From Discord at Supreme Court mirrors diminishment of democratic norms

The warnings from dissenting liberal justices battling the conservative supermajority have become overt. Justice Sonia Sotomayor referred last Wednesday to “a restless and newly constituted Court” that “sees fit … to foreclose remedies in yet more cases” in a decision limiting civil lawsuits against federal agents who violate constitutional rights.

Note the standard CNN methodology of cropping quotes. It really isn’t all that hard to give full context and references.

Seems that Sotomayer decided to call out those that disagree with her at a personal level. Not all that surprising.

But you have to see that it is everybody on the court complaining. Clarence Thomas spoke of distrust among the justices. Not mentioned was that he was talking about the leaked draft opinion. So yeah, it might be a good thing to show a bit of distrust. And Alito talked about an indefensible opinion.

And it is absolutely horrible how law clerks for the court are being forced to sign affidavits and turn over phone records. Because somebody broke the law. And it is horrible how these law clerks have to behave while under a “cloud of suspicion”.

According to a Harvard professor of American legal history, Michael Klarman. It hasn’t been this tense in the court since the 1930s when Franklin D. Roosevelt (D) coerced the court into ruling in his favor by threatening to pack the court. Good thing the Justices saw the light, as it were.

And the conservatives are breaking our democracy by curtailing the deep state of regulatory authority. It is just so dangerous to follow the Constitution and have congress make laws, not to have an agency create law (regulations which are enforced with guns, threats of imprisonment and/or financial ruin) that are adjudicated by agency employees.

And of course, words have meaning, it is the courts up coming opinion on “New York state’s longstanding permit system for carrying handguns outside of the thome” that is the issue, not the corrupt “may issue” after you show that you have an unusual need.

And the one that gets me “Conservative justices have been pressing for the expansion of Second Amendment rights,…” How is it an expansion when the right is “Shall not be infringed”?

Just spin and more spin. Go read if you’ve taken your BP meds.

According to CNN, there are lots of different theories on why Joe is doing so badly in the polls. But the real reason isn’t that he is an awful, no good, rotten leader that proposes horrible policies that are destroying everything. Nope, that’s not it at all.

It is:

…Biden’s support among Democrats declined from 95% at the start of his presidency to 85% by early 2022. Trump, on the other hand, had lost only 1% of Republicans over a similar time period during his presidency, going from 87% to 86% in approval. What could likely account for Biden’s comparatively worse losses among members of his own party is the insidious influence of what I call the “fan fiction left.”

See, it is these democrats writing fan fiction that is causing the low approval ratings.

See the claim that the DNC rigged the primaries for Hillary and forced Bernie out is just made up. Oh, you don’t want to talk about the superdelegates? I remember telling a Bernie fan girl he wasn’t going to win the primary. She didn’t believe me when I explained the superdelegates. She told me I was right after the election.

I just can’t parse this one:

Even though powerful Republicans believe in the neo-Nazi “great replacement theory,” voter suppression and racist gerrymandering are prevalent, and many states are passing legislative assaults on women’s rights and LGBTQ rights, concerns about racism, sexism, and homophobia are only bourgeois “identity politics.”

The fan fiction dems don’t believe that Trump supporters are hateful, irrational and violent. They are must misled in the minds of fan fiction dems.

Oh, and the fan fiction dems actually believe that Russiagate was a hoax.

The entire article is about how Joe’s approval is tanking because some dems are writing that maybe the media was lying to them for the last 6 years.

Not the price at the pump nor the prices in the grocery store. Nope, it is believing those horrible lies that Republicans tell.

Saying the quiet part outloud NPR has an article, There are 2 ways the media covers mass shootings. Here’s why the difference matters talking about to different ways of reporting on events.

The gist boils down to: Do you show individual stories that are easy to connect to at an emotional level, stories that tear at the heart strings.
Or: Do you show the larger context that puts prospective on the event?

And the answer they come up with…. Drum roll please…

Emotional manipulation…

There is no way to move forward on banning guns, oops “common sense gun regulations”, unless we get people to react to heart rending individual stores. So focus on that.

Do what is necessary to get yet more gun regulations.

A few months ago I asked permission from Miguel to post my series on the rule of threes (I’m still going on it.) He said “Yes, do it!”

Then he told J.Kb. and me that he was tired and was closing the blog and it was our job to carry on. I took the offer of being a part of what followed very seriously.

I want to contribute to the blog in ways other than just technical. Yes, I’m good at fixing hacks and such, but if I was to be a part of what followed I had to step up.

This is freaking hard!

It use to be that I’d send an article every couple of weeks to Miguel and he’d either write about it or not or just give me a brief email acknowledgement.

Now I look at every news story that flows by as a potential posting. I look at how do I add value to this article. How do I add value to the blog when reporting about something that other people report. How do I make sure I don’t just end up reading articles from one side. I have to venture into the deep dark parts of the web, like NPR, CNN and Lord help me, Vox.

It is a pain.

I know that Miguel pulls from twitter. I don’t have a twitter account and I don’t want to be following dozens of morons, just to be able to report on the latest stupid thing Moms Demand says or does.

So thank you from the bottom of my heart for the years and years of posts from both Miguel and J.Kb. You guys are freaking amazing.

Florida sheriff’s captain fired days after weapons incident at Parkland school: report

A police captain was fired. No reason given. But you should know that a SRO found guns at a school near Marjori Stoneman Douglas HS.

According to our own Divemedic (I think) reported that even though Florida passed legislation that allowed for the arming of teachers and school admin, because it requires approval by both the sheriff and the school board, no teachers have ever been given permission to carry on school property in FL. [Divemedic’s research on the Guardian Program]

This begs the question of why a school principal had guns on campus. If he was there, ready to run to the sounds of gun fire, more power to him. If he was just and idiot that happened to bring guns to school, FLORIDA MAN.

And regardless, those firearms should have been under lock and key.

Just shaking my head. Florida…

Alderman proposes tougher gun legislation for Milwaukee gun owners

Pseudo quote: I’m Doing Something!

“It’s puzzling how many people in the community have guns,” said [Milwaukee Alderman Russell] Stamper.

The proposed ordinance “requires a firearm owner to properly store and supervise the whereabouts of any firearm owned at all times to ensure the firearm is not acquired by any person and used in the commission of a crime,” according to Milwaukee Common Council records. “It also requires the firearm owner to report the theft or misplacement of any firearm to police within 24-hours of discovery.”

His idea is that the law should punish the victims that have their guns stolen and don’t know about it or don’t know they have to report it or the parent of a child that just killed themselves.

Some animal breaks into my home, takes my gun and kills somebody and I’m the person at fault because I didn’t stop the animal.

For those bleeding hearts, humans don’t break into my home to steal or harm me and mine, thus it must be an animal.

Of course this politician uses Everytown as his source for scare numbers.

And of course he doesn’t mind violating the constitution in his endeavors to “do something”

Article I, § 25 of the Wisconsin Constitution, adopted in 1998, states: “[t]he people have the right to keep and bear arms for security, defense, hunting, recreation or any other lawful purpose.”

FYI: Most states have a “right to bear arms” clause in the state their state constitutions. I just don’t know of any cases where people fought state laws on the grounds of state constitutional rights.

Ohio today became the 23rd state to allow citizens to carry a concealed handgun without a permit, and AG Yost said firearms training is more important now than ever.
Details: https://t.co/AIwKjPGDjw pic.twitter.com/7hxvppYKHT

— Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost (@OhioAG) June 13, 2022

I’m legitimately shocked.

I never would have guessed that historically purple state Ohio would go Constitutional Carry.

If Ohio can swing it just about any Shall Issue state (except Illinois) can do this.

This one feels like a game changer to me.