Isaiah's THE WORLD TODAY JUST NUTS "Lady Bird Chump"
Austin Sarat (SLATE) reminds us that the Supreme Court had a major malfunction fifty yers ago:
So far this year, 15 people have been executed in the United States. More than half of them were Black men; nearly all of them were put to death in Florida, Oklahoma, or Texas. Last year, the number of executions was 47, the largest number in 16 years. Fifteen of them were people of color: 14 Black people and one Hispanic person.
Fifty years after the Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty as constitutionally permissible after a brief ban, these figures are a reminder that executions still play a role in American life. If the Trump administration gets its way, they will play an even bigger role. Capital punishment may be “alive” in the United States, but it is not well.
The death penalty system is rife with miscarriages of justice, racial discrimination, execution failures, and arbitrariness from beginning to end. None of this is news, but on the 50th anniversary of the death penalty’s reinstatement in the United States, it is worth reflecting on why those problems persist.
The death penalty returned after a brief period of suspension when the United States Supreme Court handed down its decision in Gregg v. Georgia on July 2, 1976. Gregg said that death sentences and executions could resume because the court was satisfied that the penalty could be administered in a way that guaranteed that capital defendants would be treated fairly and equally.
In other court news, Sarah K. Burris reports:
Two Supreme Court justices stepped away from two cases on Monday, as Newsweek reported.
Amy Coney Barrett and Samuel Alito decided to sit out federal appeals cases involving firearm convictions and pension payments, though it isn't entirely clear why.
The federal recusal statute (28 U.S. Code § 455) demands that federal judges and top justices must recuse themselves if their impartiality might reasonably be questioned or if their spouse has a financial or other interest that could be substantially affected by the outcome of a proceeding. Over the past several years, there have been several questions about cases the public and judicial critics believe justice should have recused themselves from.
Why did they recuse? They don't have to tell us. Which is more b.s. We need a code of ethic for the Supreme Court that is enforceable nd is transparent.
"The Snapshot" (THE COMMON ILLS):
Gas prices
Asked about rising gas prices that have resulted from the war, Trump said they would go down once a deal is reached.
“If we sign an agreement, it’ll go down now. Otherwise, they’ll go down after we’re finished,” Trump said.
But oil executives have said it will take time to restore oil production in the Middle East and bring down gas prices, even if the Strait of Hormuz is reopened immediately.
Exxon Senior Vice President Neil Chapman said at a Bernstein Research conference late last month that it is “going to take time to rebalance the global markets” once the strait reopens due to dwindling inventories.
“You can estimate four to six weeks before we get into a normal supply chain,” he said. “And it all depends on whether the strait opens — at what time it opens. And then the question for the world and every country and every commercial organization is how quickly do you rebuild those inventories?”
Meanwhile, Sultan Al Jaber, chief executive of the United Arab Emirates state oil group ADNOC, recently said: “Even if this conflict ends tomorrow, it will take at least four months to get back to 80% of pre-conflict flows and full flows will not return before the first or even second quarter of 2027.”
Jan. 6 riot
Trump defended the Justice Department’s proposed $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization” fund, saying that allies who “have been hurt so badly by radical left lunatics” deserve payment. While the Justice Department told a court that the fund is “not going forward,” there’s nothing to stop the Trump administration from giving payouts to Trump allies in the future, even without the fund.
Asked by Welker whether anyone who attacked police officers on Jan. 6 should receive funds, Trump said he “wouldn’t be inclined to say so, but I have to see it.”
When Welker again brought up the roughly 170 Jan. 6 rioters who pleaded guilty to assaulting police officers, Trump said: “They pled guilty because they were frightened. They went down. They were ushered into a building. Many of them were arrested without even going into the building.”
This needs context, as some of the most violent rioters from that day never entered the building. The Biden Justice Department’s sprawling Jan. 6 probe mostly focused on individuals who either entered the Capitol itself or engaged in some sort of aggravating conduct outside the Capitol, such as assaulting police officers.
For example, one of the longest sentences went to David Dempsey, who was ordered to serve 20 years in prison. Prosecutors said he swung makeshift weapons and hurled objects at officers, sprayed them with chemicals, and stomped five times on an officer’s head — acts committed outside the Capitol building itself.
Trump also claimed the FBI brought people into the Capitol on Jan. 6.
“They had FBI agents ushering them into the building,” Trump said.
As Welker noted during the interview, there’s no evidence that any FBI special agents ushered anyone into the building, and no on-duty FBI special agents were on the grounds until after the riot broke out and some responded to assist with crowd control.
There were four FBI confidential human sources, or informants, who entered the Capitol building, but they weren’t directed to do so by the bureau, according to a report from the Justice Department’s inspector general. The report also found that the FBI tasked three informants to report on domestic terrorism suspects who were possibly attending events in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 6. The FBI did not provide tasks for the other 23 informants in Washington that day.
President Donald Trump stormed out of a taped interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press” after being pressed on his controversial “weaponization” fund and on evidence of his persistent claims of election fraud.
Trump sat with NBC’s Kristen Welker for a taped interview on a Wisconsin farm that touched on the Iran war, potential interest rate hikes, and the $1.776 billion “weaponization” fund that could financially compensate convicted violent rioters who attacked police officers on Jan. 6, 2021. Thousands of people stormed the Capitol that day, attempting to disrupt the certification of former President Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory.
The president said he would like to see the weaponization fund proceed despite setbacks that prompted acting Attorney General Todd Blanche to say it was permanently halted.
[. . .]
Trump suggested Jan. 6 rioters were ushered into the Capitol by the FBI, a claim that he did not provide evidence for and which has been widely refuted by video of rioters beating Capitol Police officers who were trying to defend the building.
Pressed by NBC for evidence on those claims, Trump shifted to claims of election fraud, which he has long claimed but has been unable to prove in a court of law.
“The election was rigged, it was a dirty election and it’s happening again right now in California,” he said, referring to primaries for mayoral and gubernatorial elections in the state, where votes are still being counted.
He continued to lie until storming off the set, throwing the microphone to the ground and stepping on it. Chad de Guzman (TIME) notes:
“Let’s call it quits because I’ve had enough,” Trump said, ending the interview. “Thank you darling. Have a good time.” On his way out, he appeared to step on the microphone.
The President has clashed with the press for reporting critically on him and his Administration, and he has also had a pattern of targeting female journalists in particular.
Let's move over to Markwayne Mullin. Markwayne Mullin replaced Kristi Noem as Homeland Security Secretary. on March 24th. Kristi? Chump had to call in Tom Homan to fix things. It appears to be going the same way with Markwayne. Tom Boggioni (RAW STORY) reports:
Violent clashes between protesters and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents at Newark's Delaney Hall detention facility forced the Trump administration to deploy its top immigration official for emergency de-escalation after newly appointed DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin made the situation dramatically worse.
According to Politico reporting by Myah Ward, tensions that had been escalating nightly cooled only after border czar Tom Homan was dispatched to meet with state and local officials and negotiate a resolution to the standoff.
The crisis began when images and videos surfaced showing violent clashes between pro-immigrant demonstrators and ICE agents outside the 1,000-bed, privately run detention facility. The unrest followed allegations of poor conditions inside the facility and a detainee hunger strike. Democratic lawmakers descended on the site to condemn detention conditions and accuse federal agents of violence against protesters.
Mullin's response made matters worse. The new DHS secretary threatened to pull customs staffing from Newark Liberty International Airport—a threat that shocked administration officials and sparked airline industry fears of travel chaos across the region.
Is Markwayne unqualified for the post he's been given? Or is he just a slow starter? Robert Davis (RAW STORY) reports:
Markwayne Mullin may have been brought in to straighten out the Department of Homeland Security following former Secretary Kristi Noem's tenure, but a new report shows that Mullin may be more of the same, according to one legal expert.
The Independent reported in late May that Mullin regularly uses a controversial $70 million Gulfstream jet to fly home to Oklahoma on Thursdays and doesn't return to work until Monday afternoon, meaning he works at most three days a week in Washington, D.C. The aircraft includes a queen bed, a bar, and showers, according to the report. It was one of nine jets the Trump administration approved to purchase with funds meant for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, it added.
Legal expert Shant Karnikian discussed the report during a new episode of the podcast, "Civil Action," on Sunday.
"We'll see how long this lasts," Karnikian said of Mullin's tenure in the Trump administration. "This is apparently the swamp draining that Donald Trump had in mind."
Mullin was brought in to replace Noem after the former secretary publicly undercut President Donald Trump about funding for advertising campaigns featuring Noem. While Mullin told Senators during his confirmation hearing that he would help get Homeland Security back on track, some of his actions seem to suggest otherwise.
For instance, Mullin has called for ICE to return to its old training methods that were curtailed following months of violent clashes between federal agents and protesters. Mullin has also been combative with lawmakers who have questioned his leadership at the department.
Still on ICE, Sophie Hurwitz (MOTHER JONES) reports:
Early Saturday morning, a woman whose husband is detained at ICE’s Delaney Hall in Newark, New Jersey, drove nearly two hours to visit him. She was turned away at the gate.
GEO Group—the multibillion-dollar ICE contractor that runs Delaney Hall—had cancelled family visitation for the day. She sat on a curb, cried, and drove home. Throughout the morning, I saw half-a-dozen women and children arrive: all were told they would not be seeing their loved ones that day.
More than two weeks since detainees began a hunger and labor strike inside Delaney Hall—and their allies outside answered with near-daily protests—it’s still incredibly difficult to find out what’s going on inside the facility. Often, family members find their visits rescheduled or canceled, and journalists have not made it in, either.
Members of Congress are allowed by law to conduct unannounced oversight visits to ICE facilities like Delaney. But politicians have been turned away, too. New Jersey congresswoman LaMonica McIver is facing assault charges after she was arrested alongside Newark mayor Ras Baraka trying to conduct an oversight visit last year. New Jersey governor Mikie Sherrill tried to visit the jail in late May, and was denied.
New Jersey Senator Andy Kim was pepper-sprayed when he tried to enter Delaney Hall last month, and as my colleague Alex Nguyen reported, he was forced to directly call Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin for admittance. Kim returned Saturday morning to try again—and this time, he made it inside.
The Department of Defense has significantly reduced the number of recognized religious affiliation codes used across the military, consolidating roughly 200 categories down to 31 in a broader administrative overhaul of how service members’ religious identities are recorded.
Of those 31 categories, 22 are variations of Christianity, most major Protestant denominations.
Social media is also pointing out the list’s inconsistencies. Catholicism is now listed under a single designation under Christianity without similar distinctions of their denominations. Atheists will now be grouped under “Agnostic” — despite each category representing very different beliefs. Jehovah’s Witnesses are categorized under Christianity, while the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (Mormons) isn’t. All of Judiasm is under a single category. And it’s odd to see Quaker listed so prominently as their doctrine is famously nonviolent and anti-war.
Who put Hegseth in charge of determining what was a religion and what wasn't one? Whomever did that might need to explain to the Mormons how the US government has now declared them a non-religion. And it hasn't gone unnoticed. Alexander Willis (RAW STORY) notes:
Sen. John Curtis (R-UT) lashed out Saturday at Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s office over a “significant change” it instituted regarding the classifications of religions, one he argued was “unacceptable” and that he was actively working to correct.
This week, the Department of Defense announced that it had significantly reduced the number of recognized religions within the agency, down from more than 200 to 31. The change, according to Sean Parnell, Hegseth’s assistant for public affairs, was to allow “religious support personnel" to better provide "spiritual care to our warfighters.”
The
issue, Curtis claimed, was that in whittling down the number of
recognized religions, Hegseth’s office had declared the Church of Jesus
Christ of Latter-day Saints – commonly referred to as the Mormon Church –
to not be a Christian religion.
“Latter-day Saints are among the most patriotic, service-oriented individuals in our country. They are also unequivocally Christian – just look at who is in the name of the Church,” Curtis said in a statement published on social media Saturday. “It is unacceptable for a government entity to characterize a faith in a manner that contradicts the religion’s own foundational tenets. I am working now to ensure a correction is made.”
Washington, D.C. — U.S. Senator Ron Wyden, D-Ore., called for Republican leaders to negotiate on real reforms to warrantless government surveillance, instead of insisting on repeating their failed effort to extend FISA Section 702 without a single meaningful reform. The Senate voted 47-52 early Friday morning against taking up a FISA extension bill.
“Americans aren’t going to stand for law-abiding people being spied on. There’s bipartisan agreement in Congress that the status quo isn’t good enough to protect Americans’ rights against abuse by the government,” Wyden said. “Bill Pulte’s appointment as acting Director of National Intelligence is a symptom of the larger problem: Warrantless FISA surveillance depends on a handful of government officials to choose not to misuse the most powerful spying apparatus the world has ever seen. Firing Pulte won’t solve the real problem. Americans are demanding real protections written into the law, not promises that the next guy will be trustworthy.
“Republican leaders have failed three times this year to pass a long-term extension of warrantless FISA surveillance without a single new meaningful protection. Instead of trying a fourth time, they should put real surveillance reforms on the table.”
Wyden has authored bipartisan surveillance reform legislation to reform Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, and has spent decades leading the fight against the expansion of unnecessary government surveillance.
###
-
-
-
Inside Delaney Hall’s Black Box18 hours ago
-
-
-
-
Comments on a Freaky Friday1 day ago
-
-
Mr. Chump's losing swing2 days ago
-
Idiot of the Week2 days ago
-
-
-
-
-
-
