfall is being used to boost the pay of executives or benefit the shareholders by either giving dividends or boosting the stock price. And the workers get nothing.
Want a favor from the nasty guy? This worked: Give your employees a small bonus (and $1000 is rather small compared to corporate cash on hand), then announce it and link it to the tax shift law in a way that the nasty guy will see it. He’ll praise you, declare you an ally, and smooth the regulatory way. Disney did this as its proposed merger with the Murdoch empire comes before the Department of Justice.
Another story from More Perfect, stories from the Supreme Court, this episode is about a half hour. This one isn’t about a particular case, rather it’s about women on the Court. A law student analyzed a huge number of oral arguments at the Supremes over the last decade or so. What he found is that the male justices routinely interrupt the female justices. One effect of that is the women stopped using polite language, such as, “May I ask a question?” Alas, that reduced, but didn’t stop, the interruptions. Ruth Bader Ginsberg was asked, “What is the ideal number of women on the court?” Her answer: “Nine.”
Josh Weed is a Mormon and that church doesn’t like LGBTQ people. Something about their doctrine is built around the family, so a person had better have one and of the right kind. So Josh married Lolly. They have been used as an example of how a gay man and a straight women can have a successful Mormon marriage. It was so successful that their marriage was cited in the Supreme Court same-sex marriage case in 2015 as a reason why marriage should be denied to same-sex couples.
Josh and Lolly have announced their divorce. They said their deep platonic love was no substitute for romantic love. They offered an apology to LGBTQ people.
To explain Net Neutrality Burger King created a commercial about Whopper Neutrality. If you don’t pay the hefty premium you have to wait for your meal.
Sixty years ago the American Space program began. On January 31, 1958 we launched our first satellite, Explorer 1. In the four months that its battery lasted its sensors showed the existence of the Van Allen belts, which protect earth life from solar and cosmic radiation. Explorer 1 actually stayed aloft for 12 years and 58,000 orbits.
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