Glenn Kirschner – The evidence detailed in the 44-page Trump indictment makes clear: Trump. Is. Done.
The Lincoln Project – More Biden Jobs
Thom Hartmann – You Won’t Believe The Power Behind The Most Corrupt SCOTUS Justice…?
Ring of Fire – Republican Says Trump Is Absolutely Terrified Of Chris Christie
Rescue Lamb Is Obsessed With His Dad’s Guitar
Beau – Let’s talk about the government removing the stigma….
Glenn Kirschner – Trump federally indicted! Here’s what we can expect in the coming days
The Lincoln Project – Our Flag
MSNBC – Jack Smith’s coup probe hits MAGA convict Steve Bannon
Thom Hartmann – You Won’t Believe The Power Behind The Most Corrupt SCOTUS Justice…?
Cat goes WILD for Trader Joe’s ciabatta!
Beau – Let’s talk about Ukraine, Kuwait, and supplies….
Yesterday, I ended up having to go in to my doctor’s office after all to get his signature, and that of one of his staff to certify that she had seen my driver’s license and that I am really me. Unfortunately, she forgot to sign it. I tried one more email with just that page, but I didn’t get home and see it until after the office closed, so I won’t know until today whether I’ll need to go back.
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Letters from an American – May 29, 2023
Quote – Beginning in 1943, the War Department published a series of pamphlets for U.S. Army personnel in the European theater of World War II. Titled Army Talks, the series was designed “to help [the personnel] become better-informed men and women and therefore better soldiers.” On March 24, 1945, the topic for the week was “FASCISM!”…. “The basic principles of democracy stand in the way of their desires; hence—democracy must go! Anyone who is not a member of their inner gang has to do what he’s told. They permit no civil liberties, no equality before the law.” “Fascism treats women as mere breeders. ‘Children, kitchen, and the church,’ was the Nazi slogan for women,” the pamphlet said.
Click through for more quotes, many highly prescient, and not a lot of take from Heather because the material speaks for itself.
Slate – The Urgent Warning That Got Cut From a Supreme Court Opinion 20 Years Ago
Quote – More than 20 years ago, then–Supreme Court Justice David Souter tried to warn that big money in politics risked turning United States officials into tools of an emerging “plutocracy.” We now know from recently released case files that Souter had to strike the language in his draft Supreme Court opinion in a 2000 campaign finance case, Nixon v. Shrink Missouri Government PAC, as the price to secure Justice Sandra Day O’Connor’s vote. It’s too bad, because Souter’s warning is one that American political leaders, including justices on the Supreme Court itself, needed to hear. That warning was never made and thus never heeded. Today, American plutocracy—from Congress to inside the walls of the court itself—is alive and well.
Click through for sad story. And here we are.
Food For Thought
Yesterday, I learned something I did not know about the Marine Corps – not all that surprising, since it happened after my time – way, way after my time. But it makes a lot of sense. I just hope some of those mementoes are representative of other faiths. The manger Christans need to respect and in a way emulate is emphatically not the one that Aesop’s dog was in. And, yes, I did watch the National Memorial Day Concert (a day late) – it’s still available to stream if anyone else missed it the first time.
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John Pavlovitz – Dangerous Christian Drag Show
Quote – They shamelessly don their cheap, glittery regalia, meticulously transforming themselves into a sickening inversion of who they actually are, putting on an unnatural false persona designed to indoctrinate young minds by passing as something they’re not. It is a vile bait and switch that decent human beings should be sickened by.
The political Right is the worst kind of drag show: that of hateful, heartless bigots pretending to be Christian.
Click through for essay. What can I say? He nails it.
Crooks & Liars – Dem Senator Schools Chuck Todd On Why Congress Can Regulate Supreme Court
Quote – “The Chief Justice has to make this decision, though, right?” Todd asked. “Separation of powers, whether, I mean, it’s pretty established, Congress can’t make a law that does that, right?” Whitehouse informed the host he was mistaken about how the Constitution works. “No, it absolutely can,” Whitehouse laughed. “Well, it doesn’t mean it’s constitutional,” Todd quipped. “Yes, it does,” the senator explained. “It means it’s constitutional because the laws that we’re talking about right now are actually laws passed by Congress. The ethics reporting law that is at the heart of the Clarence Thomas ethics reporting scandal is a law passed by Congress.”
Click through for story. Chuck Todd is far from alone in (apparently} believing the “SC” in “SCOTUS” stands for “Sacrd Cow.” It doesn’t. Whitehouse is a gem.
Food For Thought
Glenn Kirschner – Oath Keeper Elmer Rhodes gets 18 years in prison; Trump & DeSantis pledge to pardon insurrectionists
Thom Hartmann – These Corporations Force Workers ONTO Welfare…Then Lobby To CUT the Safety Net…
Farron Balanced – Trump Allies Believe He’ll Be Indicted By DOJ Very Soon
Armageddon Update – Financial Armageddon
Tiny Rescue Dog Is So Nervous That He Lives In His Mom’s Pouch
Beau – Let’s talk about SCOTUS and checks and balances….
Glenn Kirschner – Trump’s Mar-a-Lago “dress rehearsal” to hide docs from DOJ shows premeditation to obstruct justice (Glrnn dordn’t mention the copies today, but I expect to be hearing about that from him very soon.)
The Lincoln Project – In Loving Memory
Ring of Fire – DeSantis Vows To Pack Supreme Court With Morons For Next ‘Quarter Century’
Rocky Mountain Mike – Coordinated Universal Out Of Touch Time (no music – just a bit of silliness. The CC is perfect.)
When your cat brings home a friend… (over 10 minutes, but the variety of odd coupling….)
Beau – Let’s talk about what happened in DC….
Yesterday, the radio opera was (finally!) “Champion” by Terence BLanchard. It’s based on the life of Emile Griffith, a closeted black welterweight boxer whose career began in the late 1950s and went off the rails (though it dontinued, and for a while with a stream of victories before becoming a string of losses) after an opponent who had outed him and whom he defeated with series of 17 blows went into a coma and died. The story has all the elements of tragedy except that he didn’t die young but lived into old age and dementia, which may be an even greater tragedy. Dying is easy – living is hard. (Living is also harder to write about, which may explain why so few creators have chosen to deal with it.) Blanchard chose to address it head on by splitting Emile’s role into three parts – in order of appearance, the old man, played by Eric Owens; the young man, played by Ryan Speedo Green; and even Emile as a child (Ethan Joseph.) Anyone who has ever had any regrets for anything (and what decent person hasn’t?) will appreciate the mechanism of the two adult Emiles having duets. It does feel like that. Not really on topic, but having kind of followed Green’s career and backstory, I’m aware he has mommy issues – and so did Emile, having been abandoned (along with six siblings) by her and raised by a fundamentalist cousin. Also interesting that when cast, he went out and studied boxing and did bodybuilding to be “worthy of the role.” And that Blanchard himself revised and added to the opera because he wanted it to be “worthy of the Met.” I wish I could tell them both that it’s sweet that they did that, but that they ARE WORTHY. Period. Except that that is something one really can’t tell anyone else. Everyone has to find it for themself. And that – is kindof the essential meaning of the opera. Also yesterday, the Texas House of Repuresentatives voted to impeach texas Attorney General Ken Paxton. Under Texas law, he must now step down while he is tried in the Texas Senate. And one more thing – the White House and the GOP have reached a “tentative” deal on the debt ceiling.
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Crooks & Liars – PIGS FLY: SCOTUS Rules In Favor Of The Little Guys In Tax Sale
Quote – The Supreme Court [Thursday] gave a 94-year-old Minneapolis woman a chance to recoup some money after the county kept the entire $40,000 when it sold her condominium over a much smaller unpaid tax bill…. A handful of states in addition to the District of Columbia allow local governments to keep the excess money, according to the Pacific Legal Foundation, a not-for-profit public interest law firm that represented Tyler at the Supreme Court.
Click through for details – Not that $25,000 will go that far, assuming she sees any of it – but the decision id a good one, and those are becoming increasingly rare.
The Nib (Levi Hastings and Dorian Alexander) – Drag Balls of the Civil War
Quote – The Civil War has always been romanticized as a tragic narrative of conflicting American idealism. It doesn’t matter if you’re a yankee or a rebel though, queerness has never been considered an American ideal. Naturally, that doesn’t mean that it didn’t exist…
Click through for graphic article (perfectly SFW). I have a couple more graphic articles which I want to get in – I now need to try a bit harder since The Nib is folding in August, and I don’t know how long they’ll be available.
Food For Thought
Talking Feds (while Glenn is on vacation) – Fani Willis Reveals DETAILS of Plan for Sweeping MAGA Indictments
Farron Balanced – National Archives Has Evidence That Could Guarantee A Trump Conviction
Waldorf Nation – School BANS Parents For Not Being Hateful To LGBTQIA+ People
Puppet Regime – Surprise party for Putin
Cat Falls In Love With Stray Cat Who Shows Up Outside
Beau – Let’s talk about expanding confidence in SCOTUS….