4th of July Weekend Open Thread

22 thoughts on “4th of July Weekend Open Thread”

1. On the Roberts 6 Gang legislating against Biden’s student debt forgiveness plan:

   But I don’t want to discuss Roberts’s majority opinion as much as I do Justice Elena Kagan’s dissent. Kagan wrote something unusual. She didn’t just challenge the chief justice’s reasoning, she questioned whether the court’s decision was even constitutional.

   “From the first page to the last, today’s opinion departs from the demands of judicial restraint,” Kagan wrote. “At the behest of a party that has suffered no injury, the majority decides a contested public policy issue properly belonging to the politically accountable branches and the people they represent.”

   She continued: “That is a major problem not just for governance, but for democracy too. Congress is of course a democratic institution; it responds, even if imperfectly, to the preferences of American voters. And agency officials, though not themselves elected, serve a President with the broadest of all political constituencies. But this Court? It is, by design, as detached as possible from the body politic. That is why the Court is supposed to stick to its business — to decide only cases and controversies, and to stay away from making this Nation’s policy about subjects like student-loan relief.”

   The court, Kagan concluded, “exercises authority it does not have. It violates the Constitution.”

   https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/01/opinion/elena-kagan-dissent-supreme-court.html

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2. Near the end of that same article:

   If there is an evergreen presence in these stories concerning the court’s ethical entanglement, it is Leonard Leo, one of the longtime leaders of the Federalist Society, a conservative legal organization. Leo helped organize Alito’s fishing trip with Paul Singer; he can be seen (in a painting commissioned for the Texas billionaire Harlan Crow) vacationing with Clarence Thomas; 

   I suppose that commissioned painting would be a prized addition to Crow’s fascist trophy collection?

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   1. Update: Trammell Crow Jr and company had their human trafficking trial moved to West Texas.

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3. What is your favorite patriotic quote that applies to our current politics?

   Two of mine:

   “America is known as a country that welcomes people to its shores. All kinds of people.” – Ruth Bader Ginsburg

   “Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel.” – Samuel Johnson

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   1. From the good old 2012 Jeff Daniels rant on "Newsroom" when he was asked why America is the greatest nation in the world:

      And with a straight face, you're going to tell students that America's so starspangled awesome that we're the only ones in the world who have freedom? Canada has freedom, Japan has freedom, the UK, France, Italy, Germany, Spain, Australia, Belgium has freedom. Two hundred seven sovereign states in the world, like 180 of them have freedom.

      …there is absolutely no evidence to support the statement that we're the greatest country in the world. We're seventh in literacy, twenty-seventh in math, twenty-second in science, forty-ninth in life expectancy, 178th in infant mortality, third in median household income, number four in labor force, and number four in exports. We lead the world in only three categories: number of incarcerated citizens per capita, number of adults who believe angels are real, and defense spending, where we spend more than the next twenty-six countries combined, twenty-five of whom are allies.

      Sure, I got out of the bed on the wrong side this morning. But this rant came before some President got elected despite losing by 3 million votes, before 1/6, and before the performance of this modern right-winged Supreme Court.

      I still love the good ol' U.S. of A, and will celebrate this weekend – just not in a blind worship sort of manner. Carry on.

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      1. And the last bit of that rant, "We sure used to be."

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      2. Someone cited the Jeff Daniels rant, then updated to show more recent stats.  On Medium:"an open platform where over 100 million readers come to find insightful and dynamic thinking." No advertising, but a limited number of free articles before there is a membership fee.

         Eric Blair on Medium: America is NOT the Greatest Country in the World (2023–2024)

         While the United States continues to lead in areas such as GDP and military spending, various global indexes reveal a sobering reality. In education, healthcare, and quality of life, the nation struggles to keep up with other developed countries, raising questions about the sustainability of its global dominance. This article delves into the often-overlooked aspects of America’s performance on the global stage, shedding light on the stark realities and sparking a crucial conversation about the country’s future.

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      3. Yes, but we are #1 when it comes to per capita gun ownership.

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         1. As they used to say with Billboard hit song ratings (maybe still do?) – we're number one with a bullet!

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4. Kudos to Colorado Times Recorder for breaking the story of Josh Penry’s Blitz Canvassing work for No Labels in Colorado.  Politico picks up the story with more details about this devious Republican-funded spoiler group.

   Still, the expenditures are likely to provide fodder to the group’s critics, who have accused it of having too many ties to Republicans and who fear a well-funded third party candidate could help re-elect former President Donald Trump.

   Though No Labels has floated Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) as a possible presidential candidate, its affiliated nonprofit has many donors who have given heavily to Republicans in the past.

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5. “Patriotism is, fundamentally, a conviction that a particular country is the best in the world because you were born in it….”

   ― George Bernard Shaw

   Real patriotism is about paying taxes proportional to your wealth; paying your workers a living wage; ending the filibuster to protect voting rights; and reckoning with — not whitewashing — how racial oppression has shaped the nation, and taking restorative action to repair harm.- Robert Reich

   “Freedom is always the freedom of the dissenter”
   ― Rosa Luxemburg

   The kind of patriotism we represent is the kind of patriotism which loves America with open eyes. – Emma Goldman

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6. Attention! Please redirect all those thoughts and prayers from Baltimore, Maryland where the weekend's mass shooting occurred to Fort Worth, Texas where today's mass shooting occurred.

   At least 3 dead, 8 injured in shooting during celebration in Texas (msn.com)

   Because freedom is never free.

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   1. What could be a more truly American “shall not be infringed” way to celebrate freedumb?!!! — minutemen and guns, guns, guns!!!!!

      U.S.A.! U.S.A.!! U.S.A.!!! We’re #1! We’re #1!! We’re #1!!!

       

       

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      1. Gun violence Archive shows 13 Mass Shootings in July, 2023 as of 4:30 pm on July 4.

         14 victims dead. 91 victims wounded. Only one shooter killed.

         The "worst" by deaths is in Philadelphia — 5 in the City of Brotherly Love, donchaknow.

         "Worst" by deaths and injuries is Baltimore — 2 dead, 28 injured.

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7. Happy Independence Day to the world’s longest running democracy (and you Polsters lurking here today). 

   Ten years ago today, thanks to (then) Congressman Polis, a US flag made from industrial hemp fiber flew proudly over the US Capitol on the heels of the US House of Representatives passing an amendment to the 2014 Farm Bill (sponsored by Congressman Polis) that would open the doors to hemp production in the US; the first time since the 30’s American farmers would again have the right to grow agricultural hemp.

   It was the plan to fly the flag again today above the Capitol in celebration of the hard-fought battles we’ve had over the past decade in main-streaming this versatile crop.  The flag was delivered to Senator Bennet’s office, whose staff graciously offered to deliver to the Flag Office. Late yesterday we got pushback from the flag office; a refusal to fly what is essentially the Betsy Ross flag with more stars and stripes (draft documents of our Declaration of Independence and Constitution were written on hemp paper) for fear there would be repercussions. It’s hard to miss the irony that most, if not all, of the flags being raised today are likely made in China from petroleum-based materials.

   We held an event (one of many celebrating the Polis amendment) in 2016, flying the flag at the Charlottesville City Hall on a day that would also include an event at Monticello and a Willie Nelson concert that evening.  

   I stumbled across this article over coffee this morning, and given that hemp is considered “the crop of our Founding Fathers” it seemed additive to the conversation.  Thomas Jefferson, as complicated a man as he was, would laugh at the dust up in the Capitol Flag Office. 

   Breakfast with Thomas Jefferson

   What’s clear, though, is that our changing understanding of Jefferson is also a function of our own evolving political preferences, present day biases and concerns, our expanding conception of democracy and human rights, and our own cultural sensibilities and aesthetics.

   So we live for another day and a future full of possibilities for the plant. Those who would have been offended by such an egregious act can exit their shelters for the time being (we’ll be back). 

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   1. I would have expected this from the Sadministration; but Biden’s? I’m very disappointed.

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      1. Probably more of a “bureaucrat thing”. I’m confident had we had more notice we could have solved it up the chain of command.  In 2013 Jared instructed them to “just do it”, knowing it was easier to ask forgiveness (which we weren’t seeking) than permission!!  Someone in the flag office remembered that! 

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      2. The DEA Adminstrator at the time is quoted as saying,

         “when I read the newspaper on July 4 and discovered a hemp flag was flying over the Capitol it was the worst day of my 33 yr career at DEA”  

         That’s what eight decades of lies and bureaucratic inertia will do to a mental state. I can directly quote a senior Republican Senator as stating to me in 2013:  “legalization of hemp creates a slippery slope to *heroin for babies*

         It really is/was that bizarre. We’ve made a lot of progress,  but have a long way yet to go. 
          

         

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         1. There are still many on the right who would jump at the chance to RE-criminalize Cannabis. To them, hemp is just weed hiding out until some baby-eating liberal magically turns it into Da Kine.

            I believe it ( re-criminalization) might generate positive results in one’s private probation and prison holdings. Back to the good old days…what say?

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8. Although not uncommon in Colorado, California Tahoe just had a July 4th closing. 

    

   From my world at sea level it is many months ago that we had a frost. 

    

   Happy Juli 4th.

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   1. Frost on the Fourth is rare even here, Pam. But a lot of fireworks got rained out tonight. We’ve had more rain this spring/summer than any on record, going back to 1859.

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      1. Stuck my head out the back door earlier this morning. The air reminded me of the South Island of New Zealand.

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