Glenn Kirschner – Special Counsel Jack Smith gives Trump preview of evidence against him, and Trump blows a gasket!
The Lincoln Project – Lock Him Up
MSNBC – Trump’s prison nightmare: See Jack Smith taking ‘Hague playbook’ to DOJ in Melber Report
Thom Hartmann – Billionaire Submarine Crushed But Media Won’t Tell You About Far Worse Tragedy At Sea
Wild Walrus Takes A Summer Vacation Across Europe
Beau – Let’s talk about Esper talking about Trump….
Yesterday, being Friday, was the day the Conversation published its weekly quiz (I got 6/8). One wrong answer had me literally laughing out loud, though. The question was “What do we call city regions, with few trees and lots of blacktop, that are prone to extreme heat disasters?” (The correct answer was “Urban heat islands.”) The wrong answer which cracked me up was “Fresno.”
Cartoon – 24 Roe 6-24 RTL
Short Takes –
Child Watch Column – Listening Again to Loving
Quote – Mr. Loving may not have known how the state would treat legal interracial marriages that had been performed elsewhere, but five weeks after their wedding they received a very literal rude awakening: acting on a “tip,” sheriff’s deputies surrounded their bed with flashlights at two in the morning demanding to know why they were there together. Their reply that they were husband and wife made no difference. The Lovings were arrested, and Mr. Loving was held in jail overnight while the pregnant Mrs. Loving was forced to stay for several days. Both were charged with violating Virginia’s Racial Integrity Act. Under a plea bargain, in order to avoid a year-long jail sentence they were forced to leave the state and were prohibited from returning together for 25 years. They settled in Washington, D.C., but missed the small town where they had spent their entire lives. These were the conditions that led the Lovings, inspired by the growing Civil Rights Movement, to reach out to Attorney General Robert Kennedy asking for change.
Click through for history. The Supreme Court could take us back to those days, with no recourse but a Constitutional Amendment or reframing the Court itself.
Colorado Public Radio – Jeffco joins Pride month with special marriage certificates
Quote – Every June, many of Colorado’s biggest cities host huge Pride parades, parties and drag shows to celebrate the LGBTQ community. Now some county clerks are joining the party. The new Jefferson county clerk, Democrat Amanda Gonzalez, has created a distinctive rainbow seal for people who want the specialty marriage certificate. “Equality and inclusion is really important in my office,” she said. “And being potentially the first queer clerk here, it’s especially important to me to protect the right for everybody to marry who you love no matter who you are.”
Click through for details. What a difference between this take and the previous one. (JeffCo is in the SW quadrant of the Denver Metro area.)
The Daily Beast – ‘Good for Nobody’: The Biden Cabinet Pick Who Can’t Even Get a Vote
Quote – “I can’t predict what other people will do,” [Sen. Tim] Kaine [(D-VA)] continued. “But I do know this: Keeping it just hanging out there is good for nobody—not for the country, not for her.” At least three senators have refused to publicly say how they’ll vote: Sens. Jon Tester (D-MT), Kyrsten Sinema (I-AZ) and Joe Manchin (D-WV). With Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and dozens of GOP senators vocally opposing Su, GOP moderates like Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) have stayed mum on their positions, making clear that Democratic votes will make or break the nomination.
Click through for article. I note that the three holdouts are the usual suspects. Manchin is not going to survive reelection with Jim Justice voting against him. Sinema is being opposed by Ruben Gallego. If Tester loses, it will be to a Republican. Not that they are all up at once – I don’t thnk they are – but it does point up how badly we need real Democratic Senators in other states if we want to be able to keep our democracy.
Food For Thought
On of the most recent bogeymen that has the conservatives/right wingers howling is “wokeness.” They roar and scream about people and institutions being “woke.” They view being woke as something bad. So, what exactly does it mean to be woke?
“Woke” comes from “wake,” to “emerge or cause to emerge from a state of sleep; stop sleeping.” Woke is the past tense of wake, and “woke” is a slang term that means aware of and alert to important issues and facts relating to social justice, such as discrimination and prejudice. In other words, it means aware of what is going on. So, if conservatives don’t like those who are “woke,” it’s apparent – maybe even obvious – that they want us all to be asleep, unaware, ignorant. And, thus, easier to bamboozle and control.
Yeshua bin Yusef, better known as Jesus Christ, was woke. George Washington and the other Founding Fathers of the USA were woke. The abolitionists were woke. The suffragettes were woke. The civil rights leaders were woke. If you fight against any form of societal injustice – racism, ageism, ableism, sexism, etc. – you are woke. If you are paying attention to real news instead of letting Faux News brainwash you, you are woke. If you are doing anything to demand that our elected officials take the necessary measures to deal with climate change, you are woke. If you have adjusted your lifestyle in order to reduce your carbon footprint, you are woke. If you have become aware of thoughts and behaviors you do that are racist, or sexist, or ableist, or anti-LGBTQ, you are woke.
There can be no social or moral progress without people being “woke.” Indeed, acknowledging a problem exists, and seeking a solution, means waking up and finding a new way of thinking. It has been said that the founder of human civilization was the first person to hurl an insult rather than a rock. Without progress, civilization and society become stagnant and rot away.
Glenn Kirschner – DOJ delayed opening a criminal investigation into Trump for Jan 6. insurrection for more than a year [I do think it is unrealistinc to exoect Chris Wray, ot, for Heaven’s sake, Jeff Rosen, to have opened an investigation. I’d go for March 12, 2021, Garland was confirmed MArch 11, 2021]
The Lincoln Project – Pick a Struggle
Thom Hartmann – This Man Wants To Bring Back Lynchings & He Isn’t Alone
Parody Project – A Tale of Indictment
Can You Solve This Cat Murder Mystery?
Beau – Let’s talk about Minneapolis, cops, and decrees….
Yesterday, I learned about the House voting to censure Adam Schiff for telling the truth. It probably came in the previous night, butit would have been after 10 pm my time, in one of the Substack newsletters. Ten pm is when I check for spam and close my email, even if i’m up later than that. I am actually less angry at the Republicans in the House than I am at the morons who sent them there. Adam’s full speech (a tad over 6 minutes is at his own website and also on YouTube, and one of my Substack sources provided a partial (but substantial) transcript:
“To my Republican colleagues who introduced this resolution, I thank you. You honor me with your enmity. You flatter me with this falsehood. You who are the authors of the big lie about the last election condemn the truth tellers and I stand proudly before you. Your words tell me that I have been affective in the defense of our democracy, and I am grateful.
“Speaker McCarthy would spend the nation’s time on petty political payback, thinking the censure or fine will force Trump’s opposition into submission. But I will not yield. Not one inch. The cost of the Speaker’s delinquency is high, but the cost to Congress of this frivolous and yet dangerous resolution may be even higher as it represents another serious abuse of power.
“I say this to Speaker McCarthy and others who wish to gratify Donald Trump with this act of subservience, try as you might to expel me from Congress or silence me with a $16 million fine, you will not succeed you might as well make it $160 million. The Speaker will never deter me from doing my duty no matter how many false justifications or slanders you level against me. You indict yourselves.
“Why were you silent, afraid, and unwilling to do your ethical, constitutional duty? Why did you cower? And why do you still? Will it be said of you that you lacked the courage to stand up to the most immoral, unlawful, and unethical president in history but consoled yourselves by attacking those who did?
“Today I wear this partisan vote as a badge of honor knowing that I have lived my oath, knowing that I have done my duty to hold a dangerous and out-of-control president accountable and knowing that I would do so again in a heartbeat if the circumstances should ever require it. I thank you, and I yield back.”
Cartoon –
Short Takes –
Politico – The sleeper legal strategy that could topple abortion bans
Quote – Revs. Jan Barnes and Krista Taves have logged hundreds of hours standing outside abortion clinics across Missouri and Illinois, going back to the mid-1980s. But unlike other clergy members around the country, they never pleaded with patients to turn back. The sight of the two women in clerical collars holding up messages of love and support for people terminating a pregnancy “so infuriated the anti-abortion protesters that they would heap abuse on us and it drew the abuse away from the women,” recalled Taves, a minister at Eliot Unitarian Chapel in Kirkwood, Missouri, as she sat on a couch at Barnes’ stately church in this quiet suburb of St. Louis.
Click through for details. It seems to me fairly self-evident. MAGA “Christians” could use a mandatory “refresher” course in what religious freedom actually is.
Wonkette – Sam Alito Is Just Humble Fisherman Drinking $1,000 Bottles Of Wine Served By Billionaires
Quote – [Alito:] I stayed for three nights in a modest one-room unit at the King Salmon Lodge, which was a comfortable but rustic facility. As I recall, the meals were homestyle fare. I cannot recall whether the group at the lodge, about 20 people, was served wine, but if there was wine it was certainly not wine that costs $1,000. [Wonkette:] Okay, a) how would Alito know what the wine cost if he wasn’t, as reported by ProPublica, paying for his stay, and b) Sam Alito knows what a $1,000 bottle of wine tastes like, and it does not taste like whatever swill he does not recall drinking in Alaska.
Click through. I figured if anyone could manage to put a more colorful spin on this story, it would be Womkette. They did not let me down.
Food For Thought
Glenn Kirschner – Trump gets a VERY speedy trial date; Hunter Biden pleads guilty to misdemeanor tax crimes
The Lincoln Project – Rick Reacts: We Made Trump Mad
Farron Balanced – Judge Slaps Down Conspiracy Spewing Capitol Rioter During Hearing
Liberal Redneck – Hunter Biden Pleads Guilty
After his family abandoned him, he didn’t want to live anymore.
Beau – Let’s talk about orcas and needing a bigger boat….
Yesterday, I learned that the SPLC’s latest report on hate groups took the time and space to recognize Faithful America as one of the antidotes to hate. Coming after decades of Christofascists associating the word “Christian” with hatred, this is a refreshing developmen – which would not have been possible without the actions of authentic Chriatians. Thanks, SPLC, andthanks to all who have signed/written/donated to make it kappen.
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Short Takes –
Washington Post (no paywall) – FBI resisted opening probe into Trump’s role in Jan. 6 for more than a year
Quote – In the two months since the siege, federal agents had conducted 709 searches, charged 278 rioters and identified 885 likely suspects, said Michael R. Sherwin, then-acting U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, ticking through a slide presentation…. But according to a copy of the briefing document, absent from Sherwin’s 11-page presentation to Garland on March 11, 2021, was any reference to Trump or his advisers — those who did not go to the Capitol riot but orchestrated events that led to it.
Click through for full article. I suppose we could argue forever about whether the “bottom-up” method was the best way to go in this case. It is having results now, but it did take a long time. Too long? Certainly too long for the gut feelings of Democrats and others who value democracy. But we are not out of time yet.
PolitiZoom – Surprise! Judge Cannon Isn’t Running The Trump Documents Trial. Jack Smith Is
Quote – Look, Smith isn’t just running circles around Trump’s defense team, he’s running them around Judge Cannon too. Trump’s defense team wants endless delays and hearings. Smith just deprived them of that oxygen by not giving them any reasons to ask foe hearings on Trump’s bail conditions. And now, Judge Cannon hasn’t even set the preliminary hearing date to open discovery, and Smith is already handing over all of his non classified material for the Trump team to go through. Which makes it harder for the Trump team, 6-8 weeks from now at the preliminary hearing, to ask for 4-6 months for discovery when they’ve already 90% of the stuff for 6-8 weeks.
Click through for article. Murfster does tend to see things others do not, and while no one s perfect, he does have a track record. He sees this trial as a three-way battle of wits in which two of the parties are unarmed. And he does make a case. I hope he’s right -and I think there’s a good chance he is.
Food For Thought
Glenn skipped a day and threw me off balance so I’m using this to gain it back
Talking Feds – BREAKING Hunter Biden News EXPLAINED
The Lincoln Project – When Dems Fight
PBS News – New report looks at the changing face of extremist groups in America
Puppet Regime – More unmanned attacks on the Kremlin?
Mama Cat Does The Cutest Thing While She’s In Labor
Beau – Let’s talk about the Dems ending the influence of MAGA Republicans….