Is there a stupidity test for someone to host a Fox show? On The Big Weekend Show Sunday evening, host “Kennedy,” Lisa Kennedy Montgomery, began by talking about Tropical Storm Hilary hitting California. She stated that “the storm which made landfall in Mexico several hours ago.” The reason? “They let it right into the country because it’s Biden’s America.” Hopefully, Kennedy thought she was being funny, but the Qanon followers will suck it up.
Otherwise, the past few days have experienced some positive news for the U.S.:
A federal judge appointed by former Deposed Donald Trump (DDT) has overturned part of a Georgia election law banning the giving out of food and water to voters in line to cast ballots and the requirement that voters put their birth dates on the outside envelopes of their ballots. Judge J.P. Boulee let stand a ban on distributing food and water within 150 feet of the building with the polls but paused the ban in additional areas within 25 feet of a voter in line.
Lt. Gen. Dan Patrick wants legal help while presiding over the impeachment of former AG Ken Paxton at the beginning of September, but his first choice turned him down. Marc Brown, former GOP justice on the 14th Court of Appeals from Harris County, said he declined because he and his wife donated $250 to Eva Guzman’s campaign when she ran against Paxton in the GOP primary. (Take note, Supreme Court justices taking bribes millions of dollars!) In June, a month after Paxton was impeached, Patrick took $3 million from Defend Texas Liberty, a group campaigning against Paxton’s impeachment. $1 million donation and $2 million loan. Patrick is up for reelection in 2026.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia overturned federal approval of the Uinta Basin Railway, at least temporarily, that would have connected Utah’s oil fields to the national railway network. The project cuts through tribal land and a national forest. Violations of the National Environmental Policy Act include failures to examine impacts on vegetation and special-status species in the Uinta Basis, increased oil train traffic on the Union Pacific Line, effects of oil refining, wildfire risk, impact on water resources, and accident risk. Another extreme danger of the proposed railway is the possibility of an oil train derailment in the Colorado River headwaters. Forty million people rely on the river for its drinking water and livelihoods. The court ordered the Surface Transportation Board to redo its three-year environmental review in the northeast corner of Utah.
Two-thirds of likely U.S. voters support the current writers’ and actors’ union strikes; even 48 percent of those who don’t like labor unions support the strikes. Only 18 percent of respondents oppose the actions of the two unions. Over 80 percent approves demands of appropriate compensation. After a three months’ strike, unions have been negotiating for the past week.
Walt Disney Company has filed a countersuit against Florida, claiming Gov. Ron DeSantis’ newly-appointed district members for Disney violates the state constitution and accuses the state of Breach of Contract. The new law strips Disney of the ability to operate as its own form of government and makes the state in control, able to completely rework the district’s operation.
The lawsuit comes on top of DeSantis’ assigned Disney chief being forced to resign or risk breaking Florida state law. Glen Gilzean is the state’s ethics commission chair while being paid $400,000 to serve on the district board. State law prevents public employees from serving on the panel. DeSantis has made these and many other moves to retaliate against Disney since Iger tweeted a criticism of DeSantis’ “don’t say gay” law.
DeSantis has been found using perks to obtain donations for his PAC. In 2019, DeSantis’ political team included the state’s top 40 lobbyists and 100 “suggested clients to target” for political contributions. As presidential candidate, DeSantis said about Florida, “We’ve drained the swamp in here” while lambasting DDT for not doing the same. When individuals and groups didn’t meet the amount of donations that DeSantis wanted, he retaliated against them by creating unfriendly policies. In contrast, he rewarded those who complied with his demands. A home builder furnished the governor’s mansion with a golf simulator before getting fast-track treatment for a highway interchange benefiting one of his projects. Florida does not ban asking for exchanges of donations for official favors if the money is not made explicit.
Arkansas won’t give students credit for taking AP African American History, but some teachers are teaching it anyway. Every public high school in the state previously offering the course announced it remains on the schedule for the coming year. A letter to students and parents in the Little Rock School District stated the class “will be weighted the same as all other AP courses” and that the district will cover the cost of taking the exam, also violating the order from the state department of education. Teachers risk dismissal but are committed to educating students. In 1957, Little Rock Central High School was the first in the nation to racially integrate over objections by racist white people. In late July, a federal judge temporarily blocked an Arkansas law criminalizing librarians who distribute materials—even leaving books on the shelves—considered “harmful to minors.”
In Michigan, a federal judge appointed by George W. Bush denied a right-wing attempt to stop President Joe Biden’s student debt relief for 804,000 borrowers. Judge Thomas L. Ludington ruled that two conservative think tanks lacked standing to challenge the move erasing $40 billion of the $1.6 trillion in outstanding federal student loan debt. Mike Pierce, executive director of the Student Borrower Protection Center, wrote that “borrowers were cheated by predatory companies.” Biden said:
“Because of errors and administrative failures of the student loan system that started long before I took office, over 804,000 borrowers never got the credit they earned, and never saw the forgiveness they were promised—even after making payments for decades.”
Despite Biden’s efforts, student loan payments recommence in October after the pandemic hiatus, but 62 percent of those with loans say they will not make the payments. Despite a shoddy lawsuit with falsehoods from plaintiffs who had no standing, the Supreme Court struck down Biden’s plan to cancel up to $20,000 in federal students loan debt for tens of millions of borrowers.
James O’Keefe, founder of Project Veritas, is being investigated for spending “an excessive amount of donor funds” on personal luxuries. Also allegedly mistreating workers, he was suspended in February and then fired as chairman and CEO. O’Keefe’s name hit the media when his doctored videos first destroyed Acorn, a community-based organization advocating for low and moderate income families, and later smeared Planned Parenthood.
O’Keefe tried to blame the group’s CFO Tom O’Hara for the expenditures, and O’Hara is providing the Westchester County DA with O’Keefe’s misdeeds for the officials’ probe. Last week, the new CEO, Hannah Giles, fired the entire Veritas staff leaving “only a skeleton crew of HR and a few fundraisers,” according to right-wing activist Charlie Kirk. O’Keefe participated in spreading the falsehood of commonplace and easy-to-commit voter fraud.
Another red state is fighting for abortion rights with a citizens’ measure. A Nebraska coalition called Protect Our Rights filed organizational papers on August 4 and updated their ballot initiative registration the next day. The target is the 2024 general election. Arizona reproductive rights advocates have also announced an initiative to be placed on 2024 ballots for a constitutional amendment affirming the right to abortion care.
GOP legislators want to impeach the new progressive on the state Supreme court, Justice Janet Protasiewicz, but conservative justice, Rebecca Bradley, would be a better subject for impeachment. Bradley, who has attacked Protasiewica for opposing gerrymandering, clearly shows how she will rule on cases, GOP grounds for impeachment:
- Attacked all the recent court decisions as partisan and biased;
- Called other justices “political hacks” and “politicians wearing robes,” not “jurists”;
- Wrote during the height of AIDS that “lives of degenerate drug addicts and queers are valued more than the innocent victims of more prevalent ailments” such as cancer;
- Referred to abortion as a “holocaust of our children”’
- Compared the governor’s lockdown orders at the height of the pandemic to World War II’s Japanese-American internment;
- Dissented in a routine appeal of a criminal conviction for homicide by criticizing the trial judge for mentioning the defendant’s gun ownership’
- Linked the use of drop boxes for ballots to democracy manipulation by Saddam Hussein, Kim Jong-un, Raul Castro, and Bashar al-Assad.
- Told conservative Justice Brian Hagedorn he should resign if he wasn’t willing “to fulfill” the judicial oath after he ruled that a parent’s anti-transgender lawsuit against the Madison School District’s policies should follow the state’s normal appeals process;
- Used Ben Shapiro’s 2014 book, How to Debate Leftists and Destroy Them in a ruling to oppose “woke corporate nonsense;
- Tried to conceal personal edits of her Wikipedia page, violating its guidelines.
In a preliminary injunction, a federal judge temporarily blocked Georgia from enforcing a new law banning doctors from starting hormone therapy for transgender people under the age of 18. The ban lasts until a further court order or trial.
A Ukrainian drone strike destroyed a flagship Russian long-range bomber which can fly at twice the speed of sound and attacks Ukrainian cities. In January, a similar plane launched a missile killing 30 people in Dnipro apartments.
Nel's New Day 