Printer Girl ✡️🌻✡️🌻✡️

Supremes:  It turns out that Justice Samuel Alito is really into flags, particularly those that convey support for those nice tourists who marauded through the Capitol bashing police and trashing offices while calling for the heads of VP Mike Pence and Nancy Pelosi. After the NY Times published a story about the upside-down Stars and Stripes that Alito alleges his wayward wife hung over their Virginia home, six neighbors who probably don’t like him all that much reported that he’d flown another one known as the “Appeal to Heaven” flag outside his beach house.  The Appeal to Heaven flag also known as the Pine Tree flag dates back to Revolutionary War times, however, these days it’s flown to signify support for the Stop the Steal crowd as well as adherence to godly things. At least so far, Alito hasn’t blamed the hoisting of this flag on his wife but give him time.  We’ve known for some time that the uber-conservative Alito, who authored the Roe overturning Dobbs opinion, holds views that harken back to those halcyon days when women knew their place and Black people were chattel, but jurists are supposed to avoid appearing partisan.  Clearly, like the serial gift accepting Justice Clarence Thomas, Alito could care less about sticking to convention and why should either one care, beyond some bad press, they’ve suffered no consequences for their actions. Let’s not forget about Chief Justice John Roberts, he’s probably miffed that his legacy is being tarnished by Alito and Thomas’ misadventures, but he’s obviously not annoyed enough to do anything about them.  Quite possibly that’s because he shares many of their views.  After all, he signed on to the Dobbs opinion, and yesterday he was also part of the 6-3 majority ruling that overturned a district court decision that had rejected South Carolina’s Republican drawn district map, instead concluding that racial gerrymandering was okay as long as it was couched as political gerrymandering.  In fact, Chief Roberts didn’t just sign on to that opinion, he started the ball rolling to the dismantling of the Voting Rights Act back in 2013 with his Shelby County v Holder opinion. By the way, the South Carolina district in question is represented by Nancy Mace who before her district was totally red pilled gave off moderate vibes but now competes with Lauren Boebert and Margie Q for most absurdly partisan because if that’s what it takes to hold on to her seat, she’s all in. 

More Legalities: Though there’s still no ruling from SCOTUS on presidential immunity, havoc has broken out in Judge Aileen loose Cannon’s court where the lawyer for Trump pool boy Walt Nauta has been trying to get the case against him thrown out by alleging that he’s being unfairly prosecuted for moving stolen document laden boxes around Mar a Lago and then lying about it.  Judge Cannon was so faux flummoxed that she wondered out loud if the “legal nuances of the case may be too difficult for jurors to understand.” Remind me again, what is it about Trump absconding with nuclear secrets, sharing some with randos at Mar a Lago and Bedminster, and getting his aide to hide boxes of those secrets that’s too difficult for a jury to understand? Reality Winner who was imprisoned for taking and leaking classified documents would like to weigh in. On the subject of chaos, there was some in the House this week too where Democratic Representative Jim McGovern was sanctioned for mentioning all of Trump’s indictments and the NYC hush money trial.  Apparently referring to the trial and indictments isn’t okay unless you’re a Republican member who prefaces all references with words like “sham” while calling out those real criminals Attorney General Garland and NY DA Alvin Bragg.  On the subject of the usually reticent AG Garland, he spoke out to reject claims pushed by Margie Q and picked up by others in the Republican echo chamber including Trump that because the FBI was armed and the warrant to search Mar a Lago for purloined documents authorized the use of deadly force, the FBI was really attempting to assassinate Trump during its raid.  A somber Garland clarified that the deadly force language is standard, was also included in the warrant to search Joe Biden’s premises, and that throwing around the word assassination could have dire consequences. Naturally, Trump is fundraising on this, claiming that Biden had authorized his assassination.

Ohio What?  Ohio Republican Secretary of State Frank LaRose has been saying for some time that he plans to keep Biden off of the state’s presidential ballot because he won’t be officially nominated until the August 19 Democratic convention which falls after the state’s deadline for certifying presidential nominees. Because the two parties stagger their conventions to avoid competing for attention, it’s not unusual for one to miss a state deadline but generally an accommodation is made but that’s not how LaRose rolls, because maybe he’s another one angling for a position in a Trump administration. Biden is not going to win Ohio but his absence from the ballot could doom Democratic Senators Sherrod Brown’s already challenging reelection race. Fortunately, Ohio’s Republican Governor Mike DeWine, hardly a RINO, is not amused with LaRose’s antics and plans to call a special session of the Ohio legislature to rectify the situation. News on that front and all other news, particularly good news from the internet, is provided on an ongoing basis to Trump by his “Printer Girl,” an aide named Natalie Harp whose job involves following him around with a portable wireless printer.  Is there a category for that on LinkedIn?

Fog:  British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak who is trailing bigly in the UK polls has called for a general election to take place on July 4. The election was expected, the timing caught most by surprise. Spain, Ireland, and Norway announced that they will recognize a Palestinian state on May 28 because why not reward Hamas for the murders and hostage taking of October 7. On the hostage front, Israel revealed last night that they had retrieved three more bodies of dead hostages and in an effort to remind the world of Hamas’ brutality and to push the hostage negotiations forward, the families of five women brutalized on October 7 released some horrifying video of their capture and brutalization by Hamas. Also, Trump says that the minute he is reelected his good friend Vlad will free WSJ reporter release Evan Gershkovich. Am I the only one wondering why the all-powerful Trump doesn’t get him released now?  And lastly, nothing much to say about Nikki Haley and her announcement that she’ll be voting for Trump except that she’s clearly concluded that her only chance of having a future career in the Republican Party hinges on her bending her knee to the guy who insulted her and her husband endlessly and who she previously trashed as a threat to democracy. It’s not clear how many of her supporters will view her backing of Trump as permission for them to do the same but some of them will and that’s not a good thing.  

#BringThemAllHomeNow

Enjoy the holiday.