USA News and Discussions

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caltrek
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The Other Cancel Culture: How a Public University Is Bowing to a Conservative Crusade
by Daniel Golden and Kirsten Berg
June 29, 2022

Introduction:
(ProPublica) In August 2020, Boise State University chose a doctoral student in public policy, Melanie Fillmore, to deliver what is called a “land acknowledgment” speech at a convocation for incoming freshmen. Fillmore, who is part Indigenous, would recognize the tribes that lived in the Boise Valley before they were banished to reservations to make way for white settlers.

The convocation was to be virtual, because of the pandemic. Fillmore put on beaded Native American jewelry and recorded an eight-minute video on her phone. She began by naming the “rightful owners of this land,” the Boise Valley Indigenous tribes, and then described her own “complicated” background. Her father was Hunkpapa Lakota, her mother white. “I can trace eight generations of my Lakota ancestors being removed from the land of their lifeblood to the reservation, just as I can trace seven generations of Norwegian and English ancestors taking that land,” she said.

She submitted her speech to the university, but the students never heard it. Boise State higher-ups thought that it was too long and too provocative to roll out in a politically precarious climate, one former official said. They consulted another administrator about whether to drop the speech. “I communicated that pulling it was a bad idea and incredibly wrong,” said this person, who has also left the university. “I don’t believe in de-platforming Indigenous voices.”

The advice was disregarded. Two days before the convocation, the vice president for student affairs told Fillmore that her appearance was canceled, explaining that her safety might be at risk or that she might be trolled or doxxed online.

Fillmore was devastated. She had encouraged the students to tell their stories, and now hers was being erased. She wondered if administrators were worried about the timing. The Idaho Legislature — which normally meets from January to March, when it decides how much money to give to public education, including Boise State — would hold a special session three days after the convocation to consider COVID-19 measures. Conservative legislators, who ever since Tromp’s arrival had been attacking Boise State’s diversity initiatives, might hear about Fillmore’s talk and seize on it to bash the university.
Read more here: https://www.propublica.org/article/id ... iversity
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caltrek
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How Clarence Thomas Went From a 'Fringe Figure with Extremist Views' to the Court’s 'Center of Gravity'
by Alex Henderson
July 11, 2022

Introduction:
(Alternet) For many years, Justice Clarence Thomas and the late Antonin Scalia were considered the fringe of the U.S. Supreme Court — far-right social conservatives who frequently butted heads with the late liberal Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg as well as right-wing libertarian Justice Anthony Kennedy, now retired. But with the High Court handing down one extreme decision after another in 2022, from overturning Roe v. Wade to limiting the Environment Protection Agency’s ability to regulate power plants, it’s obvious that the Court’s Thomas wing is now dominant.

Journalist David Smith, in an article published by The Guardian on July 10, emphasizes that Thomas, now 74, has become increasingly influential on the Court. According to Smith, the days when Thomas was regarded the Court’s “fringe figure with extremist views” are over — and the Court’s “center of gravity” has “moved his way.”

Edward Fallone, a law professor at Marquette University Law School in Milwaukee, told The Guardian, “By virtue of the fact that Clarence Thomas has been on the Supreme Court as long as he has, he has slowly gained much more influence and has now become the dominant ideological leader of the conservatives. He is certainly more confident and more muscular now that he has allies on his side, but he has been strikingly consistent over the decades. He simply waited for the rest of the conservative world to catch up to him.”
Read more here: https://www.alternet.org/2022/07/why- ... -report/
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caltrek
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The Post-legal Supreme Court
by Ian Millhiser
July 9, 2022

Introduction:
(Vox) The highest Court in the most powerful nation in the world appears to have decided that it only needs to follow the law when it feels like it.

Last December, for example, the Supreme Court handed down a decision that fundamentally alters the Union — giving states sweeping authority to restrict their residents’ constitutional rights.

At least, that’s what happened if you take the Court’s 5-4 decision in Whole Woman’s Health v. Jackson seriously. Jackson involved Texas’s anti-abortion law SB 8, which allowed “any person” who is not employed by the state to sue anyone they suspect of performing an abortion after the sixth week of pregnancy, and to collect a bounty of at least $10,000 from that abortion provider. The Court allowed that law to take effect, even though abortion was still considered a constitutional right at the time.

If you apply the logic from Jackson more broadly, any state could pass a law unleashing such litigious bounty hunters upon people who exercise any constitutional right. Perhaps a state wants to make it illegal to own a gun, or maybe it wants to allow bounty hunters to sue any Black family that sends its child to a predominantly white school — and the federal judiciary will simply stand back and let it happen. Realistically, the Court is unlikely to allow these sorts of attacks. But to spite abortion, the conservative majority was willing to open the door to them.

Jackson, moreover, was only the beginning of a Rumspringa of conservative excess led by the Court’s Republican-appointed majority.
Read more here: https://www.vox.com/23180634/supreme- ... guns-epa
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Campaign manager Brad Parscale blamed Jan 6 deaths on Trump, text messages reveal
Source: Independent

Brad Parscale also said he ‘felt guilty’ for helping ex-president win White House

Graeme Massie
Los Angeles
2 minutes ago

Donald Trump’s former senior campaign adviser blamed the death of a woman in the US Capitol riot on the former president’s heated rhetoric, text messages have revealed. Brad Parscale appeared to be referring to the death of Ashli Babbit, who was fatally shot by law enforcement during the deadly insurrection, in messages to fellow Trump adviser Katrina Pierson that were shared at the latest January 6 hearing.

In the messages from the day of the riot, Mr Parscale told Ms Pierson that he “felt guilty” for helping Mr Trump win the White House, and described him as “a sitting president asking for civil war.”

Ms Pierson then responded to his message, telling her fellow insider, “You did what you felt right at the time and therefore it was right.”

And Mr Parscale replied, “Yeah, but a woman is dead.” He then added, “If I was Trump and I knew my rhetoric killed someone.” Ms Pierson then responded, “It wasn’t the rhetoric.”
Read more: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/worl ... 21706.html

We now know why he was fired!
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Mexico agrees to provide $1.5 billion to help U.S. manage migrants on southern border
Source: NBC News
The Mexican government has agreed to provide roughly $1.5 billion toward a host of new construction projects along the U.S.-Mexico border to strengthen the United States’ ability to screen and process migrants, a White House official said Tuesday.

The agreement was discussed on Tuesday when Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador met with President Joe Biden at the White House.

Former President Donald Trump campaigned on the promise of building a new border wall that he would get Mexico to pay for. While the Trump administration did build hundreds of miles of new and renovated border wall, the Mexican government did not pay for it.

Now, Mexico has agreed to pay for a host of projects through a joint multi-year effort along the two country’s borders, including “modernizing” ports of entry and enhancing screening processes of immigrants attempting to cross from Mexico to the United States. The exact details of the new projects are still being worked out, but, the official said, the new agreement will not result in the building of any kind of wall or border barrier.
Read more: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/me ... ar-AAZvuwk
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caltrek
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^^^This is what liberals mean when they talk about the need to be politically correct. Of course, now all sorts of folks are going to be screaming about how the liberal left supports censorship, cancel culture, etc. Perhaps if such "conservatives" taught their own to be more polite, such support would not arise. But hey, why be logical when you can just blame the victim.
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Xyls
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Biden making some very dumb remarks:

Biden Calls Inflation Numbers ‘Out of Date.’ Americans Disagree

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles ... ium-canada

This is the kind of remark that could get the Democrats pulverized in the mid-terms.
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caltrek
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Xyls wrote: Thu Jul 14, 2022 9:26 pm Biden making some very dumb remarks:

Biden Calls Inflation Numbers ‘Out of Date.’ Americans Disagree

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles ... ium-canada

This is the kind of remark that could get the Democrats pulverized in the mid-terms.
Interesting map included with the article. It shows "Where Prices are Rising the Fastest" in the United States. States with the lowest rise in inflation:

New York, Delaware, and Pennsylvania. All blue (or purple) states.

States with the highest rise in inflation?

Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, and Missouri. (All red states).

So, I am not sure it is the Democrats who have the most to fear from the bad inflation news. Especially when you take into account that California is actually in the process of issuing tax rebate checks in recognition of the painful effects of inflation in their states. Hopefully, other blue states flushed with high tax revenues due to a full employment economy, will do the same.

But yes, Biden was a little tone deaf in his remarks. In any case, we need somebody who can better frame the issues debate in 2024.
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Biden Extends Streak of New Court Picks as Midterms Draw Near
by Rose Wagner
July 14, 2022

Introduction:
WASHINGTON (Courthouse News) — President Joe Biden announced four new nominees to the federal bench Thursday, as well as three prospective judges to serve on local courts in the nation’s capital.

The slew of nominees marked three days of back-to-back judicial nominations from the White House, with Biden aiming to fill court vacancies at a rapid pace as the midterms get closer. All judicial nominees require Senate confirmation before they ascend to the federal bench, a process that could get trickier if Democrats lose their majority in the tightly-divided chamber in November.


Biden also nominated Matthew Garcia to serve as a federal district judge for the District of New Mexico. Garcia is chief of staff to New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham, a Democrat. He previously served as Grisham’s general counsel.

Judge Andrew G. Schopler is Biden’s nominee to serve as a district judge for the Southern District of California. A magistrate judge in the district since 2016, he is also a member of the United States Army Reserve and California National Guard.

Another California-based nominee, Judge James Edward Simmons Jr., is slated to fill a vacancy on the District Court for the Southern District of California.
Read more here: https://www.courthousenews.com/biden- ... aw-near/
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