SCOTUS – Politics Plus

Open Thread March 4 2026

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 5:54 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Mar 042026

Yesterday, I didn’t get a response from Pat B. I hope she is OK and just living her life. Also, Axios reported that the Mango Moron plans to attend the White House Correspondents’ Dinner. I hope all the real journalists stay away, because I can’t think of a reason for him to attend other than to collect new names for his enemies list. Can you?

Today is the anniversary of the birth of Lois W, the wife of Bill w, who founded AA, and herself the founder of Al-Anon. She used to say it is the strongest day of the year. Also as expected, I watched Malcolm Nance’s Day 4 of the war, and picked up a quote for today’s meme-cartoon.

Archived from The Lever, which examines possible positions SCROTUS might take, should the question of the legality of the Saffron Sauron ‘s strike on Iran come before then at some point. I doubt there are any surprises in it.

Well, this is interesting. It would have been even more interesting, though, if he had done so before the Cantaloupe Caligula had bombed Iran.

From Talking points Memo. Best of luck to the investigators (no matter how smart they are, a little luck never hurts.)

In case anyone is wondering about the Nectarine Necromancer’s neck (I expect Nameless already knows):

Open Thread February 23 2026

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 5:52 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Feb 232026

Yesterday, I saw Virgil and we played cribbage. As usual, we had a mixture of hands. He was having more difficulty counting his hands than he had been lately. (Also, this week he had another of those vivid dreams in which his first wife phoned him and was reading him the riot act about something, and he had completely forgotten that this cannot happens. The only phones he is allowed to use do not have incoming numbers – they can only be used to call out. Prior to this week he had been remembering that. But either the dream scared the memory out of him – or he just forgot it and that enabled the dream to form. But we had a good time and enjoyed each others’/ company. I was able to stay until visitation ended today, since subset was not until 5:45. The drive was easy both ways this trip. The meme at bottom was created by Joyce Vance, who gives permission to anyone to share it widely with no alteration.

In The Public Interest addresses school vouchers. Y’all already know what I think about vouchers – they are like saying “I don’t like the city parks. I want my kids to play at the Country Club, so they won’t have to play with those people. So I want the city to pay my club dues.”

So the Ginger Grifter’s tariffs are illegal and, per SCOTUS, must stop. So the Ginger Grifter has announced he is increasing tariffs to 15%. Shades of Worcester v. Georgia.

Certainly Neil Gorsuch is a far, far, far right jurist. But every once in a while he has the right idea and does the right thing. We all know it’s “damn seldom.” But he is fairly consistently respectful of Native Americans, and of the (broken) treaties the US government has made with them. Sometimes even more respectful than liberal justices. That is why, although I really, really want a strong liberal majority on the Court, I would not mind if he were to be one member of a minority of 2 or 3 – or maybe even 4. Certainly his views on pretty much everything else terrify me.

Open Thread February 21 2026

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 5:50 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Feb 212026

Yesterday, SCOTUS dropped its decision that tariffs are illegal and must be refunded (don’t get excited – the refunds will go to whatever importers paid them first, and anything past that depends on good will.) The decision was 6-3, with Roberts, Gorsuch, and Barrett joining the liberals. Also, I watched a Substack video with Mary Trump, Joyce, and Katie Phang, which they began by sharing their coffee cups. Mary Trump was using one from her merch – on one side it says “Mary Trump Media” and on the other “Where Fake News Goes To Die.” I had to smile. And yes, all three takes today are from CPR. First time I’ve ever seen it quite so hot.

This was reported by Colorado Public Radio, although the lawsuit is significant everywhere and the trial is happening in California, because a mother in Colorado is one of the plaintiffs

This one was reported by CPR because it’s very Colorado. I’ve been hoping for this for a while now.

This story, both Colorado and national, is longer than it looks at first. It isn’t over until you get to “Related coverage.”

tariffs

Cat

Open Thread June 7 2025

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 6:06 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Jun 072025

Yesterday, Andy Borowitz “reported” that Zelenskyy offered to broker peace between Trump**(*) and Musk. Axios reported that Abrego Garcia is coming back but will be charged with smuggling undocumenteds in to the US.

I did watch this video with Joyce Vance and Dahlia Lithwick, which is about 35 minutes. The CC is mostly pretty good, though some specialized terms are amusingly rendered (like “Seacott”), and there is a transcript. I think there are some insights in it which may not have occurred to us.

This is from The Lever News – one of many sites I somehow got subscribed to (probably through signing a petition) and have not yet unsubscribed. This is the first thing from them I have seen which I thought was worthy of sharing, and which no one else has yet published that I have seen. I’ll be very interested in what our medical professionals have to say about it. I will say I would imagine this side effect is one of the very last things one would think of, considering what the medication is prescribed for, and even if it happened in the study group, may not have been reported for that reason. I was recently prescribed Alendronate sodium for osteoporossis myself (it comes in various strengths, depending in part on whether it is administered daily or weekly – mine is weekly) and I joked that I didn’t expect it to come with an encyclopedia. But it did come with a piece of paper about 3 feet long and 18 inches wide, printed on both sides in very small print, with thorough instructions, thorough information on possible side effects, even some graphs and charts which I found very impressive. I’d be surprised if the FDA is habitually careless – at least under a sane administration. But unlikely things do happen sometimes.

Open Thread May 27 2025

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 5:59 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

May 272025

Yesterday, as I was starting to check email, my radio station played a piece by Chopin, and when it was over and the DJ back announced it, she said “Frederic Chopin,” but what I thought I heard was “President Chopin.” There’s nothing wrong with her pronunciation, nor with my hearing – but apparently my brain is over-fixated. Sigh. Also yesterday – I don’t know whether this will actually work for anyone else, but I kind of got slapped in the face by my white privilege. One of the websites at which I found a birthday card last year was having a sale, and I had so much difficulty then, I thought I’d look now for birthday cards for Trinette’s two sons. We’re talking about young black men, in their twenties, whom I would probably recognize if I saw them on the street but we’re not close the way I am to their mother. So I did a search there for “birthday card black man.” I got a result of 106 pages and managed to get through 17 or 18 of those pages, despite constantly second guessing myself – “that’s gorgeous, but I don’t know whether they care much about history or African heritage – will it look like I’m talking down?” or “that’s funny, but will it look like I’m laughing at them instead of with them?” I finally managed to find 10 cards, although one is for Virgil (it says “Happy Birthday from the best decision you ever made” – he will know I’m laughing with him because he tells me that – a lot) to get a quantity discount on top of the sale prices. But it took a lot of time and a lot of self-examination. Also yesterday – ironically on Memorial Day, Korean War veteran and long time (but now retired) Congressman Charlie Rangel (in his day known as “the lion of Lenox Avenue”) died at age 94. May he rest in power.

Since yesterday was a holiday, I thought The Week Ahead from Joyce Vance would be appropriate for today. And there’s a lot of it to digest.

Robert Reich has pretty much seen it all. If he says something is “truly horrifying,” it must actually be so – at least. Possibly worse.

I guess Roberts hasn’t learned anything yet. I’m still hoping he’s capable – the other Republicans, with the exception of Barrett (surprising though that may be, it seems to be true) are incapable of learning anything.

Open Thread May 23 2025

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 6:04 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

May 232025

Yesterday, I got an email from Faithful America that SCOTUS deadlocked on the OK charter school case so the lower court ruling that giving the charter school government dollars in unconstitutional will stand. For now. (I’m not sure whether this is the same case where there were four recusals so they didn’t have a quorum, or whether that was a different case. Sorry, I’m finding it difficult to keep track.)

Jen Rubin of The Contrarian has been travelling in Europe, and is sharing some historical insight from there, specifically from Spain.

This from Wonkette may be relatively minor, compared to, say, the deaths that will result from gutting Medicare, Medicaid and SNAP. However it pisses me off (all racism does), and goes along with the next post.

Press Watch has what might be good news if it only went far enough. I suppose it’s a start.

Open Thread May 18 2025

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 6:09 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

May 182025

Yesterday, the radio opera was Richard Strauss’s “Salome” which is not based directly on the Biblical story, but on Oscar Wilde’s play of the same name. Richard was no relation to the Johanns – his father was a French horn player. His life was a bit later than the waltz royal family, and I don’t know whether he was influenced by Freud, but it’s a good bet that Wilde was – the libretto and score reek of it. If that sounds depressing, yes, it could be, but I have always found it helpful when feeling down – it gives me the feeling that, yes, I’m down, but I’m not that down, and it helps me snap out (and, if I’m not down, the music, although even today it sounds very avant-garde, is beautiful in its way.) This production is part of the “Live in HD” and thus has been recorded and was shown in theaters around the world. I doubt I’ll seek it out – I don’t feel that it needed quite as much visual dysfunction as they added to it – I think it’s better stripped down – but that didn’t impair hearing it on the radio. Off to visit Virgil now – I’ll check in upon return.

This is not news, but it is a pretty good anecdote, and not a shaggy dog story – it has a punch line.

Not to imply anyone’s death (well maybe a few) is good news. On the other hand, the life of a good person is worth recognizing, even celebrating, especially when we have so few just now in the right positions. Harry Litman eulogizes David Souter.

Cat

Open Thread May 17 2025

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 6:00 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

May 172025

Yesterday, an email I received from a PAC supporting Social Security informed me that “Musk claimed that millions of dead people were collecting Social Security benefits, and that 40% of all phone calls to Social Security’s 800 number were scams. Musk’s DOGE implemented a new system to catch this fraud, and now, the results are in. Out of over 110,000 new claims made by phone, TWO were found to be likely fraudulent. That’s not 40%. That’s 0.0018%. What’s worse is, Musk’s system slowed down each of those new claims by about 25%.” I am not surprised, and neither are you. But it’s nice to have numbers. Also yesterday, the trailer about the documentary about Robert Reich was released. And finally, the Supreme Court said to the regime (to paraphrase The Contrarian) stop trying to circumvent the system and start following the law. Seven to two. We shall see.

I saw this elsewhere first, but Joyce Vance, as a former Federal prosecutor is more knowledgeable than the other article. They did go to the trouble of a grand jury, which I would have expected them to attempt to skip. I don’t actually think it’s a good sign.

This was also published elsewhere … but Harry Litman saw it in the Atlantic, so that (the archived version with no paywall) is what I am linking to. It’s by J. Michale Luttig, who is one of the last of the generation of Republicans who were wrong about economics but still had honor. We saw him testify to the January 6 committee, and we’ve seen him a few times since also. You won’t be able tolisten to it here if you prefer listening – if you subscrive to the Atlantic, you can listen to it there. I hope it reaxhes at least some of the audience for whom it is meant, which isn’t really us. But it’s factual and well written.

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