Rational Left
Center-left academic type. Generally pissed about the state of the world but I know none of our endless crises are actually new because I'm a historian.
Joined Oct 2021
A tribute to Casablanca.
As the latest Hunter "hearing" again fails to deliver what Rs promised, a popular R conspiracy theory - pushed by Comer, McCarthy, and Stefanik among others - is that the Trump target letter was timed to "distract from the Hunter bombshells!"
Small problem: the target letter was secret. Trump, not Smith, chose to make it public yesterday.
Comer told Fox that today's hearing would reveal historic bombshell proof of a global Biden-run money-laundering empire and the largest gov't cover-up in history.
What we seem to have so far is a couple of R-funded IRS investigators saying "WE thought Hunter should've been nailed harder for routine tax crimes, so there MUST have been a conspiracy!" (Though the Trump-appointee in charge says he was never interfered with. Gym says he, too, must therefore be part of the conspiracy.)
The fact that it was a visitor, not park officials, who spotted this, makes it even more appalling.
That structure could have been minutes from catastrophic failure... and the park didn't even notice the large, visibly widening crack.
Sometimes news sites tacitly editorialize with their choice of image. That can be appropriate, or not appropriate.
This one is, from NBC, is 🤣.
Rational Left
boosted
And there it goes. Any shred of sympathy I had for the protestors. You do this, and all your grievances are as nothing to me.
Fascinating - and highly disruptive to one of the most traditional arguments for male dominance as "natural."
https://www.cnn.com/2023/06/30/world/women-roles-hunter-gatherer-societies-scn/index.html
#Politics TFG continues to have this strangely fixated notion that the 2020 election was a German fruit bread.
NB that this is an appeal of a 5th Circuit ruling saying the person with a restraining order against him *could* have guns. The WH asked SCOTUS to take this appeal.
That doesn't tell us how SCOTUS will rule. But not taking it would leave the 5th Circuit ruling in place.
I wish analysts would pay more attention to wider context.
Given that there is zero chance of Ds having the votes for court expansion during Biden's presidency, his caution makes political sense.
This is an issue for after him, and he knows it. He means what he says about being a bridge to the next generation of D leaders.
Conway can miss the obvious on discrimination and the law.
He sees this as a clear and easy distinction.
But what if, rather than saying "I won't serve Black people," which he allows would be illegal, a business says "I won't serve an interracial couple because I believe that offends god"?
That's Sotomayor's point, and he's not answering it.
Biden repeatedly expressed concern about his legal authority for debt forgiveness. That's why he didn't go ahead with it until the WH developed what he considered solid legal grounds.
But SCOTUS wasn't going to accept those grounds... whereas with TFG they tied themselves in knots to justify his executive actions.
This would be a much stronger point if they hadn't let TFG abuse executive authority repeatedly - like diverting defense funds to his "wall" because he wanted to.
Like I said a little earlier: if a restaurant says its dishes are "creative expression," can they now refuse service to anyone they claim offends their religion (offer limited to particular strands of Christianity, of course)?
Remember when TFG (aka the Orange Stain) diverted federal money appropriated by Congress for other purposes for his "wall," under a ludicrously strained reading of federal law?
The court upheld that. They wouldn't have if a D had done the same thing. Just as the court would have upheld an identical debt forgiveness from TFG if he'd done it (unlikely though that is - just imagine he decided to try to buy youth votes).
Rational Left
Center-left academic type. Generally pissed about the state of the world but I know none of our endless crises are actually new because I'm a historian.
Joined Oct 2021