The most direct and blatant attempt to overturn the outcome

The official inflation rate for June is 9.1%. It’s up from last month. The Federal Reserve is raising interest rates to slow inflation. Steve Inskeep of NPR spoke with William Spriggs, an economist for the AFL-CIO, who says the Fed is doing what it can, but what it can do isn’t able to fix the real problems. That official rate is for June compared to June a year ago. Since then gasoline prices, a big contributor to the high number, have dropped. There has been a big spike in airline fares in an attempt to recoup revenue lost during the pandemic. Energy and food prices are affected by Russia invading Ukraine. There is also a microchip shortage affecting vehicle sales and slowing the economy can make that situation worse. Supply chain issues persist and manufacturers are still working out new suppliers. Higher interest rates have cooled the housing market. But that works against the underlying problem that we’re short a couple million homes. Slowing the economy and the housing market means less incentive to build the new housing we desperately need. So rent prices will stay high. Things that will (partly) fix inflation and some of these other problems are political issues: Provide child care so more people can go back to work. Help build more microchip manufacturing places in the US even though people claim that will increase inflation. On Tuesday the January 6 Committee held its seventh hearing. This one was mostly about the nasty guy calling groups to Washington for a “wild” time on January 6 and about the nature of those groups. Brandi Buchman of Daily Kos did liveblogging of the session in two parts, here and here. However, I think it is more useful to look at the summaries she and others wrote. Even so, the main points of the liveblogging: Chairman Bennie Thompson started the session by saying in a democracy we settle differences at the ballot box. Sometimes you win, sometimes I do. Then we accept results. You don’t have to be happy about it and you can say what you want. But you can’t turn violent. Co-chair Liz Cheney dismissed the idea that the nasty guy was led astray by others. He’s a 76 year old man. He’s not an impressionable child. When AG Bill Barr said there was no fraud the nasty guy tried to seize voting machines. Barr said he can’t, no evidence. Giuliani and Sidney Powell, though they had no evidence, pushed the idea of fraud. Several others tried to stop that idea because of no evidence. The meeting got loud and close to violence. The next day the nasty guy tweeted about a big protest in DC, will be wild. The Oath Keepers were in town, ready to attack the Capitol, on January 6 because they say the nasty guy invited and mobilized them. That “will be wild” tweet was taken as the invitation. Discussions online became more detailed and more violent. Mark Sumner of Kos discussed the draft of an executive order that would have allowed the nasty guy (through the military or Department of Homeland Security) to seize voting machines. One time Powell tried to push it. Another time Giuliani did. And Giuliani even took it to DHS, who said they had no authority to do so. Sumner wrote:

The scheme to seize voting machines and allow Trump’s own legal adviser to determine the outcome of the election was the most direct and blatant attempt Trump made to overturn the outcome, even more so than John Eastman-authored “Jan. 6 scenario.” It should be sufficient in itself to charge Trump with seditious conspiracy. And it deserves more attention.

Walter Einenkel of Kos discussed the testimony of Jason Van Tatenhove. He is a former high-ranking member of the Oath Keepers, an extremist group that participated in the attack. Part of his testimony was how he got sucked into the group. He left after a year and a half when he heard members deny the Holocaust. He knows now he should have left sooner. Einenkel’s summary of the testimony:

The Oath Keepers have been tied to Donald Trump’s campaign to overturn the results of the 2020 election as a sort of satellite mercenary group, willing to do some military work on the cheap if needed, and to hopefully take advantage of the riots being created by Trump-world rhetoric. Tatenhove was brought out to testify to the true nature of the Oath Keepers, their use of misinformation to organize and incite, and the underpinnings of militia violence and authoritarianism that [leader Elmer] Rhodes relied on.

Kerry Eleveld of Kos reported at the end of the hearing Cheney dropped a big one:

“After our last hearing, President Trump tried to call a witness in our investigation—a witness you have not yet heard from in these hearings,” Cheney said from the dais, noting that the person declined to answer Trump’s call and instead referred the information to their lawyer. “Their lawyer alerted us and this committee has supplied that information to the Department of Justice,” Cheney said, adding, “Let me say one more time: We will take any effort to influence witness testimony very seriously.”

So why is the nasty guy not in jail? Witness tampering is a much clearer and easier case for the Justice Department to handle. Buchman posted a summary of the whole session, including more than what I mentioned here. I listened to another bonus episode of Gaslit Nation (available to subscribers). Hosts Andrea Chalupa and Sarah Kendzior answered questions from supporters. I didn’t take careful notes. This is some of what they talked about. The hearings are a way for “good” Republicans to rehabilitate their image. A case is Bill Barr, who did a lot of nasty things in service of the nasty guy, but left as he was saying there was no election fraud. He timed his exit to come just before it was all obviously illegal. So in spite of all the earlier nastiness he comes off as principled and on the side of protecting democracy. Liz Cheney is another example. She will be remembered for protecting democracy and not all the other nasty Republican things she voted for. Democrats aren’t acting like good guys either. Yeah, they have been running great hearings and laying out the evidence. But many in the leadership have been corrupted indirectly by Russian money. And 18 months later the nasty guy still walks free. The nasty guy has been criming for decades. He has an international crime syndicate as backers. So many people around him and so many in Congress have been corrupted. The Capitol attack had supporters and accomplices in Congress. Why are the hearings focusing on the attack? Why aren’t there hearings on all these things any many more? Eliminating the nasty guy will not stop the movement he championed. D. Earl Stephens tweeted an image of a highway sign:

Amber Alert Orange Male Age 76 Wandering around Florida Thinks he’s president Senile. Throws Ketchup.

Challenge gender norms and bring queer joy into kids’ lives

Tina Vasquez of Kos Prism Reports wrote about the origins and current state of Drag Queen Story Hour. It started in 2015 by Michelle Tea. She applied for a grant for arts programming and she had an idea for the Harvey Milk Library in the Castro neighborhood of San Francisco (a gayborhood hit by gentrification and straight people). Tea got the grant, but it was Julián Delgado Lopera who organized the first one. It was a small idea that soon exploded. There were always protests, though they were mild until 2017. That year they had a workshop pairing gender expressive kids with drag queen mentors. The event was hosted by the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence – drag queens dressed as nuns with a strong tradition of charity work. When the protests started the Sisters served as the security force – these are big dudes and their size and sass prompted the protesters to leave. Drag Queen Story Hour soon had chapters in 30 states, DC and Puerto Rico, and more across Mexico, Europe, Australia, Canada, and in Tokyo. Events are wildly popular. A recent story hour in Winston Salem, North Carolina drew protesters. It also drew counter protesters. They were called to action by Queer Winston Salem. They were LGBTQ people and allies, 100 strong, who came to show their support – and to form a barrier between the protesters and the kids. It worked and I’d like to see more of this. Other places have hired police to protect the event. But that doesn’t sit well. It’s really strange to tell kids the story of the Stonewall uprising against police brutality when the event is surrounded by police. And many LGBTQ people have had encounters with police that were not good. And some reports say during an event Wilmington, NC the Sheriff’s office escorted Proud Boys to the event room – a claim authorities deny. Delgado Lopera said:

This is going to become really dangerous work because what these performers do is play with gender, and they are creating a bridge with children. But that’s also what has always made Drag Queen Story Hour so revolutionary. Hateful people can’t think of our communities as wholesome; they can’t think of us as family. It never occurred to them that you could take a drag queen out of a bar and turn them into someone [who’s] part of the nuclear f---ing family, someone their kid loves and goes to the library to read with. They feel like drag queens are infiltrating their space.

Tea said:

I’m queer, so I have no illusions about our country and how many bigoted, phobic people there are. It’s precisely because Drag Queen Story Hour brings queer joy into kids’ lives—and that joy is coming from people who challenge gender norms—that [Drag Queen Story Hour is] remains the focus of attacks. People who mess with the gender binary in any way get the most venom.

I add that the reason why messing with the gender binary draws so much venom is because it also messes with a strict social hierarchy in which men claim to be above women. My Sunday movie was The Rose Maker. It is a French film, the story of Eve who owns a rose farm that she inherited from her father. It used to be famous in the rose world and now is close to bankrupt. The only employee is Vera, who keeps track of how little money there is. Much to Eve’s annoyance Vera contacts an ex-con program to bring in three workers – Fred, Samir, and Nodége – who won’t have to paid much. They come up with ideas to generate extra cash and use some of their talents. Eve teaches them how to create hybrid roses in hopes of winning the next year’s rose contest. It’s a gentle film, all about second chances. I enjoyed it. Brother came for a short visit. He arrived late Monday afternoon and he left this morning. He was scheduled for a longer visit last week but in flying to visit our other brother he caught COVID. Of course, he didn’t know he had it until after he had spread it. Both brothers have recovered and sister-in-law law is getting there. I downloaded Michigan’s COVID data, updates yesterday. I can’t tell yet whether we’re in a plateau or whether omicron variant 5 is starting another increase in cases. Over the last few weeks the peaks in new cases per day now stand at 2164, 1847, 1920, 2125, and 1818. I suspect the last number, showing new cases on Monday, will be adjusted as more data comes in. The deaths per day for the last four weeks has stayed under 20. I played a minor part in gathering signatures to put a voting rights amendment to the Michigan Constitution onto the November ballot. The campaign needed 425,000 signatures when they turned in petitions on Monday. They had 670,000. Even better, another group turned in petitions to put an abortion rights amendment into the state constitution. Laura Clawson of Daily Kos reported they set a new record when they turned in 753,700. After the draft decision to overturn Roe was leaked the campaign to collect signatures got 30,000 more volunteers. When the decision came down they got another 30,000. And they’re itching to start the fall campaign. Why collect so many above what’s needed? As one who signed after I knew they had enough I did it to make a statement that I agree with it. Also, that much of a response prompts donor dollars. Yeah, a small number of signatures will be disqualified (which doesn’t mean fraudulent) for such things as a person signing twice or putting down the wrong address. Because of that campaigns always turn in a cushion. But election officials are not going to disqualify 300,000 signatures. Rachel Martin of NPR talked to Stuart Butler of the Brookings Institution about the effects of states banning abortion. Prevent abortion and there will be more kids. Will a state’s infrastructure support them? Conservative say they value the lift of the child. If so there should be plenty of programs improved health care for the mother and child. Yet, over half the states that banned abortion do not have Medicaid to keep poor pregnant people healthy. Butler said:

Well, it's certainly an odd combination to be saying, we are so concerned with life and with children that we want to ensure that no woman can have an abortion, but at the same time have done very little, if anything, to make available the resources that those women and children will need. ... So that's what we're seeing over and over again, this simultaneous position of being very strongly pro-life, but at the same time being very strongly against expanding government assistance or raising taxes to fund government assistance. And I don't see any change in that on the horizon. And I think it is going to lead to really dire results in many of these states.

No, it’s not about the sanctity of life of the unborn. It’s a way to oppress women who have sex. Clawson reported that attacks on books has become attacks on librarians. It is disappointing that a book that has gotten great reviews in trade journals must be pulled from shelves. It’s scary when the line of fire shifts to the librarians. And some of them are quitting. Clawson concluded:

It’s not enough for the censors to attack books. They’re going after the professional ethics and expertise of librarians. They're turning disagreements over content into a vicious personal battle against public servants for doing their jobs. But that makes sense, because the disagreements over content come from the bigoted desire to ensure that kids only see one way of existing reflected as appropriate and acceptable. Once you’re committed to isolating and stigmatizing huge numbers of kids, why wouldn’t you do the same to librarians? You’ve already decided that anyone who gets in your way, even by merely existing, is disposable.

In a Ukraine update Kos of Kos wrote that Russia has announced a pause in its special military operation to rest and replenish. But since that pause doesn’t include the Russian artillery Ukraine isn’t pausing. Kos discussed how effective the HIMARS long range rocket systems now in the hands of Ukraine fighters has been against Russian targets. A lot of Russian weapons depots are going boom. This is doing a lot of great things for Ukrainian morale. In another post Kos wrote that Russian logistics are again an issue. Their supply lines were a problem early in the war, which prompted them to pull out of the north (around Kyiv) and northeast. The battle for Donbas, so much closer to Russia, hasn’t had that problem before now. But since Ukraine can make things go boom from 85 kilometers away Russian logistics are again shaping the war. Kos also wrote that Russia lacks forklifts. That means when a truck hauls 114 pound artillery shells and 170 pound crates of propellant to the front they must be loaded by hand. Which really increases load time and how many runs a truck can make in a day. Take out a few weapons depots and those trucks have to go farther between intact depots and the front lines. Again, fewer trips per day. Aldous Pennyfarthing of the Kos community, discussing an article on the Daily Beast, reported a Russian state TV host said citizens shouldn’t wait for life to return to what it was. It could take years. They’re waiting for the nasty guy to be reinstalled. And until then Russian propagandists will work to provoke unrest in the US. From a tweet that’s been hiding in my browser tabs for three weeks Shannon Vavra of the Daily Beast linked to a full article and wrote:

A US intelligence memo I obtained shows Russian influence ops are trying to convince Americans aid for Ukraine is the reason the war is dragging. And another memo I got my hands on warns Russia’ll try to interfere in US midterms.

Of course they will. And is America prepared for that? Not any more than we were in 2016.

Few petroleum engineering graduates

April Siese of Daily Kos reported that in 2017 the number of graduates with petroleum engineering degrees was more than 2,300. This year there are 400 graduates. Baby Boomer workers are retiring and there won’t be enough young workers to replace them. Working in Big Oil was a way to earn big bucks, especially when profits are high, as they are now. But Millennials and GenZ link job satisfaction to how a company or industry treats the environment. And a petroleum job is now seen as unappealing. Instead, these kids are studying renewables and sustainability. Big Oil can’t get enough workers? That’s another way to shut them down. Kerry Eleveld of Kos reported recent polls show the approval rating of the Supreme Court continues to decline and now showing more disapproval. Also, in generic ballot matchups independent voters continue their shift to Democrats. Aysha Qamar of Kos reported a new Arizona law has made it illegal for people to make video recordings of police officers within eight feet of them. In addition to being Constitutionally suspect it also erodes police accountability and trust. Arizona House Democrats tweeted, “Republicans want cameras on teachers & kids but not police.” Ron Filipkowski, who is an attorney, historian, and former Republican, tweeted:

Based upon one complaint that the state’s new anti-CRT law was violated at a staff training seminar, OK Gov Kevin Stitt announces today he is launching an investigation of the Tulsa Public School system.

To which Ruth Ben-Ghiat added:

Authoritarianism requires the creation of legal frameworks that then allow political enemies to be harassed and silenced on a grand scale.

In a post from a couple weeks ago Gabe Ortiz of Kos reported on a continuing trend of conservatives saying parents who take children to such places as Drag Queen Story Hour are committing child abuse and should have their children taken away. The parents should perhaps even be put in jail. Add in all the rhetoric about LGBTQ people falsely accused of being pedophiles and groomers coupled with America’s gun fetish things could get deadly for LGBTQ people and their parents and others who love them. The next day Marissa Higgins of Kos reported Proud Boys, a hate group, gathered around the Pine Valley Library in North Carolina to yell at parents and kids entering for a Pride story time. Reports are unclear whether the Boys were just in the parking lot or had gotten as far as outside of the room where the event was held. Either way many kids were terrorized. And the far right is getting good at terrorizing kids. In a more uplifting story Lilly Quiroz of NPR’s Life Kit talked to Milena Gioconda Davis about sex education for queer kids. These kids may not be tied to existing gender narratives and can explore outside the norms and patterns. Sex can be anything that brings pleasure coupled with arousal. It doesn’t need to end in orgasm. Get to know your body and what pleasure feels like to you and what doesn’t. Understand your own sexual needs and wants. Take the messages from the world and see if they fit. If they don’t fit, get rid of them. Now when you add another person to the mix you already have a guidebook on what is and isn’t pleasurable you can share with that person. Since that guidebook can change and since consent is important share that guidebook frequently. Also listen to what is and isn’t pleasurable for the other person. Most sexually transmitted diseases are treatable so they are not a mark of shame and they do not mean your sex life is over. In a post that’s been in my browser tabs for nearly four months Ortiz discussed a new peer-reviewed study that looks at the cost of the harm done by debunked “conversion therapy.” The cost of just the therapy is about $650 million a year. The cost of the harms associated with the therapy – the substance abuse, depression, anxiety, and suicide attempts – is estimated to be another $8.58 billion. Research from the Trevor Project found that youth who were subjected to such therapy are more than twice as likely to attempt suicide than those were not. And 40% of LGBTQ kids have considered suicide. Traumatizing kids who attend LGBTQ events, declaring parents who approve of LGBTQ people should have their kids taken away, and Don’t Say Gay bills only make more of these kids consider suicide.

Being mainstream hurts you, being extreme helps you

The computer I have is now eight years old. I think it was at that time I also bought an external hard drive. Part of the reason (if I remember right) was to help me transfer files from the old computer to the new. Another part was I could do backups on the external drive so if the house was in danger I could (theoretically) grab the external drive on the way out the door. Thankfully I haven’t needed to test that premise. A couple weeks ago I downloaded a backup program, mostly for the incremental backups it provides. I did a full backup of files I keep on both the internal and external drives. This took about three hours. Three weeks later I did an incremental. Then I decided it was time to copy those backup files onto my thumb drive. That’s even easier to take with me when the house is threatened. That’s when I encountered a big problem – those backup files, big things of 4Gb each, produced disk read errors when read. In an hour of chat with the backup program’s company we determined that external drive is going bad. A downloaded program shows 8% of sectors are damaged. So I copied all the files I want to keep to the internal drive (do I really need to copy 8 years of backups?). I bought another external drive. The old one had about 300Gb of usable space and (with all those old backups) I used a bit over ¾ of it. I think the smallest drive now available is 1Tb – one terrabyte or 1,000Gb and about three times what I have now. My nephew asked me to send a lot of files – too much data to ship across the internet. I thought an 8Gb thumb drive would be more than enough. The smallest available is 32Gb at the price of about 4Gb for a dollar. I better not get started on the tiny amount of memory in the computers I used in my first professional job as a computer programmer. I finished the book The Editor by Steven Rowley. I had enjoyed his book The Guncle so looked for other books he had written. And this is also a good one. I recommend it. Rowley’s novel is about James Smale, who wrote a novel, got it accepted for publication, and, as the story starts, meets his editor who will shepherd the book through to publication. The editor is an important character, what movies or theater would call a featured role, but not who the story is about. It is about James. A fun part of the book is the editor is – Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. The former First Lady was indeed a book editor after her second husband died. She didn’t need to work, but wanted to contribute, and loved books. One of her big problems with the job is everyone around her treated her like royalty, which meant she could be lonely. Back to James and the story of publishing his book. That book is a fictionalized version of his relationship with his mother. When James came out as gay his father had a big problem with it and told his wife the kid goes or I do. She put the father’s stuff on the lawn. She chose the son over the husband. But Jackie senses the end of the book suffers because James, in spite of his mother’s unwavering support, still has unresolved issues with her. Jackie says the book’s ending will come into focus when he deals with his issues with his mother. I was pleased this wasn’t another romance or rom-com. This isn’t about the awkwardness of James and Daniel meeting and falling in love. Their relationship is already well established, though there are a few bumps along the way. Joan McCarter of Daily Kos discussed the commission Biden put together shortly after he was nominated to recommend what he should do about the court system and the Supremes in particular. The commission as a whole, including its Federalist Society members, suggested a bunch of things but endorsed nothing. But since their report came out Biden hasn’t acted on even the suggestions. Which has led some commission members to say why did Biden bother forming their group? That’s especially true after the Court’s recent horrible rulings that were about power, not legal reasoning. Those ruling have prompted a couple commission members to change their stance. Yes, it is time to do something about the Supremes. Does Biden not recognize this Court is different, that they intend to dismantle democracy? Biden’s defenders say that nothing will get through this Senate so Biden shouldn’t waste his political capital. But disgust of the Supremes is now so high doing nothing could damage Democrats’ election chances. Hunter of Kos reported that a ballot referendum has been launched in Ohio. Its purpose is to prevent the state government from requiring vaccines. Not just the COVID vaccines. All vaccines. Welcome back, polio. To get on the ballot they need to collect 443,000 signatures. Might they do it? Well, this is the Republican Party in Ohio. If they do, it will go in the 2023 ballot. Hunter reminds us vaccine mandates have not been controversial for a long time. Until a couple years ago. There are lots of signs that Christian Nationalists would be delighted to turn America into a theocracy. metro50 of the Kos community says we tried it. Didn’t work. Other places have tried it too. Didn’t work there either. Back in the 1700s each colony had its own state religion. Anglicans in Virginia, Puritans in Massachusetts, Quakers in Pennsylvania, Baptists in Rhode Island, and so forth. After the Revolutionary War, when these separate colonies started to form a united country there was a lot of fighting between the religions of the colonies. The only way past that was to declare there is no state religion. As for another place where this was tried and failed, see Northern Ireland and its Troubles. Georgia Logothetis, in a pundit roundup for Kos, quoted a few sources discussing the fall of Boris Johnson. He’s the Prime Minister of Britain who just resigned, though hanging on until a successor is chosen. Though he survived a no confidence vote a while back, recently many of the other members of Parliament who ran the government resigned from their government jobs. The main question in many of these articles is why didn’t something like this happen in the US? Why did Republican members of Congress not confront the nasty guy? Why did they choose the nasty guy over the principle of democracy? It looks like Britain will right the ship of state. Will the US? Meteor Blades, writing the Earth Matters column for Kos, discussed the Kochtopus. Back in in 1904 Udo Keppler drew an octopus to characterize how Standard Oil poked its appendages into everything to control everything. That cartoon is now used to describe what Koch Industries, a huge oil and chemical conglomerate, have created since the 1970s in response to the Clean Air Act. The EPA has been their target since it was established. And, 50 years later, they might be close to getting rid of it. Blades wrote:

Making polluters clean up their own messes instead of making the bystanders and downwinders pick up the health, social, and environmental tab is anathema to a mess-maker who believes economic externalities are somebody else’s problem. And there is no bigger mess-maker than the fossil fuel industry. For the big government-hating Kochs, that made the EPA a special enemy. But certainly not their only one. ... The concentration of economic power in fewer hands was once of great concern to American leaders, including both Roosevelts who served in the White House. But these days that concentration has soared beyond the inequality levels of the Roaring Twenties and the pushback against the political clout of that concentration has remained, at best, sporadic and weak. ... David Koch is already gone. Charles Koch soon will be. But, as much lasting damage as these men have done, the fight is not about them, Kochism will survive without them just as Trumpism will survive without Trump. The fight is with a system that permits such men free roam to impose their anti-democratic and sometimes lethal obsessions on the nation.

Blades also quoted Neil McCulloch at The Conversation. High gas prices have caused a screeching reversal of many of the energy policies to reduce fossil fuels around the world. If we want to reduce the use of fossil fuels an effective way to do that is to keep them expensive. David Pepper tweeted a thread saying there are two separate battles going on in America. One side assumes democracy is intact, its political views are mainstream and popular, so it focuses on election outcomes. The goal is to get something done. This battle is fought at the federal level and is covered at the federal level. The other side recognizes that democracy can be subverted into minority rule. Its political views are of a minority and extreme. In a robust democracy with fair elections it would not succeed. Because of that their battle is against democracy (which they don’t hide). They believe democracy and freedom [their freedom to discriminate] are not compatible. Their battle is fought at statehouses. It is in statehouses where their big issues – abortions, guns, schools, climate, and more – are contested. It is statehouses that control democracy – who can vote, how district lines for themselves and Congress are drawn. Voter suppression and gerrymandering can lock a minority party into a legislature. Individual seats are never contested. They can pass the most extreme and toxic bills and stay in power.

So after a decade of Statehouses being rigged in this way, it turns out almost every incentive we assume leads to good public service is turned upside down: public outcomes don’t matter; being mainstream hurts you; being extreme helps you. Which leads to a downward spiral. But of course, since all those terrible behaviors would guarantee they’d lose in a real democracy, this new generation of statehouse “leaders” know that they must keep gerrymandering and attacking democracy in order to stay in power. So they do that non-stop, and fiercely. ... BOTTOM LINE: until the side on the left sees that it’s in a full-fledged battle for democracy itself, requiring it to engage in the fight on the front lines (states, statehouses) where democracy is shaped, everywhere, all the time, w plans & passion that match that reality that side is not going to win. Yes. We must win every federal seat too, because they are key to protecting democracy. But once you see the big picture I’ve laid out, you see what a disaster it is that for so long, we haven’t focused on much BUT those federal swing seats.

Bill in Portland, Maine, in his Cheers and Jeers column for Kos, quoted late night commentary.

Men have had all kinds of reactions to last week's abortion ruling. Ever since the Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade urologists have seen a spike in vasectomies. I've never personally performed a vasectomy, but I'd like to try my very first one on Samuel Alito. —Jimmy Kimmel Live guest host Chelsea Handler Justice Stephen Breyer retired and Ketanji Brown Jackson was sworn in as the newest Supreme Court justice. Justice Jackson made history as the first Black woman and the first person to make people cheer for the Supreme Court in the past two weeks. —Jimmy Fallon

Mark Sumner of Kos has started a column about things he has been able to photograph in space using a new type of telescope. The user doesn’t aim it. Instead, the user describes what to look at and it aims itself, then takes a long exposure picture. The images that come out are good at showing objects the eye can’t see. Here’s a post with a photo of the North American Nebula with a discussion of it. That discussion included the story of William Herschel, who cataloged 2,000 nebula, including this one, in the late 1700s. He also discovered Uranus. Sumner also discussed William’s sister Caroline. Caroline had typhus as a child, so was barely over four foot high. She also lost vision in her left eye. Yet, she became William’s astronomical partner. When he died she continued their work.

In 1828, the Royal Astronomical Society presented Caroline with the Gold Medal for her lifetime of work. No other woman would receive the award until 1996. In 1835, she was one of the first two women inducted into the Royal Society. In 1847 the King of Prussia presented her with a Gold Medal for Science. When she died in 1848, at the age of 97, Caroline Hershel was one of the most famous women in the world.

The Second Amendment has become a right to murder

Laura Clawson of Daily Kos reported on a pronouncement:

We have got to figure out some way to identify these troubled young men & it's very complicated because after every one of these shootings there are people who say ‘Oh you know I thought he was pretty strange. I wish I notified somebody about it,’

In the case of the Highland Park members of the shooter’s family called police on him twice. Which makes it quite infuriating that the guy who spoke those words was Moscow Mitch – the guy who, because of his position in the Senate, has done the most to keep gun restrictions from passing. Which means he hopes we’ll see a tiny drop of compassion in his words. He’s doing it to prevent passage of more restrictive gun laws. Hunter of Kos wrote a great essay on America’s gun culture. We all heard about the shooting in Highland Park. But that was only one of eleven mass shootings over the holiday weekend. Through the rest of the essay Hunter discussed a tweet by Sen. Ted Cruz who declared the Second Amendment is about the right to defend your right and your family. Which has become a right to murder. Hunter wrote:

A "good guy" with a gun decides that people he personally knows need murdering, so he does it. ... This, after all, is the very premise of American gun ownership. If some other American does something you simply cannot abide, then militia movements, the National Rifle Association, and Republican would-be presidential candidates all agree that you must be given access to a gun so that you can respond. It is called “self-defense.” ... The Ted Cruz argument is that all Americans have the right to determine whether they need to shoot six, 10, or 60 such people in order to "defend" themselves against a perceived threat, and the right to stock weapons capable of doing it, and the only role of policing is to sort out whether or not the law justifies the killing after the bodies are stacked up and carted away. But Americans have the right to make the choice to kill, Ted Cruz and the other argue, and their right to decide for themselves who needs killing and when must be given absolute precedence over the rights of everyone else around them.

When that gun is aimed at you your choices come down to shoot back – or die. Their right to shoot you trumps your right to not die. Those that advocate the “Good Murder Theory” saw the shooting in Uvalde as an ideal scenario – the shooter has plenty of time to identify those that need murdering and kill them before police intervene. And the police hesitate because they’re afraid of the gunman. The point of gun ownership is to kill dozens before being taken out. Nope, other countries don’t do it this way. Their definition of self defense means actually being physically threatened at the moment. And a person doesn’t get access to guns. And if you do have one that’s proof you’re a threat and the police have the right to subdue you. The American version is seditious. It is a belief that the right to murder trumps government itself. That means the murderer is given total access to guns and society judges whether the it was a “good” murder after the victim is dead.

We are the only one that looks at the victims inside a bloody grade school classroom or alongside a 4th of July parade route and declares that it is good that the murderer was able to accomplish that much because it shows future "good" killers could do at least that much, in an imagined future in which the nation might depend on a sea of "good" killers to set things right. It is deranged. Prioritizing the rights of murderers to murder on impulse and with maximum efficiency in order to prepare for a future in which "good" murderers can dominate their enemies is absolutely deranged. The only people who would advocate for it are those that truly believe their personal or political enemies may someday need murdering, if push comes to shove. People like Ted Cruz.

In thinking about what Hunter wrote – about the claim such murders are self defense – I note the civilians who end up dead are not in the moment threatening the physical safety of the shooter. What they feel is being threatened is their position (or its lack) in the social hierarchy. That they value more than their own lives. As for killers to “set things right” I know quite well who they want to kill to make that happen. April Siese of Kos discussed an article from Rolling Stone. Peggy Nienaber is the vice president of the anti-abortion group Faith & Liberty and the executive director of Liberty Counsel’s DC Ministry. Liberty Counsel is cited as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center. The news is that Nienaber was caught on video saying she prays with some of the Supreme Court justices (though she’s disappointed it’s not all) and does it in the Supreme Court building. This is a big problem, even if they don’t discuss specific cases, for two reasons: First, it violates the separation of church and state because it clearly invites one particular religion into government action. Second, Liberty Counsel frequently brings cases before the Court. And the members of the Court who participate in these prayers are highly biased in their favor. Sawyer Hackett tweeted that video. Kos of Kos again discussed the tankies, those that believe only America is imperialist and no one else has free agency. They believe Sweden and Finland didn’t ask to join NATO to avoid Russian imperialism but because America tricked them into it. I’ll let you read the rest of what Kos has to say about them. I’m only posting this because near the top is a good thing – a map of Europe showing NATO in 1998 and in 2022 (before Sweden and Finland applied). The only European countries west of Ukraine not in NATO are Ireland, Switzerland, Austria, Bosnia, and Serbia. For several years now NPR hosts and reporters have read the Declaration of Independence on the 4th of July. This year they broke from that tradition to explore the phrase “All men are created equal.” Host Steve Inskeep led the discussion. We get caught up in the limits of the word “men” in that phrase, but historian Jill Lepore says for the 18th century this was quite radical. These men were from a highly ranked culture and to challenge and throw away that ranking is revolutionary. Historian Annette Gordon-Reed says Jefferson understood the contradiction of equality amongst white people but not between white and black. Jefferson’s plan was to give black people their own country and government “because he didn't think Blacks would forgive whites for what they had done, and whites would never give up their prejudices. So we would constantly be in a state of conflict.” And that state of conflict endures. By 1791 people not included in the original claim of equality threw Jefferson’s words back at him. Benjamin Banneker, a black naturalist and writer, did it that year. The women at the 1848 Seneca Falls, NY convention rewrote the phrase to add “and women” to it. By the time of Frederick Douglass the goal shifted from denouncing the phrase to saying include us in it. As part of seceding the South said that phrase is wrong, that the black man is not equal. The South lost and equality (at least racial equality) finally became a part of the Constitution as the 14th amendment. And as part of the Constitution over the decades other groups demanded inclusion – natives, women, blacks, people wanting to be free of huge corporate monopolies, and LGBTQ people. The debate over the meaning of equality continues. Does a woman have equal control over her body? Who is, and is not, allowed to vote? Some claim that certain people are more equal than others. We need to keep the debate going.

It’s time to discuss the meaning of "well regulated."

Today I downloaded Michigan’s COVID data. The big drop in cases per day is likely because Monday was a holiday and data has not been posted yet. So I won’t go into any more detail. Walter Einenkel of Daily Kos reported on research that found a single flu shot reduced the risk of developing Alzheimer’s for several years. During the four years of the follow up study 5.1% of flu-vaccinated patients developed Alzheimer’s while 8.5% of the non-vaccinated did. It appears that activating the immune system against flu also activates it against Alzheimer’s. So get your flu shot. In a Ukraine update Kos of Kos discussed the high price of the guided artillery that Ukraine is now using – some types are $135K a shot. They can also fly 85 km and hit within 1 meter (rather than 1 km) of the intended target. Hitting within 1 km is fine if all one wants to do is create rubble. Hitting within 1 m is necessary to take out ammo depots in populated areas (and not commit war crimes). The accuracy and expense are because guidance electronics are built in. Another nice thing with some of these high tech rockets is they can be delivered to a site where they aren’t easily seen. The launcher circles through to a site, launches a rocket, and moves on before the enemy can fire back. There were lots of Ukrainian lives lost in the defense of Severodonetsk and Lysychansk. These lives will be worth it if the Russians lost a lot more lives. But we won’t know that until after the war, and maybe not even then. Lauren Boebert is one of the really nasty members of Congress. She tweeted that a mass shooting in Denmark, with strict gun laws, proves that gun laws do not stop mass shootings. Walter Einenkel of Kos reported Twitter schooled her real quick. Some of the responses: Britt Nessie shared the sign I’ve mentioned before showing that in one year handguns killed 10 people in Japan, 611 in Canada, and 38,658 in the US. Hondo Resists showed a meme of George Washington saying “A ‘well regulated militia’ doesn’t shoot up the 4th of July.” and added “It’s time to discuss the meaning of ‘well regulated.’” Kyle Griffin:

Gun violence deaths per 100,000 people in developed economies: U.S.: 3.964 Denmark: 0.141 She's lying because there are no consequences for her lies.

Athletes are frequently asked (sometimes required) to talk to the press after a game. So Sacha Kljestan of the LA Galaxy soccer team sat down in front of the mic – and talked about how sick he is of gun violence and that we’re doing nothing about it. The mass shooting at the 4th of July parade had happened earlier the same day. Mark Sumner of Kos discussed the lawyers who pushed the Big Lie on behalf of the nasty guy. Yeah, Rudy Giuliani lost his law license. But that hasn’t slowed him down any. For the things he’s doing now, such as ranting on Fox News and pushing conspiracy theories, he doesn’t need a law license. As for the rest of them, including Sidney Powell, they’re doing just fine. Other than Giuliani they’ve all kept their law licenses. Sumner reported that it appears the January 6 Committee hearing featuring Cassidy Hutchinson was rushed onto the schedule. The reason is likely that the nasty guy’s team were leaning on her to keep silent and if they leaned any longer she might have backed out. In a post from two weeks ago Sumner reported that as everyone sees how successful and damaging the January 6 Committee hearings have been, Republicans are looking for someone to blame. And they found it in House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy. He had a chance to turn the committee into an ineffective farce, but didn’t. When the committee was formed he proposed five members. Pelosi rejected two – Jim Jordan and Jim Banks – because they could be called as witnesses. Instead of naming alternates, and there were hundreds of possible alternates, McCarthy pulled his other three choices. That left Pelosi to name Cheney and Kinzinger, who are more interested in truth than appeasing the nasty guy. The Republican chorus to “blame Kevin” grows louder. And the rest of the country is thankful. Greg Dworkin, in a pundit roundup for Kos, quoted several articles of interest. First is Katherine Stewart of the New York Times. She attended the Christian Nationalist Road to Majority Policy Conference, as she has in the past. She saw three clear trends: 1. The level of violent rhetoric has increased significantly. 2. Dominionism – that these Christians have a biblical mandate to take control of government and society – is explicitly embraced. 3. They’re giddy at the legal arsenal the Supreme Court has laid at their feet. The invitation by Clarence Thomas to bring him cases challenging the right to same-sex love and marriage will be gleefully taken up by these people. Second, Sen. Chris Murphy tweeted:

Republican Senators on Twitter today admitting that their strategy was to pack the courts with political conservatives in order to enact an agenda that was too unpopular to pass through an elected, popularly accountable Congress.

Third, Darren Hutchinson tweeted a common narrative is Democrats are failing to inspire young people to vote. Hutchinson added that young people have always voted in low numbers. That means Republicans aren’t inspiring them either. Yet Democrats are blamed. Fourth, Jason Stanley tweeted:

A goal of fascist politics is to have multiple scapegoats, to lure each group whose single issue is that target into the fold. So you gather a coalition of single issue voters, each of whom can maintain that they don’t share the hateful ideology of the other groups in the fold.

Fifth, Amanda Carpenter of Bulwark discussed Doug Mastriano’s continued pushing of the Big Lie. He’s the far right candidate for Governor in Pennsylvania. His platform includes:

+ loosening restrictions on poll watchers to make it easier to challenge votes; + repealing vote-by-mail laws; + appointing a fellow 2020 election-denier to be secretary of state who could enable him to decertify every voting machine “with a stroke of a pen”; + forcing all Pennsylvania voters to re-register; and + defunding the Pennsylvania Supreme Court.

Sixth, Patrich Chovanec tweeted:

My wife and 9-year-old daughter were in Philadelphia for a chess tournament and saw people running in terror from the shooting last night. People can legitimately disagree about what exactly needs to be done. But the notion that heavily armed gunmen perpetrating massacres on a regular basis is just the price of living in a free society is utter bulls---.

That made me realize that living in a society with frequent massacres isn’t a free society. It certainly isn’t free from fear. Seventh and last, Morgan Fairchild tweeted a link to an article in the LA Times:

New ultra-contagious Omicron subvariants BA.4, BA.5 worsening California coronavirus wave.

Sir Humphrey Appleby tweeted:

It’s interesting, isn’t it? That politicians want to talk about moral issues and bishops want to talk about politics.

Bill in Portland, Maine, in his Cheers and Jeers column for Kos, included a 20 second video of the struggles of a jenga tower.

Why was he so intent on getting to the Capitol?

Another mass shooting. This one in the well-to-do Chicago suburb of Highland Park. Mark Sumner gives the basics for Daily Kos, though one can get details from any news outlet. All I’ll say is shooting people at a Fourth of July parade is another way for the gun crowd to say to the rest of us: No place is safe. The fifth hearing of the January 6th Committee was almost two weeks ago. My discussion of it got left behind as I wrote about other things. So I’m not going to discuss it in detail. It’s old news, though I still want to mention it. Brandi Buchman of Kos liveblogged it, with part 1 here and part 2 here. The big thing from this hearing was the pressure the nasty guy applied to the Department of Justice and now they all threatened to resign of he installed Jeffrey Clark as AG. Sumner reported that the members of the committee have been receiving threats of violence. They’ve added security details for the members. Threats to the members were similar to threats to the various people who thwarted the nasty guy’s plans with the difference they weren’t offered protection. Sumner also discussed the fifth hearing in detail. Buchman’s summary of the day included how much pressure the nasty guy was placing on the DOJ and how many participants asked the nasty guy for a pardon – which means they knew what they were doing was criminal. Buchman also wrote about the important points: The nasty guy tried to corrupt the Department of Justice. And there was a scheme to submit fake slates of electors. Buchman also liveblogged the sixth hearing. The two parts are here and here. This the hearing featuring Cassidy Hutchinson, aide to Chief of Staff Mark Meadows. Her first big bit of testimony was the nasty guy wanting to remove the metal detectors from his morning speech at the Ellipse because he knew attendees would be armed yet they would not be aiming at him. Her second was that the nasty guy tried to grab the steering wheel when the Secret Service refused to take him to the Capitol to lead the assault in person. Here’s Sumner’s summary of the day. And here’s his discussion of the steering-wheel grabbing scene. The obvious reason for not going to the Capitol is because it wasn’t a secure location. That’s the reason the Secret Service gave. The other big reason, understood by the White House staff, was if the nasty guy was seen at the Capitol it would be obvious he ordered the attack. With him back at the White House there was still a small bit of deniability. Charles Fishman tweeted more about about the steering-wheel grabbing incident. Carl Bernstein, who helped unravel Watergate, asked an important question:

Why was Donald Trump so intent on getting to the Capitol? Why did he want to be there with all those armed people?

Fishman gave the reason that the nasty guy knew the vice nasty wasn’t going to interfere with the vote counting so he was going to do it himself. Another bit from the testimony wasn’t good for Meadows. It showed he was indifferent to violence. Of course, after Cassidy Hutchinson testified there were a lot of voices who tried to discredit her. That’s a sign of how potent her testimony was. Joan McCarter of Kos discussed some of these attacks. She also warned DC media that an anonymous source is not the same as testimony under oath, so stop with the both-sides nonsense. She also noted the discrediting attacks are all about little details and nothing about refuting the case being built. So don’t fall for that either. It has also been a while since I’ve written about the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Most of the daily updates on Kos add nothing new, so I have only a few posts to discuss. Kos of Kos reported that with the new long range artillery Ukraine has gotten from NATO Russian supply depots and command centers way behind the front are no longer safe from attack. There are a lot of videos of these types of places going boom. On Saturday, June 25 Kos reported that the inevitable happened – Ukraine pulled out of Severodonetsk. This was one of two cities in the Luhansk region still controlled by Ukraine. There wasn’t a lot of military importance, but a lot that’s symbolic. On Wednesday the 29th Kos reported that Turkey has removed its opposition to Sweden and Finland joining NATO. It looks like Turkey extracted the concessions it wanted. These are things like stopping support of the PKK, the party in Turkey working for Kurdish independence and perhaps being violent about it. Putin had said he started this war because NATO is too close. Well, now NATO will be closer. Also, NATO’s rapid reaction force is being increased ten times and much of the increase will be based in the Baltic countries and other places along eastern Europe. NATO even closer. Snake Island is in the Black Sea a ways off Ukraine’s coast. Russia captured it early in the war. And now Ukraine has reclaimed it. Tyler Rogoway, creator of The War Zone, tweeted:

That the Russian military & its much-touted Black Sea Fleet couldn't secure an island 170 miles from its homeport from a war-torn adversary with fixed-wing combat aircraft numbering in the dozens & no real operable Navy is an absolute stunning failure of massive proportions.

On Saturday, July 2 Sumner reported that Ukraine has been keeping quiet about their advances in the Kherson area, though on that day they started revealing a little bit. Ukraine is doing just fine making advances into Russian held territory. However, the important news is of Lysychansk. This is the city on the bluff above Severodonetsk, a great place to defend and to shoot artillery from. Alas, Ukraine has withdrawn from Lysychansk, and only a week after it left Severodonetsk. Again, there isn’t a whole lot of strategic value, but from Putin’s view a lot of propaganda value. When I taught music theory at the college level and in Detroit most of my students were black. In my third or fourth year there one student asked why I don’t have examples of music by black composers of classical music. My answer was mostly I didn’t know their music well enough to use them in teaching (note to self: about time I learned). Another part was the black composers I did know were from the 20th century and didn’t write the kind of music that matched the topics I was teaching. Since then I’ve heard a lot more about Joseph Bologne, the Chevalier de Saint-Georges, sometimes known as the Black Mozart. His physical prowess was the stuff of legends (fencing was just one of his skills) and his musical skills were right up there too. His star is shining brighter these days and the Detroit Symphony Orchestra has recently played a work or two. But beyond him I (and many others in the classical music world) could not name a black composer active before 1900. Dartagnan of the Kos community introduced me to Vincente Lusitano. He was born about 1520 of a Portuguese father and African mother. In 1551 he traveled to Rome and wrote some mighty fine Renaissance style music. Alas, his ancestry contributed to him not being well known through history. Dartagnan included a 12 minute video of one of his pieces. Quite beautiful.

In case of fire break glass

My Sunday movie was The Whaler Boy. I heard about it because it was shown at the Detroit Film Theater and the story has a connection to Detroit. This is a coming of age movie of Leshka, a teenage boy living in a small village on the Russian side of the Bearing Strait. Their major industry is whaling and one of his jobs is to deliver whale meat around the village. Now that the village has internet one of the things the men do is watch a porn site, one where the women strike suggestive poses before a camera and for a tip will remove more clothes. Leshka becomes infatuated and obsessed with one of them. She happens to be in Detroit. He feels the village has become confining and he decides to cross the strait to try to meet her. Yeah, Detroit isn’t anywhere near the Bearing Strait. It was a nice story, though I was confused by what really happened in the last ten minutes. A couple more articles to go along with my long posts on abortion and the Supreme Court. Laura Clawson of Daily Kos reported on how much of a scam “crisis pregnancy centers” are. They do not discuss abortion. They pressure pregnant people to carry the baby to term. And they collect data. Lots of data.

“Their goal is to collect and store ultrasound photos, income, history of possible abuse in relationships, history of addictions, history of drug use, your STI history, your medical history,” [Women’s Law Project’s Tara] Murtha said. “And in many cases this is shared in a national database.”

And what do they do with that data? They could potentially turn it over to prosecutors as proof that you were pregnant on a particular date. And if you aren’t now and don’t have a healthy baby they have lots of data for criminal proceedings. They outnumber abortion clinics – places that really want to help women – 3 to 1, a ratio that will get bigger as clinics are forced to close. Charles Jay of the Kos community reported that after Roe was overturned red states saw a big jump in the number of people seeking vasectomies and tubal ligations. Many are people who don’t want children and are acting to make sure there aren’t any accidents. On to the (pathetic) Democratic response to what the Court did over the last couple weeks. Joan McCarter of Kos called on Pelosi and Schumer to Do Something. Cancel the August recess. Put bills on the floor to counteract the loss of abortion rights and also take Thomas at his word of the other things he wants to overturn. End the filibuster – there have already been filibuster carveouts in this Congressional term, so do it again. And fix the Court. While that is in process declare war on the Court. It isn’t just Daily Kos demanding action. Activists are also keeping up the pressure. They say Democrats aren’t treating the attack on democracy with sufficient seriousness. Simply voting again is not enough. Republicans see no consequences to their power grabs so why would they not continue? And if Democrats want us to vote for them again their leaders need to spell out exactly what they will do to protect rights. And do it. If they don’t embrace the need to fight voters won’t either. Back in a 2019 debate Elizabeth Warren said this while talking to another candidate, but she could say it to the current president:

You know, I don’t understand why anybody goes to all the trouble of running for president of the United States just to talk about what we really can’t do and shouldn’t fight for. I don’t get it.

Kos of Kos wrote that the midterm election goes to the party out of power. And right now many voters are seeing the Democrats are the ones out of power, even though they hold (slim) majorities on both chambers of Congress and the White House. Voters can tell who is blocking the Senate from getting anything done. They can tell who stacked the Supremes who are overturning rights. We’re used to seeing single issue voters on the right – one large group demands expanding gun access, another demands abortion be banned. Now we’re seeing single issue voters on the left – people who will look only at whether a candidate supports abortion rights (which sounds good to me – if they support abortion rights they’ll likely support other things I want, the reverse is also true). Kos also showed a map of the 116 counties across 33 states that each have a greater population than the whole state of Wyoming. Michigan has four such counties. Kos made the point:

The Senate is so breathtakingly undemocratic that five of the six Republican-appointed justices were confirmed by Republican majorities having earned fewer votes and representing fewer people than the Democratic minority.

McCarter wrote that the Supreme Court, packed by the nasty guy, has gone rogue. The president and Congress must fix it. McCarter noted the Republicans do believe in expanding the court – when they do it. Republicans in Arizona expanded their state Supreme Court in 2016 and are proposing to expand the state’s court of appeals. The response from Democrats can’t just be what Edward-Isaac Dovere tweeted:

Biden, in a statement on the Supreme Court guns decision sent to reporters by email: “I call on Americans across the country to make their voices heard on gun safety. Lives are on the line.”

The Constitution was founded on checks and balances. Democrats must use them. Walter Einenkel of Kos reported Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez had a few things to say on Twitter. If the president and Congress do nothing to restrain the Court, the Court has said they will come for the presidential election next. Members have sworn an oath to the Constitution. It is our duty to check this gross overreach. Einenkel added:

It is political malfeasance not to fight vociferously for the rights of millions of voters in your political party. It is morally and intellectually bankrupt not to see the Constitutional crisis we are facing.

Kerry Eleveld of Kos referred to the story of crisis pregnancy clinics in saying Republicans are now the party of overreach. Democrats can and must run on protecting privacy and liberty. McCarter compared our current situation to the signs “In case of fire break glass.” It’s time to break the glass because this is a five-alarm fire.

The consequences for the nation—for the globe—are dire. On everything, from abortion to criminal justice to the environment to voting rights. The only way this centuries-long experiment in democracy will survive is by taking minority rule away from the Court and from the Senate which created it. End the filibuster. Expand and reform the court. Or wave goodbye to every freedom that matters.

The moral universe no longer bends towards justice

My topic for today is still the Supreme Court and their end of term rulings. With this I’m finally through all of my accumulated tabs and, of course, a few more that were added today. The Democrat’s response to all this will have to wait for another day. April Siese of Daily Kos reported that the Supremes ruled that the Environmental Protection Agency doesn’t have the authority to regulate greenhouse gases coming out of power plants. That’s because Congress didn’t authorize a set of regulations of this magnitude and consequence. If Congress wants regulations this sweeping they’ll have to write the rules itself. The ruling isn’t as devastating as many feared. The EPA still lives. This decision affects only the rules for regulating power plants. However, the ruling severely impacts how the EPA, and thus Biden and America, can slow the effects of climate change. Also, the precedent has been set to overturn other rules that the EPA – and all other government agencies – created to implement the guidelines set by Congress. House and Senate members do not have the time or expertise to draft and argue over minute details that go into the federal government’s rules. This case was about the Clean Air Act. Coming soon is a case about whether wetlands are waterways, which will target the Clean Water Act. Meteor Blades, who writes about environmental issues for Kos, described the ruling this way:

The Supreme Court just decided to pour gasoline on a planet afire and to slash the tires of the fire trucks.

The he quoted Elena Kagan for the dissent. The excerpt is lengthy, so here’s the summary: Congress very clearly did authorize the EPA to write rules.

Section 111, most naturally read, authorizes EPA to develop the Clean Power Plan—in other words, to decide that generation shifting is the “best system of emission reduction” for power plants churning out carbon dioxide. Evaluating systems of emission reduction is what EPA does. And nothing in the rest of the Clean Air Act, or any other statute, suggests that Congress did not mean for the delegation it wrote to go as far as the text says. In rewriting that text, the Court substitutes its own ideas about delegations for Congress’s. And that means the Court substitutes its own ideas about policymaking for Congress’s. The Court will not allow the Clean Air Act to work as Congress instructed. The Court, rather than Congress, will decide how much regulation is too much. The subject matter of the regulation here makes the Court’s intervention all the more troubling. Whatever else this Court may know about, it does not have a clue about how to address climate change. And let’s say the obvious: The stakes here are high. Yet the Court today prevents congressionally authorized agency action to curb power plants’ carbon dioxide emissions. The Court appoints itself—instead of Congress or the expert agency—the decision-maker on climate policy. I cannot think of many things more frightening. Respectfully, I dissent.

Gabe Oritz of Kos reported that we’re getting confirmation that the conservatives on the Supremes are targeting marriage equality. That confirmation is the same voices that said Roe was safe are now saying Obergefell is safe. It is all part of the same gaslighting they do so well. Joan McCarter of Kos reported that the Supremes took a bite out of voting rights. This time they did it through the shadow docket, so there wasn’t public hearings or an actual written decision with dissent. The case was gerrymandered districts in Louisiana. A lower federal court ordered a new map. The case was appealed to the Supremes who halted the lower court, allowing the gerrymandered districts to remain. McCarter turned her attention to Democrats. Sen. Gary Peters is the Chair of the Democratic National Senatorial Committee, a national group trying to get Democrats elected to the Senate. Peters says he 100% focused on getting Democrats elected and expanding their majority. McCarter wrote this “vote harder” drive isn’t going to get us anywhere (besidesm we voted harder in 2020 and it really hasn’t gotten us what the country needs). Between racial gerrymandering and voter suppression – two of many voting related things Democrats could have done something about and didn’t – it may not matter how we vote. Stephen Wolf of Kos Elections reported the Supremes have accepted a case for next term that could “shatter democracy.” I don’t think he is being dramatic. Again it has to do with gerrymandering, at least on the surface.

Republicans are now asking the Supreme Court to rule that the U.S. Constitution gives state legislatures near-absolute power to set all manner of federal election laws, including district maps—regardless of whether state constitutions place limits on abuses such as gerrymandering. Republicans contend that the Constitution’s Elections Clause, which states that the "Times, Places and Manner of holding Elections for Senators and Representatives, shall be prescribed in each State by the Legislature thereof" gives state legislatures—and only legislatures—the power at the state level to shape the rules governing federal elections in their states. Only Congress or federal courts, not state courts—and possibly not citizen-initiated constitutional amendment or even governors—can override such rules.

Back in 2015 the Court rejected that premise when it approved Arizona’s independent redistricting commission. That paved the way for Michigan to pass a similar constitution amendment in 2018. Up to now the phrase “by the Legislature thereof” has meant the legislature sets voting laws with the governor’s signature (as is done with all other legislation) and according to the state’s constitution as interpreted by state courts. Wolf reminds us that an unbalanced Senate (70% of the members elected by 30% of the population) gave Republican majorities that confirmed five of the six current conservative justices and a president who lost the popular vote nominated three of them. Not surprisingly, these justices support minority rule. It is time to expand the Court if we want to maintain free elections. Helaine Olen of Washington Post Opinions tweeted a link to a column she wrote about corporations offering to get their employees to needed abortion care:

Abortion rights should be law, not a corporate perk. “These new corporate benefits come with enormous caveats that seem to ensure the most advantaged employees receive aid, while those with more uncertain incomes do not.” Are you a part-time employee working uncertain hours? Receive your health insurance elsewhere? A contract worker? Good luck accessing corporate abortion travel assistance. “There are, to be blunt, loopholes you could drive a delivery truck through.”

Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut tweeted a summary of the week:

Overturning Roe, rewriting both the First and Second Amendments, and strangling government’s ability to combat climate change, all in one week, is basically the Court saying to Congress, “Get out of the way, we are in charge of the country now”. Just a stunning turn of events. Our first job is to educate the public about this anti-democratic power grab and how radical the Court’s political agenda is. Then we need to focus on the elections. And win enough seats to be in a position to save democracy from these politicians disguised as justices.

Yes, a stunning turn of events, though, Senator, you left out the part the Senate should be doing – reining in a rogue court. Or expanding it. Greg Dworkin, in a pundit roundup for Kos, quoted EJ Dionne of WaPo – we either enlarge the Supreme Court or we surrender:

Liberals are at a special disadvantage when it comes to confronting a radically conservative Supreme Court because most of them are, by nature, institutionalists. They are wary of upsetting long-standing arrangements for fear of mimicking the destructive behavior of the other side and, in the process, legitimizing it. But the aggressiveness of the right has turned this procedural delicacy into a rationalization for surrender.

McCarter wrote that along with same-sex marriage and contraception, Social Security is also on the chopping block:

Since the Social Security Act was enacted into law on August 14, 1935, Republicans have tried to tear it down. The thought of all that money being safely stored away by the government to help secure dignified and sustainable retirements for regular working people has rankled the Republicans all these decades. Elected officials have tried and failed.

There have been many attempts to weaken or gut social security. Each time seniors threatening elected officials has prompted them to back down. So they’ll do it through the unelected courts. And with it they’ll get rid of Medicare and Medicaid and the rest of the social safety net – all the way back to the New Deal of the 1930s.

The foundation on what passes for intellectual thought in the far right to do so has been built. All it’s going to take is the right set of challenges, which Trump-packed federal courts will happily provide. Unless they are stopped.

I mentioned this to my friend and debate partner and he promptly went into debate mode. Won’t happen, he said. The American People won’t let it happen. I hope he’s right. Considering how the American people couldn’t stop overturning the highly popular right to an abortion I’m not sure how the people could stop the overturning of Social Security. My debate partner didn’t elaborate on who he expects will do the stopping and how it will happen. A week ago Mark Sumner of Kos wrote that we’re heading to the Great Regression and the end of the American Experiment.

America is exceptional. It’s exceptional in that as other developed nations are moving forward, so-called conservative forces are dragging America back. As the rest of the world is advancing toward an era in which they recognize the value of all people, embrace the role of government in moderating the inherent conflict between individual rights and societal benefits, and understand the importance of protecting what remains of the natural environment, the United States is—suddenly and unexpectedly—doing the exact opposite. The United States is currently engaged in a project under which the number of people valued by society is being sharply curtailed. It’s engaged in a project to destroy the whole concept of a “general good.” It’s determined to ignore consequences of environmental damage, of racism, and of gun violence even as those consequences are visible in fire and blood.

The original Roe ruling was part of Martin Luther King Jr.’s comment that “the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.” Change for the better may take a while but kept coming, including same-sex marriage. That was impossible to conceive just 20 years before.

The end of Roe is a signal that this is no longer true. And in fact, has not have been true for some time. ... Deliberate, intensive, vicious efforts to not just destroy the rights, but the lives of immigrants, Black Americans, trans Americans, every American who dares stand up against a marching tide of ignorance and hate. All of these things are the result of a multi-decade effort, but now that the last firewall has been burned away, the collapse is coming rapidly. ... It’s turning America into an a pariah state; one that represents ignorance, repression, and hate. One that is becoming an object of loathing around the world. One that has enemies drooling over what they can snatch in a post-America world, and has allies planning for the day when they have to sever that gangrened limb.

On Thursday Sumner wrote this Supreme Court is making the nation ungovernable.

Trump’s coup attempt failed. But the Republicans have found six new despots who are cheerfully assaulting not just the rights of every American, but the foundations of democracy. They are unelected. They answer to no one. They’re there for life. In two weeks they’ve rubbed out rights that thousands fought and died to obtain over the course of decades. They have blown away the basis of functional government. They are erasing not just progress, not only democracy, but America as a nation—and they’re doing it quickly. The only thing that makes the U.S. Supreme Court sustainable at all is the idea that the members will act in good faith to interpret and apply the law for the benefit of the nation.

Yeah, there have been ghastly decisions. There have also been decisions with sublime far-reaching vision.

The current Supreme Court is not interpreting the rules of the nation. It is redefining the nation: remaking America in the image of a radical minority over the express wishes and written law of the majority. It’s not the “Judicial activism” Republicans have fretted over so long. It’s a Court coup. ... Damn the Constitution, full speed ahead … toward a nation that is, not figuratively, but literally ungovernable.

They are gutting regulations on safety, housing, education, and others that cannot be challenged. They gutted the Miranda ruling (surely you remember cop shows where the arresting officer intones, “You have the right to remain silent.”). Law enforcement no longer has to protect rights. They act in defiance of the will of the majority, even in defiance of the not quite representative Congress. This is a national emergency if America is going to maintain a functioning government.

Unlike most nations, there is very little safety net provided in case of Court gone wild. In fact, there’s only one practical answer: Expand the Court. The only answer to the six red-hot despots now ruling the nation is to turn them back to what they are in reality—the most extreme voices of a radical minority. Expanding the Court isn’t just the only hope to reverse the disastrous ruling on Roe, it’s the last, best hope for America.

In a third post Sumner wrote that Clarence Thomas wants to put police back in your bedroom. And a thirsty attorney general from some Republican state will be glad to feed the court the chance to do so. Sumner concluded:

Thomas is seriously advocating a return to the time when the government could smash their way into someone’s bedroom and charge them with a criminal act for who or how they were having sex, or for trying to prevent that sex from resulting in a pregnancy. Those cases will come to the Court with his guaranteed vote already in their corner, and with helpful notes on how to win over the handful of radical right votes that they need. Because he’s already demonstrated that he’s not just eager to see hear these cases, Thomas is ready to argue them.

Leah McElrath tweeted a few days ago:

I don’t know about y’all, but, the more everything that is happening sinks in, the more anticipatory grief I’m feeling. Whole new layers of it exist, apparently, even though I knew all this was going to happen and pre-mourned for years after the 2016 election. I really need to cry. I can feel the need in my body and my face but I worry I might not be able to stop. I don’t care about myself. I’ve had my life. But this is not the world I wanted to leave my daughter and is the opposite of the world I spent my lifetime working to create. I am just so furious. And indescribably sad. I don’t even have words. Things are going to get so much worse too. There’s more to come. The suffering will be immense, much of it preventable and unnecessary. And we will bear it. Because we must. For each other, if not ourselves. All we have is each other. Human civilization dates back to the first healed human femur: civilization exists because we had the resources to enable us to make the choice to care for one another. Obtain the resources. Care for one another. All we have is each other. For those new to feeling political rage, I want to assure you it’s okay. Yours is not the rage of resentment and selfishness. It’s a rage born out of love. It’s a righteous rage. Recognizing injustice and allowing it to enrage you expands your heart and connects you to others.

Walter Einenkel of Kos noted that the Supremes are stocked with “conservative Christians.” That term seems necessary

because they all seem to follow a highly politicized, extremely ardent, and narrow version of Christianity. In fact, whether or not they believe that Jesus of Nazareth was the Christ and believing in him leads to the salvation of one’s soul is hard to know, since most of their decision-making seems to revolve around harming the majority of God’s creatures.

Einenkel reported the hashtag #NotChristianity is trending on Twitter. He quoted several tweets with that tag. Here are some of them. Rebecca Mahmout tweeted the teachings of a Republican Jesus, which includes these verses:

* Feed only those that look like us & pass the drug test. * If they are in need and are strangers, deport them. * Blessed shall be those who take away healthcare from the sick and meek. * The rich and powerful shall inherit the earth. * Do not kill – unless they really deserve it.

Cosmo tweeted:

Sorry Conservative Christians, but spending eternal life with you people is not the selling point you think it is.

From Ron Jackson:

The purpose of separation of church and state is to keep forever from these shores the ceaseless strife that has soaked the soil of Europe in blood for centuries. – James Madison

And from Michael Swartz

I really hope all the people having to say "That's not Christianity" know how Muslims felt ever since 2001.

The first time the court has eliminated a right

Michigan COVID data website (which is here) confirms they switched their updates to Tuesdays. So the data I downloaded today is accurate as of June 28. After seven weeks of decline in new cases per day this past week shows only a small decline, from 1670 to 1652. It is too soon to tell whether this is a plateau or a pause in the decline. The deaths per day are rather consistent at mostly single digits for the past two weeks (when data has likely not been fully posted yet) and mostly in the teens for several weeks before then. I noted in my last post I had accumulated another 40 browser tabs while writing a long post that went up on Tuesday. Of course, several more tabs accumulated since then. So many of these will get a mention and a link and not much discussion. And not all of them are in this post. Today’s block of tabs is about the Supreme Court. The first link gives an indication how far behind I am. Joan McCarter of Daily Kos reported a week ago that the Supreme Court handed down a ruling overturning many state gun control laws. Clarence Thomas wrote the opinion. Alito rubbed salt in the wound by saying New York’s gun control laws didn’t stop the mass shooting in Buffalo. Breyer wrote the dissent saying there are significant problems of gun violence and the court just took away the ability of states to control it. As for all those similar laws in other states a belligerent gun rights community is ready to sue to overturn every one of them. The day that gun ruling dropped Leah McElrath tweeted:

SCOTUS issued a ruling striking down concealed carry regulations in advance of the abortion ruling. They know how incendiary the Dobbs ruling will be. They’ve put up barriers at the Court and increased their personal protections. But WE are to be subjected to increased danger.

A week ago McCarter reported the Supremes overturned Roe v. Wade, saying the 1973 ruling was wrongly decided and the constitution does not confer a right to an abortion. A lot of state bans will immediately go into effect. McElrath showed a short video from the morning of this decision showing police in riot gear on their way to protect the Supreme Court building. The Justices (injustices) know the ruling is unpopular. Mark Sumner of Kos listed states where abortion is now illegal and the states where it will be illegal in 30 days. This is the first time the court has eliminated a right. A big question is DC, where abortions are legal now, but it is Congress, not the city government, that gets to decide. All it takes for them to lose the ability to get an abortion is a Republican majority in Congress. In the decision Alito wrote their reasoning is only about abortion, nothing else. Laura Clawson of Kos reported Thomas wrote his own concurring decision and spelled it out. That reasoning that supported Roe v. Wade which they overturned, is the same reasoning that supports Griswold (a couple has a right to make decisions on contraception), Lawrence (people have a right to have sex with whoever they want, even if they’re of the same sex) and Obergefell (people have a right to marry who they want, even if they’re of the same sex). Conspicuously missing from the list is Loving (people have a right to marry, even if they have different skin colors – see Clarence and Ginni). Which means Thomas is telling states: Want to ban same-sex marriage, sodomy, and even contraception? Pass a bill, get it challenged all the way to us, and we’ll be glad to help you out. Send us a case – please! Shortly after the ruling Biden gave a speech. Sumner summarized it by writing:

Honestly, the failure to take some action beyond declaring that the White House will help protect women’s right to travel to other states and to obtain medication through the mail is a huge disappointment. They’ve had weeks to prepare for this moment … there should have been a more powerful response. And there should have been a threat—to expand the Court or take other action that would confound the ruling. As it is, it’s way too easy to view this speech as throwing up his hands and saying “take it up with Congress.”

As for Congress, who also knew this day was coming, Walter Einenkel of Kos, reported about three dozen House Democrats stood on the steps of the House and sang “God Bless America.” As for the decision, they say they’re not pleased, but don’t say what they’re going to do. Which is like giving a high five to a drowning person. Hunter of Kos discussed how we got to this point. He quoted tweets from Celeste Headlee showing all of the conservative justices but Thomas lied during confirmation hearings when asked about Roe v. Wade being settled precedent. Also, they’re lying was well known. Including known by the senators who trusted the accuracy of these statements and voted for them. Sherrilyn Ifill, a civil rights lawyer and president emeritus of the NAACP legal defense fund, tweeted:

Every time I re-read it I’m newly aghast. What an absolute embarrassment and betrayal of principle in judicial decisionmaking. The idea that our rights in a democracy are fixed at where they would have been in 1789 or 1868 is morally bankrupt & legally unsupportable. The majority opinions in Bruen & Dobbs make clear: logic, consistency, real-world consequences, reliance, stare decisis, modesty, discipline, historical context, guidance to lower courts, adherence to letter & spirit, will not characterize the jurisprudence of the Alito-Thomas court.

Rep. Shontel Brown of Ohio tweeted:

Let me get this straight: The Supreme Court says states cannot decide how to regulate guns – yet only the states can decide how to regulate a woman’s body.

Karen Hunter tweeted:

Please do not let anyone drag you into a conversation around abortions w/ this #RoevWade decision. It was NEVER about abortion. It's ALL about rights and who gets to have them in America. Don't fall for the okie doke...

Erin Ryan tweeted:

Damn girl is that a concealed handgun in your waistband or are you just being forced by the state to carry an unplanned pregnancy to term?

Rebecca Entel tweeted:

What will kill you first in the US? Guns, not being able to afford healthcare, climate change, low covid vaccination rate, domestic white male terrorists, poverty, childbirth? It’s like Russian roulette without the empty chamber.

Aysha Qamar of Kos reported the last remaining abortion clinic in North Dakota, located in Fargo, set up a GoFundMe account to raise money to move across the river into Minnesota. Their goal was $20,000. They raised more than a half million. Early this week McCarter reported the Supremes issued a decision saying a football coach was doing nothing wrong by conducting prayers at the 50 yard line after football games. Part of the majority reasoning was that prayers were quietly offered while students were otherwise occupied. Sotomayor, in her dissent, included some factchecking photos. No, the students were not otherwise occupied. They were out on the field with the coach. That coach consistently invited others to join. And his prayers were demonstrative – he was making a scene for the purpose of getting a case before the Supremes. And he succeeded. McCarter quoted a tweet by Qasim Rashid:

SCOTUS just ruled 6-3 that public school teachers and other staff can now lead students in prayer. If any public school teacher wants to learn the Islamic call to prayer, i.e. the Adhaan, let me know.

While Biden was on a diplomatic trip this week for NATO and G7 meetings Hunter report that allies are feeling skittish. They can’t be sure the US will be a reliable partner – or even a democracy – when Biden’s term expires. These other countries are watching the Supremes overturn centuries of international jurisprudence, rulings that clamp down on human rights and reinforce paramilitary groups. And Biden can offer no proof that things will turn out fine. Especially since he offers no plan to make sure they stay fine. And if he is telling world leaders he has such a plan why isn’t he telling us? Hunter also wrote about privacy and big tech. He warns that a person’s phone can be searched for evidence they had an abortion. Such things as searching for abortion clinics in another state. Hunter provides links on how to protect yourself. Dartagnan of the Kos community also offered advice. Bill in Portland, Maine, in his Cheers and Jeers column for Kos, quoted some late night commentary:

After Roe v. Wade got overturned some pro-lifers have been posting pictures of themselves holding up signs like this, that say “Please don’t abort…we will adopt your baby.” There is some other fine print though. It says offer not valid if baby is black, brown, gay or already out of the womb. —Jimmy Kimmel Live guest host Chelsea Handler