And another day of audio tapes, SCOTUS rulings, DeSantis endorsing ‘deadly force,’ solitary confinement in US jails and prisons, a brutal heat wave, racism in US getting worse, air quality, declining forests, and pumping groundwater shifts Earth’s axis comes to a close:
“Fascism is not an ideology; it’s a process for taking and holding power.” — Madeleine Albright
GOP’s response to the Espionage charges against Trump is what FASCISM looks like. The tactics the GOP is employing to defend Donald Trump in response to the disgraced former President being charged with 37 felonies--including 31 counts of Espionage—is not simply about “hyper-partisanship” as some in the media are saying. Rather, it’s actually far more alarming. The GOP’s defense of Trump--ranging from threats of violence to using the government to protect Trump—provides us with even more evidence today’s Republican party has become a full-blown fascist movement…Let’s look at how experts describe fascism and then compare it with the GOP’s tactics to defend Trump.
Violence: “Whatever else it is, fascism involves the endorsement and use of violence to achieve political goals and stay in power.”…The threat of violence is now the go-to move for many in the GOP.
Blind loyalty to an “infallible leader.” “Fascism is based on power, loyalty, and fear of the other. The fascist leader is infallible.” He added, “And anyone who opposes him is immediately a traitor to the nation.”…Beyond the base, GOP members of Congress are showing devotion to their supreme leader by launching an all-out campaign to attack the special counsel’s investigation, vowing to use every tool at their disposal to undermine its findings – from subpoenas to defunding everyone from the office of the Special Counsel and even the DOJ.
Projection. “Fascist tactics always involve projection. The fascists are always accusing their opponents of being the totalitarians. The fascists are always accusing their opponents of being the threat to the nation that they in fact are.” (Sound familiar?!)…Like the corrupt Nazis as Stanley laid out, Trump accuses his opponent of being “corrupt” when he is the one facing a total of 71 felonies in two different jurisdictions. Add to that, Trump claims Biden wants to “destroy American democracy” when he attempted a coup and incited the Jan 6 attack to achieve that very goal. And it’s not just Trump who is the king of projection. His allies in Congress are now defending Trump while accusing President Biden of corruption despite not having the evidence.
Today’s GOP is what fascism looks like. Of course, not all Republicans are fascists- but the Republican leaders who have spoken out could fill a Toyota Prius—and still there would be room left in the back seat. And once these Republicans denounce Trump, they are labeled “traitors” by Trump and his supporters. That is what fascist movements do.
In an audio recording Donald Trump discusses a ‘highly confidential’ document with an interviewer. The special counsel’s indictment alleges that those in attendance at the meeting with Trump — including a writer, a publisher and two of Trump’s staff members — were shown classified information about a Pentagon plan of attack on an unspecified foreign country. “These are the papers,” Trump says in a moment that seems to indicate he’s holding a secret Pentagon document with plans to attack Iran. “This was done by the military, given to me.” Trump’s reference to something he says is “highly confidential” and his apparent showing of documents to other people at the 2021 meeting could undercut his claim in a recent Fox News Channel interview that he didn’t have any documents with him.
“2 died of Ebola: They said Obama should resign. 4 died in Benghazi: They had Hillary testify for 11 hours, held 33 hearings, and launched a 4-year probe. 763,044 Covid deaths, an armed insurrection & theft of classified documents: They cheered, and want Trump to be president.” -- Andrea Junker
Blame the Supreme Court for America’s Decade of Voter Disenfranchisement.
The main reason that Republicans were able to target Black representation so ruthlessly was because of Shelby County v. Holder, a 2013 Supreme Court ruling holding that states with a long history of discrimination no longer needed to approve voting changes and electoral maps with the federal government—a process known as “preclearance.” June 25th marks the 10th anniversary of the decision, which has had a devastating impact on voting rights in the South. Shelby County laid the groundwork for a wave of new voter suppression laws and racially gerrymandered maps. Decades of advances for minority voters have been wiped out in the past ten years. “History did not end in 1965,” Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in his majority opinion in the 5-4 ruling, alleging that “things have changed dramatically” in the South. But Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s fiery dissent, where she compared the decision to “throwing away your umbrella in a rainstorm because you are not getting wet,” now seems far more prescient…
Since 2013, more than thirty states have passed new restrictions on voting, including 85 percent of states that were previously required to get federal approval for their voting changes, either statewide or in select jurisdictions. Twenty new laws impeding voting access and fair election administration were passed in the former preclearance states following the Shelby decision…
Republicans now have majorities in all of the South’s 26 legislative chambers aside from the Virginia Senate, and supermajorities in at least one chamber of the state legislature in every former Confederate state except for Georgia, Texas, and Virginia. The expulsion of two Black Democrats from the Tennessee House last April captured national attention, but it was simply the most blatant example of how Southern state legislatures have undercut minority voting rights in ways unseen since the Jim Crow era. “Because of the makeup of Southern legislatures, they’re starting to act pre-1960s.” The history of the South shows how quickly gains and rights for formerly disenfranchised communities can be taken away…
Voter suppression efforts have only intensified since Trump attempted to overturn the 2020 election, with his Big Lie inspiring an unprecedented reversal of voting access…GOP-controlled states have become increasingly brazen in targeting minority voters…Post-Shelby, such laws can only be challenged after the fact, through lengthy litigation before conservative-dominated courts. The burden of proof has shifted from those engaged in discrimination to those facing it…
After the onslaught of voter suppression laws, the second major blow from the Shelby decision was a raft of gerrymandered maps passed by nearly every Southern state…Republicans either dismantled existing majority-minority districts in areas like Fitch’s in North Carolina or refused to draw new ones to keep pace with demographic changes in states like Texas. Nearly all of the Lone Star State’s growth over the previous decade came from minority residents, but maps passed by legislative Republicans increased the number of districts held by white Republicans…“I don’t think we’re going backwards,” he says. “We’ve already gone backwards.”
Democrats warn party: The threat of Trump winning in 2024 is 'very real'. But a new NBC News poll released Sunday showed Biden with a relatively narrow 49% to 45% lead over Trump — which falls within the survey’s margin of error and is far lower than the 10 percentage point edge Biden held in NBC’s last poll before the 2020 election. The new survey shows DeSantis, who is less known than Trump, tied with Biden at 47% each. Despite an air of confidence from Biden and his team, some Democrats say they believe Trump has a very serious shot at winning back the Oval Office. -- The word “winning” is doing a lot of work in that sentence.
Ron DeSantis says he’ll end birthright citizenship as president. Gov. Ron DeSantis on Monday unveiled a sweeping plan to overhaul the nation’s immigration system and ramp up border enforcement, vowing to end birthright citizenship, “repel the invasion” at the U.S. southern border and use the “levers at our disposal” to ensure cooperation from Mexico. — DeFascist is just trying to play up to all the white nationalists. Birthright citizenship is in the constitution. He’d need an amendment to remove it.
“Without the socialism of Social Security benefits & Medicare payments, Florida as we know it would not exist.” — Lawrence O’Donnell
No Labels’ signature-gathering firm has ties to Ron DeSantis. As part of its push for a unity ticket presidential bid, the bipartisan group No Labels quietly employed a firm with ties to GOP candidates including Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis...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.
Supreme Court rules against giving state legislatures unchecked control over federal elections. The justices ruled in a 6-3 vote that the North Carolina Supreme Court was acting within its authority in concluding that the map constituted a partisan gerrymander under the state Constitution...The ruling was widely welcomed by voting rights groups and Democrats who had been worried about the implications of a ruling that would curb state court power. "Today the Supreme Court rejected the fringe independent state legislature theory that threatened to upend our democracy and dismantle our system of checks and balances," former President Barack Obama tweeted.
“Look this is very good news but still horrifying that 3 Supreme Court Justices were willing to end democracy as we know it.” — Mallory McMorrow
Supreme Court paves the way for Louisiana congressional districts to be redrawn. The Supreme Court on Monday dismissed Louisiana's appeal seeking to prevent the state's congressional map from being redrawn over claims that it unlawfully dilutes the influence of Black voters. The move via a brief unsigned order was expected after the Supreme Court's ruling on June 8 that buttressed a key part of the landmark Voting Rights Act in a similar case concerning congressional districts in Alabama.
Supreme Court rules for online stalker convicted of making ‘true threats’. The Supreme Court on Tuesday ruled in favor of a Colorado man convicted of making "true threats" who repeatedly sent abusive messages to a local musician. The court said that Billy Counterman's conviction for sending Facebook messages to singer-songwriter Coles Whalen was based on the wrong legal standard. On a 7-2 vote, the justices ruled that the jury should have been required to make a finding about whether he intended his comments to be genuine threats. If such messages are not true threats, they are deemed protected speech under the Constitution’s First Amendment.
Supreme Court lets lawsuits over team doctor’s sexual abuse proceed against Ohio State. The Supreme Court on Monday left in place a decision that allows more than 230 men to sue Ohio State University over decades-old sexual abuse by a university doctor, the late Richard Strauss.
McCarthy considers impeachment inquiry of AG Merrick Garland over Hunter Biden. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy is considering launching an impeachment inquiry over Attorney General Merrick Garland's handling of the investigation into President Joe Biden's son, Hunter Biden.
Ron DeSantis endorses 'deadly force' against migrants suspected of trafficking drugs. It's not clear exactly how officers would be able to tell exactly who was a drug smuggler and who was not. -- That may be DeFascist’s main objective. Muddying the waters so no one is safe and everyone is a criminal.
Deputies accused of abusing Black men are fired by Mississippi sheriff amid federal probe. All five Mississippi deputy sheriffs who responded to an incident where two Black men accused the deputies of beating and sexually assaulting them before shooting one of them in the mouth have been fired or resigned, authorities announced Tuesday.”
Most Black Americans believe US racism will get worse in their lifetime: poll. Nearly 70 percent of Black Americans said now is a more dangerous time to be a Black teenager than when they were teens, including almost 80 percent of those 50 to 64 and 65 and older. Almost 60 percent of Black adults said they are very or somewhat worried they or someone they love will be attacked because they are Black.
Police 'appeared to ignore rules' in strip searches on teens. Police in Northern Ireland "appeared to ignore the rules" in the vast majority of strip searches conducted on young people in 2022, a review has concluded.
Solitary confinement is still widespread in US prisons and jails. The US continues to lock people in isolation even though it causes severe psychological damage that can last a lifetime…“As the United Nations has confirmed, it’s torture taking place on US soil. Now, we finally have a comprehensive count of how many people are in solitary confinement.”…“I think it’s really important to point out how extreme the United States is,” said Michele Deitch, director of the Prison and Jail Innovation Lab at the University of Texas at Austin. “In European countries, it’s considered a violation of human rights for someone to be locked up for more than 15 days in solitary confinement, and we’re locking up people here for 20 or 30 years.”
A brutal heat wave is gripping Texas for a third straight week. Punishing heat is gripping Texas for a third straight week, with tens of millions of people in other states across the South also facing scorching conditions this week. It's a brutal heat wave that officials say “shows no signs of letting up.” Much of Texas continues to swelter under triple-digit temperatures, and heat records across the state have been smashed in what has been a blistering start to summer. Warnings and advisories for excessive heat are also in place across the Southwest and parts of New Mexico, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida.
Texas’s nighttime temperatures are a symptom of a new, more dangerous kind of heat wave. But overnight temperatures will also stay abnormally high, with potentially 180 nighttime records broken over the next seven days. Hotter nights are a consequence of the climate crisis, scientists have warned. On average, nights are warming faster than days in most of the US, according to the 2018 National Climate Assessment.
Over 80 million people from the Midwest to the East Coast are under air quality alerts as smoke from Canadian wildfires drifts to the US. Canada is seeing its worst fire season on record with hundreds of wildfires raging across the country – more than 200 of them burning “out of control,” according to the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre. The wildfires have led to the highest emissions on record for the country, according to a Tuesday report from Copernicus. As smoke crosses into the US, air quality alerts have been issued for the entire states of Iowa, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Delaware and Maryland as well are portions of Kansas, Missouri, Minnesota, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York and Virginia, according to the National Weather Service. Residents are being advised to stay indoors with their air conditioning running or wear N95 masks if they have to be outside.
The alarming decline of Earth’s forests, in 4 charts. Over the last decade, dozens of companies and nearly all large countries have vowed to stop demolishing forests, a practice that destroys entire communities of wildlife and pollutes the air with enormous amounts of carbon dioxide…And yet forests continue to fall. A new analysis by the research organization World Resources Institute reveals that deforestation remained rampant in 2022. More than 4 million hectares (about 10 million acres) of forests vanished from the tropics that year in places like Brazil and Central Africa, according to the analysis, which is based on data from the University of Maryland. That’s a Switzerland-size area of forest gone, WRI said. Alarmingly, the world lost 10 percent more tropical forest in 2022 compared to the previous year, indicating that countries are, on the whole, moving in the wrong direction. This is especially troubling considering that tropical forests are among the most important ecosystems on Earth. They help regulate weather, store vast amounts of carbon, and provide homes to the richest assemblages of wildlife on the planet.
The next big advance in cancer treatment could be a vaccine. After decades of limited success, scientists say research has reached a turning point, with many predicting more vaccines will be out in five years. These aren’t traditional vaccines that prevent disease, but shots to shrink tumors and stop cancer from coming back. Targets for these experimental treatments include breast and lung cancer, with gains reported this year for deadly skin cancer melanoma and pancreatic cancer.
No more needles? A daily pill may work as well as Wegovy shots to treat obesity. High-dose oral versions of the medication in the weight-loss drug Wegovy may work as well as the popular injections when it comes to paring pounds and improving health, according to final results of two studies released Sunday night. The potent tablets also appear to work for people with diabetes, who notoriously struggle to lose weight. Drugmaker Novo Nordisk plans to ask the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to approve the pills later this year.
Analysts estimate pickleball injuries could cost Americans as much as $500M this year. The analysts wrote that while seniors are becoming more active, they can be more susceptible to injuries, especially those associated with pickleball. They said that the sport is “highly attractive” to seniors, who make up one-third of players who play eight times or more per year.
Humans pump so much groundwater that Earth’s axis has shifted, study finds. However, the new research shows that persistent groundwater extraction over more than a decade shifted the axis on which our planet rotates, tipping it over to the east at a rate of about 1.7 inches (4.3 centimeters) per year. That shift is even observable on Earth’s surface, as it contributes to global sea level rise.
Costco cracks down on members sharing cards at checkout. The big box retailer will require shoppers at the self-checkout kiosks show their membership cards with their photo before they can begin scanning after the company noticed non-members were borrowing the non-transferrable cards to get in the warehouse.
Life’s short. Live, love, create, and help others.
Until next time, my friends. Stay safe and stay sane. Good night.
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