I think we already broke

Aysha Qamar of Daily Kos reported that Hillary Clinton has been chartering flights to try to get at-risk women out of Afghanistan. There are various other organizations accepting donations to do similar work. In the title of this piece Qamar mentioned another person trying to get people out. This person is Erik Prince, the brother of Cruella DeVos, who, as head of Blackwater, has profited handsomely from the ongoing wars. Prince’s efforts are different from Clinton’s – Prince is charging $6,500 a seat. Yesterday I wrote about the Supreme Court and its use of the shadow docket. Mark Joseph Stern tweeted a thread reviewing the case and summarized:

When the Supreme Court issues major shadow docket decisions like this it is not acting like a court. The shadow docket is for rare, true emergencies. SCOTUS abuses it to issue unsigned opinions in blockbuster cases at 10 pm. It's rule by raw judicial power, not reasoned judgment. ... The point—the problem—is that the court's own rules do not allow it to govern the nation through emergency decrees *even if* one party has the stronger claim. ... It doesn't much matter if you agree with the majority or the dissent on the merits of the eviction moratorium. The deeper problem is that the Supreme Court had no license to intervene with a definitive judgment at this stage. We need shadow docket reform.

M.S. Bellows added:

Most folks don't realize that the Supreme Court is NOT a court of appeals: it almost never is required to accept a case, and its purpose isn't to do justice or right wrongs but to set judicial policy + resolve conflicts between the circuits. The shadow docket upends this.

The other side of the decision by the Supremes to gut the eviction moratorium is that very little of the money to pay back rent is getting to tenants or landlords. Joan McCarter of Kos reported that the billions of dollars was given to states and cities, who came up with their own methods and requirements for applications. The money hasn’t gone out because of layers of bureaucracy. The solution, wrote McCarter, would be for the federal government to take the money back and be the single point of contact for renters and landlords (yeah, I know the time needed to do that means a lot of people would be evicted). One wonders if state and local governments purposefully designed their system to be hard to use because they’re cruel people. Sheesh, they’re telling poor people, who may not have internet access or scanners, that documents must be uploaded. Kerry Eleveld of Kos reported that seven Capitol Police filed a lawsuit against the nasty guy and others involved in or responsible for the Capitol attack. Named in the suit are the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers, and nasty guy allies Roger Stone and many others. The suit says the defendants “violated the Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871 that prohibits the use of conspiracies to block Congress from performing its constitutional duties.” In the suit the seven officers, five of whom are black, recounted the verbal and physical violence they endured on Jan. 6. This suit joins several others. Mark Sumner of Kos reported that House Committee investigating the Capitol attack is still there and has issued a sweeping demand for documents. I’ll let you read through the description of the requested documents. Sumner wrote:

The new requests show that this is not going to be over quickly, because the volume of information to be considered is just too great. Republicans who feared that the investigation was going to still be going on when the 2022 elections rolled around are very, very likely to see those fears confirmed.

David Neiwert of Kos reported that last Sunday the Proud Boys, in what was billed as a “Summer of Love” event, held a rally in Portland, Oregon. Afterward they set about attacking their perceived enemies through street brawls, overturning vehicles, and assaulting people in their cars. Police didn’t intervene until there were gunshots. Neiwert wrote:

Before the event, Portland Police published a statement announcing that they intended to stay out of the protest. “You should not expect to see police officers standing in the middle of the crowd trying to keep people apart,” Chief Chuck Lovell said. “People should keep themselves apart and avoid physical confrontation.”

But that ignores the goal of the Proud Boys to engage in physical confrontation. Their method of operation seems to be to announce a big rally to draw Proud Boys from across the country into a liberal city to create scenes of street violence. Which is the chief attraction of their members. Sunny Singh tweeted:

“Nice people made the best Nazis...They were lovely people who turned their heads as their neighbors were dragged away. You know who weren’t nice people? Resisters.” I keep remembering this @NaomiShulman quote. Have been, through the absurdities of the past weeks.

In an article about the pandemic McCarter wrote:

Antivax Republicans are calling for an economic boycott—"MASS NON-COMPLIANCE" to "end this tyranny"—of vaccine mandates. That includes leaving their jobs, boycotting stores and restaurants, etc. They need to add to that list that they refuse medical care if they get sick, the logical conclusion of COVID-19 denial. Of course, that's not happening, and of course, hospitals can't refuse them when they show up at the door.

McCarter quoted a tweet from Nick Sawyer, MD:

This is how I know COVID is going to get worse. There are adults - and parents of children - who not only refuse to get the COVID-19 vaccine but also REFUSE TO GET TESTED IN ER or let THEIR CHILDREN GET TESTED IN THE ER. They don’t care if they have it or are spreading it.

Qamar wrote that many hospital staff feels like they’re in an unwinnable war:

As hospitals nationwide struggle again due to a rise in hospitalizations due to the delta variant, reports of staff shortages increase. As unvaccinated individuals continue to fill hospitals and fight with health care professionals, exhaustion and lack of support have left health care workers struggling with their own problems. In Mississippi, as the state battles some of the highest numbers of new COVID-19 cases per 100,000 residents in the nation, nurses are resigning due to extreme burnout. At least 2,000 Mississippi nurses have resigned since the beginning of the year, according to the Mississippi Hospital Association's Center for Quality & Workforce. "It looks heroic," Nichole Atherton, a nurse who resigned from Singing River Ocean Springs Hospital, told CNN. "But that's not what it is. It's sweaty and hard and chaotic and bloody. And it's hard to live in this every day and then go home and live a normal life." When asked by CNN if the health care system is reaching a breaking point, another resigned nurse said: "I think we already broke."

Some hospital systems in the state are urging the state to use COVID relief funds for retention bonuses. Nurses respond it’s not about the money. Marissa Higgins of Kos reported James Akers took a 90-second opportunity to speak before the Dripping Springs Independent School District. Higgins wrote:

Akers identified himself as a father of four, including one currently in high school in the district, located outside Austin, Texas. He said he doesn’t like anyone, including the government, to tell him what to do, but sometimes “I’ve got to push the envelope a little bit.” Then he said he’s not going to talk about it but “walk the walk.” Akers expressed how much he disliked the jacket, shirt, and tie he has to wear to work and then removed all three items. He then sarcastically described driving recklessly by blowing past stop signs and through red lights before parking in a spot reserved for disabled folks. "I almost killed somebody out there,” he said. “But by God, it's my road, too, so I have every right to drive as fast as I want to.” By the time he stripped down to his swimsuit, he had added that people follow certain rules for a “very good reason” and said it’s just a “simple protocol.” People in the audience laughed, cheered, and gasped. Barbara Stroud, president of the board, asked him to put his pants back on for comments, which he did. He was still shirtless when he walked back to his seat.