Catch-up, SCOTUS Ruling in ‘Rahimi’

A few details about Louisiana’s new law in posting the Ten Commandments in all K-12 classrooms:  

The law provides a version of the Ten Commandments not found in any version of the  Bible because the text’s translations and religions differ. The language comes from Van Order v. Perry (2006) case before the Supreme Court involving a monument on public land with text from the Fraternal Order of Eagles.

The first four commandments are specifically about religion and God with no reference to morality. The Sabbath can be on either Saturday or Sunday, depending on one’s religion.

The law has no resolution for funding if the school doesn’t receive sufficient donations because state funding cannot be used.

The law calls the Mayflower Compact “America’s First Written Constitution” and the “first purely American document of self-government.” With many references to God, the law recreates a U.S. government from a document for local governance of a few hundred religious extremists based on God and declaring that King James is the “sovereign lord.”

Claiming the historical use of “God” in U.S. law, the new law shows the only mention of God is the Northwest Ordinance of 1787, passed 11 years before the Constitution was ratified.

The law blocks schools from asking about students’ vaccination status and prohibiting Covid vaccination mandates.

Teachers can be sued for using a student’s preferred name or pronouns; any nicknames must be “derived” from the name on the birth certificate, according to the law.

With the “Let Kids Be Kids” provision, the law “protects” all students from any mention of sexual orientation, gender identity, or sexual orientation through grade 12. No teacher, coach, or other school employee can discuss these topics or reveal their own gender identity or sexual orientation—even if they are heterosexual.

Schools can appoint a “volunteer chaplain.”

Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) complained that people don’t want the commandments posted don’t want their children to be taught that it’s bad to steal things. Her son faces 22 theft-related charges for breaking into cars and stealing credit cards. On Truth Social, Deposed Donald Trump (DDT) posted:

“I LOVE THE TEN COMMANDMENTS IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS, PRIVATE SCHOOLS, AND MANY OTHER PLACES, FOR THAT MATTER. READ IT — HOW CAN WE, AS A NATION, GO WRONG???”

DDT has made himself an idol, taken “the name of the Lord thy God in vain,” does not keep the sabbath “holy,” commits adultery, steals, lies, and covets—Numbers 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10. The jury is out on whether he honored his parents and kills, but he may have killed people when they lost their retirement funds from his cheating.

Louisiana also has a new law permitting surgical castration for those committing sex crimes against children, moving forward from its long-term permission of chemical castration. A question is whether the new law would apply to DDT’s “spiritual mentor,” Robert Morris, who has resigned from his pastorship after the discovery that he molested a 12-year-old girl. Or to Paul Pressler, alleged sexual predatory of young boys, who helped shape the Southern Baptist Church and was influential in Texas GOP control. Some of the boys were under 10, and Texas has a law permitting chemical castration. Pressler died in early June at the age of 93.

In a partial resolution for the Washington Post scandal regarding new leadership from Rupert Murdoch’s dynasty, new top editor Robert Winnett is departing. Winnett’s history includes stolen information including illegally obtaining and paying for information while working for British media. New CEO/publisher Lewis has many coverups in his background surrounding British royalty and former Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

Failing to win his appeal to delay his prison stay until after the election, DDT’s adviser Steve Bannon has made a “hail Mary” attempt with the Supreme Court. He is scheduled to report to a low-security federal prison in Danbury (CT) on July 1 for contempt of Congress by refusing to appear before the House January 6 investigative committee or provide them requested documents. His four-month sentence will see him released a few days before the November election. His argument to the three-judge panel of the D.C. Circuit Court is that the information on his podcast about the election is important to millions of people. Recently, he told a Detroit audience that if DDT wins the election, they will “purge” the DOJ and “take apart” the FBI.

DDT’s pet judge Aileen Cannon held a public hearing on Friday about dismissing the classified documents indictment about whether special counsel Jack Smith’s appointment was unconstitutional. In February, DDT’s lawyers filed a motion that the appointments clause of the Constitution “does not permit the Attorney General to appoint, without Senate confirmation, a private citizen and like-minded political ally to wield the prosecutorial power of the United States. As such, Jack Smith lacks the authority to prosecute this action.”

In November 2022, AG Merrick Garland appointed Smith as special counsel to oversee the federal investigation into DDT’s handling of classified documents after he was president plus his efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election. DDT’s lawyers want the special counsel categorized as a “principal officer,” subject to Senate confirmation, and cannot be authorized by the attorney general. Defense also argued that Smith’s investigation violates the appropriations clause of the Constitution, accusing President Joe Biden “is paying for this politically motivated prosecution of Biden’s chief political rival ‘off the books,’ without accountability or authorization.”

Cannon seemed skeptical of some arguments, including the defense accusation that the AG has been given “the power to appoint a shadow government,” with no oversight. Cannon asked for information she could have found on her own about the history of the use of special counsels, independent counsels, and special prosecutors.

Representing the special counsel’s office, James Pearce stated that the defense argument disregards precedent, has “pernicious consequences,” and was already resolved in U.S. v. Nixon (1974), in which the Supreme Court found that then-President Richard Nixon must release audio records and other evidence related to Watergate. Justices found that the AG had authority to appoint special counsel who could independently investigate. Pearce also gave historical perspective back to special counsels during presidencies of Ulysses S. Grant and Theodore Roosevelt. Cannon asked Pearce if the AG had oversight in seeking the indictment; he cited policy in declining to answer. She pressed him, and he continued to decline. At the end of today’s events, she asked prosecutors and defense to file any supplemental materials with a maximum of five pages.

Three outside parties that had filed briefs also presented arguments in court on Friday.

After a report that Cannon is protecting DDT, his former lawyer Ty Cobb said that “the law requires that she validate Jack Smith’s appointment, and not disqualify him.” He explained that in 1988 “the Independent Counsel statute, which preceded special counsel appointments … was fully vetted in the Supreme Court and upheld.” He added if she rules for DDT that the ruling would go to the 11th Circuit Court and “this petty, partisan prima donna would be put in her place, and they would remove her.” He added that her actions go “way beyond” just being inexperienced. “The reality is, she is slow. And she’s slow on purpose,” he added.

One Supreme Court ruling announcement on Friday:

U.S. v. Rahimi: Eight justices exhibited common sense in supporting a federal law that a person demonstrating a threat to safety of other people loses the right to legally own firearms, overturning a 5^th Circuit Court decision. Justice Clarence Thomas dissented with his belief that everyone has the right to own guns, no matter how dangerous they are because the Founding Fathers didn’t put restrictions on the Second Amendment. Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson pointed out that the 18^th-century document didn’t protect women from domestic violence, rape, and sexual assault by their partners, but Thomas responded by stating that “not a single historical regulation justifies the statute at issue.”

Chief Justice John Roberts’ opinion stated that the law cannot be “trapped in amber. The ruling seems to back off from the earlier “originalist” decisions in D.C. v. Heller giving people the right to possess any kind of firearm with the excuse of self-defense and N.Y. ... v. Bruen, giving the right to take these guns into the public and requiring historical precedents for decisions.

When Thomas authored Bruen’s decision, he added that restrictions on ownership must have a parallel in American history. Rahimi expands “historical sources” to include not statutes and regulations but also commonly followed legal practices such as the Founding era’s stopping individuals who threaten harm to others from using a firearm. The ruling is still ambiguous, using only the term “dangerous people,” but it’s a start. As former Alabama federal AG Joyce Vance wrote:   

“The truth is this: the Founding Fathers would not have wanted the country to live like this. Their muskets weren’t so sacred to them that they would have sacrificed our children to them. They didn’t pass the Second Amendment so parents could get shot in our streets on the 4th of July. The Second Amendment’s well-regulated militia wasn’t supposed to be shooting at us!”

The high court also returned a case to Arizona’s state court. Convicted of drug possession, Jason Smith opposed the finding because the expert witness who testified for the prosecution about drug analysis didn’t perform the tests.

The court still has 16 rulings to announce and doesn’t plan any more announcements until June 26. Friday’s “good news” decision may lead into the bombshell that Deposed Donald Trump (DDT) has “absolute immunity” for all crimes.

Israel, U.S. Supreme Court

Will Lewis, Washington Post’s CEO and publisher, faces more negative media coverage with the revelation that he advised former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his officials to destroy evidence about Johnson’s violations during the pandemic. Lewis’ advice contradicted an email to staff ordering them to not delete material relevant to the probe of breaking Covid lockdown rules. He received a knighthood for his assistance. Lewis friendship with Johnson extended to paying him £250,000 a year for a weekly column to the conservative Telegraph while Lewis was editor.

For this revelation, as well as his other coverups while working for Rupert Murdoch’s British media, two Pulitzer Prize-winning journalists at WaPo, Associate Editor Davi Maraniss working for the newspaper for almost five decades and Scott Higham, called for Lewis’ departure. Newsroom morale has plunged as staffers worry about Lewis’ conduct and the newspaper’s future direction under his leadership. Some are looking for other jobs.

Earlier this week, Biden top officials canceled a strategic meeting on Thursday about Iran with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, protesting his video claiming the U.S. was withholding military aid. Israeli officials were already en route to Washington. Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said that only one weapons shipment was paused while billions of dollars of weapons had continued. In March, Netanyahu cancelled another meeting because the U.S. didn’t veto a UN  Security Council resolution including a reference to a ceasefire in Gaza.

The public disagreement continued on Thursday with Netanyahu saying he’s “ready to suffer personal attacks” in exchange for U.S. weapons. Biden repeated that he wasn’t withholding weapons. The U.S. sent billions of dollars in weapons to Israel except for one shipment of 2,000-pound bombs paused after Biden’s publicly expressed concern the imprecise munitions could be used in the southern Gazan city of Rafah and other areas heavily populated by civilians. Officials from both nations met on Thursday to discuss Israel’s war, and the U.S. said that the meeting about Iran was only postponed.

Netanyahu is also arguing with the Israeli military. He wants Hamas eliminated, but the army stated that Hamas is an idea that cannot be eradicated and believing it can be forced to disappear are wrong. Defense Minister Yoav Gallant agreed with the defense establishment that Israel’s lack of political strategy in Gaza will allow Hamas to regroup. Former war cabinet members Benny Gantz and Gadi Eizenkot resigned after Netanyahu failed to adopt a postwar plan for Gaza. Defense Minister Yoav Gallant has more support from Israelis, 74 percent, than of Netanyahu, 51 percent.

On Thursday, the Supreme Court dropped four more opinions, leaving another 17 before the end of the session in under two weeks:

Moore v. U.S.: Justice Brett Kavanaugh, writing for the majority of 7, stated that U.S. taxpayers owning shares in foreign corporations can constitutionally be charged a one-time tax on their share because of the GOP 2017 tax law known as the “mandatory repatriation tax.” He declared ruling against the law for the defendant would render “vast swaths of the Internal Revenue Code unconstitutional” and “deprive the U.S. Government and the American people of trillions in lost tax revenue.” Challengers tried to avoid paying a one-time $15,000 in taxes, predicted to cost $300 billion in ten years. Justices Clarence Thomas and Neil Gorsuch dissented.

Chaverini v. City of Napoleon, Ohio: Justice Elena Kagan wrote that the Fourth Amendment permits a pretrial detention as an unreasonable seizure and thus illegal unless based on probable cause. The decision rejected the 6^th Circuit Court’s decision that police officers are immune from liability for making baseless charges if they also brought a valid charge against the same person at the same time. In his dissent, Thomas, joined by Alito, used his objection to the 2022 decision in Thomas v. Clark in his objection to the majority opinion that former criminal defendants who sue law enforcement for wrongful arrest don’t need to prove they were innocent, only that their prosecution ended without conviction. Gorsuch wrote a separate dissent.

Diaz v. United States: Thomas wrote for the majority of six that the court allows testimony that “most people” doing something can convict a person. Diaz claimed that she was used as a blind mule to take drugs across the border because she didn’t know they were in the car she was driving, but a DHS special agent claimed she knew what she was doing because “most people” do. Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson voted with the majority against her two progressive colleagues, Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor, who joined Gorsuch. He scolded the majority for ruling against Delilah Guadalupe Diaz for ignoring a federal evidence rule directing that expert witnesses “must not state an opinion about whether the defendant did or did not have a mental state or condition that constitutes an element of the crime charged.” Gorsuch accused him of “the convenient ability to read minds.”

Gonzalez v. Trevino: justices sent the case back to the 5^th Circuit Court because it failed to appropriately evaluate retaliatory arrest. Former Texas city council member Sylvia Gonzalez maintained that her 2019 arrest for tampering with government records was retaliation for criticizing of Castle Hills city manager. She claimed she was the only person charged in the previous 10 years for temporarily misplacing government documents. A brief unsigned opinion reinstated Gonzalez’s claim and stated that the lower court construed their ruling too narrowly. Thomas dissented.

The Senate is working to clean up the Supreme Court’s mess that permits bump stocks on semi-automatic style rifles so they will have the firing ability of machine guns. Alito wrote, “Congress can act,” and a bipartisan group of senators hope to do that. Twenty co-sponsors joined the original three, two Democrats and a Republican. The high court ruling was based on semantics, not the Second Amendment, and a bump stock killed 58 people and injured another 800 in a few minutes during a Las Vegas massacre. Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) pointed out DDT, while he was in the White House, and many Republicans supported the overturned directive against bump stocks.

Louisiana has passed a new law, likely to be argued in the Supreme Court. It mandates a copy of the Ten Commandments accompanied by a four-paragraph “context statement” describing how the Ten Commandments “were a prominent part of American public education for almost three centuries.” At the signing, GOP Gov. Jeff Landry said:

“If you want to respect the rule of law, you’ve got to start from the original law giver, which was Moses.”

Also at the signing, Landry ignored a child directly behind him who seemed to faint and fall to the floor. Others tried to help her, but just continued his speech and signed the bill. (Video here.) Landry turned down $71 million in federal assistance to feed children in poverty-stricken families. His signing was four days before Juneteenth, and two of the commandments, which advocates consider “guidelines” and “a moral code for living, accept slavery. Yet they don’t ban rape, child molestation, and other child abuse.

Newly elected, Landry bragged that he couldn’t wait to be sued when he signed a bill requiring the Ten Commandments be posted in every K-12 classroom. Thus far the Americans United for Separation of Church and State, Freedom from Religion, and ACLU promise to fulfill Landry’s wish for a lawsuit.

In 1980, the US Supreme Court voted 5-4 to strike down the Kentucky law requiring that the document be displayed in elementary and high schools. According to that opinion, the Ten Commandments “had no secular legislative purpose” and was “plainly religious in nature.” Also noted was that the documentmade references to worshipping God including observing the Sabbath day.

Republicans hope that the 2022 case Kennedy v. Bremerton, allowing a football coach to pray on the field after games, gives a precedent for the mandated posting of the Ten Commandments. In this case, however, Gorsuch, writing for the majority, “misrepresented” the facts to persuade the public that the Supreme Court was right. Gorsuch wrote the fabrication that the coach “offered his prayers quietly while his students were otherwise occupied.” Photographic evidence proves that the prayers were immediately after games on the 50-yard line while the crowd was there. The coach was often joined by his players, members of the opposing team, and the general public. A parent reported that his son “felt compelled to participate” for fear “he wouldn’t get to play as much.” Ian Millhiser also wrote:

“Kennedy engaged in very public prayer sessions, and did so while acting as an official representative of a public school…. After he was ordered to cease this activity, Kennedy went on a media tour that seemed designed to turn his supposedly ‘quiet prayers’ into a public political spectacle.”

Gorsuch’s goal was to overturn Lemon v. Kurtzman (1971), the Constitutional prohibition of “the establishment of religion.” Succeeding in that, he still needs to face Lee v. Weisman (1992) prohibiting public schools from coercing students into religious exercise. Then Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote that “subtle and indirect” coercion “can be as real as any overt compulsion.”

Louisiana already ranks 47 in education, but its new law has made Texas brave. Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick promised the state would also pass a requirement to post the religious saying in all classrooms.

Legal experts purport that decisions are slow to come out of the high court year because justices are fighting. The variety of liaisons above prove differences of opinion not always dependant on ideology, making the next 17 opinions more difficult to guess. 

Juneteenth, Hope for Democracy

Juneteenth, celebrated on June 19, honors the 1865 announcement in Galveston (TX) that slavery was over because the Confederacy had lost the Civil War. Ignorance and greed, however, continued the practice in many Southern states. In 1903, 40 years after the Emancipation Proclamation ended slavery in Texas, a Black man sought news about whether slavery had ended. Angry about the new freedom, Texans murdered as many as 2,500 Blacks between 1865 and 1868. Millions of young people, however, won’t learn about this history because of state laws blocking history like this, replaced with revisionist history.  

 In 2024, at least 30 states officially celebrated the elimination of slavery in the U.S. on Juneteenth, declared a federal holiday in 2021. Ten other states, however, celebrate slavers on a state-designated Confederacy Day, and six states do not recognize Juneteenth: Florida, Mississippi, Alabama, Arkansas, South Carolina, and North Carolina. In Mississippi and Alabama, three Confederate holidays pay state employees for a day off: Confederate Memorial Day; the birthday of Jefferson Davis, the leader of the Confederacy; and Robert E Lee Day, the leader of the Confederate army. In both states, Robert E Lee Day is on Martin Luther King Jr Day, a federal holiday.

Movement toward Democratic Rights:

Maryland Gov. Wes Moore pardoned 175,000 cannabis convictions, forgiving decades of low-level possession charges, some of the pardons for deceased people. No one was released from incarceration because sentences are short, but criminal records are used to deny housing, employment, and education even after sentences are served. In recent years, nine other states and multiple cities pardoned hundreds of thousands of cannabis convictions, and President Joe Biden reprieved 6,500 federal people. Blacks are over three times more likely than white people to be arrested for possession, and 70 percent of Maryland’s male incarcerated population is Black, more than double the 33 percent population. As the only state in the region among 24 states to legalize recreational cannabis, Maryland permits it for adults 21 and older.

New Yorkers 21 and over may grow up to six cannabis plants per person in their home with a maximum of 12 plants per household and possess five pounds of trimmed weed “and the equivalent weight in concentrates” in their home or on their property. The product is not for sale, trade, etc., and people are limited to three ounces away from the home.

Biden has issued an immigration order keeping some families together called “Parole in Place,” a policy offering legal status to about 500,000 adults undocumented immigrants married to U.S. citizens and 50,000 children under 21 if they have lived in the U.S. for at least ten years and have no criminal record. The policy grants work permits and relief from deportation giving an opportunity to achieve legal permanent residency and future citizenship, possibly after three years without being forced to leave the country for many years. “Parole in Place” already exists for immediate relatives of military members

White nationalist Stephen Miller, hateful adviser to Deposed Donald Trump (DDT) who created every vicious anti-immigrant communication while DDT was in the White House and other anti-human statements, Xed:

“Big news: Biden to announce an unconstitutional executive amnesty for illegal aliens during a border invasion and in the aftermath of multiple gruesome raped and murders of Americans at the hands of Biden-freed illegals. This is an attack on democracy.”

The policy is not an amnesty because migrants must follow the same path to residency, requiring several years with a criminal check Already in the U.S. for at least ten years, the migrants have no influence on the “border influx.” Others in the supposed “pro-family” GOP have said Biden wants these migrants to vote for him, but they cannot legally do so—like Republicans who forged signatures for deceased relatives in the 2020 election. The policy simply makes them more able to be contributing residents.

The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) issued its first order requiring bargaining after the Supreme Court justices’ handing Starbucks a win in permitting the firing of union organizers. The NLRB directive to owners of the Red Rock Casino and two others in Las Vegas to recognize and bargain with a union is also the first since the agency created a path for union organizing even after losing elections. According to an NLRB order, employers breaking the law during an organizing campaign must recognize the union regardless of the election’s outcome.   Monday’s decision described NP Red Rock’s behavior as “egregious and pervasive unlawful conduct” tainting a 2019 election and warranting a bargaining order after workers voted 627-534 against joining a union. Red Rock illegally promised benefits if workers rejected the union and threatened to withhold them if the union won the election. Two days before the election, the company also gave away over 500 steaks branded with “Vote No.”  

After Amazon refused to negotiate a contract or recognize the new union at a Staten Island warehouse two years ago, the small independent group joined the International Brotherhood of Teamsters with 1.3 million members. Last year, the Teamsters negotiated an historic contract for UPS workers and joined Amazon workers at a Kentucky air hub, the nerve center of the company’s fast shipping. In Alabama, Amazon workers are waiting a legal hearing about a third chance at a union election.

The 27,000 school district employees will now be represented by the Fairfax Education Unions, an alliance of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) and the National Education Association (NEA). Virginia is an anti-union “right-to-work” state prohibiting union security agreements.

A state appeals court returned New York’s proposed “equal rights” constitutional amendment to the November election; it bars discrimination based on “gender identity” and “pregnancy outcomes.” The lower court removed the ballot initiative with the justification that the proposal was passed without waiting for a legal memo from the state AG, but the initiative was reinstated because the plaintiffs missed the deadline for their challenge. The state constitution bans discrimination based on race, color, creed or religion, and the proposed amendment adds ethnicity, national origin, age, disability, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, pregnancy, pregnancy outcomes, and reproductive health care and autonomy.

New York already has a 24-week deadline for abortions, but the amendment would ban discrimination for having one. With a July 5 deadline, at least five states may have enough signatures for ballot initiatives that could give longer timelines for abortions to add to the existing four states with that proposal already on the ballot. Seven states—California, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, Montana, Ohio, and Vermont—added abortion rights since Roe v. Wade was overturned in 2022, but 14 states ban abortions at all states of pregnancy. Both Wisconsin and Iowa ended their sessions without passing anti-abortion constitutional amendments, and others failed in Louisiana, Maine, and Minnesota legislatures. Colorado, Florida, Maryland, and South Dakota have loosened abortion deadline measures on the fall election. Other possibilities, despite death threats and other harassment of signature gatherers, could be on the ballots of Arizona, Arkansas, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, and Nevada.

Legislators and the Supreme Court hate diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) and affirmative action, but 61 percent approve of education about these issues. The number moved to 69 percent when provided a more detailed explanation. Almost half the Republicans approve after an explanation.

Concerned about the fascist elements of Project 2025, formed by the Heritage Foundation assisted by other ultra-conservative groups and individuals for DDT to follow if he returns to the White House, Rep. Jared Huffman (D-CA) announced the Stop Project 2025 Task Force. Plans include countering Project 2025’s aim to grant DDT extensive powers and erode democratic institutions and freedoms.

A resolution filed by Senate Democrats apologizes for actions discriminating against LGBTQ government workers as far back as 1949. Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA) stated that it reaffirms a commitment “to righting our past wrongs” and advancing LGBTQ equality nationwide:

“LGBT civil servants, foreign service officers and service members have made countless sacrifices and contributions to our country and national security. Despite this, our government has subjected them to decades of harassment, invasive investigations and wrongful termination because of who they are or who they love.”

Federal government legislation, congressional hearings, reports, and public statements have been against LGBTQ military service members, foreign service members and civilian employees, most notably during the “Lavender Scare” of the late 1950s and 60s, when then-Sen. Joseph McCarthy (R-Wis.) linked homosexuality to communism. In 2017, former Secretary of State John Kerry issued a formal apology to LGBTQ State Department employees for past discrimination based on sexual orientation, including during the “Lavendar Scare.”

Kaine’s resolution explicitly mentions the more than 100,000 LGBTQ service members who historians estimate were forced out of the U.S. military because of their sexual orientation or gender identity between WWII and 2011. It also references the “countless others” who were “forced to hide their identities and live in fear while serving.” A provision in the 1994 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) banned open military service by LGBTQ people from serving openly in the military and not repealed until 2011. The military recognizes the discrimination of this “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy and others, LGBTQ veterans with dishonorable discharges must still individually prove that discrimination occurred in order to have their dishonorable discharge reversed.

Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), who became the first openly LGBTQ person elected to the Senate in 2012, said:

“Anyone who serves our country, whether they are in uniform or a civil servant, deserves to be treated with respect, fairness, and dignity, regardless of who they are or who they love.”

Another Election Day

Washington Post’s Problems:

When Jeff Bezos bought the Washington Post over a decade ago, people feared it would become another conservative rag. Instead, it became one of the best newspapers in the country if one overlooks the ultra-conservative columnists. Recently, however, the WaPo hired a coterie of former Rupert Murdoch news employees for its leadership, again resulting in concerns. The first obvious change was the “resignation” of executive editor Sally Buzbee after Will Lewis became the publisher/CEO. Refusing to drop stories about Lewis’ scandals, she was replaced by Matt Murray, former editor in chief of Murdoch’s Wall Street Journal until the election.

Lewis is now trying to cover his fraudulent past in Britain, but the news pours out. One of these is a 3,000-word investigative story in the New York Times about journalistic ethics questions about Robert Winnett, the newly named top editor. Lewis called him a “brilliant investigative journalist,” but the report asserts that Winnett “used fraudulently obtained phone and company records in newspaper articles” two decades ago. Because of “perceived and potential conflicts,” former senior managing editor Cameron Barr who stepped down last year and has been on contract as a senior associate editor will oversee the paper’s coverage of Lewis-related controversies. Murray recused himself in one WaPo article directly mentioning him.

NYT reported that Lewis used fraudulent and unethical methods to obtain information for articles while working at the London-based Sunday Times in the early 2000s through hacking and paying sources for information. Lewis was named as a central figure in a phone-hacking lawsuit by Prince Harry, Guy Ritchie, and Hugh Grant who accused Lewis of “giving a green light” to erase millions of emails pertaining to the phone-hacking accusations after authorities had instructed the company to retain all of its records.

NPR David Folkenflik declared that Lewis offered an exclusive interview about WaPo’s future in exchange for dropping a story about phone-hacking. He also gave other fraudulent actions by Lewis and Winnett:

“A six-figure payment for a major scoop; planting a junior reporter in a government job to secure secret documents; and relying on a private investigator who used subterfuge to secure private documents from their computers and phones. The investigator was later arrested.”

Lewis had pressured Buzbee to ignore all these details including a British judge permitting plaintiffs to investigate his part more deeply in their suits again the Murdoch newspapers. He told her that allowing WaPo reporters to pursue it was a lapse in judgment. Lewis denied pressuring Buzbee but told reporters that he is “an activist, not a journalist.” WaPo also published a story about Winnett’s using dishonest means to obtain information for his reporting. 

In the midst of its scandals, the WaPo has hired an admaker to create a new marketing campaign for a redefining its image that would broaden its audience beyond presidential politics. Lewis wants to overtake Politico, looking for an additional 100 million subscribers to the fewer three million it has now.

Elections:

Indiana: Deposed Donald Trump (DDT) lost his endorsed candidate for Indiana’s lieutenant governor race on Saturday although he waited until a short time before the primary. The winner, Michah Beckwith, is a Christian nationalist pastor who said God told him he sent “those riots to Washington” on January 6, 2021, and that it was God’s “hand at work.” Beckwith’s opponent was the choice of Mike Braun, who won the primary for governor.

Georgia: In the 2^nd congressional district, Chuck Hand, convicted of illegally being in the Capitol on January 6, 2021, lost to a former DDT Educational Department official Wayne Johnson who will face the Democratic incumbent in November. Hand is one of five convicted insurrectionists running this year; three of them have already lost. Another DDT endorsement, former DDT aide Brian Jack, won over former state Senate Majority Leader Mike Dugan in the GOP primary for the 3rd congressional district to replace the Republican who resigned. Democratic Shawn Harris, a retired Army General and rancher, will oppose incumbent Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene in the heavily red 14^th congressional district.  

Virginia: Rep. Bob Good, chair of the conservative House Freedom Caucus, is battling for election in the GOP primary against state Sen. John McGuire, endorsed by DDT and some of the House Republicans. DDT endorsed McGuire because Good supported Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis for president. As of midnight, Good was behind McGuire by 318 votes with 95 percent of them counted.

The election has split the MAGA contingent—Greene on McGuire’s side and Steve Bannon behind Good. Both hosted competing events last week: Greene told a dozen voters in a Virginia parking lot that Good “kicked Trump when he was down,” and Bannon told Good supporters outside a courthouse that “they think you’re a bunch of morons who don’t count.” Unseating former Rep. Denver Riggleman in the district’s 2020 nominating convention, Good has never run in a primary nomination process. The redistricting process also gave McGuire an advantage because he represented part of it in the state Senate and House of Delegates.

A month ago when both McGuire and Good went to New York to support DDT during his criminal trial, they both sat down with DDT, and Good needled McGuire for not debating him. Rep. Eli Crane (R-AZ), present in the room, called McGuire “weak” for not debating, and McGuire asked why he should debate Good when he was 14 points ahead. Good retorted that his internal survey showed him 25 points ahead of McGuire. That’s when DDT endorsed McGuire.

Eugene Vindman, who blew the whistle on DDT’s blackmailing Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky, won the Democratic primary in Abigail Spanberger’s seat in Congress. Spanberger is retiring. He and his identical twin, Alexander Vindman, helped expose DDT’s attempts to dig up dirt on Joe Biden. The candidate raised over $5 million more than the other seven in the field combined, and he won over half the number of votes.

Oklahoma: A competitor from the right failed to defeat Rep. Tom Cole who has been recently named Appropriations Committee chair, one of the most powerful positions in the House. Cole won the primary by 65 percent despite his opponent’s ad that “Cole voted with Democrats for billions in new deficit spending.” Bondar was accused of not living in Oklahoma with no connections to the state. He first bought land in the state in 2022. Paul Royse, another challenger to GOP incumbent Kevin Hern, also lost.

Artificial intelligence is known for mistakes, and one of them is who won the 2020 presidential election. Alexa can’t say. And chatbots built by Microsoft and Google won’t answer at all. On multiple current tests, Amazon’s Alexa repeated that “Donald Trump is the front-runner for the Republican Nomination at 89.3%,” citing the conservative news website RealClearPolitics. “I’m still learning how to answer this question. In the meantime, try Google Search,” replied Google’s Gemini. Microsoft’s Copilot responded: “Looks like I can’t respond to this topic. Explore Bing Search results.” AI may skew the current election with general mistakes and lies taken from comservative media. For example, AI Overviews told a user to use glue on pizza to keep the cheese on. Add “about 1/8 cup of non-toxic glue to the sauce to give it more tackiness.” Don’t do this!

Other News from the Week:

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu dissolved his war cabinet, much to the disappointment of the far-right who wanted to take it over after Benny Gantz resigned. With that action, Netanyahu is in control of the attacks on Gaza and the West Bank.

Almost exactly 103 years ago, a violent white mob massacred 300 hundred Blacks in a prosperous Tulsa (OK) neighborhood in 24 hours and destroyed their homes, businesses and institutions out of resentment toward Black prosperity. The event was largely suppressed from the city’s history until HBO broadcast its nine-episode of Watchmen in 2019. Two remaining survivors, 110-year-old Viola Fletcher and 109-year-old Lessie Benningfield Randle, sued for reparations, and another plaintiff, Hughes Van Ellis, died last year at 102. They asked for punitive damages, a compensation fund, and a scholarship for descendants of Greenwood residents who survived the attack.

Plaintiffs specifically addressed “Defendants’ exploitation of the Massacre for their own economic and political gain.” The city has been making money from tourists visiting Tulsa to learn about the tragedy, but those who suffered didn’t benefit from this historical attraction. Oklahoma judges acknowledge that the plaintiffs’ “grievances are legitimate” but denied Fletcher and Randall. The state Supreme Court ruled 8-1 that the legitimate grievances don’t fall under the state’s “public nuisance statute.” Plaintiffs plan a rehearing with the court, but it will likely be futile.

Far-right conspiracy theorists including Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) have been busy deleting their posts after they were punked by a video of fences and barricades installed around the Supreme Court building with the claim that the justices were ready to release the decision on DDT’s immunity. The videos were actually before the announcement of the ruling that overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022.

The Cult of DDT: ‘Character in 2024 is a luxury belief.’

Best story about Deposed Donald Trump (DDT) within the past few hours: making his typical challenge to President Joe Biden for a mental acuity test, he got the name of his doctor, Ronny Jackson, wrong—calling him Ronny Johnson. To a crowd in Detroit (MI), he asked:

“Has anyone heard of Ronny Johnson, congressman from Texas? He was the White House doctor, and he said I was the healthiest president, he feels, in history. So I liked him very much.”

DDT’s wealth keeps shrinking as the stock for his media company including the Truth Social media platform gradually drops with only his MAGA supporters keeping it at all stable. The company lost $327.6 million for the first quarter of 2024, largely from expenses related to the recent merger with Digital World Acquisition Corp. Comparable losses for the year before were $210,300. April’s filing to the SEC shows only $4.1 revenue in its last operating year with $58.2 million in costs with an operating loss of almost $16 million. DDT’s conviction for falsifying business records may have hurt the stock’s performance.

DJT stock, the ticker name, has dropped from $66.22 immediately after going public to its close of $37.05. DDT loses about $115 million for each point it loses, down about $3.340 billion to $4.260 billion. Convinced that the stock’s value is dropping because of “short selling,” gambling that the stock will decrease, CEO Devin Nunes has requested Nasdaq’s help to investigate market manipulation by obtaining trading data from 13 financial firms. GOP megadonor Ken Griffin, who runs targeted Citadel Securities, called Nunes a “loser” for blaming DTJ’s losses on short selling. Another Nunes’ reason may be diverting attention from the company’s financial struggles and trying to justify an $8 billion market cap for a company with only $4 million in annual revenue.  

With no accomplishments of his own, DDT repeatedly takes credit for those of his predecessors. In the White House, DDT tried to take credit for President Obama’s achievements, including his policies helping veterans’ heath care. Now he claims the President Joe Biden, who lowered the cap to $35 for those on Medicare after Republicans blocked it for the rest of the population, is lying, spreading the falsehood that DDT did it before Biden was elected. Yet four years ago, DDT said:

“I don’t use insulin. Should I be? Huh? I never thought about it. But I know a lot of people are very badly affected, right? Unbelievable.”

DDT will also do away with the cap because his goal is to destroy the Inflation Reduction Act that created the price cap. He could decide that he’s responsible for the extremely popular healthcare insurance and reduction of student loans.  

In addition to bribes for the oil industry, the wealthy, and big business by dropping regulations and reducing their taxes, DDT has more offers. In San Francisco, he promised wealthy Silicon Valley executives they could call him the “crypto president” after he defeated Democrats’ proposed regulations in exchange for big checks to his campaign. Earlier, he called Bitcoin a “scam against the dollar.” DDT also made a 180-degree reversal regarding TikTok, promising to oppose Biden’s—actually the Republicans’—efforts to ban the app if it doesn’t divest from its Chinese owners. He also spoke to the Club for Growth that he called “Club for No Growth” in the past after it supported Florida’s Gov. Ron DeSantis for president.

DDT has a new chant that he created in a Phoenix church breaking the law with a campaign speech for the felon. Talking about President Joe Biden’s new restrictive order on immigrants, he claimed he didn’t “like using the word ‘bullshit’ in front of these beautiful children. So I won’t say it, I will not say it! But this thing allows millions of people…” That was the cue for attendees to start chanting, “Bullshit! Bullshit! Bullshit!” a church, “in front of these beautiful children.”

ProPublica, the news source uncovering Supreme Court corruption, has obtained massive tax documentation showing how the wealthiest IRS filers minimize personal tax bills, possibly to nothing. The research into DDT could cost him over $100 million in taxes, not counting penalties and interest. He used the failure of his last major construction project on the Chicago River for vast write offs, but he may have written of the losses twice, once in 2008 and the second time in 2010 after he moved it into a new partnership that he also owned.

Part of vetting for vice-president by the convicted, serially lying felon with his team of felons is whether prospective candidates “committed a crime” or lied, according to Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH). (Of the contenders, Florida Rep. Byron Donalds appears to be the only aspiring running mate to have been arrested twice.)

Any problems from a criminal background are unknown because the vetting is for an openly convicted criminal running a team of felons. DDGT has declared his admiration for the fictional character Hannibal Lector.

Former House Speaker and Fox board member Paul Ryan called DDT “unfit for office.” He said he voted for DDT in 2016, “hoping [for] a different kind of person in office.” Ryan called “character … a really important issue” and criticized DDT for putting himself “above the Constitution.” Since Ryan had that interview with Fox’s Neil Cavuto, the network hasn’t mentioned these statements except for Greg Gutfeld, host of a Fox’s “comedy show,” who said that “character in 2024 is a luxury belief.”

DDT, the man who dodged the draft with self-identified bone spurs, is considering putting his former defense secretary, Christopher Miller, back into that position, and Miller said a national service requirement should be “strongly considered.” Thus far, DDT declares he doesn’t want the mandatory military service, but he may think that it won’t sell well with MAGAites. The Army has data that 71 percent of U.S. youths would not qualify for military service because of obesity, drug use, and aptitude among other reasons. Only 1 percent of the population serves in the Armed Forces. The draft was stopped in 1973, and mandatory military service is politically unpopular although DDT’s allies support it. Some schools require the military aptitude testing for students although neither state nor federal law does.

Insurrectionists are DDT’s favorite “warriors,” who he also calls “victims.”

Aaron Blake Xed the results of a YouGov survey on June 3-6: only 35 percent of Republicans know that DDT was indicted for overturning the 2020 election, and an almost equal number, 34 percent said he wasn’t indicted for it. The media reports that ignorance is prevalent among DDT’s supporters.

Legal Issues:

The New Jersey AG is researching whether DDT will lose his liquor licenses at his three golf courses in the state. State law blocks the licenses for those convicted of crimes “involving moral turpitude” defined as “elements of dishonesty, fraud, or depravity.”

New York – Criminal Business Fraud/Hush Money to Stormy Daniels to Interfere with 2016 Election:

Able to pay legal fees from campaign donors, DDT is still trying to end the gag order keeping him from smearing witnesses, jurors, court staff, and their families, including the judge’s family, after his May 30 conviction. Prosecutors want to keep the order until after the July 11 sentencing for “the integrity of these proceedings.”

Georgia – RICO Conspiracy to Overturn Election:

In a Georgia appeals court, Fulton County (GA) DA Fani Willis moved to dismiss the petition from DDT seeking to remove her office from DDT’s RICO conspiracy in finding winning votes for him in the 2020 presidential election. Willis’ office argued that DDT and his co-defendants failed to provide sufficient evidence of Willis’ misconduct to warrant a review. According to the filing, Judge Scott McAfee addressed any concerns by asking either Willis or the prosecutor with whom she had a relationship, Nathan Wade, leave the case. Wade resigned March 15.

Florida – DDT’s Taking Classified Documents:  

DDT’s Judge Aileen Cannon denied a dismissal of his classified documents’ case but deleted a paragraph in the federal superseding indictment against DDT. She agreed with DDTD’s lawyers that special counsel Jack Smith’s office cannot include allegations about his showing a “PAC Representative,” identified in public reports as Susie Wiles, a classified map of a particular foreign country where an “ongoing military operation” was “not going well.” DDT and his co-defendants called it prejudicial. Cannon said its purpose was to highlight a prior bad act. DDT’s lawyer Todd Blanche also said that DDT didn’t know what was in the boxes moved to Florida.

On Friday, Cannon hears arguments about whether Smith was appropriately appointed as special counsel, a reason for dismissal the entire case. She scheduled a day and a half to hear the case, including lawyers who filed briefs as “friends of the court.” Although Ed Meese, AG in 1987, argues against its constitutionality, the D.C. Circuit Court ruled that Meese’s appointment was constitutional.

Other events of the week, including DDT’s meeting with business people and legislators are covered in the week’s blog posts.

Actions for Democracy

Leaders from almost 100 countries led by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky are meeting in Switzerland this weekend for a peace summit in Russia’s war on Ukraine. Russia was not invited, and China would not attend. Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed to a ceasefire if Ukraine gives him four eastern Ukrainian provinces which Russia partially occupies and the promise that Ukraine will never join NATO. Zelensky rejected the offer and said he will not negotiate until Russian forces leave all Ukrainian territory. EU President Ursula von der Leyen said that freezing the conflict is a recipe for future wars of aggression. She wants a peace that “restores Ukraine’s sovereignty and its territorial integrity.”

A bankruptcy judge dismissed a case to close Infowars, but its owner, conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, must liquidate his personal assets, valued at about $9 million, to pay the $1.5 billion in damages for claiming the Sandy Hook Elementary massacre shooting was a hoax. A bankruptcy judge said that the plaintiffs, Sandy Hook families, could pursue claims in state court “outside of a bankruptcy forum.” A court-appointee trustee for Free Speech Systems, Infowars parent company, worries that Jones’ increasingly “erratic and more unhinged” behavior could hurt the value of this empire. Plaintiffs offered to drop the charges to $85 million, but Jones wants it limited to $55 million. The court will hear arguments this month.

Jason Zengerle’s book about former Fox host Tucker Carlson, Hated by All the Right People: Tucker Carlson and the Unravelling of the Conservative Mind, has been dropped by Little, Brown, & Co. because he is no longer important enough to bring in the money. Carlson has really sunk to the bottom: he’s planning a 15-week-tour with Alex Jones and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA).

Of all likely voters, 62 percent believe that oil and gas companies should be legally accountable for their part in climate change; only 28 percent disagree.

The Biden administration has drafted rules to remove unpaid medical bills from credit reports used to determine possibility and interest rates for loans for cars, homes, and small businesses. Public comment ends on August 12 before a final version is prepared and finalized next year. About 15 million people have medical bills on their credit reports, down from 43 million in March 2022.

Other Biden achievements:

• New rules to benefit air travelers.
• Greater ease in filing taxes for free.
• Advancement of policy to cap credit card late fees.
• Steps to block tens of billions of “junk fees”
• Cancelation of $167 billion in student debt for almost 5 million people.
• Policies to keep gas prices low.

Eight former SpaceX employees are suing Elon Musk for firing them after they accused the company of tolerating sexual harassment on the job. The lawsuit alleged that Musk “runs his company in the dark ages—treating women as sexual objects to be evaluated on their bra size, bombarding the workplace with lewd sexual banter. Other accusations are violations of federal and state labor law, including retaliation against employees for “opposing the discrimination, harassment, and hostile work environment that they observed.” His posts on X encourage sexually inappropriate language and behavior among workers. One post told YouTube’s former CEO, Chad Hurley, to touch Musk’s genitals in exchange for a horse, and another discussed loss of sexual arousal with a picture of Microsoft CEO Bill Gates next to an emoji of a pregnant man.

Republicans campaign on rising crime under a Democratic-controlled government, but statistics disprove their lies. “Historic” data in the first three months of 2024 saw a rapid continued drop in levels of violent crime and murder across the country. Violent crime dropped 15 percent in the first quarter of 2024 compared to the prior year. In another comparison, murders dropped more than 26 percent. The year 2023 saw an historically low murder rate in 2023, dropping by 13 percent, and violent crime plunged to one of the lowest levels in 50 years. Cities with populations of over 1 million had an 11 percent drop in overall crime.

President Joe Biden said:

“This progress we’re seeing is no accident. My Administration is putting more cops on the beat, holding violent criminals accountable, and getting illegal guns off the street—and we are doing it in partnership with communities. As a result, Americans are safer today than when I took office.”

Yet Republicans have convinced over three-fourths of people that the U.S. has more crime than a year ago.    They also won’t know that the national murder rate skyrocketed 29.4 percent in the last year of former Dictator Donald Trump (DDT).

Hope across the States:

Florida: A federal court permanently blocked the state from enforcing a ban on gender-affirming care for minors as unconstitutional. He ruled that transgender opponents may have their beliefs “but they are not free to discriminate against transgender individuals just for being transgender.” The ruling cites the unscientific nature of the original ban and evidence of anti-trans bigotry motivating the ban.  

Georgia: The Fulton County elections board adopted 3-2 rules requiring activists to show detailed evidence before questioning voters’ eligibility. Republicans complained that the challenge procedures were poorly worded. Georgia’s new law allows volunteers to question voters who appear to have moved from the state, and conservatives are recruiting people to add to the more than 100,000 challenges the state has seen since 2021, most of them rejected by county election boards.

Indiana: The ACLU is suing Longootee, a town of 2,600, because it rescinded its approval for the Pride festival and gave organizers from the Patoka Valley AIDS Community no opportunity to get approval, a First Amendment violation. The November 3, 2023 approval was for the September 7 celebration, but the city passed a new ordinance in February, followed in June 10, 2024 by further tightening restrictions. Last year’s pride festival occurred without major problems. The more expensive Loogootee SummerFest, lasting three days, still has a permit, and a church BBQ near the city hall had no discussion for the ordinance.

Kansas: A Wichita library will order more LGBTQ+-themed books after a hate pastor told his followers to check all of them out of local libraries. Book orders are based on use, with damaged or not-returned items replaced. (Right: The pastor posted a photo of 100 LGBTQ+ books he had checked out on an Instagram account which is not private.)   

Michigan: A state Court of Claims judge refused guidance from the secretary of state that clerks should initially presume absentee ballot signatures are valid but gave them wide discretion to consider why a voter signature might not match the version on file. According to the state law’s amendment last year, a signature is “invalid only if it differs in significant and obvious respects from the elector’s signature on file.” Clerks can consider “commonsense reasons” such as whether voters aged, the surface they signed on, and name abbreviations. The new law also specifies that “slight dissimilarities” in signatures “must be resolved in favor of the elector.”

New Hampshire: On the last day of its session, the state House tabled a bill, 223-141, that blocks the current right for unregistered voters to cast their ballots on Election Day by signing an affidavit and bring in the information within a week if they don’t have identification at the polls. The proposed bill would have required people to bring in identification, including citizenship papers, and lose its exemption to motor vehicle registration existing because of the same-day registration. Also voted down was a bill to purge the voting lists every six years instead of the ten-year cycle.

New Jersey: Superior Court Judge Michael Blee ordered that 1,909 ballots from the June 4 primary election prematurely opened to be counted. He also criticized the Atlantic County Board of Elections for their sloppiness and ordered them to tighten up their procedures. Blee’s actions also settles the Democratic primary for the state’s 2^nd congressional district when the top two are separated by 412 votes.

New York: Columbia University took the Columbia Law Review offline after it published an article about Palestine but returned it when students threatened work stoppage because of the censorship. Authored by Palestinian legal scholar Rabea Eghbariah, “Toward Nakba as a Legal Concept,” describes the need to “accurately capture the totality of the Palestinian condition” in the law.

Houston surgeon Eithan Haim was indicted on four felony counts for sharing private information of transgender patients in violation of the federal law protecting patients’ medical privacy. He provided internal documents from Texas Children’s Hospital in 2023 to conservative activist Christopher Rufo, alleging that he was following the state AG Ken Paxton’s opinion that gender-affirming care is “child abuse.”

The state Supreme Court protected in vitro fertilization (IVF) by rejecting a case about whether a frozen embryo has the same rights as a child. In a lower court case, the frozen embryos went to the husband, but the ex-wife used the new abortion law stating that they have “all the rights and constitutional protections of children.” She lost in a Texas court and the 2^nd Circuit Court.

Virginia: A father accusing school officials in Glen Cove Elementary School of “grooming and abusing” children on LGBTQ+ issues now faces a $20 million defamation lawsuit. In another lawsuit, the Virginia NAACP is suing a school district in Shenandoah County for restoring Confederate military names for two buildings.

Tomorrow: a week’s review of father DDT. Happy Father’s Day!

Supreme Court, DDT

Another day, another Supreme Court decision—this one with the Conservative Six promoting population control by overturning a ban on bump stocks which turn an already dangerous semi-automatic weapons into the ability of the outlawed machine guns. Justice Clarence Thomas said that guns with bump stocks aren’t any different because “the firing cycle remains the same”: they just reduce the time between shots. In fact, they permit weapons to fire hundreds of times in a minute. Justice Sonia Sotomayor, joined by the court’s other two liberals, said the majority seized on technicalities putting form over substance. She pointed out that the court would soon have blood on its hands.

The ban was passed during the administration of former Dictator Donald Trump (DDT) after the Las Vegas shooting massacre in October murdering 58 people and injuring more than 500 more. The following year, AFT adopted a clarification of bump stocks under the definition of machine guns. Bump stocks permit the firing of 400-800 rounds per minute, approximately the same as machine guns. Conservatives concluded that Congress could amend the law, knowing that the dysfunctional branch will not be doing that.

Two years ago, the court ruled against disparities in bankrupt debtors’ fees; on Friday, it ruled the government is not required to repay debtors paying more than they would in another judicial district. In 88 of 94 federal district districts Chapter 11 bankruptcy cases are administered by the DOJ and required by law to charge fees only covering costs. Six districts in Alabama and North Carolina, however, do not participate in that system, and the fees they charged were not tracked between 2018 and 2021. Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson wrote the opinion for six justices. Neil Gorsuch, Clarence Thomas, and Amy Coney Barrett dissented.

The high court has still not issued its decision on DDT’s absolute immunity, having delayed his trial for at least eight months. In 1974, the Supreme Court took 16 days to decide U.S. v. Nixon, a case in which the president was required to turn over tapes and other documents to a federal district court, negating his immunity. The current court’s corruption has become more evident with each delay.

House GOP members are again rolling over to show their bellies to DDT with a hearing about the unfairness of DDT’s convictions for 34 felony counts. Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA) humiliated them by asking members of Jim Jordan’s (R-OH) Judiciary Committee to raise their hands if they “hung out with the felon today,” referring to DDT’s gathering them near the Capitol. Swalwell then asked Democratic witness Norm Eisen, President Obama’s special counsel for ethics and government reform, a series of questions: the location where DDT committed his crimes (New York), the place where the jury pool lived (New York), and the verdict (34 unanimous convictions).

Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) repeated the word “guilty” 34 times, quoting the jury, before he began his questioning. He added that Republicans didn’t question the charges, including DDT’s “making hush money payments to a porn star to hide their affair from voters.” GOP committee member claims were either lies or not supported by any evidence, such as the accusations of “personal” and “political.”

The Republicans in the House will go into another snit after the DOJ refused to prosecute AG Merrick Garland for not giving them audio tapes of special counsel Robert Hur’s interviews with President Joe Biden. Despite the House vote that Garland be prosecuted for contempt of Congress, the DOJ determined that Garland committed no crime. The DOJ’s Office of Legal Counsel stated Biden’s claim of executive privilege over the tapes protected Garland from prosecution, a publicized memo before the House took its partisan vote.

DOJ’s letter to Speaker MAGA Mike Johnson (R-LA) noted that administrations of both parties repeatedly declined to prosecute several AGs or other officials not turning materials over to Congress. Garland had lamented that “the House of Representatives has turned a serious congressional authority into a partisan weapon [and disregard for] the constitutional separation of powers, the Justice Department’s need to protect its investigations, and the substantial amount of information we have provided to the Committees.” Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL) said she will request a vote for the House sergeant at arms to bring Garland to the House and force him to turn over subpoenaed items, a process not used since the early 1900s.

House Republicans also made another attempt to pass its big government hate legislation by adding amendments to the annual defense policy bill although they have no appropriations connections. GOP control issues included the typical opposition to diversity protections health care, LGBTQ+, etc. Usually considered bipartisan legislation, the GOP extremist version of the bill passed with almost entirely GOP votes in the House and will face Democratic opposition in the Senate. The defense bill passed 217-199 with six Democrats supporting it and three Republicans in opposition.

House Dems tried to send the bill back to the Armed Services Committee for more work but were defeated. Republicans are hoping that the November election will give them leverage to pass the bill.  Speaker Johnson’s glowing summary of the bill didn’t mention the big government, hate amendments.  

Johnson is also charging full speed ahead to defund special counsel Jack Smith for prosecuting two federal criminal cases against DDT. Some Democrats are accusing him of defunding the police, an accusation frequently used against them, and ultra-conservative Rep. Mike Simpson from Idaho have an even more solid argument on Politico, debunking the defunding as “stupid.” He said:

“I don’t think it’s a good idea unless you can show that (the prosecutors) acted in bad faith or fraud or something like that…. They’re just doing their job — even though I disagree with what they did.”

The “rule of law party,” Johnson’s description, also wants to defund the IRS by $2 billion, 18 percent, so that it can’t audit the wealthy and big business not paying their pitifully small share of taxes. Republicans have already stripped 25 percent of the $80 billion which is designated for something else. IRS is already down 43 percent in funding.

Some of the 80 corporate leaders meeting with DDT on Thursday were also not very complimentary about him. Financial Times reported one attendee as calling him “solid, almost business-like,” but on CNBC, Andrew Ross Sorkin gave a different report. People left the meeting “less disposed” to vote for him over Biden. They said he couldn’t keep a straight thought and was “meandering.” Asked why he used the figure 20 percent for lowering the corporate tax rate, Sorkin said, “It’s a round number.” One CEO said that DDT “doesn’t know what he’s talking about.”

DDT’s manner has a new description become more commonly used: it’s like talking to “your drunk uncle.”

Another idea DDT floated on Thursday was dropping income taxes and replacing them with 60 percent tariffs. Not only would the tariffs only partially pay for the tax cuts but they would also cost the average family $5,000 more each year. DDT is offering the massive inflation increases to a voting population already upset by rising prices. Economist Brendan Duke Xed:

“There is no tariff that could replace revenue from $2T of income taxes by taxing $3T of imports,” Duke wrote on X, adding, “If you did somehow manage to pull this off, it would be a big tax increase for the bottom 90% and tax cut for the wealthy.”

Nobel Prize-winning Paul Krugman posted:

“My first-pass estimate is that this would require an ‘average’ tariff rate of 133 percent.”

“Imports are about 14 percent of US GDP. Federal income tax revenue (not including payroll taxes) is about 8 percent. So you might think replacing it would require a tariff rate of 8/14 or around 57 percent. But … Tariffs would raise the cost of imports to consumers, so we’d import less, which would mean you need a higher tariff rate. But this reduces imports further, meaning a still higher tariff, and so on.”

The Biden administration sanctioned Tzav 9, a violent, extremist Israeli group blocking, harassing, and damaging aid convoys bound for the Gaza Strip. Members are blocked from entering the U.S. and have  property or interests in the U.S. frozen. Their actions show spiraling violence in the West Bank. The U.S. already sanctioned four Israelis in February and a Palestinian military group in the West Bank.

New sanctions against Russia are shaking its financial system and keeping the Moscow exchange from trading dollars and euros, increasing the cost of President Vladimir Putin’s war against Ukraine. Also targeted are Chinese companies selling semiconductor chips to Russia and over 300 individuals and entities in Russia, Europe, Asia, and Africa. Moscow Exchange stocks briefly nosedived Thursday.

DDT’s story about choosing between being electrocuted by an electric battery or eaten by a shark has brought much attention, but he used the same story in Ottumwa (IA) in early October. At least, his strange tale is getting media attention now. Although DDT has no history of being threatened by marine animals, Stormy Daniels, a featured witness in his criminal trial, declared about DDT:

“He is obsessed with sharks. Terrified of sharks. He was like, ‘I donate to all these charities and I would never donate to any charity that helps sharks. I hope all the sharks die.’”

In 2013, DDT tweeted:

“Sharks are last on my list – other than perhaps the losers and haters of the World!”

Supreme Court Speaks, DDT Controls Congress

After a long dry spell in issuing opinions, the Supreme Court unanimously dismissed the case against use of mifepristone, an abortion medication—for now—ruling that physicians challenging the drug’s availability did not prove they were harmed by the FDA’s expansion of its use in 2016 and 2021. Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote that the plaintiffs should have gone “to the President and FDA in the regulatory process, or to Congress and the President in the legislative process” instead of federal courts. The complaining doctors can also use “the political and electoral process” to change the regulations, according to Kavanaugh.

The drug is considered very safe, and a bogus article has been withdrawn since the 5^th Circuit Court ruled for the plaintiffs, forcing prescriptions only through a series of three in-person visits. Sage, the academic publishing company first making the article public, described the claims’ deception, scientific errors, and major ethical issues resulting in “unjustified or incorrect factual assumptions,” “material errors,” and “misleading presentations” of data that “demonstrate a lack of scientific rigor and invalidate the authors’ conclusions in whole or in part.” According to the conservative Gallup poll, 61 percent of people approves of mifepristone as a prescription drug.

Allies of Deposed Donald Trump (DDT) said he could leverage through this requirement. In a concurring opinion Justice Clarence Thomas indicated all contraception might be on the chopping block by suggesting that the court review rulings affirming the right to use contraceptives, consensual sex between same-gender adults, and nationwide marriage equality.

In another high court ruling, a gift to union-busters, eight justices voted for the right of Starbucks to terminate seven employees for leading a unionization campaign at its Memphis location. Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson dissented. Thomas wrote that the National Labor Relations Board-supported standard made federal government prevailing in labor disputes too easy. At least three groups connected to anti-union billionaire Charles Koch and right-wing activist packing the courts Leonard Leo filed amicus briefs for Starbucks’ position. A federal judge had ordered Starbucks to reinstate the works in August 2022.

The Supreme Court also unanimously rejected a California man’s attempt to trademark “Trump too small” on T-shirts, a phrase used for DDT’s hands. The patent policy doesn’t allow trademarks of al living person’s name without that person’s permission, but the man can still use it on the T-shirts, Justice Sonia Sotomayor said during oral arguments. Twenty-six Supreme Court cases during this session still lack rulings.

The Senate investigation of Supreme Court justices’ ethics discovered three Clarence Thomas jet trips funded by Harlan Crow that were previously undisclosed: Thomas traveled for free to the region near Glacier National Park in Montana, from there to Dallas, and his hometown in Georgia. More revelations may be in a report from the Judiciary Committee that chair Dick Durbin (D-IL) said would be released later in the summer. Crow’s office stated he gave information for the past seven years so that the committee “agreed to end its probe with respect to Mr. Crow.” His jet costs over $10,000 per flight hour to charter.

ProPublica began the discovery of undisclosed gifts to both Thomas and Samuel Alito, and Alito raged against the publication in a secret recording. He told Lauren Windsor, a journalist posting as a conservative activist, that ProPublica “gets a lot of money” to dig up “any little thing they can find,” suggesting the reporting was politically motivated. One of ProPublica’s lead journalists, Justin Elliott, called the accusation “just wrong.” He pointed out that the Senate has greater discovery powers than the publication. Winning its seventh Pulitzer Prize for its Supreme Court coverage, ProPublica publicly posts a list of its large donors and issued this statement:

“ProPublica exposes abuses of power no matter which party is in charge, and our newsroom operates with fierce independence. No donors are made aware of stories before they are published, nor do they have a say as to which stories reporters pursue.”

Alito may have been upset about the publicity resulting from the reporting about an expensive trip to Alaska that hedge fund billionaire and large GOP donor Paul Singer gave him while Singer had several cases at Alito’s court. He did not recuse himself and ruled in favor of Singer.

Members of the self-identified “pro-family” and “small government” in the Senate have blocked a bill by 48-47 for the national right to in vitro fertilization (IVF). Overcoming the filibuster requires 60 votes. As in other “no” votes, Republicans decried the vote as a “political stunt.” GOP senators asked for unanimous vote for the alternative bill from Sens. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Katie Britt (R-AL), but Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) refused because of its permission for “states to enact restrictions and burdensome requirements that would force IVF clinics to close their doors.” Forty-nine GOP senators signed a letter supporting IVF, but only Susan Collins (ME) and Lisa Murkowski (AK) voted for the bill. Charles Schumer (D-NY) changed his vote to no so that he bring up the bill again. Tuesday the Southern Baptist Convention voted to oppose IVF. Eighty-six percent of survey respondents want IVF as a right.  

Speaker MAGA Mike Johnson (R-LA) is preening after Deposed Donald Trump (DDT) met with his caucus on Thursday. “He said I’m doing a very good job,” Johnson reported, perhaps because Johnson is willing to lie for DDT, as the Bible may have told him to do. Presidential historian Michael Beschloss, author of nine books on the U.S. presidency stated:

“Speaker of the House is incumbent elected officer of coequal branch of American government— shouldn’t feel need to publicly pronounce himself ‘grateful’ to an ex-President for saying he and party colleagues are doing a ‘good job.’”

During his first visit near the Capitol since the January 6 insurrection, DDT asked Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) at the closed-door session to be nice to Johnson. She told him she would, but when interviewed about it, she didn’t look happy.

DDT also called Milwaukee (WI), the location of the summer’s RNC convention, “a horrible city.” Wisconsin’s GOP Rep. Derrick Van Orden tried to cover for DDT by saying that he was only referring to the “crime.” Homicides are down 39 percent during the first 2024 quarter; property crime is also down 11 percent and auto thefts down 10 percent. These areas also saw a drop from 2022 to 2023. Memphis (TN) has a 60 percent higher rate of violent crime than Milwaukee, and Little Rock (AR) is over 20 percent higher. Johnson said he didn’t hear DDT call Milwaukee “horrible.”

Earlier in the week, Johnson claimed that all of them, including DDT, respects the transition of power between administrations after Johnson and DDT led the attempt to overthrow the election—and the government—after the 2020 election. He also claims that Hunter Biden’s conviction is justified but DDT’s guilty verdict is wrong. DDT also demanded that Johnson pass a law moving state cases into federal courts for him to control if he gets elected. Johnson is having trouble getting GOP support. Another DDT demand for the Speaker is for him to overturn DDT’s conviction.

Condé Nast legal affairs editor Luke Zaleski said, “Trump owns the House. Is America next?” Former Obama senior advisor Dan Pfeiffer stated, “Trump’s supporters almost murdered these folks less than four years ago.”

On social media, the Lincoln Project stated:

“Republican senators just gave a standing ovation to the convicted felon who wants to pardon the violent mob that broke into and defecated all over our nation’s Capitol. He sent bloodthirsty mob after these people on January 6th.”

During his meeting with GOP senators, DDT heaped faint praise on Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC), a potential vice-presidential candidate. Punchbowl News Andrew Desiderio said that DDT “joked that Scott ‘wasn’t a good presidential candidate’ but has been a ‘great surrogate for him.'”

GOP anger in the House is growing over Johnson’s pick for two spots on the prestigious Intelligence Committee. Following DDT’s wishes, Johnson appointed Scott Perry (PA) and Ronny Jackson (TX) instead of more senior and qualified members. An unnamed GOP House member said Johnson was “rewarding bad behavior,” and “there’s a lot of pissed people.” Dan Crenshaw (TX) said that the choice “upends the meritocracy that has long been the defining practice on Intel.” Crenshaw added:

“The speaker needs to remember that there isn’t only one group that can threaten them. Just do not teach the lesson that the only way for us to be effective here is threatening, because I’ll take the lesson and I’ll do it.”

Perry, who was a leader in trying to overturn the government, said that his “service to our Nation speaks for itself.

Royce White, potential GOP candidate for senator from Minnesota, recently released a map he thought represented crime in Minneapolis with color dots. They were actually water fountains—195 of them in public parks.

Congress GOP Decisions, Elections

GOP senators on the Judiciary Committee, including Lindsey Graham (SC), opposed ethics today by blocking a bill requiring the Supreme Court to adopt and enforce a code of conduct. Chair Dick Durbin (D-IL) had asked for unanimous consent to pass the legislation. He pointed out that “the Supreme Court’s own code of conduct should disqualify themselves in cases where there is reasonable doubt about their impartiality,” but Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas will not recuse themselves despite “serious questions about [their] impartiality.” John Kennedy (LA), Mike Lee (UT), and John Cornyn (TX) sided with Graham.

Unlike all other federal judges, who have a Code of Conduct, the high court has almost no guidelines. According to federal law, they must report income, debts, land sales and purchases, and gifts, but some of them have used the loophole “personal hospitality clause” to not make disclosures for food, lodging, or entertainment as “personal hospitality of an individual.” With nagging from Democratic senators, the Court adopted a non-binding Code of Conduct for themselves in November 2023, but it’s unenforceable. Wednesday’s proposed bill would impose new reporting rules and a process for filing ethics complaints against justices with a board of federal appeals court judges resolving complaints.

Republican senators called it partisan politics, but it applies to all justices. Whitehouse said that “the highest court should have the lowest ethics standards.” Instead of being superior to the other two branches of government, the Supreme Court is separate but equal, subject to the same constraints as the other two.

Dragging their feet, Supreme Court justices have little more than two weeks to finish up the session and still haven’t announced opinions for 29 cases that were argued, almost half the 61 cases they heard this year. At least 14 decisions can create new law in the nation. One year, several decisions were made the last day, and the more unpopular justices already to leave the U.S. on the next day.

In the House, Republicans voted 216-207 to hold AG Merrick Garland in contempt of Congress for not providing them the audio tapes of special counsel Robert Hur’s interview with President Joe Biden about his possession of classified documents. The transcript of the nine-hour meetings has already been released to the public. Although other Republicans hesitated, David Joyce (OH) was the only one to join the unanimous no vote from Democrats. Seven Democrats and one Republican didn’t vote. Biden has already asserted executive privilege in refusing to give the tapes to the Republicans. Jerry Nadler (D-NY) said that the GOP has targeted Garland after failing in finding evidence for a Biden impeachment. “It’s about feeding the MAGA base,” he explained.

Joyce commented:

“As a former prosecutor, I cannot in good conscience support a resolution that would further politicize our judicial system to score political points. The American people expect Congress to work for them, solve policy problems, and prioritize good governance.

“Enough is enough.”

CNN has joined the fray for the Hur tapes in a legal fight for access along with almost a dozen other news outlets and other organizations, including the conservative Heritage Foundation and Judicial Watch. The Biden administration has contested Hur’s description of the president, especially the description of his memory and cognitive capabilities. Even Hur doesn’t support Hur’s negative claims with his own details.  

As chair of the House Judiciary Committee, Jim Jordan (D-OH) attacked the DOJ on another front, accusing it of orchestrating the New York state prosecution of Deposed Donald Trump (DDT) for the Biden administration. Assistant Attorney General Carlos Felipe Uriarte from the DOJ Office of Legislative Affairs called Jordan’s allegations “speculation,” “conspiratorial speculation,” “unfounded,” “baseless,” “irresponsible,” and “false.” Jordan had demanded all email communications between the DOJ and Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg’s office, and Uriarte responded:

“We found none. This is unsurprising. The District Attorney’s office is a separate entity from the Department. The Department does not supervise the work of the District Attorney’s office, does not approve its charging decisions, and does not try its cases. The Department has no control over the District Attorney, just as the District Attorney has no control over the Department. The Committee knows this.”

Last week, Garland expressed his concern about the baseless and dangerous allegations leading to an increase in threats to department officials directly resulting from these conspiracy theories.

After the inflation rate stayed flat, the Federal Reserve kept interest rates unchanged at 5.25 percent to 5.50 percent because consumer prices are gradually moderating. The Feds predict interest rates will drop once in 2024.

Republicans have no policies for their campaign so they pile onto DDT’s goal of revenge against a large majority of the U.S. population. The latest joiner, Steve Bannon, is not happy about heading to jail on July 1 for refusing to comply with a subpoena. He threatened former FBI Director James Comey and Deputy Director Andrew McCabe with imprisonment or worse. Bannon said, “Get your passport, get the hell out of the country because hey, we’re coming.” On CNN’s The Source, McCabe worried about a second term by DDT after host Kaitlan Collins asked him about the dangers of DDT’s declarations of retribution. Bannon said:

“Go ahead, go to the ends of the earth. We will hunt you down and bring you back and you will stand accountable before the American people.” 

In Tuesday’s special election for Ohio’s 6^th congressional district, 32,617 people gave the House one more GOP vote for the next half-year with Michael Rulli’s election. The total number of votes was a little more than 20 percent of those voting for the seat in 2022.

In South Carolina, conservative GOP House incumbents Nancy Mace and William Timmons survived farther-right opposition as Mace, opposed by former Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), fought for her reelection after she votes to topple him. DDT’s last minute endorsement of her after she flipped from her moderate position as his critic to his sycophant may have helped her victory. Timmons also had endorsements from DDT, Speaker MAGA Mike Johnson (R-LA), and Jim Jordan (R-OH) against Adam Morgan, co-founder of the Freedom Caucus and receiving some of their endorsements. All DDT’s endorsements for major elections won, perhaps because he hedged his bets by waiting until a day or two before the elections.

In South Carolina’s most conservative congressional district, #3, no one received 50 percent in the GOP primary so Mark Burns faces Sheri Biggs in the June 25 runoff. Burns has called for the government to “start executing people who are found guilty for their treasonous acts” and wants to put to death Sen. Lindsey Graham, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, and anyone else who promotes “LGBTQ indoctrination.” DDT gave him a “complete and total endorsement.”

Biden has arrived in Italy for the G7 summit where he plans to sign a bilateral security agreement pledging long-term defense and security cooperation with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Future presidents can withdraw from the “executive agreement.” Negotiations started last fall, but Biden waited until the Congress voted for Ukraine’s funding.

With new Western-provided supplies and air defense systems, Ukraine shot down 29 of 30 Russian missiles and drones over Kyiv. Missiles were planned for the same time as a volley of Iranian-designed Shahed exploding drones. Russia continues to use criminals for the war, releasing women from prison to joining the fighting in Ukraine. Russia also lost two more planes, one shot down and the other in a training accident. The training flight blew up after the plane hit a rock. Yes, really.

The House has displayed friction in preparation for the upcoming speech to a joint session of Congress by Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on July 24. As the date nears, the number of Democrats boycotting the speech by the highly conservative leader is increasing. Rep. Hank Johnson (D-GA) said that he wouldn’t “attend and turn my back towards him” so he just won’t attend. At least 58 congressional members boycotted Netanyahu’s 2015 speech to Congress when he used the time to vilify President Obama and his Iran nuclear deal. At that time, VP Joe Biden was traveling abroad. This time Netanyahu has continually rejected Biden’s overtures to stop the war in Gaza. Although Senate Majority Leader Mitch Schumer (D-NY) and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) signed the letter inviting Netanyahu for his speech, they were not present when Speaker MAGA Mike Johnson (R-LA) and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) made the official announcement. Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) called the invitation “wrong.”

 Favorite GOP lies:

• The Republican party is the party of fiscal responsibility.
• The Republican party is the party of family values.
• The Republican party is the party of law and order.
• Count on the Republican party to keep big government out of your life.
• Upper-class tax cuts trickle down.

Hunter Biden Verdict, Supreme Court Corruption

Hunter Biden’s Trial:

After a three-hour deliberation, a jury in Delaware unanimously determined that Hunter Biden is guilty on two counts of making false statements about his drug use when he bought the weapon and one count of illegal possession of a firearm by a drug user or addict.   He plans to appeal.

At this time, no date has been set for sentencing with a maximum of 25 years in prison and $750,000 in charges. Judge Maryellen Noreika, appointed by former Dictator Donald Trump (DDT), said she plans to hold a sentencing hearing in approximately four months. Other than prison, options include probation, home detention, and a curfew. Hunter has no criminal history, and the conviction charges rarely go to trial. His father, President Joe Biden, has said he will not pardon Hunter unlike DDT’s pattern using his pardon power almost exclusively for his political allies and friends.  

DDT wanted Hunter to be prosecuted in 2018, but his Delaware AG, the same one who prosecuted him this time, didn’t follow through with the case. Now DDT’s aides are criticizing the trial as an effort to protect Joe Biden from prosecution for all his crimes that they can’t find. Stephen Miller complained that the DOJ failed to charge Hunter Biden as an unregistered foreign agent and over evidence-free instances of foreign corruption “because all the evidence would lead back to JOE.”

Hunter spiraled down into drug use for four years after his older brother, Beau Biden, died from brain cancer in 2015. Far-right House Republicans Thomas Massie (KY) and Matt Gaetz (FL) see no reason why Hunter should go to prison for the conviction.  Trey Gowdy, former GOP representative from South Carolina and currently a Fox network host, said:

“I did gun prosecutions for six years … I bet you there weren’t 10 cases prosecuted nationwide of addicts or unlawful drug users who possessed firearms or lied on applications … why are you pursuing this one?”

Supreme Court Corruption:

The conclusion of Hunter Biden’s trial has allowed the serious problems of the Supreme Court to become front and center. After the flag stories, including Samuel Alito’s lying about the situation, the narrative seemed to be over, but it instead got much worse. His latest crisis came after journalist Lauren Windsor attended the Supreme Court Historical Society’s annual dinner, where he and Chief Justice Roberts were speaking, and masqueraded as a conservative. A member of the organization, Windsor attended under her own name and taped the public conversation.

Alito easily reported the “difficulty of living ‘peacefully’ with ideological opponents in the face of ‘fundamental’ differences that ‘can’t be compromised.’” He agreed with what Windsor called the “necessary fight to ‘return our country to a place of godliness.’” With these statements made in public, the question is what he’s saying during debates with his colleagues to make decisions. Even worse, how could he claim to be an impartial justice?

Windsor has a record of eliciting confessions from political figures, one of them persuading Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) to tell her that some senators considered refusals to certify Biden’s win ahead of the vote on January 6, 2021. While the GOP candidate for Virginia governor, Glenn Youngkin told her he couldn’t push his anti-abortion views because he would lose independent voters.

In another tape at the event, Roberts denied any polarization after Alito’s statements, saying that it’s no worse than during the Vietnam War. He said:

“The idea that the court is in the middle of a lot of tumultuous stuff going on is nothing new.”

At the event, Windsor also taped Alito’s wife, Martha-Ann Alito, in an impassioned anti-LGBTQ rant about being forced to see the Pride flag during June. In her comments, she indicated that her husband might be resigning if Deposed Donald Trump (DDT) is elected. She said about her husband that “when you’re free of this nonsense,” she’ll put up a flag and “send them a message every day, maybe every week, I’ll be changing the flags.” Rolling Stone’s conclusion about Alito’s remarks:

“The justice’s unguarded comments highlight the degree to which Alito makes little effort to present himself as a neutral umpire calling judicial balls and strikes, but rather as a partisan member of a hard-right judicial faction that’s empowered to make life-altering decisions for every American.”

Joyce Vance, former AG for Alabama, described the legal standard for recusal under federal law:

“Any justice, judge, or magistrate judge of the United States shall disqualify himself in any proceeding in which his impartiality might reasonably be questioned.”

Vance added a statistic about Alito’s rulings on “standing,” whether a plaintiff can bring claims to court, calling him the Court’s “most reliable partisan”:

“An empirical analysis of the Court’s ‘standing’ decisions … found that Alito rules in favor of conservative litigants 100% of the time & against liberal litigants in every single case.”   

Windsor plans a documentary, Gonzo for Democracy, chronicling the growth of Trumpism, election denial, and religious extremism. She said she wants to give the public a “window into a body that is increasingly powerful and increasingly willing to overturn precedent.” Windsor also secretly recorded Alito in 2023.

Top Senate Judiciary Committee member Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) is also calling on Alito for information about an interview he gave the Wall Street Journal on Supreme Court ethics after Alito refused to recuse himself from the January 6, 2021 insurrection and the 2020 election.

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), a top Senate Judiciary Committee member, is calling on Justice Samuel Alito to provide information about an interview he gave the Wall Street Journal on Supreme Court ethics, a request that comes after Alito declined to recuse himself from cases involving Jan. 6, 2021, and the 2020 election. The senator said that Alito’s statement that there is “no provision in the Constitution” that gives Congress the authority to regulate the court was “improper.” The interview was published last July, over a month after ProPublica reported that Alito vacationed with a top GOP donor to Alaska for a fishing trip. From Whitehouse’s letter to Alito:

“The interview raised several problems. It thus appears that you offered an improper opinion regarding a question that might come before the Court; did so in the context of a known ongoing legal dispute involving that precise question; did so at the behest of an interviewer who as a lawyer represented a client in that ongoing dispute; and did so to the benefit of his client, your personal friend, and to the benefit of yourself, as a recipient of undisclosed gifts that are the subject of our investigation.”

“I note that the Supreme Court is the only place in all of government where issues of this nature have no place or means of investigation or resolution. So far, my questions regarding these events seem to have disappeared into a black hole of indifference.”

Alito wrote Whitehouse and committee chair Dick Durbin (D-IL) that he will not recuse himself from the January 6 cases, including DDT’s request for complete immunity, despite recent events such as flying the insurrection flags at his residence and his vacation home. Roberts also refuses to meet with the two senators to discuss the matter.

In comparison, Justice Clarence Thomas lacks the rigid conservative principles that Alito displays; he just follows the money for his decisions. According to a report from Fix the Court (FTC), justices accepted 344 gifts valued at $2,993,036 in the past two decades from January 2004 to December 2023. Another 101 likely gifts to Thomas added $1,787,684 for a total of 445 gifts valued at $4,780,720. Including gifts to the current nine justices plus eight who left the court since 2004 the total to 672 gifts valued at $6,592,657. Thomas has accepted $5,879,796 worth of gifts. The report indicates that amounts are an undercount because visits and free tickets were based on the low end.

Thomas accepted at least 38 vacations, 26 private jet flights, eight flights by helicopter, a dozen VIP passes to sporting events, two stays at luxury resorts in Florida and Jamaica, and a standing invitation to play at a high-end private golf club in Florida from several billionaire benefactors since 1991. Harlan Crow paid for Thomas’ luxury vacations, his mother’s house, and a nephew’s tuition payments, and the justice has also received special treatment from three other billionaires: David Sokol, H. Wayne Huizenga, and Paul “Tony” Novelly. All four billionaires have been major Republican donors.

Fox is finally outraged by a donation to a Supreme Court justice that it calls “eye-popping.” Ketanji Brown Jackson accepted four concert tickets, valued at $3,700, from pop star Beyoncé, and then disclosed the gift as soon as she was required to do so. She also received an $900,000 advance for her upcoming memoir Lovely One out in September and two gifts of artwork in her chambers worth $12,500. Other “eye-popping filings” [were over] $6,500 in clothes from a photo shoot and a $1,200 flower display from Oprah Winfrey. Fox did add that Thomas amended his 2019 filing to add two trips paid by Harlan Crow initially “inadvertently omitted”—but no value.