JOSH GERSTEIN and ZACH MONTELLARO, Staff Writers - Politico
Stephan:
Anyone with an IQ higher than the measurement of their waist who is even minimally enlightened about what has been going on in South Carolina knows the redistricting carried out by the MAGAt Republican legislature was racially based. But, of course, the corrupt MAGAt cabal that dominates the Supreme Court did what they were supposed to do and gave the finger to American democracy and sided with the MAGAt legislature.
In the decision Thursday, the MAGAt Supreme Court sided with the MAGAt state government. | Credit: Francis Chung / Politico
The Supreme Court on Thursday rejected a challenge to a South Carolina congressional redistricting plan that civil rights groups had described as an unconstitutional racial gerrymander.
In a 6-3 ruling divided along conservative-liberal lines, the high court said the challengers had failed to show that the state legislature was motivated by race when it moved thousands of Black voters out of the state’s 1st Congressional District. Instead, Justice Samuel Alito suggested in his majority opinion, the legislature was merely seeking to make the seat safer for Republicans — a goal that does not violate the Constitution.
The Charleston-area district had become a swing seat in the previous decade, changing parties in 2018 and 2020. GOP Rep. Nancy Mace now holds the seat.
After the 2020 census, the Republican-controlled state legislature drew new lines that moved many Black voters into the district long held by the prominent Black Democratic Rep. Jim Clyburn.
CHARISMA MADARANG, Contributing Writer - Rolling Stone
Stephan:
The actual truth about the Alitos’ behavior about the flags they flew is beginning to come out. What is clear to me is that Samuel Alito should not be on the Supreme Court, and it is a measure of how dysfunctional our highest court and our Congress have become that nothing is happening to deal with any of this. You saw in the previous story what is happening as a result of this dysfunctionality.
Associate Justice Samuel Alito Credit: Alex Wong / Getty
After reports that an upside-down American flag had flown outside the residence of Supreme Court Justice Sam Alito during the period surrounding Jan. 6, 2021, the conservative justice blamed the flag’s placement on his wife Martha-Ann — claiming her actions were a result of a clash over a neighbor’s anti-Trump yard sign and a verbal insult.
Now, the Alito’s neighbors — Emily Baden and her then-boyfriend, now husband — are disputing the Alitos’ version of events, according to the New York Times, which reviewed text messages and a police call to corroborate the claims. According to the Badens, Martha-Ann instigated the weeks-long conflict and at one point, spat at their car as they drove by the Alito’s home.
Per the Times, the couple had placed signs on their yard that read “Trump Is a Fascist” and “You Are Complicit” shortly after the Jan. 6 insurrection. Emily told the publication that the second […]
All my life, beginning when I was five, I have valued and cherished public libraries. I understood even as a young boy how important they were. Libraries were the place you could go to learn about anything that interested you or that could entertain you when you were alone, or before you went to bed. I walked away from my career in government because after Watergate, having known most of the people involved, I realized I couldn’t tell the good guys from the bad guys, but I stayed in Washington another year because I didn’t want to lose access to the Library of Congress. Now the MAGAts, who realize libraries educate people to different points of view, are attacking public and school libraries to stop that. MAGAts want indoctrination not education; they want a semi-literate population easily manipulated by their misinformation.
Andrew Carnegie, a childhood immigrant, realized the importance of public libraries like this one in Pittsburgh and left most of his money to be used to build such libraries across the United States. Credit: Wikipedia
On the first of July 1731 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Benjamin Franklin and members of the Junto Club, an organization of civic minded Philadelphians that Franklin had founded and organized, carried out what they considered one of their most important actions to foster civic wellbeing. They founded a library. To quote the Benjamin Franklin Historical Society, “The idea to create a lending library started during Junto Club gatherings where each member would bring books toshare with others and consult during debates, but bringing books back and forth became cumbersome. It was agreed by the members to keep the books in the meeting room so that all members would benefit from them. It was also of great benefit to borrow a book and bring it home to read, therefore the idea of starting a public […]
Thom Hartmann lays out very well what the leaders of the MAGAt cult are trying to do. You would think voters who support criminal Trump and the MAGAt Republican cult would understand that the leaders of the cult are trying to create an easily manipulated ignorant semi-literate peasantry to serve the autocratic uber-rich authoritarians. You might think that since it is so obvious, but you would be wrong. The White MAGAt cult is so consumed by their resentments and hate they don’t get it at all.
MAGAt cult Republican Speak of the HOuse Mike Johnson Credit: Win McNamee / Getty
Odds are you’ve never heard of the “mudsill theory of labor,” but you and everybody else in this country really should learn about it. It explains a whole spectrum of Republican behavior that otherwise seems baffling and self-defeating. For example:
— The past 7 years have seen a near-fivefold increase in documented child labor violations by employers. States have responded to this alarming trend in two ways: Democratic-controlled states are putting more teeth into their laws and upping enforcement; Republican-controlled states are loosening their laws and cutting back on enforcement so children can drop out of school and go to work.
So far, three Blue states (and two Red ones) have made it harder for employers to exploit child labor, while eight Red states have made it easier for children to get trapped in a cycle of work that often ends their educational progress and consigns them to […]
Here is some good news. In preparation for the upcoming election, President Biden is trying to Trump-proof the NIH, the largest medical research entity in the U.S. so that even if Biden loses medical science will not be subject to the same medical nonsense espoused by criminal Trump when he was president.
Dr. Anthony Fauci the one rational voice in the Trump administration during the Covid pandemic Credit: Drew Angerer / Getty
The Biden administration is setting up new tripwires for Donald Trump at America’s premier health research agency to safeguard against political interference if Trump wins in November.
The White House fears Trump could try to advance an ideological agenda at the National Institutes of Health, like the ones he’s suggested on everything from vaccines to diversity policies.
In an effort to Trump-proof, NIH has designated an official to identify political meddling in the agency’s work and is tasking a soon-to-be-established scientific integrity council with reviewing those cases. The White House knows Trump could still cast those plans aside but is calculating that doing so will set off alarms with the media, Congress and the public. The Biden administration likely hopes GOP lawmakers, even those who think the NIH needs an overhaul, will temper Trump’s moves.
“Interfering and manipulating science to hit a partisan agenda is inappropriate and is what we’re working to wall against,” Lyric Jorgenson, NIH’s designated scientific integrity official, said in […]
