Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Republicans are the party of chaos and catastrophe.

This year has been the longest three days of putin’s life.

And now I have baud making fun of me. this day can’t get worse.

Come on, media. you have one job. start doing it.

I really should read my own blog.

Thanks for reminding me that Van Jones needs to be slapped.

Only Democrats have agency, apparently.

They’re not red states to be hated; they are voter suppression states to be fixed.

You don’t get to peddle hatred on saturday and offer condolences on sunday.

That’s my take and I am available for criticism at this time.

Following reporting rules is only for the little people, apparently.

Prediction: the GOP will rethink its strategy of boycotting future committees.

Hi god, it’s us. Thanks a heap, you’re having a great week and it’s only Thursday!

It’s easy to sit in safety and prescribe what other people should be doing.

Optimism opens the door to great things.

How can republicans represent us when they don’t trust women?

Red lights blinking on democracy’s dashboard

Take hopelessness and turn it into resilience.

I was promised a recession.

Proof that we need a blogger ethics panel.

Stamping your little feets and demanding that they see how important you are? Not working anymore.

A lot of Dems talk about what the media tells them to talk about. Not helpful.

Within six months Twitter will be fully self-driving.

Schmidt just says fuck it, opens a tea shop.

You are here: Home / Healthcare / Wednesday Morning Open Thread: Blessed Summer Solstice

Wednesday Morning Open Thread: Blessed Summer Solstice

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I think we’re all entitled to a quiet and prosperous summer, for a change. And this is a good start:

Fantastic campaign ad, IMO:

Reader Interactions

112Comments

  1. 1.

    SFAW

    Might have already been mentioned elsewhere, but ProPublica has another scoop on SCOTUS Sinister Six corruption.
    Surprise! It’s not Thomas.

    ETA: And, true to their up-from-nothing, solidarity-with-the-working-man roots, the WSJ has published a pre-buttal written by the Corrupt Justice

  2. 2.

    Jerzy Russian

    A lot of people don’t know there were originally three henges in the area.  Strawhenge and Stickhenge were easier to build, but for obvious reasons they were not as durable.

  4. 4.

    Jeffro

    Happy summer solstice, everyone!  I hope to be at Stonehenge to celebrate this, some day.

    In the meantime, I’m stuck with the central Virginia version: All Hail The Humidifying.   =)

  6. 6.

    lowtechcyclist

    New York enacts a shield law protecting providers who mail abortion to patients in states that outlaw abortion. Providers say they plan to start mailing pills to these red state patients as soon as possible.

    California is likely next up.

    I’d love to hear from our legal eagles just what the ‘full faith and credit’ clause means in situations like this.

  11. 11.

    japa21

    Longest day of the year, more time to celebrate 🍾 the birthday of a remarkable person, me. Well, remarkable may be overstating it. But a nice guy.

  12. 12.

    SiubhanDuinne

    Poppy gave us Thomas, and Dubya gave us Alito. If for no other reason, this should be quite enough to guarantee the Bush Family a permanent place in the pantheon of American Awfulness.

  13. 13.

    Jerzy Russian

    @Omnes Omnibus:   That is correct.  I think wolves became extinct in England in the 1600s, but by then it was too late for the lesser known henges.

  16. 16.

    Ken

    @SFAW: the WSJ has published a pre-buttal

    It cries out for parody, maybe something like a serial killer justifying their murders and excoriating the FBI for their manhunt.

    Not that any of the people who were targeted by the parody would read it, or recognize themselves in it.

  19. 19.

    Uncle Cholmondeley

    Important legal news this morning!

    Six Flags Not Liable For Woman’s Injury Fleeing From Clown

    A Missouri appeals court ruled Tuesday that Six Flags St. Louis had no duty to protect a guest from injury when an actor dressed as a clown frightened and allegedly chased her during a Halloween-themed event she voluntarily attended, tossing the woman’s injury claims.

    In its opinion, a three-judge panel affirmed the summary judgment freeing Six Flags St. Louis LLC from Carly Munoz’s suit, saying the record makes it clear she was well aware that actors at the theme park during Fright Fest would frighten guests, and that guests would get startled and run.

  24. 24.

    Ken

    @SFAW: Only by you commie libtards who think “SCOTUS corruption” is a bad thing.

    Besides, the SCOTUS ruled that there’s no such thing as corruption. Or to be technical, that independent expenditures do not give rise to corruption or the appearance of corruption.

  25. 25.

    Ken

    @Baud: So we have more darkness in our future?

    I thought that was what the Baud! 20XX! campaign was all about.

  26. 26.

    Steeplejack

    Solstice at 10:57 a.m. EDT for those who want to go outside and stare at the sun. Too cloudy and rainy here in NoVA.

  30. 30.

    Jerzy Russian

    @japa21:   Happy birthday.  As a gift, I offer some pedantry:

     

     

    Longest day of the year

    June 21 is the calendar day with the longest interval of daylight for locations in the northern hemisphere.

    Useless trivia: since Earth‘a orbit is slightly elliptical, the latest sunset for mid-northern latitudes occurs roughly a week after solstice.

  31. 31.

    Kay

    ProPublica
    @propublica

    Justice Alito didn’t answer our questions. Instead, he wrote an opinion piece attacking as unfair a story he hadn’t read.

    It’s sort of amazing how much it’s Alito’s court now.

  33. 33.

    OzarkHillbilly

    Some years back, a very good Arkie caving caught West Nile virus. After a few bad days he slipped into a coma. For 2+ weeks we had no idea if he was gonna live or die. Then one day I received this weakly scribbled note attached to an email:

    THANKS, EVERY ONE, SPECIALLY THOSE WHO Wheo WENT OUT ON THE SOLSTICE AND HOISTED A DRINK FOR ME.
    THAT WHEN I STARTED TO InPROVE.

    It would be another month before D was back to his old irascible self, and he is with us still.

  34. 34.

    Jeffro

    @Baud:So we have more darkness in our future?

    In a sense.  George Will has a piece up in the WaPo praising Thomas Massie as an “implacable libertarian” (as opposed to a lunatic gun nut) and for a moment, all my thoughts did indeed turn dark.

    Then I remembered that neither is worth wasting time on, until we receive news of their passing (especially Will)

  37. 37.

    Kay

    Jamison Foser
    @jamisonfoser
    CLARENCE THOMAS: These free luxury vacations are totally ethical because the GOP donor who takes me on them is a dear friend! It’s just what friends do!
    SAM ALITO: This free luxury vacation is totally ethical because I barely know the GOP donor who took me on it!

    The best thing about the far Right justices is they have completely discredited the claim that there is some kind of rigorous, coherent “thought” going on in Right wing legal circles. Unless you attended law school you don’t know how incredibly arrogant they are about their ideology- they think it is brilliant and they are brilliant. Really they just make it up as each situation arises.

  38. 38.

    Elizabelle

    @Steeplejack:  We have steady rain in RVA too, since last night.  Glad to see it; area has been trending to minidrought for a few weeks.

    Celebrating the solstice.

    @japa21:   Happy another year around the sun day.

  39. 39.

    Geminid

    @Steeplejack: It’s rainy here in Greene County, too. We need it though. The ground really dried out over the last two months.

    The prediction of a heat wave next week has turned into one for normal temps, and chances of rain everyday.

  41. 41.

    Jeffro

    @Kay: I like the new “principle” that it’s perfectly ok to take a bribe if it’s just lying there unused, like a seat on a billionaire’s private jet.

    Exciting new possibilities await you, Roberts Court!

  44. 44.

    kindness

    @Jeffro: George Will’s only redeeming columns now days are when he talks about the Cubs.  And he almost never does that.  The WaPo is trying to drive subscribers like me away with all their pinheaded conservative oped writers.

  46. 46.

    Elizabelle

    @Kay:  The corrupt Thomas and deplorable Alito need to Scalia it out of here.  Meeting their maker while on a jaunt with their wealthy donors employers.

    I hope that Biden-Harris win a resounding victory in 2024; we pick up Senate and House seats. And Biden expands the Supreme Court. Rapidly.

    We cannot take the chance of all our voters’ and legislators’ hard work being undone by an unrepresentative and corrupt Court.

  47. 47.

    Roger Moore

    @Kay:

    There actually is a coherent right-wing thought pattern behind this stuff: that we peasants shouldn’t question what our betters are doing.  The law says Supreme Court justices are supposed to recuse themselves any time their impartiality might be questioned.  They don’t think we have the right to question them about anything, so they never have an obligation to recuse.

  50. 50.

    Hoodie

    @Kay: I’m starting to wonder whether this is wearing on some of the others in light of the last few decisions.   While several of the others certainly have their own ethics issues, Thomas and Alito are really standing out now.  They probably are insufferable assholes in person, and I imagine they’re even more insufferable now that they feel that they are nominally in control.

  52. 52.

    Roger Moore

    @Jeffro:

    I like the new “principle” that it’s perfectly ok to take a bribe if it’s just lying there unused, like a seat on a billionaire’s private jet.

    It’s such a stupid, obviously wrong principle, too.  Like, maybe someone who wants to bribe you could deliberately create a situation where something would otherwise go unused just so they would have an excuse to give it to you.  There’s no real principle here.  Alito just wanted to take the seat, so he came up with a situational ethics excuse for why that was OK.

    It’s exactly the same problem as the rest of his legal reasoning.  A good argument starts with basic principles and works forward to figure out the correct answer.  Instead, Alito starts with an answer and works backward to find a justification.  He’s usually better at hiding his work so it looks to a casual observer as if he’s making a principled argument, but anyone who follows him for long can recognize the goal-oriented reasoning.

  53. 53.

    Jeffro

    @Baud: cash and cash equivalents, like $1,000 bottles of wine, Kobe steak dinners, fishing trips, and so on.  And so on.  And so on.  >(

    Dang it – there I go sort of questioning their impartiality again by implying that dining with/living like a billionaire just might influence justices’ decision, my bad.  It’s probably just projection on my part.

    I forget who it was on Twitter (Josh Marshall?) who noted that Leonard Leo has been making sure to pair each RWNJ justice with a billionaire sugar daddy as they come onto the court.  I feel like as an American citizen, I ought to have standing to sue the living shit out of Leonard Leo for corrupting my government like this.  It’s certainly not equal treatment under the law.

  54. 54.

    Roger Moore

    @Jeffro:

    I feel like as an American citizen, I ought to have standing to sue the living shit out of Leonard Leo for corrupting my government like this.

    Go for it.  The Supreme Court will rule 6-3 that your suit has no basis.

  55. 55.

    Jeffro

    @Roger Moore: good points.

    I also like the principle that if these were left-leaning justices getting bribed er feted by left-leaning billionaires like this, the entirety of the RWNJ puke funnel would be absolutely HOWLING.  And they’d be right.

  57. 57.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Jeffro: To be scrupulously fair, some of these billionaires are so awful that spend time with them could make you want to rule against them.  So it all works out in the end.  Even Steven.

  60. 60.

    Elizabelle

    @Omnes Omnibus:  Omnes’ tweet is by Carrie Johnson of NPR:

    Bit more news from Attorney General Merrick Garland this morning: 1-DOJ has deployed prosecutor Jared Kimball to be a resident legal advisor in Kiev 2-Jessica Kim will serve as U.S. Special Prosecutor for the Crime of Aggression, to work with the International Centre at The Hague

    Excellent.  I hope they are both practicing their Resting Executioner Faces in the mirror.

  61. 61.

    Ken

    @Omnes Omnibus: <freakout>Garland is trying to monkey-wrench the Trump investigations by sending DOJ personnel overseas! He’ll strip the investigation and then shut it dowm!!</freakout>

    (Getting ahead of the curve…)

  64. 64.

    Anoniminous

    George Carlin on American Rights

    And it was the Great Liberal Lion© Earl Warren as the Attorney General of California who pushed for it saying Japanese Americans had willfully infiltrated “every strategic spot” in California coastal and valley counties, had warned of potentially greater danger from American born ethnic Japanese than from first-generation immigrants.  He further asserted that although there were means to test the loyalty of a “Caucasian” that the same could not be said for ethnic Japanese.

  66. 66.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Ken: Well played.  You should probably see a doctor as your ability to get into that headspace is troubling.

  70. 70.

    Betty

    Weather update: Happy to report that Brett appears to be staying as a tropical storm as it passes this way. We can expect some strong winds and heavy rains Thursday evening, but nothing catastrophic. It’s a relief, but it’s early days in hurricane season.

  72. 72.

    Kay

    @Hoodie:

     I’m starting to wonder whether this is wearing on some of the others in light of the last few decisions.

    I wonder about that too. The huge chip on Alito’s shoulder is really something else, though. He just seethes with resentment constantly. Every speech is a litany of complaints on how he is being treated. The idea that this person can somehow put aside his personal sense of persecution by liberals to decide anything fairly is nonsense. On the most basic level it’s really unprofessional. Why doesn’t he have more self control?

  74. 74.

    Steeplejack

    Alito in his WSJ pre-buttal:

    Mr. Singer was not listed as a party in any of the cases listed by ProPublica. Nor did his name appear in any of the corporate disclosure statements or the certiorari petitions or briefs in opposition to certiorari. In the one case in which review was granted, Republic of Argentina v. NML Capital, Ltd., No. 12-842, Mr. Singer’s name did not appear in either the certiorari petition, the brief in opposition, or the merits briefs. Because his name did not appear in these filings, I was unaware of his connection with any of the listed entities, and I had no good reason to be aware of that. The entities that ProPublica claims are connected to Mr. Singer all appear to be either limited liability corporations or limited liability partnerships. It would be utterly impossible for my staff or any other Supreme Court employees to search filings with the SEC or other government bodies to find the names of all individuals with a financial interest in every such entity named as a party in the thousands of cases that are brought to us each year.

    And, of course, Alito is getting dragged up and down Twitter. Numerous people have pointed out that Singer’s name was prominently linked with NML Capital in news stories about the Argentina case—even in the WSJ!

    Choice comments:

    @MikeKimelman: And yet every time I hire a law firm they do a conflicts check against a database of past and present clients and opposing parties . . .

    @EmmaManny111: “We hire the smartest most talented clerks but knowing the involved parties in the handful of cases we deem important enough to hear is literally impossible.’

    Also, un-paywalled copy of Alito’s piece here.

    ETA, from Reddit: “Oh, come on, who among us hasn’t been offered an empty seat on a billionaire’s private flight? It happens to me all the time.”

  75. 75.

    Ken

    @Omnes Omnibus: Thank you. I could also have gotten into the “He’s sending investigators to Ukraine to find Hillary’s email server and the evidence of the Biden bribes” mindspace, but I figured Fox or OANN would handle that.

  76. 76.

    Baud

    @Steeplejack:

    It would be utterly impossible for my staff or any other Supreme Court employees to search filings with the SEC or other government bodies to find the names of all individuals with a financial interest in every such entity named as a party in the thousands of cases that are brought to us each year.

     

    That’s why you don’t accept expensive gifts from rich people.

  77. 77.

    Layer8Problem

    @Roger Moore:  This was all so much more refined in the old days, where a gentleman left the money on the table by the bed after services were rendered.

  78. 78.

    Ken

    @Steeplejack: Sounds like Alito might have invoked the Streisand effect with his WSJ piece. How many people would have read, or heard of, the ProPublica piece without his help?

  81. 81.

    Steeplejack

    @Ken:

    Someone on Twitter said this is new and should be named the Alito effect. The Streisand effect makes things worse after they’ve happened. The Alito effect makes them worse <em>before</em> they happen.

  82. 82.

    M31

    @Ken: Hilary’s email server was actually on the Titanic, and it was about to be found so those billionaires had to die

    study it out, people

  83. 83.

    lowtechcyclist

    Here in southern Maryland, we’re having a somewhat chilly solstice, as rain pelts down from the sky, accompanied by strong winds.  Makes me glad we had some worrisome trees cut down or trimmed last fall.  The risk of a major limb falling on the house isn’t zero, but it’s a lot closer to zero than it would have been otherwise.

  84. 84.

    Jerzy Russian

    @Steeplejack:

     

    Someone on Twitter said this is new and should be named the Alito effect.

    Perhaps the universal caption to cartoons in the New Yorker can be “Christ, what an Alito!”.

  86. 86.

    Roger Moore

    @Kay:

    As I say above, I think a core principle that Alito and his fellows are following is that they’re important and we’re peons, and we fundamentally have no right to question them about anything.  That’s the core motivation behind a lot of his anger.  In his mind, he shouldn’t have to explain himself at all.  We should just accept his rulings without question, and he’s already conceding a lot by stooping to explaining himself.

  87. 87.

    lowtechcyclist

    @M31:

    Hilary’s email server was actually on the Titanic, and it was about to be found so those billionaires had to die

    study it out, people

    Along with Hunter Biden’s real laptop – the one with the dick pix was of course a phony, designed to fool the unwary.

  90. 90.

    Sure Lurkalot

    Mark Joseph Stern
    Leo: The ProPublica story is “bait for reeling in more dark money from woke billionaires who want to damage this Supreme Court and remake it into one that will disregard the law by rubber stamping their disordered and highly unpopular cultural preferences.”

    Politico did a deep dive into this corrupt as fuck motherfucker but somehow he still roams free to unjustly enrich himself with dark money and mouth breathe his bullshit.

  93. 93.

    Steeplejack

    @Sure Lurkalot:

    Leo: “[. . .] billionaires who want to damage this Supreme Court and remake it into one that will disregard the law by rubber stamping their disordered and highly unpopular cultural preferences.”

    Projecting like IMAX.

  96. 96.

    Captain C

    @M31:

    Hilary’s email server was actually on the Titanic, and it was about to be found so those billionaires had to die

    study it out, people

    Because of all the places to ditch a server in the Atlantic Ocean, the best place to put it is the one place on the seafloor that is guaranteed to get at least the occasional visitor.

  97. 97.

    Mai Naem mobile

    Has anyone noticed somehow Clarence Thomas and Sam Alito never accept a free plane ride on Spirit Airlines and  lodging at a Motel 6? I thought they were everyday people who had pulled themselves up by their bootstraps and would want to hang out with people  in Branson who use Spirit Airlines and Motel 6 with food at Cracker Barrel.

  98. 98.

    Ken

    @Mai Naem mobile: I think it was Cracker Barrel that ages ago had stores, separate from the restaurants, that sold cheeses, meats, and so forth. I remember visiting an uncle who took us to the mall store, and showed us all the free samples. That was the really cheap lunch alternative.

  99. 99.

    montanareddog

    @Ken: My first and only time in a Cracker Barrel was with an Argentinian friend on his first visit to the States.

    Waiter asked what we would like to drink and my friend asked for a beer. Response was “I am sorry, sir, but we do not serve alcoholic beverages in this establishment”.

    The astonishment writ across my friend’s face was a sight to behold.

  100. 100.

    Kay

    @Roger Moore:

    It’s so perfect because it’s combined with accusations that liberals can’t take criticism and want to shut down debate. “Stop criticizing my work!! Why can’t you handle criticism?!”

    They’re just lousy thinkers. There’s no coherence at all. I sort of like that Dobbs sucks and is so poorly reasoned and poorly informed because it’s their Big Opinion and it’s junk.

    This  is the Right’s big accomplishment on “life”. They’re killing women. I knew they would- I knew the whole religious ideology put women a distant second to pregnancy and childbirth. The US has some of the worst maternal mortality rates in the developed countries and religious extremists made it WORSE.

    Most OBGYNs said in a new poll that the Dobbs ruling from the Supreme Court last year worsened maternal health care and increased pregnancy-related mortality. Health policy nonprofit KFF released its new poll Wednesday, that found that 64 percent of OBGYNs surveyed believed that the June 2022 decision overturning Roe v. Wade worsened pregnancy-related mortality. Sixty-eight percent also said the decision worsened their ability to treat pregnancy-related emergencies.

  101. 101.

    sdhays

    @Kay: It’s a good thing he’s not a woman. Then he really wouldn’t be able to control his emotions!

    //

  103. 103.

    mrmoshpotato

    @japa21:

    Longest day of the year, more time to celebrate 🍾 the birthday of a remarkable person, me. Well, remarkable may be overstating it. But a nice guy. 

    You’re also incredibly humble and modest.

    Happy birthday dude.

  105. 105.

    Bill Arnold

    @SFAW:

    the WSJ has published a pre-buttal written by the Corrupt Justice

    The Alito WSJ opinion piece is paywalled, an amusing twist.
    Also, it is thoroughly addressed in the published propublica piece. They did not let Alito get the last word. :-)

  106. 106.

    Dan B

    @Dopey-o:  There’s a full sized Stonehenge on the Columbia River at Maryhill near Goldendale in Central Washington.  It’s concrete and a bit funky but full scale.  Having seen Stonehenge and being underimpressed I’ve not been to Maryhill.

  107. 107.

    catclub

    @Dan B: It’s concrete and a bit funky but _full_ scale.

     

    Obligatory “This is Spinal Tap” reference. Feet or inches.

  109. 109.

    Origuy

    @Dan B: I’ve been to the Maryhill Stonehenge. It’s got a nice view overlooking the Columbia River.

    Nearby is the Maryhill Museum, which has an eclectic combination of collections. If you’re in the area, it’s worth a stop.

  110. 110.

    Origuy

    There really is a Woodhenge near Stonehenge. It is believed to be related to Stonehenge, possibly a symbol of life where Stonehenge is a symbol of death.

  111. 111.

    The Lodger

    @Origuy: Eclectic is perhaps an understatement. More of a compendium of One Person’s Obscure Obsessions. Neat place to visit, though.

  112. 112.

    krow10

    Regarding the excellent HuntforNC ad:

    https://twitter.com/HuntforNC/status/1668203992491642882?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1668203992491642882%7Ctwgr%5Eb832af2676039b12561f4f0d7d40ad5ee9cc7aa3%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fballoon-juice.com%2F2023%2F06%2F21%2Fwednesday-morning-open-thread-blessed-summer-solstice%2F

    Has Twitter changed it’s totally free speech policy of not promoting ads that advocate for reproductive rights?

    https://www.huffpost.com/entry/rachel-hunt-north-carolina-twitter-video-abortion_n_648b4257e4b0756ff8631dec

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