Highlights of the News

In the midst of one of America's darkest hours, we sang "God Bless America" along with Kate Smith. We could use a few singers today. Happy 245th.

ITEM 1: Justice Alito wrote the majority opinion in upholding Arizona's voting laws.

He began, "Arizona law generally makes it very easy to vote. Voters may cast their ballots on election day in person at a traditional precinct or a voting center in their county of residence. Arizonans also may cast an early ballot by mail up to 27 days before an election, and they also may vote in person at an early voting location in each county."

To say Republicans, who passed these laws in 2016, are oppressing voters or restricting voters rights is to lie. So, of course the media reported this as restricting voters rights. Corporate media now lies about everything decent and good about America because the CEOs oppose Making America Great Again.

Disney, which owns ABC and whose largest private shareholder owns Fox, eyes a billion-person market in Red China. Its financial interests are overseas.

Jeff Bezos through his Washington Post (which I don't link) whined, "The Roberts court systematically dismantles the Voting Rights Act."

That is good as the VRA violates the 10th Amendment. States run elections and district legislative seats, not Congress. 

ITEM 2: Kimberley A. Strassel wrote, "The justices celebrated the Fourth of July with one of their more important First Amendment rulings in decades. The high court’s decision in Americans for Prosperity Foundation v. Bonta strikes down an attempt by California politicians to cast what Chief Justice John Roberts called 'a dragnet for sensitive donor information from tens of thousands of charities each year.' It also marked the court’s belated if crucial recognition that the 21st century requires a new approach to disclosure.

"The risks of 'bomb threats, protests, stalking, and physical violence,' the chief justice wrote, 'seem to grow with each passing year,” giving “anyone with access to a computer' the power to compile information to destroy others. And the opinion’s references to past cases make clear the threat to donors doesn’t come only from hackers or doxxers but from government itself."

Every now and then, Roberts returns to his conservative roots.

Privacy never mattered more than it does today amid Internet oligarchs and the very real threat of corporate media doxxing followed by Antifa/BLM violence.

Excuse me, mostly peaceful violence.

ITEM 3: I prefer spelling it doxxing instead of doxing because that first spelling has a double-cross in the middle.

(That's a nod to Redd Foxx.)

ITEM 4: The Atlantic reported, "Ohio Is Now Fully Trumpified."

I surely hope so. 

I also wish they would quit hogging the center lane while driving at the speed limit. 

ITEM 5: CNBC reported, "CRISPR gene-editing treatment could reach patients ‘very, very soon’: Intellia CEO."

Learn to genetic code.

The road initially to riches, however, will be porn. With Marilyn Monroe's DNA, you could be on your way to trillions of dollars.

ITEM 6: Breitbart reported, "Olympic runner Sha’Carri Richardson is taking responsibility for her actions in the wake of her one-month suspension due to a positive marijuana test.

"The U.S. track star and Olympic hopeful spoke with the Today Show on Friday, to let the world know her thoughts after being informed that she would miss the 100 meter race after testing positive for THC, the chemical found in marijuana.

"Richardson accepted a one-month suspension from the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency on Friday."

That sucks.

How about suspending the third-place finisher in women's hammer toss? She won't medal and she dishonors the flag.

Oh wait. They do not mean that kind of dope.

ITEM 7: DPA, a German news service, reported, "All international troops have left Bagram airfield, the largest US military base in Afghanistan, as NATO troops prepare to finally depart the war-scarred nation.

"The base, one hour's drive to the north of the capital Kabul, has been a center of US military operations for nearly the last two decades.

"A spokesperson for the Afghan Defence Ministry, Fawad Aman, confirmed that the foreign forces had left Bagram on Thursday night and had handed it over to the Afghan forces."

Vietnam II.

We should have left a decade ago when we killed Osama bin Laden.

And why did we drag NATO in?

ITEM 8: Reuters reported, "GM is investing in a U.S. lithium project that could become the country's largest by 2024, making the automaker one of the first to develop its own source of a battery metal crucial for the electrification of cars and trucks.

"The deal, announced on Friday, comes as automakers around the world scramble for access to lithium and other electric vehicle metals as internal combustion engines are phased out.

"Detroit-based GM said it will make a multimillion-dollar investment and help develop Controlled Thermal Resources Ltd's Hell's Kitchen geothermal brine project near California's Salton Sea, roughly 160 miles southeast of Los Angeles."

I am no fan of GM. I believe electric cars are a path to a Mad Max future in which we cannot find gasoline to run cars.

But it is better to build this junk here than import it.

ITEM 9: Yahoo reported, "Two of the world’s three fastest women’s 400m sprinters this year were ruled ineligible to run the event at the Olympics due to a rule capping testosterone levels in women’s events from the 400m through the mile, according to their National Olympic Committee.

"Namibians Christine Mboma and Beatrice Masilingi, both 18, 'have a natural high testosterone level' after undergoing medical tests for athletes with differences of sexual development, according to the Namibia Olympic Committee."

Both were born as women.

Perhaps instead of banning boys from girls sports, we should just test for testosterone using the Olympic standard. 

ITEM 10: The Columbus Dispatch reported, "A federal court on Thursday ruled that President Joe Biden's Treasury Department cannot enforce a rule prohibiting use of federal COVID-19 relief funds for tax cuts in Ohio, handing a victory to state Republican leaders."

The story said, "Yost had sued the U.S. Treasury in March over a tax mandate provision in the American Rescue Plan Act, a humongous $1.9 trillion spending package to aid the nation in recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. Ohio's share was around $5.4 billion.

"In ARPA, a section states that the relief funds may not be used by states directly or indirectly to offset revenue reductions. 

"Ohio and at least 20 other Republican-led states took issue with that rule, arguing that it violated and infringed upon a state's taxing authority. It also threw a wrench into state Republicans' initial plans nationwide to use some of the extra money for increased tax cuts."

Cole is a Trump judge.

That means he follows the Constitution, not Das Kapital.

ITEM 11: 90 Miles From Tyranny reported, "Active duty members of the Navy in San Diego were forced to take part in a mandatory ‘diversity hike’ during which they flew LGBT flags while American flags were nowhere to be seen.

"'A woman whose husband is active duty Navy sent me this. His command held a diversity hike in honor of Pride Month. Attendance was mandatory. They hiked while waving a rainbow American flag,' tweeted Matt Walsh."

If true, court martial. The military of all people should not disrespect the AMERICAN flag. Its colors are red, white, and blue.

ITEM 12: Law professor Jonathan Turley wrote, "Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr.  and New York Attorney General Letitia James paraded triumphantly in front of hundreds of cameras to charge the Trump Organization and its finance chief, Allen Weisselberg, 73, with a 15-count indictment for failing to pay taxes on corporate perks. Weisselberg was a trophy defendant that needed to be prominently displayed. James ran for Attorney General on the pledge to get Trump and his associates.  The excitement around the courthouse itself had the feel of a thrill kill as the heavily Democratic city celebrated the arrest of someone close to Trump.

"I admittedly view these cases through the lens of a longtime criminal defense attorney but few recognized the obvious problem of a big hunt and small game.  It is not that Weisselberg himself is small game, he was a close associate at the top of this company. The charges are small game when these prosecutors pledged to pursue Trump and alleged major crimes. However, the charges are based on violations that are ubiquitous among corporate executives and rarely the subject of such a major prosecution.  If prosecuting untaxed perks was really a focus of these offices, they would have to frog march half of Manhattan to the hoosegow."

Tempting.

Perhaps a class-action malicious prosecution lawsuit against James, Vance, and Mueller would stop political persecutions.

But until that happens, every Republican prosecutor in the nation should start hunting down Democrats. They changed the rules. Make them live by them.

ITEM 13: The Star-Tribune reported, "A Hennepin County judge on Thursday ordered Minneapolis leaders to keep the number of police officers at a level required in the city charter, saying that Mayor Jacob Frey and the City Council 'failed to perform an official duty clearly imposed by law.'

"The ruling was a victory for eight activists who sued the city last year, citing high levels of violent crime, especially in poor and minority neighborhoods.

"Frey and the council 'shall immediately take any and all necessary action' to make sure they fund a police force of at least 0.0017 employees per resident, as called for by the city charter, according to the ruling issued by Judge Jamie L. Anderson. That would be either 730.33 officer jobs or the number that would equal 0.0017 of the city's 2020 census population when that figure is published later this year, whichever is higher."

The story also said, "Minneapolis police said they began the year with 817 officers on their payroll, 60 fewer than the previous year. But, only 638 officers are currently available to work, the department said. Some officers resigned or retired early in the year, while another 155 remain on some form of extended leave.

"With the new recruit classes, the city expects it will have 674 officers available to work at the end of the year, and another 28 working their way through the hiring process at that time."

The city charter requires 731 officers. They are 93 short. If no one retires or dies, they will be 57 short in 6 months.

That is not good enough. By defunding police, City Hall broke the city charter.

ITEM 14: Minneapolis has $27 million to give George Floyd's family but not enough to hire and maintain a minimum police force? That's crazy. The plaintiffs in Item, 13 should demand the charter be obeyed within 60 days, or dissolved.

Make no mistake, Mayor Frey is responsible for the exodus by creating a hostile work environment.

City Hall should be ordered to beg, borrow, or steal law enforcement officers from the county and other cities to cover the police beats until it can recruit and train another 95 officers.

Perhaps it can offer Please Come Back bonuses to the officers who quit or retired. 

50 grand sounds about right.

ITEM 15: Newsweek reported, "Republican Texas Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick says that he helped cancel an event to promote the book Forget the Alamo at the Bullock Texas State History Museum in Austin following a conservative pressure campaign.

"GOP lawmakers and activists had expressed outrage that the museum would feature the book, which explores the role of racism and slavery in the Battle of the Alamo and the Texas Revolution. Patrick celebrated the cancellation of the virtual event, which had been set to feature two of the book's three co-authors.

"Patrick boasted of his previous effort to stop the relocation of the Alamo's Cenotaph, a memorial to the mission's defenders. The lieutenant governor serves in a prominent role alongside Republican Texas Governor Greg Abbott on the Texas State Preservation Board—the group responsible for running the museum."

Revisionist, CRT-wannabe baloney.

Ron DeSantis/Dan Patrick 2024.

A new generation of MAGA.

ITEM 16: Politico reported, "Team Trump quietly launches new social media platform.

"GETTR will be the newest MAGA venture in this space. It’s being led by Trump’s former spokesman, Jason Miller."

Buried in Paragraph 5 was, "Trump’s involvement with the project is unclear as is whether or not he will set up an account on GETTR and use it."

Trump has no involvement in this. He canned Miller after Miller told reporters that The Donald was shuttering his blog.

The blog continues.

Gab, Parler, and now Gettr are billed as the conservative social media alternative to Twitter and the like. The upstarts get a lot of publicity, but you sign up and discover they are really anti-social media because no one is there.

I am getting in on the game.

I am starting GRIFTER. It will be the alternative to Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, the Post Office, and smoke signals. Everyone will be allowed to say whatever they want whenever they want.

All I need is a billion bucks to start it. I will pass the collection plate around. No Bitcoins please.

FINALLY, a reader sent me this. I was going to use it at the top of the post, but there is something more compelling about a Southern belle singing a Jewish boy from the Lower East Side's tribute to America.

January 6 was not the insurrection.

January 20 was.

A reader sent me this from 1973 when newspapers could still be trusted.