Maybe… That case about whether domestic abusers should be allowed to carry guns was argued today: About 40 minutes into Tuesday’s Supreme Court argument asking whether a federal law prohibiting domestic abusers from owning guns is unconstitutional, Chief Justice John Roberts asked J. Matthew Wright, the lawyer arguing against the law, a question that no attorney ever wants to hear. “You don’t have any doubt that your client is a dangerous person, do you?” the Chief asked Wright. There is, indeed, very little doubt that Wright’s client, Zackey Rahimi, is a very dangerous man. A Texas court determined that Rahimi “has committed family violence” and that he “represents a credible threat to the physical safety” of his ex-girlfriend or other members of her family. If anything, that’s a massive understatement. Rahimi allegedly hit his ex-girlfriend in a parking lot, and then fired a gun at a bystander who witnessed the fight. He then allegedly called the ex-girlfriend and threatened to shoot her if she told anyone that he’d assaulted her.
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And nobody seems to be able to rein him in. It’s obvious most Republicans don’t want to. Here’s a good analysis of where we are with Trump and his legal problems from Stephen Collinson at CNN: The judge in Donald Trump’s civil fraud trial despairingly pressed the ex-president’s lawyer: “I beseech you to control him if you can.” Judge Arthur Engoron’s plea reflected his frustration at an incorrigible witness who boasted Monday about his piles of cash, aimed scathing political attacks and spouted uniquely illogical logic. But Engoron, who is presiding over the New York trial, also put his finger on a deeper question that will define a singular political figure’s place in history. And the answer, as always, was no, Trump cannot be controlled. No mere lawyer could impose the kind of discipline that two-and-a-half centuries of constitutional checks and balances could not provide during Trump’s time in office or since.
The Biden administration put out a three-page list of arms for Ukraine, but information on weapons sent to Israel could fit in one sentence.
The post U.S. Weapons Transfers to Israel Shrouded in Secrecy — but Not Ukraine appeared first on The Intercept.
Bolts has a nice overview of what’s at stake in tonight’s elections. This is the intro, you just need to click over to see the cheat sheet: The 2024 presidential election is already in full swing, but first voters are settling a swath of critical races this fall. The balance of power in state and local governments is on the line in myriad ways, from the five states where trifectas are at stake to the fall’s sole race for supreme court. Bolts has identified more than 170 items—and counting—to watch across 31 states, and why they matter, including key races for governors, DAs, mayors, and lawmakers, plus dozens of referendums. We’ll add more races to this page through Election Day: Thousands of additional offices, boards, and ballot measures are all on the ballot all around the nation; this page is Bolts’ selection of important races to monitor. We will also update the page with results once they are known. Most elections on this page are scheduled for Nov. 7, but there are some exceptions: Louisiana holds primaries on Oct. 14 and Nov. 18. Utah holds a special congressional election and mayoral races on Nov.
The Nation’s banks have called on the Albanese Government to relax the laws around selling human organs in order to allow people to afford the latest interest rate rise. ”The Government needs to do all it can to allow us... Read More ›
She says that Attorney General Tish James is “not that bright” I’m sure she’s just repeating what Trump says every day: Habba, in a Newsmax interview Monday, said James doesn’t have a good case. However, Judge Arthur Engoron already ruled that the fraud occurred, and the ongoing trial is set to determine damages. “She’s just not that bright. I’m sorry, I have to say it,” Habba said. “I’ve seen their case; I’ve seen their lawyers. They don’t know what they’re talking about.” She argued that what the judge ruled is fraud is actually industry standard behavior. The latest in politics and policy. Direct to your inbox. Sign up for the 12:30 Report newsletterSubscribe “Just because a bank who’s giving you a loan says it’s worth what the loan amount is, which is what happens when anybody takes a loan out, they’re never going to say the real value,” she continued.
I want to start by saying thank you—for being here, for your dedication, and for your unwavering commitment to this campaign. It has been the honor of my lifetime that this beautiful town—one I’ve been proud to call home for forty-three years—would even consider me as mayor. Unfortunately, our movement has fallen short; the time has come for me to honor the democratic process and concede this race to our incumbent, Rusty the French Bulldog.
Of course, our fine town is not the only place to have a non-human mayor. Idyllwild, California; Cormorant, Minnesota; and Georgetown, Colorado, join us in this tradition that could be described as “incredibly cute,” “what we need right now,” or “insulting to the people who dedicate their lives to public service.” It depends on who you’re asking.
But when I began this campaign, I asked you, the people of Riverside, if you wanted the mayor to be an experienced leader and five-term town council member or continue to be a dog who wears a bowler hat and a bowtie.
You chose the dog who wears a bowler hat and a bowtie. In a landslide.
Fifty years’ ago, the grainy black and white image of Whitlam with his ear pressed against the listening wall at Beijing’s Temple of Heaven, led to the joke: What is being said to Gough? Answer: ‘Mei you!’ The ubiquities response then by Chinese service staff in restaurants and stores in those day, loosely, ‘don’t have Continue reading »
“Your visit can be described as carrying on the past and opening up the future,” Chinese President Xi Jinping told visiting Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese in Beijing on Monday afternoon, citing the fact that this year marks the 50th anniversary of the trip made by Gough Whitlam, the first Australian leader to visit China. Continue reading »
There will be no end to the occupation and death until there is a political settlement with justice for both Palestinians and Israelis. Continue reading »
Over the last few weeks we have been bombarded with a number of assertions, advanced firstly as mere mantra, but then appearing as axioms, or self-evident truths. Israel has a right to defend itself; and Israel has a right to exist. I wish to question whether these two statements are as axiomatic as our Prime Continue reading »
When offered the position of Governor-General by Prime Minister Whitlam in 1974, Sir John Kerr consulted friends and colleagues as to whether he should accept the appointment. One of them, Justice Robert Hope, queried why he would take such “a dead-end job, a hopeless job.” Kerr’s response was: “Oh, no, it’s a very powerful position. Continue reading »
The land the Palestinians dream about returning to is no more, and the land that Israelis dream about possessing forever has turned into an immoral and unsustainable nightmare. The Australian Jewish Democratic Society grieves for the future of Palestinians and Israelis. The AJDS is also concerned at the deteriorating domestic political environment, particularly with the Continue reading »
China’s offer to negotiate the removal of its ‘tariffs’ on imports of Australian wine is seen by many as a generous act to facilitate the current visit by the Prime Minister. There is little if any generosity involved. Simon Birmingham, trade minister at the time of the imposition of the ‘tariffs’, recently restated his long-held Continue reading »
The US is reluctant to ratify international conventions despite endlessly expounding on the importance of all countries abiding by the vague Rules Based International Order (RBIO). I have a direct and personal interest in the reluctance of the United States to ratify United Nations Conventions, arising from my involvement of over two decades in the Continue reading »
The elections we’re watching today in Ohio, Maine, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Virginia, and more.
The post Do Voters Care More About Online Sex Than Abortion Rights? appeared first on The Intercept.
G. Elliott Morris of 538 (the man who took Nate Silver’s place) has thoughts on the polls. I think you will find it reassuring: Where does the 2024 election stand one year out? We modeled six scenarios for the presidential race. American voters cast 158 million ballots in the 2020 presidential election. Yet the winner was ultimately decided by about 43,000 voters across Arizona, Georgia and Wisconsin — the states that carried President Joe Biden over the 270 Electoral College votes he needed to win the presidency. The 2016 election, also closely contested, was similarly settled by about 78,000 votes in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. And if the 2024 election were held tomorrow, it would likely be very close too. At least, that’s what the polls say. According to an average of national 2024 general election polls I’ve run using 538’s current polling average methodology, Biden and former President Donald Trump are currently neck-and-neck among likely voters, with Trump at 42.9 percent and Biden at 42.4 percent. Support for Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
The Prime Minister's flimsy new government programme suggests he leads a Government that is fresh out of ideas
This winning image of a match catching fire brings to mind the wildfires engulfing our increasingly flammable world.
The post When Fire Feeds Fire appeared first on Nautilus.
Prosecutors: Trump “stands alone in history” Famous? Infamous? What’s the difference? So long as Donald Trump can wiggle out of accountability yet again, this time for conspiracy to overthrow the 2020 presidential election. His attorneys filed a motion to dismiss the federal charges brought against him over events leading to the Jan. 6 insurrection. Law & Crime: Urging a federal judge to disregard Donald Trump‘s latest attempt to cast off his indictment in Washington, D.C., for allegedly conspiring to overturn the 2020 election, prosecutors at the special counsel’s office argue Trump’s criminality “stands alone” in history and that even if he genuinely believed the 2020 election was stolen, he still used “fraud and deceit” as a means to achieve illicit ends. In his 79-page motion filed Monday, Jack Smith challenges Trump’s attempts to rewrite history and recast himself as victim. What he did leading up to Jan.
The RSA said it disagreed with the decision and criticised the IWGB trade union for pursuing the case against it
Perhaps you’ve heard of “Makin’ Thunderbirds,” a hard-bitten rock & roll song by Bob Seger that I listened to 30 years ago while in college. It’s about auto workers back in 1955 who were “young and proud” to be making Ford Thunderbirds. But in the early 1980s, Seger sings, “the plants have changed and you’re lucky if you work.” Seger caught the reality of an American manufacturing infrastructure that was seriously eroding as skilled and good-paying union jobs were cut or sent overseas, rarely to be seen again in these parts. If the U.S. auto industry has recently shown sparks of new life (though we’re not making T-Birds or Mercuries or Oldsmobiles or Pontiacs or Saturns anymore), there is one... Read more
Source: Weapons ‘R’ Us appeared first on TomDispatch.com.
The MVC team is joined by writer and director Boots Riley to discuss his 2018 telemarketing industry satire.
If you’re ineligible to run for president…. If Donald Trump wants admission to the dictators’ club with Vladimir Putin and Viktor Orbán and Kim Jong Un, he’ll have to prove himself worthy. That’s his plan. You laugh? Just you wait. Right now he’s busy being prosecuted. The former and would-be president’s antics on the witness stand Monday in his Manhattan financial fraud trial were as Michael Cohen predicted. Question his net worth and he’ll lose it. Trump was so fixated on maintaining his Richie Rich image that according to press accounts he never once mentioned the 2020 election being stolen from him. It’s that important to him. Trump rambled. He blustered. He bragged. He insulted the judge and New York Attorney General Letitia James. New York Supreme Court Judge Arthur Engoron multiple times urged Trump’s attorneys to get their client under control. It was as useless as expecting a fussy two-year-old to behave in a fancy restaurant. Former Watergate prosecutor Jill Wine-Banks said of Trump’s courtroom misbehavior, “This is why we need cameras in the courtroom.