SCOTUS, SCOTUS, SCOTUS, Democracy, Bravado, Kevin Sorrow, Women’s Wash

• Dave Columbo explains democracy to an extra-terrestrial:
   
  
• This week, the Supreme Court rejected the Republican idea that state legislatures should be able to overturn election results they don’t like:
   
  Key worthwhile few seconds:
  Winning oral argument against that proposal by Neal Katyal.
  
  It is rejected by the Articles of Confederation, rejected by the early state constitutions, rejected by the founding practice, especially, New York where judges vetoed federal election bills. It’s also rejected by this court, and cases such as Smiley and Hildebrandt.
   
• A woman, who had religious reasons for discriminating against a gay couple by not designing a website advocating gay marriage, gets a ruling in her favor from the United States Supreme Court.
   
  It turns out to be a “hypothetical” case on many levels:
  • The web designer was not really a web designer, not having ever learned to design websites.
  • The gay couple did not actually exist.
  • The referenced “gay” man was surprised to find himself named in the suit.
  • He is not gay.
  • There was no wedding. He was already married. Had been for years.
  • Happily married, with a woman.
  • He never contacted the “web designer”.
  • In fact he was an experienced web designer himself, with no need for any outside help with a non-wedding.

   
  Well, anyone can make a mistake, and it’s not as if she lied to authorities about something classified. Besides, she might, in the future, get web design skills. She might develop a legal need to discriminate against hypothetical couples.
   
  Because of a religion that forbids false witness.
   
  Hackwhackers reacts to an excerpt from Justice Sonia Sotomayor’s dissent.

• Imani Gandy and Jessica Mason Pieklo of Rewire News Group review the separate affirmative action case and its likely impact on college admissions.
   
  
   
  You may prefer a complete transcript or podcast form.
   
• After this week’s negative decisions:
  

  

• News reports tell us dozens of Secret Service agents have been testifying against Mr. Trump for a variety of alleged crimes.
   
  The Palmer Report is dismissive – – partially. It is not news that agents would be willing to testify. A grand jury subpoena is not a voluntary invitation. The real news is that Jack Smith knows which witnesses to call about which crimes.
   
• For as long as I can remember, organized crime figures were often convicted and put into prison on the basis of recordings in which they boasted about their crimes.
   
  Tommy Christopher reminds us of the latest excuse after Donald Trump’s own incriminating recording, an excuse past crime figures never thought to make. Tommy traces Trump’s novel defense to its likely source on Fox.
   
  Key excuse:
  The audio leaves little doubt that Trump was representing to others that he was waving sensitive papers around at that meeting, which he now claims was mere “bravado” for his guests.
   
• Julian Sanchez reads the bravado defense:
   

  I do sort of love that Trump’s official defense now is “That tape? Everyone knows I’m an insecure sociopath who lies constantly to puff himself up.”

  — @normative@bsky.social (@normative) June 28, 2023

• CalicoJack in The Psy of Life examines 3 specific mass brainwashing methods and their role in defending Trump’s espionage.
   
• The Borowitz Report has an alternate story. Americans are shocked by the audio recording proving Trump can read.
   
• In MadMikesAmerica, Michael J. Scott turns on his television and is startled to see Donald Trump – no longer energized as he carries his rage, bluster, and (yes) bravado. Instead, he seems burdened and tired, staring into the abyss and seeing prison time glaring back.
   
  Key image:
  It appears that the reality of his situation is slowly dawning on him – a realization that protestations, threats, and power can’t always shield one from American justice.

• Well, now! Kevin McCarthy assures CNBC that Donald Trump can win next year. Is he the strongest candidate? Kevin sidesteps. He’s not entirely sure.
   
  Donald is offended (of course).
   
  So Kevin goes all out. He calls Donald.
  It’s abject apology time.
   
  He’s sorry.
  He’s so very, very sorry.
  Sorry is hardly a strong enough word for how truly sorry he is.
   
  Frances Langum speculates. She has an idea about why Kevin twists and folds like an intricate origami.
   
  Has to do with money.
   
• Hard to know where to start on this. Donald Trump spoke to the Federation of Republican Women.
   
  tengrain at Mock Paper Scissors manages to react as mr Trump explains to the gathered women that Democrats are plotting to keep them from doing family laundry by taking away their washing machines.
   
  My own reaction:
  Well… Can’t think of a thing.
  Really.
  I’ve got nothin’.
   
• Donald Trump has increasingly adopted the far-right practice of labeling his enemies, including those who do not care for the compromising of military secrets or provoking insurrection. Those who do not support him are Marxist communists.
   
  News Corpse examines his recent pledge to keep non-supporters from immigrating into the US.
   
  Key Tweet:

  Trump: Using federal law, I will order my government to deny entry to all Communists and all Marxists.. So we're going to keep foreign Christian hating Communists, Marxists and Socialists out of America pic.twitter.com/BXWcJIdGZF

  — Acyn (@Acyn) June 25, 2023

  
  Key comment and question:
  Now Trump is twisting this statute grotesquely to apply to political ideology. How he expects that it would be carried out is a mystery. Would every migrant be deposed prior to entry to ascertain their political beliefs?

• The most conservative of today’s conservatives are increasingly following Donald’s lead: labeling non-conservatives as socialists and communists.
   
  Senator Rick Scott warns “socialists and communists” they had better not visit Florida.
   
  Wisconsin conservative James Wigderson responds with an iconic political hero from my youth:
   
  Margaret Chase Smith (R-ME) stood up to Joe McCarthy (R-Hell).
   

  "The nation sorely needs a Republican victory. But I do not want to see the Republican party ride to political victory on the Four Horsemen of Calumny – Fear, Ignorance, Bigotry, and Smear." https://t.co/jC74lvHdGG https://t.co/F0SzLboCz4

  — James Wigderson (@jwigderson) June 28, 2023

  
  Things have changed since I was a kid.

• At The Onion, Ron DeSantis still struggles to develop social skills.
   
• M. Bouffant at Web of Evil has the sources as Republican Governors DeSantis and Abbott are finally about to accomplish what may be felt for decades: they are on the verge of bringing back malaria.
   
• Vixen Strangely at Strangely Blogged considers Nikki Haley’s memory of a wonderful, simple life and her promise that, if only we vote President Biden out of office, we can have that clean, wholesome life again,
   
  Key memory flaw:
  Nostalgia is a son of a bitch–a liar. It tells you things were great when you’re just trying to remember them that way.
   
• Iron Knee at Political Irony has a brief, studiously neutral, analysis of the Boebert/Greene cage match.
   
• driftglass documents Jesse Watter’s humor. Jesse has been around the Fox break room so long he really thought everyone would laugh.
   
  He spoke to a group of business executives and started with a joke about Vice President Kamala Harris not really being a woman. He did not get the widespread laugh he had learned always to expect from those gathered around the office water cooler.
   
  About five years ago, I wrote about a similar experience that surprised one who is no longer President.
   
• PZ Myers puts the spotlight on a new Republican theory: Mt. Rushmore is a demonic portal spreading communism.
   
  You remember Mt. Rushmore, right? The giant sculpture with those Presidents?
   
  As may be suspected, I have an opinion:
   
  
• Ted McLaughlin at jobsanger has the polling. Americans want politicians to be ideologically flexible in getting things done. This is true of men, women, every age group, all ethnicities, and the major political parties.
   
  Well…
  one
  major political party.
   
• Disaffected and it Feels So Good goes to World War II and what Tojo could never do. Senator Tommy Tuberville can do it: Get rid of US Marine leadership.
   
  Has to do with his demand that women serving this nation as Marines must never be allowed to use their own earned paid leave or discounted private travel to get abortions.
   
• Green Eagle connects the military turmoil in Russia with Putin’s military waste in Ukraine.
   
  Key historical pattern:
  Here is something most people do not realize: revolutions, at least in the West, have very largely been a product of the wanton waste of military might.
   
• The Laffer curve became a sort of Republican religion back in the 1970s. The idea was that a massive tax reduction for the fabulously wealthy would pay for itself. And there was a certain logic to it, enough elegant reasoning to make it plausible.
   
  A few years ago, I suggested that any great sounding idea, including a free lunch tax cut for the wealthy, should be reality tested before we accept it as fact. And the Laffer curve had been tried in several places: Georgia, Kansas, a few other states, and the US itself. In every place it was tried, it failed. Miserably.
   
  In Letters from an American, historian Heather Cox Richardson reviews President Biden’s step-by-step re-installment of a time tested model, one that worked for generations before Laffer. Tax the wealthy, build outward from the middle class.
   
  Key Biden quote:
  Bidenomics is just another way of saying: Restore the American Dream because it worked before. It’s rooted in what’s always worked best in this country: investing in America, investing in Americans. Because when we invest in our people, we strengthen the middle class, we see the economy grow.
   
• Our favorite Earth-Bound Misfit determines a new unit in time that measures those who hate Jews.
   
• Nan’s Notebook takes a libertarian (defined by me as Let’s everybody leave everybody the hell alone) approach to gender.
   
• Conservative Michael Knowles wants to ban Pride flags from public places.
   
  Key precedence:
  We ban all sorts of flags from public spaces – Nazi flags, hammer and sickle flags.
   
  Scotties Playtime relays some photos and a bit of advice: You might want to let Florida know they are banning Nazi flags.
   
• Time for YellowDog Granny because it’s hot, and we’re hungry and tired.
   
• Canadian fires have destroyed homes, caused dozens of deaths, and have made life periodically harder for elderly folks like me.
   
  John Scalzi at Whatever finds a literal bright side as he photographs the sun.
   
• In The Life and Times of Bruce Gerencser, atheist Bruce receives more accusatory correspondence, this time telling him he is a hater.
   
  Key experiences with those of us who are Christians:
  Constant threats of Hell, death threats, attacks on my family, you name it, I have heard it from the followers of the Prince of Peace.
   
• North Carolina pastor John Pavlovitz brings a very personal eviction letter to Hatred from Love.
   
• At The Moderate Voice David Robertson is fine with Christianity itself. We Christians are the problem with Christianity.
   
  Key thesis:
  I have to remind myself that Christendom is not Messiah Jesus. Christendom is not the object of my faith. Christendom will always be flawed in some way because it is operated by flawed people.
   
  In short, Christendom is the bath water, not the baby.
   
• The aging process can really hurt.
   
  Vincent at A Wayfarer’s Notes has severe, intensely painful, orthopedic problems – but strives to maintain a sense of humor.
   
  How about a word or two of encouragement for an old friend?
   
• Infidel753 knows why the American film industry is in a slump and why some movies are experiencing runaway success.
   
• In Happiness Between Tails Janina Edwards has found ways to stay fit and have fun at the same time.
   
• Clickbait satirist Reductress tells us about a groundbreaking study finding that ice cream tastes best out of the carton while crying and naked and holding a knife.
   
• Mark Waulberg (No, not Mark Wahlberg, the other Mark)
  brings us Lee Evans, who had to have been the best high school classmate in the history of all high schools:
   
  
• @whiskeywhistle98 deals with the stress of being a parent:
   
  

– Podcasts from the past: HEY! Some were really good!!