UK Election, GOP Shenanigans Plus More DDT

In the third world shakeup this month, UK’s Tory Prime Minister Rishi Sunak called for a surprise general election on July 4, catching his party members off guard. Never elected, Sunak was appointed by his own party two years ago after Liz Truss left at the end of 49 days.  The country’s sixth Conservative leader since David Cameron was elected in 2010, Sunak moved the party to the right with his focus on immigration and “anti-woke” language, disturbing his centrist colleagues.

Believing they would have a better chance in autumn, Tories are furious, especially after their recent election losses. Opinion polls give the Labour party a 20-point lead, and it has an organized campaign. Parliament is now suspended at the end of the week and formally shut down in another week, leaving it only two days to pass any outstanding legislation. The first July election in UK since 1945, it is also the first general election since 2015 not requiring Parliamentary approval. This week begins general election campaigning for the 650 seats in Parliament.

Speaker MAGA Mike Johnson (R-LA) has no additional GOP votes after Vince Fong was elected to fill the seat of former Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) who resigned last year. Rep. Greg Murphy (R-NC) will be absent for an indefinite time to undergo surgery for the removal of a tumor at the base of his skull. Johnson must also deal with the departure of four staff members, including his well-connected communications director, Raj Shah, a link to DDT loyalists.

After the discovery of Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito flying the U.S. flag upside down, claiming a stolen presidential election in 2020, a second flag story appeared. In July and September of 2023, the Alitos flew the “Appeal to Heaven” flag (aka Pine Tree flag) at their New Jersey summer beach house. The flag symbolizes religious support for the “Stop the Steal” campaign and Christian nationalists’ promotion to recreate the U.S. government. Once used by George Washington, the flag appeared at the January 6 insurrection. Court authority Dahlia Lithwick commented:

“That flag is not merely another January 6 signifier but also rooted in John Locke’s ‘appeal to heaven,’ meaning ‘a responsibility to rebel, even use violence, to overthrow unjust rule.’”

Johnson flew the same flag outside his office last year. He claims that “it goes back to the founder’s era” and that he’s “always flown that flag,” that it has nothing to do with the “stop the steal” protests.”

In 2013, prominent far-right evangelical Dutch Sheets made the flag a symbol of his ambitions for Christian nationalism and wrote about it in his 2015 book, An Appeal to Heaven. He and his fellow leaders described Alito their great religious hope as an opponent to abortion and same-gender marriage.  

Rep. Steve Cohen (D-TN) introduced a resolution to censure Alito “for knowingly violating the federal recusal statute and binding ethics standards and calling the impartiality of the Supreme Court of the United States into question.” He stated that flying the flag upside down shows “a knowing and shameless demonstration of his political bias.” Other Democrats have called on Alito to recuse himself from cases about the 2020 election and the insurrection, including DDT’s presidential immunity case. A few Republicans mildly criticized Alito’s actions but want the court to monitor itself.

In solidarity with DDT, GOP Senators are rejecting a bill solving security on the southern border originally endorsed by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY). McConnell asked President Joe Biden to solve the problem with executive actions. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) wants to advance the bill this week. Several Senators posturing against the bill are vying to Senate minority leader with McConnell resigning form the position this fall. (Right: Schumer holding a sign last week.)

Schumer’s bill is part of the strategy to show Republicans as obstructionists toward solving southern border issues. The DOJ will announce a rule for more resources to prosecute migrants with immigration-related offenses. Biden has already signed executive orders, one of which imposes sanctions on people profiting from moving migrants, moves the disqualification standard earlier in the asylum process, and processes recent asylum seekers before those in the line longer. Senate Democrats will hold a press conference explaining how the bipartisan bill that the GOP scuttled would have helped block down on fentanyl shipped into the U.S.

Upset because Rep. Jim McGovern (D-MA) described the legal problems of Deposed Donald Trump (DDT) on the House floor, Rep. Erin Houchin (R-IN) demanded his words be stricken from the record. McGovern was rebuked and stopped from making any statements for the remainder of the day. During the process, House business was halted for over an hour while Republicans had McGovern’s factual remarks investigated by the House Parliamentarian:

“We have a presumptive nominee for President facing 88 felony counts, and we’re being prevented from even acknowledging it. These are not alternative facts. These are real facts. A candidate for President of the United States is on trial for sending a hush money payment to a porn star to avoid a sex scandal during his 2016 campaign, and then fraudulently disguising those payments in violation of the law. He’s also charged with conspiring to overturn the election. He’s also charged with stealing classified information and a jury has already found him liable for rape and a civil court. And yet, in this Republican controlled House, it’s okay to talk about the trial but you have to call it a sham.”

Presiding over the chamber, Rep. Jerry Carl (R-AL) made the decision to strike McGovern’s “offensive” remarks according to House Rule XVII, “House members are prohibited from impugning the motives of fellow House members, senators or the President. And in this case, the former President.” McGovern also said:

 “My friends over the other side of the aisle have pandered to their most extreme members over and over and over again. They let the extremists kick out their own Speaker. They let the extremists dictate the agenda on the House floor. They let the extremists take down seven rule votes since January 2023—a stunning indictment of their ability to get anything done. And speaking of indictments, Republicans are skipping their real jobs to take day trips up to New York to try to undermine Donald Trump’s criminal trial. No time to work with Democrats, but plenty of time to put on weird matching cult uniforms and stand behind President Trump with their bright red ties like pathetic props…

“Now I understand why my Republican friends want to distract from Donald Trump. They don’t want to talk about how Trump had the worst jobs record since the Great Depression, how we sold out our allies and empowered our adversaries. So they bring silly things like this to the floor to deflect blame and distract from the fact that they have no real vision, just division, and no real plans to make life better for the American people.”

DDT’s criminal trial doesn’t resume until next Tuesday, the 21^st day and seventh week, but Judge Juan Merchan gave the jury directions yesterday on the process to reach their verdict. To find DDT guilty of felony falsification of business records, they must agree that the falsification was done to cover up a separate crime, but they don’t need a unanimous agreement on any of the three possible “predicate” crimes: tax-related offenses and both state and federal campaign finance violations. Defense lawyers had unsuccessfully argued for unanimous agreement for each instance. The prosecution had said that “the importance of the case is not a basis for deviating from the standard application of the law. There’s no reason to rewrite the law for this case.” With this ruling, jurors can more easily find DDT guilty on any of the 34 felony charges.

According to a newly unsealed 87-page filing for Florida’s classified document case, DDT’s lawyers found more classified documents in his bedroom four months after the FBI searched Mar-a-Lago in August 2022. After that search, other classified documents were found at “an off-site office, a storage unit and at Mar-a-Lago,” according to U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell. She also stated that DDT intentionally obstructed the government’s investigation despite a subpoena to turn over all the classified materials. In June 2022, DDT’s lawyers had guaranteed that no classified documents were at Mar-a-Lago.

As a distraction, DDT is using a fundraising email to accuse Biden of trying to assassinate him because the DOJ used boiler-plate language authorizing the FBI to use deadly force when executing a court-approved search warrant. DDT also claims that proves Biden is “MENTALLY UNFIT TO HOLD OFFICE.” Ultra-conservative lawmakers leaped on the band wagon, echoing DDT’s statement that Biden was “locked & loaded” and “ready to take me out.” DDT has gone to the Supreme Court for permission to do this to Biden.  

In a rare announcement, the FBI responded to the unwarranted accusations by stating that “standard protocol” was followed with “no departure from the norm in this matter.” Before the search, the FBI guaranteed that DDT would not be on the premises and informed the Seret Service and local law enforcement of their plans.

In another laptop scandal, another DDT adviser connected to his Save America PAC admitted scanning classified documents in a box in 2021 that he stored on a personal laptop provided by the PAC. Last year, the media reported the aide is Chamberlain Harris, known as ROTUS, Receptionist of the United States.

News beyond the U.S. House and Israel

The Supreme Court refused an appeal on a 10^th Circuit Court decision affirming sanctions against a frivolous 2020 election awarded to several defendants including Michigan, Facebook, Dominion Voting Systems, and Pennsylvania. Amounts and plaintiffs are here. 

The high court giveth and it taketh away: justices’ responses to arguments in Alexander v. South Carolina State Conference of the N.A.A.C.P., No. 22-807 appear to indicate that the conservatives may reinstate a unconstitutional racially gerrymandered redistricting map in South Carolina that was unanimously opposed by a three-judge panel of the D.C. Circuit Court. Chief Justice John Roberts said that evidence of Republicans use of race as the predominant factor in redistricting was both circumstantial and consistent with legal acceptability. Although the case is similar to the high court’s ruling against racial gerrymandering, it was determined by the Voting Rights Act; the South Carolina case was determined by the Constitution’s equal protection clause. Ergo opposite results.

Justice Elena Kagan said the D.C. ruling was sound, but legislators could not achieve their political goals by using data on race which she called “a proxy for politics.” She asked why mapmakers would “use race as a proxy to do partisan gerrymandering when [they] could do partisan gerrymandering. She suggested their data was more reliable on racially polarized than a partisan tilt, suggesting that race was more reliable than partisanship.

Anchored in Charleston, the challenged district, anchored in Charleston, elected a Republican every year since 1980 except for 2018. The 2020 race was close, electing GOP Nancy Mace, so the legislature wants a stronger GOP tilt, and Mace is cooperating, moving from supposedly a reasonable Republican to a radical right-winger supporting Jordan for Speaker and wearing a “A” for her T-shirt. But the legislature wants to guarantee a Republican from the district by moving 62 percent of Black voters out of the district to another one that Black Democrat James Clyburn has held for 30 years. That keeps Mace’s district safe for her.

In Slate, Chris Geidner describes how Justice Samuel Alito is determined to keep South Carolina’s District 1 safe for Republicans. He writes:

“After more than two hours of Alito-centered arguments, the question for his other conservative colleagues will be whether they side with him, change the law, and have the Supreme Court serve as a super-trial court in such cases—allowing the high court to reject trial court findings when they come out a way the conservative majority doesn’t like.

“Instead of moving 90,000 residents out of the overpopulated district and into the underpopulated one, the state swapped more than 50,000 residents into the overpopulated district and moved 140,000 residents out of it. The decisions about who was moved out of the district were done in a way, the district court found, that kept the Black voting-age population in the district at the same level—in part to help ensure that district would remain a Republican district—even as the new demographics of the area suggested the Black voting-age population in the district should increase.”

The D.C. court found that this action violated the unlawful racial gerrymander under the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, requiring a “clear error” for the Supreme Court to overturn its findings. Justice Clarence Thomas, however, attacked those findings for finding the defendant’s experts noncredible. Alito supported Thomas by saying that they don’t “simply rubber-stamp findings by a district court” and then moved on to discredit the plaintiff’s experts before asking the NAACP’s lawyer 37 questions, part of it in a marathon 19-question session. At one point the lawyer asked if “we are retrying expert testimony on appeal.” The other eight justices asked a total of 28 questions.  

The outcome is not guaranteed. Inquiry from Justices Neil Gorsuch and Amy Coney Barrett did not clarify their positions.

U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell, presiding over the damages trial against Rudy Giuliani, said she will tell jurors that the former personal lawyer for Deposed Donald Trump (DDT) intentionally hid financial documents and other records in defiance of court orders. Jurors are to determine how much he must pay two Georgia election workers he defamed. Giuliani’s lawyer cannot make “any argument, or introducing any evidence, stating or suggesting that he is insolvent, bankrupt, judgment proof, or otherwise unable to defend himself.” The election workers received death threats after Giuliani, also criminally charged in the Fulton County racketeering case with DDT and others, falsely accused them of election fraud. Giuliani is also in almost $2 million debt to his former lawyers and the IRS.

After a House subcommittee asked the DOJ to sue Google for antitrust violations, it is taking action with a lawsuit alleging anticompetitive practices such as the multibillion-dollar deal making Google the default search engine on Apple phones. With a market value of almost $2 trillion, Google controls over 90 percent of the online search market. The DOJ plans to prove that Google abused the monopoly to harm its competitors and kept the monopoly through illegal means. Google is accused of blurring search and advertising with tweaks and ranks of what searchers see while injecting advertising. Last week the FTC and 17 states filed a similar case against Amazon for anticompetitive tactics, illegal if people must pay higher prices.

Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ) has been indicted for being an unregistered agent of the Egyptian government after an indictment on receiving bribes. In 2015, Menendez helped resolve the Egyptian government’s reluctance to pay for an injured American by their U.S.-made Apache helicopter. Charges accuse him of secretly aiding Egyptian officials while he was chair of the Senate foreign relations committee. Although 60 percent of the Democratic senators urged him to resign, Menendez remains in the chamber and hasn’t said whether he will run for reelection in 2024.   

The Senate has unanimously passed legislation to fund prevention of stillbirths, attempting to stop the preventable of over 5,000 deaths of a fetus at 20 weeks of pregnancy or more. Under one-third of state health departments are currently using money allocated for stillbirth reduction by Title V Maternal and Child Health block grants. The lack of a Speaker ensures that the House cannot address the Senate bill.

Marion (KS) Police Chief Gideon Cody has been suspended after he oversaw an illegal raid on the small Kansas newspaper leading to the 98-year-old owner’s death from the harassment. The town mayor has not provided any details including whether Cody still gets paid. The raid removed all computers, cell phones, and electronic devices. Cody got the Marion job after Kansas City fired him from the police department for allegations of sexual misconduct. The Kansas Bureau of Investigation is in charge of the probe into the entire situation, early on revoking the warrant for the seizures of the equipment.

Former IRS contractor Charles Littlejohn has pled guilty to leaking tax returns of wealthy people–including DDT, Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates, and Elon Musk—showing what a small percentage of their earnings they pay in taxes.

Idaho has been wooing residents in a large geographic area of Oregon to separate from the state and join Idaho, and some counties have already voted in favor of it. The process is not quick: both state legislatures must leave, and Congress must approve. With a huge majority of Republicans, the Idaho legislature has vote in favor, but the Democrats in Oregon will likely disagree. Idaho bans abortion as well as support for pregnancies and births, failing to expand postpartum Medicaid coverage and turning down federal grants for child care. As a result, doctors are rapidly leaving the state.

Cannabis is also illegal in Idaho, greatly reducing the tax base. Idaho also has the worst-funded schools in the nation at 58 percent of the national average, but taxes are increasing. The state sales tax includes food, and the state’s water resources are weaker than in Oregon. Roads face several funding problems, and the number of state troopers is limited. And Oregonians want to be a part of Idaho.

Presidential candidate and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis keeps losing. An 11^th Circuit Court panel voted 2-1 to refuse his request to let his drag show ban be in effect during the case against it. A U.S. District judge agreed with the plaintiff that the ban violated free speech rights and placed a temporary statewide injunction against the ban. The higher court agreed in the state appeal, writing about “a serious chill upon protected speech” if the law goes into effect during the proceedings. Courts have also blocked similar drag bans in Tennessee and Texas.

In another DeSantis loss, 27 percent of the student body, 186 of 691 students, has dropped out after he changed the New College of Florida from a liberal arts school to a right-wing indoctrination institution. The school’s retention history is at 64.9 percent after DeSantis patterned it after Hillsdale, the conservative Christian college in Michigan. New students are experiencing a decrease in the grade-point averages and test scores. During last summer, the school also lost 36 faculty members, leaving only 100 still on full time.

Charles Koch, 16^th wealthiest person in the U.S. worth $54.5 billion, said he has transferred $5.3 billion of his $125 billion stock to two conservative nonprofits with fewer restrictions on lobbying and politics than traditional charities. Before that he donated $1.8 billion to charity through his Stand Together nonprofit network, formerly the Koch network.

In its strong support for Israel, MSNBC has removed three respected Muslim-American hosts from their positions: Mehdi Hasan, Ayman Mohyeldin, and Ali Velshi.