Ghost 😱 ✡️🌻😱 🚀🚢

Switcheroo:  Over the past few weeks, the focus has been on the health of Kentucky Senator Mitch McConnell with rumors circulating that he was on life-support so when screens lit up very early Sunday morning with news that South Carolina’s Lindsey Graham had died, it was worth a triple take. While older than the 64-year average age of members of the Senate, at 71, Graham wasn’t even among the ten oldest members of the upper house.  In addition to the 84-year-old McConnell, that list includes Iowa’s Chuck Grassley (92), Vermont’s Bernie Sanders (84), Idaho’s Jim Risch (82), Maine’s Angus King (81), Illinois’ Dick Durbin (81), Connecticut’s Richard Blumenthal (79), Massachusetts’ Ed Markey (79), New Hampshire’s Jeanne Shaheen (78) and Oregon’s Ron Wyden (77).  Like McConnell, Durbin and Shaheen are retiring this year.  Risch and Markey, who is being primary challenged by Congressman Seth Moulton, are running for reelection because if Grassley can stick around forever, why shouldn’t they try? Though a number of conspiracy theorists and Kremlin watchers have suggested that Graham’s death was due to one of Putin’s nefarious poisons, initial reports are that the globetrotting, pro-Ukraine, pro-Israel Trump whisperer died from an aortic rupture.  As to Mitch, he’s hardly the picture of health, but judging by the message and accompanying photo he posted yesterday which included a “proof of life” copy of a July 12 newspaper, he’s still among the living.  McConnell who suffers from post-polio syndrome, said that despite reports that he’d suffered a heart attack, he hadn’t, rather his absence was due to one of his frequent falls, this one so serious that it knocked him out, landing him in the hospital where he also contracted pneumonia.  He has moved from an acute care hospital to a rehab facility and though he doesn’t know when he’ll return, he asserts he will and intends to remain in the Senate through his retirement in January. 

Senate Bingo:  Since he was running for reelection, Graham will need to be replaced twice.  South Carolina’s termed out Republican Governor Henry McMaster, no doubt with Trump’s forceful input, will first appoint a “place-filler” Senator who will serve through January 3, 2027.  At the same time, McMaster will schedule a primary where state voters will decide who should replace Graham on the November ballot. According to South Carolina law, a one-week filing period for a special primary election begins on the second Tuesday after the candidate’s death, or July 21.  The special primary election would be held on the second Tuesday after that filing period closes, or August 11. Any necessary runoff would follow two weeks after that, or August 25. Reports are that erratic Congresswoman Nancy Mace who came in fifth in the Republican gubernatorial primary is considering a run, as are Lieutenant Governor Pamela Evette who lost the gubernatorial runoff despite being endorsed by Trump and businessman Mark Lynch who lost to Graham in this year’s Senate primary. The winner of the special primary, or runoff if necessary, will face off against Democrat Annie Andrews in November. By virtue of Graham’s death, South Carolina pushed the Maine Senate race off the cover for a minute, but since Maine’s November race is expected to be far more competitive than a race in the very Republican South Carolina and may even decide who wins control of the Senate, it will soon be back above the fold. On Friday afternoon, Maine’s Nazi tattooed accused sexual predator Graham Platner finally formally withdrew his candidacy, surprising many who’d thought that the remorseless creep, who signed off of his withdrawal statement with the words “F*ck ICE, Free Palestine, would stall until the last minute.              

More War and 💩: Though Graham’s death dominated the Sunday news, Iran hasn’t gone away, if anything hostilities have gotten worse.  While Trump keeps insisting that Iran wants peace more than he does, the Mullahs and the IRGC have a funny way of showing it.  The missiles continue to fly, ships in the Strait of Hormuz are still being targeted, and to put more pressure on the US and the critical oil markets, Iran continues to target neighboring Arab countries, including Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Jordan, and the UAE.  The language in the now infamous (worthless?) Memorandum of Understanding about who gets to control transit through the Strait is absurdly vague.  Iran interprets it to mean that they get to govern transit, the US does not agree. Perhaps vagueness and the accidently ceding of control of key transit points are things that happen when a real estate buddy and a son in law are your chief negotiators 🤷‍♀️.  It’s not just Iran that’s frustrating Trump, he’s bigly mad that the NY Times reported that his Qatar gifted 747 is missing crucial security accoutrements.  On Friday, he forced FBI Director Kash Patel to cancel his plans to fly another grift trip on his government funded plane to another one of his girlfriend’s performances, commanding him to show up at the White House and work up subpoenas for the five NYTimes reporters, including Julian Barnes, Eric Lipton, Tyler Pager, Eric Schmitt and Adam Goldman, who’d worked on the article detailing the security features that Trump’s new airplane/toy lacks.   Those subpoenas which were issued by the SDNY were then delivered to the journalists who Trump wants to force into coughing up the names of the government employees who “leaked” the plane’s obvious inadequacies.  Obvious, because just about everyone knew that the plane was rushed into service too quickly for all the needed expensive, complex, and time consuming security features to be incorporated. The NY Times five are due in court on Wednesday, “setting up what is likely to become an expedited legal battle over whether reporters can be compelled to testify about confidential sourcing and newsgathering.”

 

 

Snakes on A Plane 😱 ✡️🌻😱 🚀🚢 🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️

Flying Blind: Trump spent at least $400 million maybe as much as $1 billion of taxpayer money retrofitting his new “grifted” Qatari Air Force One.  The plane is snazzy, has tactless golden Trumpy decor and an exterior color palate more to his liking but is missing some critical defensive features, including anti-missile capability.  It is also lacking presidential level communication capabilities including a situation room because Trump wanted it put into service ASAP, and all those critical features, which he won’t need when he takes the plane with him after his term ends, assuming it ever does, take time 🤦‍♀️. Though he shouldn’t have Trump flew it to Ankara for the NATO meetings so he could show off his new toy but, given that we’re back to what appears to be an escalating war with Turkey’s neighbor Iran, at the insistence of his security advisors, he swapped back to the old Air Force One for his trip out of Turkey.  We shouldn’t be surprised that Trump prioritized aesthetics over security to rush the plane into service, nor should we be surprised that the Memorandum of Understanding that his incompetent and inexperienced negotiating team, AKA son in law and real estate buddy, hastily negotiated is flailing because that’s how he rolls, speed over competence, glitz over function. So here we are, a fancy new plane that shouldn’t be used at all but definitely never used for international travel and a poorly planned war with the country that he very publicly referred to as the Islamic Republic of Japan 🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️that is proving increasingly difficult to end.  It’s not just the war and the plane, and all of Trump’s other frighteningly delusional misstatements like the one where he referred to Ukraine’s Zelenskyy who was seated next to him as Putin, despite Trump’s insistence otherwise, he’s mucked up the economy. Yesterday in an editorial titled “How Trump’s Tariffs really work,” the Wall Street Journal pointed out that those tariffs have resulted in a 75,000 lost of manufacturing jobs, raised the costs for US manufacturers, hurt America’s farmers, depressed purchases of agriculture equipment.  National security tariffs on autos and parts have cost $35.2 billion, steel and aluminum tariffs another $17.5 billion and that auto tariffs on Canada and Mexico alone have added $1600 to the cost of US made cars while also depressing the sales of those cars. Though Trump has gotten substantially richer, inflation is up, growth is down, and the oil reserves that were released to ease the pain at the pump caused by the war are critically low and need to be replenished. 

Maine Mess: Graham Platner finally withdrew, well sort of withdrew, from Maine’s Senate race on Wednesday.  Sort of because though he said that he’s suspended his candidacy, he’s yet to officially request that his name be taken off the ballot; he has until Monday to do that and appears to be taking his time and maybe even leaving himself with an opening to stay.  Platner made his announcement on Wednesday night, via a pathetic eleven-minute video where instead of taking the high road, he went low, denying all the accusations levied against him and snarling while saying that he was only withdrawing from the race because the forces of evil, as in those Washington based establishment Democrats (cough, cough Schumer and AIPAC) have lined up against him by withdrawing their financial support 🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️ 🤦‍♀️. If anything, he made it clear that he never should have been the candidate. Apparently he still doesn’t know what his tattoo represents and those women, they’re all lying about everything.  Just about everyone available, including a number who’ve previously lost primary races and prior bids to unseat incumbent Susan Collins, have thrown their hats into the ring to replace Platner.  Maine Democrats plan to hold a convention during which a total of 600 delegates, 500 from each of Maine’s county party committees, and another 100 who are state committee members will meet to select Platner’s replacement. And because endorsing an unvetted candidate worked out so well for him the first time, uber-progressive Congressman Ro Khanna rushed to immediately endorse “bottle thrower” Troy Jackson, one of the leading new contenders.

More 💩:  ICE has killed another person 🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️, this time in Houston where they shot and killed Lorenzo Salgado Araujo a Mexican National who had lived in the US for decades, had no criminal record, and who was on his way to work at a homebuilding site.  Araujo wasn’t even the person that the INS intended to arrest but obviously he deserved to be shot, or so authorities want us to believe. On the health front, a few months ago, the CDC cutback its surveillance of foodborne illnesses, probably not all that surprising given RFK and his propensity for hanging with brain worms and jumping in polluted bodies of water but just a bit of a problem given that there’s currently a multi-state outbreak of cyclosporiasis, a gastrointestinal illness.  At least 18 states are affected, with notable infection spikes in Michigan (over 1,000 cases) and New York City (nearly 400 cases).  Weird how those gnarly, persistent bacteria and viruses keep doing their thing even when RFK and his cronies think that if they just ignore them they won’t.  Trump still hasn’t paid E J Caroll the $5 million plus that the courts have mandated that he has to pay her, and even worse, he’s still fighting his obligation, asking for a SCOTUS mulligan.  Then again he’s all into mulligans, he also wants SCOTUS to reconsider its birth right citizen ruling. While he’s not happy about how the decision turned out, he’s already taking advantage of the decision that said he can fire anyone he wants as long as that person isn’t a law-abiding member of the Federal Reserve Board.  Yesterday, Trump terminated the remaining members of the independent, federal commission that assists election administration officials nationwide. The commission certifies voting systems and maintains the national mail-voter registration form developed by the National ​Voter Registration Act of 1993.  Nothing but everything to see there.

 

 

Plan B 😱 ✡️🌻😱 🚀🚢 🧨

War not Peace: On Tuesday, the Pentagon launched major strikes at Iran in response to Tehran’s attacks on commercial ships transiting through the Strait of Hormuz. At the same time the US revoked the controversial authorization permitting Iranian oil sales. Iran responded by saying that they would once again target US military sites in Bahrain and Kuwait. This morning before leaving the NATO meeting in Ankara, Trump announced that the ceasefire is over calling the initial peace agreement with Iran dead.  He also called Iran’s leaders liars and sick people.  So much for that much trumpeted memorandum of understanding. The rocky path to peace is just that, rocky, especially given how well Iran is using its Strait of Hormuz trump card. Trump, who promised no wars, especially long ones, is learning the hard way that Iran is not Venezuela and why the presidents who preceded him resisted efforts to attack Iran despite all the trouble it caused. Oil prices are up again this morning and stock futures are down. As to those NATO meetings in Ankara, Trump behaved about as well as expected as in not well at all.  He cozied up to Turkey’s autocratic leader Erdogan while antagonizing the rest of the members of NATO including Italy’s Meloni who not so long ago was one of his BFFs.  He once again expressed his desire to takeover Greenland saying it should be controlled by the US rather than Denmark, while complaining about all the money the US spends to help Europe defend itself against Russia, again threatening to remove all US soldiers out of Europe. He also dissed Ukraine, probably something he promised to do on a call with Putin.

Maine Mess:  Graham Platner still hasn’t officially pulled out of the Senate race, but he will soon because despite his efforts to extract some kind of commitment to be replaced with a like-minded candidate few care what he thinks anymore. Worth noting that Platner wasn’t even the working-class hero he, or his handlers, portrayed him to be.  He came from an affluent family, attended private school, his father “lent” him the money to buy his home, and my favorite, his mother’s restaurant bought the oysters he farmed. Yesterday another one of his innumerable ex-girlfriends came forward, revealing that without her consent he had a habit of removing condoms during sex. It’s no wonder that Emily’s List, the organization that champions pro-choice women candidates never endorsed him. As to his replacement, a number of candidates have thrown their hats into the ring. The list includes Maine Secretary of State Shena Bellows who ran but lost in the Democratic gubernatorial primary; former president of the Maine Senate Troy Jackson who once threw a bottle at a female colleague; Nirav Shah, a former director of Maine’s public health agency; Jordan Wood, who had been an early candidate in the race but pivoted to and then lost a primary for the northern Maine House district currently represented by retiring Congressman Jared Golden; and Dan Kleban, the founder of Maine Beer Company who had also been an early candidate but dropped out and endorsed Governor Janet Mills. Golden’s representative said that he has no interest in running, not a surprise since he previously decided not to run for the Senate seat.  The Maine Democratic party is currently considering the best way to proceed with a selection process that may involve some kind of mini convention or caucus. Though Platner needs to officially withdraw by July 13, the party has until July 27 to pick a new Senate nominee. Last night on his program Lawrence O’Donnell said that though lots of his colleagues and competitors hosted Platner, he never had him on his program or had much to say about him because he never expected him to go the distance. He went on to talk about the importance of real vetting.  We need to pay more attention to the usually smart and experienced O’Donnell.  

Other 💩:  Senators John Thune and John Barrasso and CNN’s Republican abettor Scott Jennings all insist they’ve spoken with Kentucky Senator Mitch McConnell.  Curiously, all their conversations lasted twenty minutes. If McConnell resigns or expires before August 3, Kentucky law no longer allows Kentucky’s Governor, in this case Democrat Andy Beshar, to appoint his replacement; instead, it requires that he be replaced by a special election. If he “leaves” after that date, his seat will remain vacant at least until the results of the November election.  Until the Mitch issue is “resolved,” Republicans remain down a Senate vote. In other news, the Trump administration appears poised to continue rewriting history, as in stripping references to slavery and anything else they determine to be DEI, by taking control of the Smithsonian.  On the election front, they are quietly and not so quietly waging a war against voting in Democratic strongholds.  To that end the DOJ plans to deploy federal election monitors to Detroit, Lansing, and East Lansing for Michigan's August 4 primary election. Add that to the administration’s efforts to get hold of and “cleanse” state voter rolls while also dredging up “proof” that Trump really won the 2020 election to see where all this is going.  Spoiler alert, it’s not going anywhere good.     

 Sinking of the Maine 😱 ✡️🌻😱 🚀🚢 🧨

Maine Mess: The Washington Reporter reports that Maine’s flawed Democratic Senatorial candidate Graham Platner will officially drop out of his race this morning,  Even if they’re jumping the gun, the odds are that he’ll be out by the end of the day.  Who but anyone not so far down the progressive oyster farmer rabbit hole could have possibly guessed that a multiply accused sex offender who denied that he knew his Nazi tattoo was a Nazi tattoo would have even more disqualifying items in his closet?   Yesterday an hour or so before Politico went public with their very disturbing interview of his newest accuser, another one of his prior girlfriends, Platner announced that he was taking time to “reflect” on his path forward.  In the Politico interview, the former girlfriend Jenny Racicot, who says that they had an on again off again relationship, accused a then very drunk Platner of breaking into her house and raping her while she plead for him to stop.  She discussed the rape with a subsequent boyfriend and her therapist.  Racicot isn’t a closet Republican, she shares Platner’s progressive views. She acknowledges that it would have been better if she’d come forward sooner but says that publicly providing details about her experience wasn’t easy for her to do. Naturally, Platner, who’s all into denial, has denied her claims. Those denials ring hollow, which is why during the day and night, he lost most of his endorsements and financial support, not just those who’d reluctantly signed on to his campaign after he won his primary but also from most of those who’d been his earliest and most ardent supporters, including Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren who should have known better than to discount all of the prior accusations against him.  As of this morning, it doesn’t appear that Vermont’s Bernie Sanders has withdrawn his endorsement, though yesterday he found time to post multiple slams of AIPAC, as if that’s the issue here. Platner can be replaced on the Democratic ticket if he drops out before Monday, July 13 so the fight for his replacement as well as a lot of finger-pointing about how Democrats, especially Maine Democrats, got themselves into this mess, has already begun.  Odds are the replacement will not be one time candidate Governor Janet Mills but someone else.  The same progressive “select then vet” crowd are pushing for another progressive, preferably one with anti-Israel views. For his part Platner, says he’ll only pull out of the race if his replacement shares all of his views, as if he should have a say having quite possibly killed the Democrats chances of retaking the Senate.  One name being mentioned is Former Maine Senator Troy Jackson who threw a bottle at a female colleague during a senate caucus meeting.  Come on Maine, do better!  As to Republican incumbent Susan Collins, she’s probably dancing a jig this morning though a few pundits have pointed out that from her perspective it would have been better for this story to go viral after the July 13^th deadline.

In other news, there are reports that Mitch McConnell is brain dead.

Oy.

    

Just Married 😱 ✡️🌻😱 🚀🚢 🧨 🎇 

Independence Weekend:  Taylor and Travis got married; if you had Adam Sandler officiating at their ceremony on your BINGO card you are one up on me. Hundreds of face masked Patriot Front white supremacists carrying Confederate flags marched towards the Capitol, truly scary but also funny in a twisted way given that they’re the same people who objected so forcefully to mask mandates during COVID.  Trump first went to Mount Rushmore, where he probably had some of his Mar a Lago construction cronies, maybe even his pool guy, taking measurements to figure out the most expensive and damaging way he could carve his face alongside those of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, and Theordore Roosevelt.  He followed up by giving a rain delayed Fourth of July speech in Washington DC in which alongside the usual patriotic themes he once again repeated his demand that Congress pass his voter squelching SAVE Act while also warning the sweating attendees that a vote for Democrats was a vote for Communism, a fear mongering theme likely to dominate midterm campaigns given the number of Democratic Socialists who’ve won primaries and all the attention being given to NYC’s Mayor Mamdani who for some reason that escapes me also delivered a much-covered holiday speech. Then because awarding Trump the “inaugural” FIFA peace prize wasn’t enough kowtowing for FIFA president Gianni Infantino, after Trump intervened he took the highly unusual step of lifting the red card suspension that would have prevented American star Folarin Balogun from playing in today’s match against Belgium. Belgium is not happy and assuming the lift stands if the US wins the results will be tainted. Since my football (soccer) knowledge wouldn’t fill a thimble, I won’t opine on whether Balogun deserved that suspension but removing it at Trump’s request seems a bit sketchy, then again Trump did “win” that peace prize. Adding to the irony, player Balogun is a beneficiary of birthright citizenship, that thing that Trump hates so much. Though he grew up in London, he was born in the US when his seven-month pregnant Nigerian mother was restricted from boarding a plane home.

Politics and Grift:  It’s been one year since Republicans in Congress passed Trump’s big ugly bill.  During that time, the average cost of health care has doubled, 4.2 million have lost their ACA (Obamacare) coverage, 3.8 million have lost Medicaid coverage, and nearly 500 hundred hospitals, clinics and nursing homes have closed.  Dr Oz, who heads up Medicare and Medicaid, attributes a lot of that shrinkage in coverage to the removal of fraudulent participants, citing as proof that many of those who’ve lost their ACA coverage didn’t use their insurance anyway.  Apparently Oz doesn’t understand the purpose of insurance.  RFK Jr is still the Secretary of Health and Human Services which partially explains why the FDA, CDC, and NIH don’t have confirmed heads and the Surgeon General slot is still in limbo but there are rumors that he isn’t long for the job and that he’ll be replaced by Oz when he leaves.  Though $1.4 billion of the estimated $4 to 5 billion increase in Trump’s net worth is attributable to his crypto schemes, $86.5 million of it comes from his lawsuit settlements including $16 million from ABC, $16 million from CBS, $24.5 from META, $22 million from YouTube, and $8 million from Twitter.  Notably while he’s all in on extorting money from others, he still hasn’t paid E Jean Carroll the $5 million plus interest that he owes her. It’s also notable that the investors in Trump’s crypto schemes have lost $3.8 to $4.5 billion dollars.

Mess in Michigan:  Gary Peters one of Michigan’s two Democratic Senators is not running for reelection this year. Since Democrats need a net gain of four seats to flip the Senate, holding on to the Michigan seat is essential. Unfortunately, the Democrats race to replace him has been messy.  Over the weekend Mallory McMorrow who had been polling around 12% suspended her candidacy. She isn’t issuing an endorsement but instead said she’ll back whoever wins the primary. The race to replace Peters as the Democratic candidate is now between mainstream candidate Haley Stevens and “progressive” Abdul El-Sayed. During a recent CNN interview El-Sayed who is endorsed by Bernie Sanders and AOC refused to answer whether or not Israel has a right to exist. To state the obvious, you can oppose Israeli politics and dislike Bibi Netanyahu but being unable to come out and say that Israel has a right to exist is depressingly revealing.  Once again, a Democratic primary is mired in ugly Middle East politics with a taint of anti-Semitism.  That last part isn’t overreach, over the weekend social media was full of comments attacking Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce for having Adam Sandler as their wedding officiant, not because he’s a goofy comedian but because he’s a “Zionist” as in Jewish. The primary takes place on August 4.  Congressman Mike Rogers, the Republican candidate for the Senate seat is relatively mainstream.  He could end up winning what is expected to be a close November race especially if the Democrats continue to be so divisive.    

More 💩:  It’s 2026 but Trump is still trying to prove that he didn’t really lose to President Biden in 2020.  To that end, Kash Patel’s FBI has sent 260 agents to complete a “priority” investigation of Fulton County Georgia, still looking for those 11,780 imaginary votes that Trump wanted Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to find for him. Locating those mythical votes isn’t the real goal, the destruction of Democratic stronghold Fulton County’s election apparatus, while injecting more doubt about the integrity of the election process, is. It’s not a coincidence that Trump’s attacking Georgia, because going into this year Republicans believed that Democratic Senator Jon Ossoff would be easy to beat. Now that looks unlikely, unless of course, Fulton County’s results can be upended.            

  

 

Semiquincentennial 😱 ✡️🌻😱 🚀🚢 🧨 🎇 

Happy almost Independence day. 🧨 🎇 

Be cool.

Stay cool.

 

The Supremes 😱 ✡️🌻😱 🚀🚢

Monday, Monday:  It was a mixed week of decisions for Trump and the rest of us.  On Monday, the Supreme Court declined to hear Trump’s appeal of the first EJ Caroll case.  As a result, the verdict finding him liable for sexually abusing and defaming her stands and she gets the $5 million she was awarded.  Trump who still claims he didn’t know “that woman” uttered something about appealing but this isn’t a Hebrew National commercial so there’s no one left to appeal to. Since the $5 million award was previously deposited into an account held by a District court, E Jean will receive it as soon as SCOTUS’s clerk’s office files the paperwork. Trump is still appealing the second separate $83.3 million defamation verdict.  By a vote of 5 to 4 with Justices Roberts and Coney Barrett joining liberal justices Sotomayor, Jackson, and Kagan, the Court handed Trump and the Republican Party a loss in their efforts to curtail mail-in voting by ruling that election officials in Mississippi and by extension in the eighteen other states and territories with similar election laws can count mail-in ballots that are postmarked by election day but not received by a specified grace period; in the case of Mississippi that grace period is five days. That doesn’t mean that Trump won’t try to find other ways to attack mail-in voting, he’s already ordered the Postmaster General to not deliver mail ballots in states that refuse to provide sensitive voter data to the federal government, and if all else fails he’s got that ICE militia at his beck and call.  A federal judge has blocked the order to the Postmaster from moving forward and judges in eleven states have ruled that the DOJ can’t force states to turn over their voter lists but Trump who has given up on winning elections with popular policies remains all-in on limiting access to those voters unlikely to vote for him and his party.  On the who can or cannot be fired by Trump edict front, the Court split the baby.  By a vote of 5 to 4, this time with Justices Roberts and Kavanaugh joining the three liberal judges, the Court held that Federal Reserve Governors can only be fired for cause.  The case in question involves Lisa Cook, one of the Black women that Trump’s Housing official/interim DNI Bill Pulte has accused of mortgage fraud. The Court’s decision means that Cook can’t be fired while she’s challenging the trumped-up case against and can’t be fired at all if the case is resolved in her favor.  Unfortunately, that limitation on Trump’s firing power only pertains to the Federal Reserve.  In another case involving Federal Trade Commission member Rebecca Slaughter, by a vote of 6 to 3 with all six Conservative Justices lining up against the three liberals, the Court ruled that Trump can fire her and anyone else he wants, no cause needed.  That decision overturns the 91-year precedent established in the Humphrey’s Executor v the US case, giving Trump and presumably any presidents that follow, regardless of their party, “sweeping new authority over two dozen multi-member agencies that Congress intended to be independent.”  While it’s good for the financial markets and the economy that Trump can’t fire Federal Reserve Governors willy nilly, there’s little logic behind the different rulings.  Then again, this SCOTUS isn’t much for logic and precedent but is mostly all in on letting Trump do whatever he wants except when it hurts their personal portfolios.        

Ruby Tuesday:  Yesterday, on the last day of this term, SCOTUS finally released the much-awaited birthright citizen ruling.  By a vote that was kind of 6 to 3 but also kind of 5 to 4, the Justices struck down Trump’s day one executive order ending birthright citizenship. Five Justices, including Roberts, Barrett and the three liberals, ruled that Trump’s executive order violated the 14^th Amendment’s Citizenship Clause.  The sixth Justice, Brett Kavanaugh, said that the executive order didn’t violate the Constitution but did violate Federal law.  Few expected that the decision would be so close and no one expected Kavanaugh to base his decision on Federal law rather than the Constitution. Naturally, the nativist crowd dissed “traitors” Roberts and Barrett, instead hanging their future hopes on Kavanaugh’s twisted easter egg.  They’re now calling for Congress to pass some birthright citizen curbing legislation. The Federalist digital company co-founder Sean Davis, a prominent Trump supporter, actually proposed yesterday that the US "require sterilization of all foreign visitors prior to entry." Presumably, he doesn’t mean any of those White South Africans that Trump has enthusiastically invited into the country.  While Trump lost on birthright citizenship, he did notch a victory on the campaign finance front.  By a vote of 6 to 3 with all the Conservatives hanging together, SCOTUS struck down long term federal limits on how much money political party committees can spend in direct coordination with candidates.  The decision means that parties won’t have to rely on all those mysterious PACS since they can now pay for campaign advertising, consulting, and travel for their nominees. The effect will be immediately felt for the midterms and since the RNC has boatloads of money on hand, far more than the DNC which actually is running a deficit as Democratic donors tend to contribute directly to their preferred candidate, the expectation is that the decision will benefit Republicans. Regardless of who gets the upper hand it’s also likely that there will be more corruption and expectations of quid pro quos as well as far more of those really annoying political ads.  In the last high-profile decision, by the usual partisan split of 6 to 3, the Court upheld Mississippi and Idaho laws barring the participation of transgender female athletes on girls’ and women’s sports teams. Twenty-five other states have similar restrictions on their books.  The decisions that essentially say that only “biological girls” should be allowed on girls’ teams were expected.  It’s fair to assume that no one in the majority has read Jeffrey Eugenides Middlesex (great book) and/or gets that biology isn’t always straightforward.  It’s hard not to believe that some soccer moms (and dads) won’t insist that some of their daughter’s opponents be tested for being better athletes or for just being less feminine looking.

More 💩:  NJ Republican Congressman Tom Kean Jr returned to Congress after being mysteriously MIA for four months. He disclosed that he was hospitalized for severe depression, something that he didn’t want to share until now. While it’s sad that he was in so much emotional pain, it’s also sad that he was too embarrassed to share his diagnosis with his constituents who he rarely met with even before his hospitalization. Kean is facing reelection in a very competitive district.  Curiously, while severely depressed and hospitalized he managed to execute portfolio trades during his hospitalization (stock therapy?).  Trump who shares an affinity for stock trading and who measures happiness in dollars may not be well, but he doesn’t appear to be depressed perhaps because he is a whole lot richer.  His net worth has grown from approximately $2.3 billion to more than $6.5 billion since the beginning of his current term.  That may or may not include the going rate for pardons, estimated at $1.5 million a pop. Trump is expected to hand out 250 million more of them on July 4.  On the primary front, Melat Kiros, another young anti-Israel and also likely more than a bit anti-Semitic Democratic Socialist, the latter indicated by her failure to condemn a fatal bombing of a group marching in support of Israeli hostages, won a primary over long-term 68- year-old Democratic Representative Diana DeGette in Colorado yesterday. Also, Senator Michael Bennet who had until recently been seen as the front runner lost his bid for the Democratic Governor nomination to Colorado Attorney General Paul Weiser.  Bennett will remain in the Senate, alongside Colorado’s John Hickenlooper who easily won his primary for reelection and is expected to win the general election.