Kevin Drum doesn’t believe Life is so bad. Kevin poses a number of reasons why things are actually pretty good. Think about it. We weathered a pandemic. For the first time government stepped in biggly and well beyond what was done in 2008 for people. Biden insured people who had no healthcare insurance pre-pandemic, provided subsidies for people while we stayed home, added additional subsidies for children, permanently expanded subsidies for...
Read More »Gagging Trump
Judge Merchan appears to be boxed in. On the one hand, fining Trump $1,000 for violating the gag order is obviously not going to be effective. On the other hand, sending Trump to jail would make him a martyr to some, and may not even be effective, since Trump would appeal any order sending him to the hoosegow. What’s a trial judge to do? Well, one possibility is to ban Trump from Truth Social (or from social media generally). Sure, Trump could...
Read More »Promoting the General Welfare, The Supreme Court’s Version of Doing So
I believe Angry Bear can present this excellent article on how the Supreme Court is evolving its interpretation of the Public Health. I am using it as informational and instructional to Angry Bear readers. A brief analysis of the SCOTUS philosophy on Public Health and their impact on the government and its legislation. It is brief enough and stated in nontechnical terms allowing a layman to pickup on it rather easily. The Public Good on the Docket...
Read More »Eric Segall tells us what he really thinks about the Roberts court
Law professor Eric Segall is a leading critic of the Supreme Court. In a blog post today, he doesn’t pull any punches: The disaster that was the Trump v. United States oral argument reminded me of how little the Roberts Court has actually cared about rule of law values and legal transparency during its 18-year run. Leaving aside the overturning or narrowing of numerous landmark cases from abortion to affirmative action to the free exercise of...
Read More »Supreme Court watchers mollified themselves (and others) with vague promises
Dahlia Lithwick and Joseph Stern as taken from Slate Good read as one can see how the SCOTUS 5 or 6 are twisting the logic of Constitution first and portraying the president into something more reasonable. Military swears first to the Constitution. This is a very strange read for myself. Others may not find it so strange and such is open to discussion. ~~~~~~~~ Mollified themselves with vague promises of when the rubber hit the road,...
Read More »Nestlé adds sugar to baby food in low-income countries, report finds . . .
SWI swissinfo.ch An interesting story coming out of Switzerland about Nestlé. In 2017 Nestlé adds sugar to baby food in low-income countries, report finds . . . made the following plan: Between 2017 and 2020 we want to reduce the added sugar in our products by a further 5%. In 2017 alone, Nestlé Switzerland withdrew 111 tonnes of sugar from its products, which is the equivalent of 22 million teaspoons or 444 million kcal. Much work had already...
Read More »Idaho Deputy Solicitor General Answering SCOTUS Justices on Idaho’s Abortion Law
Listening to the back and forth between the justices and Idaho’s Solicitor General, there is tension on display here. The Idaho Solicitor General appears to take the stance the abortion is available if necessary. The justices are questioning how such could be if doctors will not treat the women if abortion is needed. That being, doctors believe they blocked by Idaho’s abortion law. Alito takes the chicken or the egg approach with US Solicitor...
Read More »Claims of Student Loan Cancellation Benefiting the Wealthy are Still False
by Alan Collinge Medium A number of beltway “experts” are currently claiming that cancelling student loans would unduly benefit the wealthy. These claims are based upon blatantly flawed research, They have been used by very well-coordinated media/social media campaigns, designed to kill the push for student loan cancellation, and have flooded the zeitgeist in recent weeks. Most recently, Professor Kent Smetters (The Wharton School at the...
Read More »How the Starbucks case at the Supreme Court could affect unions everywhere
by Andrea Hsu National Public Radio The Starbucks case is more a battle over which approach Appeals courts should use when they consider requests for injunctions like this one over labor violations. The Supreme Court appears to be weighing in on their decisions. The impact of the Supreme Court decision will weigh heavily on unions and labor. Five Appeals court use a two-prong test: – Is there “reasonable cause” to believe an unfair...
Read More »Credit where credit is due
Look, Mike Johnson is a right-wing Christianist theocrat, but he did the right thing on Ukraine aid. I get it. This was partly a power play on his part to show that he, and not MTG, is in control of the House. And if the deal was that Democrats will vote against a motion to vacate in return, I’m OK with that transaction. Mike Johnson and the politics of compromise Tags: Mike Johnson, the politics of...
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