Thursday Open Thread

13 thoughts on “Thursday Open Thread”

1. I recall a lot of angst about whether the Affordable Care Act would survive the latest challenge before the SCOTUS.  So this 7-2 ruling dismissing the GOP challenge is both surprising and a great relief.  I suppose attorneys would understand why better than an average citizen like me. 

   The Supreme Court on Thursday dismissed the latest challenge to the Affordable Care Act, saying Republican-led states do not have the legal standing to try to upend the law.

   Justice Stephen G. Breyer wrote the court’s 7 to 2 decision that preserves the law that provides millions of Americans with health coverage.

   Justices Samuel A. Alito Jr. and Neil M Gorsuch dissented.

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   1. Wow !!  After weeks of speculating whether and how the "conservative majority" would deal with the ACA case: answer is — deny standing. 

      But the decision is an odd coalition:  "BREYER, J., delivered the opinion of the Court, in which ROBERTS, C. J., and THOMAS, SOTOMAYOR, KAGAN, KAVANAUGH, and BARRETT, JJ., joined. THOMAS, J., filed a concurring opinion."

      So now, perhaps, there will be a round 4 on the ACA, after those opposed go find someone who DOES qualify for standing under these decisions.  I can't imagine Republicans abandoning their court strategy.

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   2. Two major surprises today, as 6 justices in the 9-0 decision Fulton v. City of Philadelphia opted to leave Employment Div. v. Smith, 494 U.S. 872 (1990) alone. Smith is all that stands between the U.S. and total accomodationist snowflakery in Free Exercise Clause jurisprudence.

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2. Today is Icelandic National Day

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3. Couldn't believe my lyin' eyes when I first saw this, but it looks like the Arizona voting fraudit delivered Maricopa County voting system data to a cabin/lab in remote northwestern Montana. One excerpt from the story with info from Republican Ken Bennett, former AZ Secretary of State who's now acting as a liaison for the AZ Senate:

   Bennett said the lab has data downloaded from the hard drives Maricopa County used in the election, which he says they physically picked up and drove to Montana. He said it may or may not include voter registration data, and some of it could be sensitive. He says Cyber Ninjas picked CyFIR to review the data.

    

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4. Denver's own Jami Duffy, Executive Director of Denver-based Youth on Record (if you haven't dropped by for a tour, do so) on the Today Show this morning sharing the great news that her organization is one of the recipients of Mackenzie Scott's latest round of philanthropy, $1 million.  

   From today's Denver Post: 

   Denver's Youth on Record gifted $1 million by Mackenzie Scott.

   At first, Jami Duffy thought the donation inquiry in her inbox at Youth on Record wasn’t real. Rather, she suspected a Russian scam.

   Duffy, executive director of the Denver-based Youth On Record, was skeptical of the email she received promising a large monetary contribution from a mysterious donor. In the past, she had never encountered something quite like it.

   “This came from a source I didn’t know,” she said. “They didn’t say who the donor was in the email. They didn’t say it was coming from a foundation.”

   To her surprise, the money was coming from philanthropist MacKenzie Scott and her husband, Dan Jewett. Scott, who divorced Amazon founder, Jeff Bezos, in 2019 and left the marriage with a stake in the company, is one of the richest people in the world. On Tuesday, the philanthropist announced she was donating $2.7 billion to 286 organizations. Forbes estimates that Scott’s net worth is $57 billion, making her the 22nd wealthiest person in the world.

   Two worthy quotes from Ms. Scott: 

   "I'm attepmpting to give away a fortune that was enabled by a system in need of change."

   "We are governed by a humbling belief that it would be better if disproportionate wealth were not concentrated in a small number of hands and that the solutions are best designed and implemented by others."

    

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5. Jena Griswald is NOT amused.  Her email notification today:

   Colorado’s elections are considered the safest in the nation, and we must remain steadfast in our dedication to security,” said Secretary of State Jena Griswold.  “Along those lines, no third-party person or vendor will be permitted access to voting equipment in our state.  We will not risk the state’s election security nor perpetuate The Big Lie.  Sham audits have no place in Colorado.”         

   The new and amended rules, which have been implemented immediately, reinforce who can access state-certified voting systems.  In order to access any component of a county’s voting system, a person must have passed a comprehensive criminal background check and be either an employee of the county clerk, an employee of the voting system provider, an employee of the Secretary of State’s Office, or an appointed election judge.

   The rules further enable the Colorado Secretary of State’s Office to limit or prohibit the use of, as well as decertify, any voting systems component in the event of a break in its chain-of-custody or other hardware security compromises, such that its security and integrity can no longer be verified.  

   A third-party vendor with no election experience is currently performing a faulty, unsecure election audit in Arizona and calls for such sham audits have been spreading in other states. Several Colorado counties have been contacted by third parties offering to conduct audits. Colorado already administers post-election Risk Limiting Audits after every statewide election, which gives a statistical level of confidence that the outcome of an election is correct. For more information on Risk Limiting Audits, click here.   

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   1. We all know what is coming from the nutter review of the Arizona election.  They will claim Trump actually won.  Then they will be asked for their evidence, reasoning and methodology.  If they present it, it will be torn apart.  I suspect they will claim something really stupid like all of their info is proprietary so we can't tell you, and slink away.  They will claim Trump won though. 

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   2. I will be devoting close to 100% of my 2022 efforts to reelecting Griswold, the first Dem to win a CO SoS election since 1958.

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      1. 

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6. A nice piece by Reuters on the Colorado cannabis endeavor and how our one domino set the course to end the scourge of Prohibition around the world: 

   Cannabis attorney Sederberg: ‘We’re winning’ as states, firms embrace marijuana

   In other Colorado cannabis news, a local hemp extractor in Wray petitioned the city council to grant a variance so they could extract marijuana biomass from the Front Range (Wray and Yuma County enactrd the prohibitions after the passage of Amendment 64).  The request was only to extract and send the liquid product back to Denver.  Not asking for a dispensary or distribution.  Even after some extremely supportive remarks by local citizens and both bank presidents, the council rejected their request.  At capacity, the endeavor would have created 20 good jobs and six-figure revenue to the city. 

   This mindset is why we can’t have nice things in Dump huckistan. 

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7. Matt Gaetz "excommunicated " from Fox News – Raw Story.

   

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   1. You see, even Faux News has standards — i.e. It doesn’t matter what you do on your own dime, just don’t get caught

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