Stonehenge Summer Solstice Sunrise Celebrations pic.twitter.com/uG1268iMxv
— Stonehenge U.K (@ST0NEHENGE) June 21, 2023
Stonehenge Summer Solstice Celebrations pic.twitter.com/sB11efWgWW
— Stonehenge U.K (@ST0NEHENGE) June 20, 2023
Stonehenge Summer Solstice Celebrations pic.twitter.com/bBCLFoY7cV
— Stonehenge U.K (@ST0NEHENGE) June 20, 2023
I think we’re all entitled to a quiet and prosperous summer, for a change. And this is a good start:
This is after full trial. This is a final ruling and the first major case to dispositively determine that categorical bans on gender affirming care are unconstitutional. https://t.co/Vkd0pPmWF2
— Alejandra Caraballo ???????????????? (@Esqueer_) June 20, 2023
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. https://t.co/GaG2lbtFXP
— Mark Joseph Stern (@mjs_DC) June 21, 2023
Fantastic campaign ad, IMO:
I’m running for Lt. Governor because the Republican plan isn’t this year’s 12 week abortion ban; it’s next year’s total abortion ban. I'm North Carolina Senator Rachel Hunt. Let me explain… #ncpol pic.twitter.com/Yb8JFUv0ID
— Rachel Hunt (@HuntforNC) June 12, 2023
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
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.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@SFAW: How typical is it for justices to make public statements like that op-ed? Isn’t that frowned on?
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. =)
Omnes Omnibus
@Jerzy Russian: Not wolf proof?
lowtechcyclist
I’d love to hear from our legal eagles just what the ‘full faith and credit’ clause means in situations like this.
lowtechcyclist
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
I’m sure it is, but who’s going to stop them? As things stand, they’ve got the perfect consequence-free job.
SFAW
@Jerzy Russian:
WaterGirl!! Anyway you can add an “up-vote” button? Because this comment deserves it.
prostratedragon
“Summer,” D.D. Jackson ensemble
SFAW
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
Only by you commie libtards who think “SCOTUS corruption” is a bad thing.
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.
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.
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.
SiubhanDuinne
@japa21:
Happy Birthday to you, and Happy Solstice to everyone!
rikyrah
Good Morning Everyone 😊😊😊
Ken
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.
rikyrah
@japa21:
Happy Birthday 🎈🎂🌄🏝️🎉
rikyrah
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
Absolutely ridiculous 😡
Uncle Cholmondeley
Important legal news this morning!
Omnes Omnibus
@japa21: HBD, japa!
Baud
@japa21:
Happy birthday!
@rikyrah:
Good morning.
Steeplejack
@japa21:
Happy birthday! 🥂
Baud
So we have more darkness in our future?
Ken
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.
Ken
I thought that was what the Baud! 20XX! campaign was all about.
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.
Baud
@Steeplejack:
Pretty sure Trump isn’t a jackal.
Baud
@Ken:
More emptiness than darkness, but I can see how the lines may blur.
zhena gogolia
@SiubhanDuinne: I always say this whenever someone gets nostalgic about GHWB.
Jerzy Russian
@japa21: Happy birthday. As a gift, I offer some pedantry:
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.
Kay
It’s sort of amazing how much it’s Alito’s court now.
schrodingers_cat
Question for the hive mind. Does anyone draw with dip pens and do you have a favorite. Thanks.
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
WheoWENT 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.
Jeffro
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)
Princess
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Once upon a time, judges accepting bribes from billionaires was also frowned upon.
OzarkHillbilly
@Baud: Worse, a growing darkness.
Kay
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.
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.
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.
OzarkHillbilly
@Princess: Now it’s called “the invisible hand of the free market at work”.
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!
NotMax
@japa21
It’s, two, two, two
mintscelebrations in one! Have a happy.Manyakitty
@japa21: happy birthday to you 🎉🎂
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.
Baud
@Jeffro:
I’m sure billionaires also have a lot of unused cash that’s just begging to be put to good use.
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
donorsemployers.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.
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.
Anoniminous
@lowtechcyclist:
US law is whatever 5 Supreme Court Justices say it is.
NotMax
Eine kleine solstice musik.
;)
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.
Omnes Omnibus
DOJ Ukraine news.
Roger Moore
@Jeffro:
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.
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.
Roger Moore
@Jeffro:
Go for it. The Supreme Court will rule 6-3 that your suit has no basis.
Jeffro
@Roger Moore: good points.
I also like the principle that if these were left-leaning justices getting
bribeder feted by left-leaning billionaires like this, the entirety of the RWNJ puke funnel would be absolutely HOWLING. And they’d be right.Frankensteinbeck
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
Alito has a history of it, and does so increasingly often.
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.
NotMax
@Jeffro
Leo the Lyin’. Worst constellation ever.
//
Baud
@Jeffro:
“Letting good wine go to waste. Now, that’s corruption!”
Elizabelle
@Omnes Omnibus: Omnes’ tweet is by Carrie Johnson of NPR:
Excellent. I hope they are both practicing their Resting Executioner Faces in the mirror.
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…)
WereBear
@OzarkHillbilly: What a lovely solstice story
I did get that cave diving book, but have not read it, yet. Sounds scary…
Baud
KAGAN DESERVES A BAGAL DAMMIT!
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.
WereBear
@Kay: They aren’t rational beings. They are rationalization beings.
Omnes Omnibus
@Ken: Well played. You should probably see a doctor as your ability to get into that headspace is troubling.
Baud
@WereBear:
👍
cain
@japa21: Happy Birthday and Happy Solstice!
schrodingers_cat
If anyone wants to bribe me, you can give me writing or art supplies.
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.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Betty: Good. You had your turn already.
Kay
@Hoodie:
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?
Baud
@Kay:
Have you seen the brain rot among the GOP elite these days?
Steeplejack
Alito in his WSJ pre-buttal:
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:
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.”
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.
Baud
@Steeplejack:
That’s why you don’t accept expensive gifts from rich people.
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.
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?
Steeplejack
@Baud:
Oh, sure—there’s an easy answer to everything. Killjoy.
Baud
@Ken:
Agreed.
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.
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
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.
Jerzy Russian
@Steeplejack:
Perhaps the universal caption to cartoons in the New Yorker can be “Christ, what an Alito!”.
Steeplejack
Note the photograph of Alito posing (with fish) next to the billionaire that he didn’t know and barely talked to.
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.
lowtechcyclist
@M31:
Along with Hunter Biden’s real laptop – the one with the dick pix was of course a phony, designed to fool the unwary.
Miss Bianca
@Omnes Omnibus: Ooooh, yeah…
Roger Moore
@Steeplejack:
Shorter Alito: speak no conflict; see no conflict; hear no conflict.
Sure Lurkalot
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.
Ken
Cash the check.
Sure Lurkalot
@japa21: Enjoy your long birthday!
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.
zhena gogolia
@Omnes Omnibus: Good!
Juju
@japa21: Happy birthday nice guy.
Captain C
@M31:
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
sdhays
@Kay: It’s a good thing he’s not a woman. Then he really wouldn’t be able to control his emotions!
//
Dopey-o
Maybe Soprano2 knows about the Fun-sized Show Me Stonehenge in Rolla MO
Ozark lives nearby.
mrmoshpotato
@japa21:
You’re also incredibly humble and modest.
Happy birthday dude.
Juju
@montanareddog: Cracker Barrel offers alcoholic beverages now.
Bill Arnold
@SFAW:
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. :-)
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.
catclub
Obligatory “This is Spinal Tap” reference. Feet or inches.
catclub
@Juju:
It is also now _woke_ since some GQPer saw rainbow striped rocking chairs there.
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.
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.
The Lodger
@Origuy: Eclectic is perhaps an understatement. More of a compendium of One Person’s Obscure Obsessions. Neat place to visit, though.
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