The New York Timesis live-updating developments in the progress of Hurricane Helene. "Helene continued to power north in the Caribbean Sea, strengthening into a hurricane Wednesday morning, on a path that forecasters expect will bring heavy amounts of rain to Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula and western Cuba before it begins to move toward Florida’s Gulf Coast."
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New York Times: “Hvaldimir, a beluga whale who had captured the public’s imagination since 2019 after he was spotted wearing a harness seemingly designed for a camera, was found dead on Saturday in Norway, according to a nonprofit that worked to protect the whale.... [Hvaldimir] was wearing a harness that identified it as “equipment” from St. Petersburg. There also appeared to be a camera mount. Some wondered if the whale was on a Russian reconnaissance mission. Russia has never claimed ownership of the whale. If Hvaldimir was a spy, he was an exceptionally friendly one. The whale showed signs of domestication, and was comfortable around people. He remained in busier waters than are typical for belugas....” ~~~
~~~ Marie: Oh, Lord, do not let Bobby Kennedy, Jr., near that carcass. ~~~
~~~ AP Update: “There’s no evidence that a well-known beluga whale that lived off Norway’s coast and whose harness ignited speculation it was a Russian spy was shot to death last month as claimed by animal rights groups, Norwegian police said Monday.... Police said that the Norwegian Veterinary Institute conducted a preliminary autopsy on the animal, which was become known as 'Hvaldimir,' combining the Norwegian word for whale — hval — and the first name of Russian President Vladimir Putin. 'There are no findings from the autopsy that indicate that Hvaldimir has been shot,' police said in a statement.”
New York Times: Botswana's “President Mokgweetsi Masisi grinned as he lifted the diamond, a 2,492-carat stone that is the biggest diamond unearthed in more than a century and the second-largest ever found, according to the Vancouver-based mining operator Lucara, which owns the mine where it was found. This exceptional discovery could bring back the luster of the natural diamond mining industry, mining companies and experts say. The diamond was discovered in the same relatively small mine in northeastern Botswana that has produced several of the largest such stones in living memory. Such gemstones typically surface as a result of volcanic activity.... The diamond will likely sell in the range of tens of millions of dollars....”
Click on photo to enlarge.
~~~ Guardian: "On a distant reef 16,000km from Paris, surfer Gabriel Medina has given Olympic viewers one of the most memorable images of the Games yet, with an airborne celebration so well poised it looked too good to be true. The Brazilian took off a thundering wave at Teahupo’o in Tahiti on Monday, emerging from a barrelling section before soaring into the air and appearing to settle on a Pacific cloud, pointing to the sky with biblical serenity, his movements mirrored precisely by his surfboard. The shot was taken by Agence France-Presse photographer Jérôme Brouillet, who said “the conditions were perfect, the waves were taller than we expected”. He took the photo while aboard a boat nearby, capturing the surreal image with such accuracy that at first some suspected Photoshop or AI."
Washington Post: “'Mary Cassatt at Work' is a large and mostly satisfying exhibition devoted to the career of the great American artist beloved for her sensitive and often sentimental views of family life. The 'at work' in the title of the Philadelphia Museum of Art show references the curators’ interest in Cassatt’s pioneering effort to establish herself as a professional artist within a male-dominated field. Throughout the show, which includes some 130 paintings, pastels, prints and drawings, the wall text and the art on view stresses Cassatt’s fixation on art as a career rather than a pastime.... Mary Cassatt at Work is on view at the Philadelphia Museum of Art through Sept. 8. philamuseum.org”
New York Times: “Bob Newhart, who died on Thursday at the age of 94, has been such a beloved giant of popular culture for so long that it’s easy to forget how unlikely it was that he became one of the founding fathers of stand-up comedy. Before basically inventing the hit stand-up special, with the 1960 Grammy-winning album 'The Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart' — that doesn’t even count his pay-per-view event broadcast on Canadian television that some cite as the first filmed special — he was a soft-spoken accountant who had never done a set in a nightclub. That he made a classic with so little preparation is one of the great miracles in the history of comedy.... Bob Newhart holds up. In fact, it’s hard to think of a stand-up from that era who is a better argument against the commonplace idea that comedy does not age well.”
Washington Post: “An early Titian masterpiece — once looted by Napolean’s troops and a part of royal collections for centuries — caused a stir when it was stolen from the home of a British marquess in 1995. Seven years later, it was found inside an unassuming white and blue plastic bag at a bus stop in southwest London by an art detective, and returned. This week, the oil painting 'The Rest on the Flight into Egypt' sold for more than $22 million at Christie’s. It was a record for the Renaissance artist, whom museums describe as the greatest painter of 16th-century Venice. Ahead of the sale in April, the auction house billed it as'the most important work by Titian to come to the auction market in more than a generation.'”
Washington Post: The Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.C., which houses the world's largest collection of Shakespeare material, has undergone a major renovation. "The change to the building is pervasive, both subtle and transformational."
Judge Richard Posner in Slate: "John Stuart Mill in On Liberty drew an important distinction between what he called 'self-regarding acts' and 'other-regarding acts.' The former involves doing things to yourself that don't harm other people, though they may be self-destructive. The latter involves doing things that do harm other people. He thought that government had no business with the former.... Unless it can be shown that same-sex marriage harms people who are not gay (or who are gay but don't want to marry), there is no compelling reason for state intervention, and specifically for banning same-sex marriage. The dissenters in Obergefell missed this rather obvious point." CW: As Akhilleus would tell us, Posner's thesis has a long history, beginning with the Greeks, & expressed more recently in Isaiah Berlin's positive & negative liberties. Viewed in this light, marriage equality is mighty conservative. See also freeeedom.
Sally Kohn of the Daily Beast: "... the fight over gay marriage is far from over. Now we enter the Republican temper tantrum phase.... Even before the Supreme Court's ruling, several prominent Republicans had pledged to disobey any high court ruling in favor of marriage equality -- and had called on their fellow Republican leaders to do the same. For instance, Republican presidential candidates Rick Santorum and Mike Huckabee have both signed a pledge that reads, 'We will not honor any decision by the Supreme Court which will force us to violate a clear biblical understanding of marriage as solely the union of one man and one woman.'... Here we have Republicans ... actually pledging to violate their duties and break the law.... The modern Republican Party is operating less like a responsible partner in governance and more and more like an underground crime network -- continually abusing and threatening the otherwise democratic process if it doesn't get its way." ...
... Jonathan Martin of the New York Times: Some GOP strategists are urging candidates to get over that & other winger 'tudes; the candidates are struggling, at best. ...
... Philip Rucker & Robert Costa of the Washington Post write on the same theme. ...
... CW: I'm afraid stories like these may fool liberals into thinking that the majority of Americans are suddenly turning left. I don't believe it. Even out-and-out racists watch their tongues in public. That's what dog whistles are all about. From Lee Atwater to Rick Santorum to Paul Krugman, people who understand what Republican "small government" policies are about understand that they are based in, or at least sold as, economic & social racism. So-called conservatives may cite philosophical sources, but their appeal is to the baser instincts of human nature.
I don't believe for a minute the polling that shows a majority of the country favors marriage equality. Why is ObamaCare less "popular" than marriage rights? Because racists can get away with pretending they're against ACA policy, when they're really against anything that disproportionately helps "those people" & was the product, at least in part, of the black guy in the White House. Sam Alito was onto something when he wrote in his dissent to the Obergefell opinion, "I assume that those who cling to old beliefs will be able to whisper their thoughts in the recesses of their homes, but if they repeat those views in public, they will risk being labeled as bigots and treated as such by governments, employers and schools. By imposing its own views on the entire country, the majority facilitates the marginalization of the many Americans who have traditional ideas." He's not just talking about himself -- though that, too -- he's talking about how bigots are going to have to invent & adhere to a new set of dog whistles & keep their gay jokes & hatred in "quiet places." Officials & ordinary people have already learned to couch their bigotry against both women & gays in terms of "religious freedom," a safe, Constitutionally-protected advocacy with which liberals cannot disagree. Ditto Second Amendment freeeedom. The right to bear arms was born of racism -- a guarantee that Southerners could protect themselves against slave rebellions -- and it has once again been repurposed as a means of protecting whites against "lawless" blacks. Meanwhile, if the confederates must abandon their flag, they will wave the U.S. flag with even greater fervor. The symbol of our nation has been for a long time a dog whistle for the right; it's about to become an outright embarrassment. ...
... Paul Rosenberg, in Salon, on the false equivalency South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley applied to feelings about the confederate flag. Rosenberg contrasts Haley's speech with the remarks of Paul Thurmond, son of Strom, who completely rejected the flag & the white supremacy it represents. Rosenberg delves into how supremacists rework their magic to fit time & circumstance.
A first premise of the Court's relevant precedents is that the right to personal choice regarding marriage is inherent in the concept of individual autonomy.... Like choices concerning contraception, family relationships, procreation, and childrearing, all of which are protected by the Constitution, decisions concerning marriage are among the most intimate that an individual can make.
... CW: Kutner doesn't say so, but it's useful to remember that Kennedy joined the plurality decision in Planned Parenthood v. Casey (1992), a decision that upheld, but modified, Roe v. Wade. The decision acknowledged the state's interest in the life of the fetus & changed the definition of fetus viability, both of which have been the bases of anti-abortion legislation.
David Atkins in the Washington Monthly: "Ted Cruz' solution to 'judicial tyranny'? Direct election of SCOTUS judges.... Making judges fearful of the public whim negates much of the entire purpose of having a judicial branch to check the legislative. But even from a purely conservative utilitarian standpoint, that strategy tends to work best in more conservative states and where judges are elected in non-presidential cycles. Also, much has changed in the last decade in terms of popular opinion.... There's no evidence that a serious public opinion backlash will arise against the Court over marriage equality and the Affordable Care Act.... Indeed, by far the most unpopular of the SCOTUS' recent decisions was its stand on Citizens United.... All of which is to say, Ted Cruz should probably be careful what he wishes for."
Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Willa Paskin of Slate: Fox "News" personalities could not figure out how to deal with the Supreme Court's Obergefell decision. "As if today hasn't already proved how far gay rights has come, know, also, that no one on Fox News wants to be seen as anti-gay anymore either."
Presidential Race
The Trouble with Being Bush (or Why One Candidate Calls Himself Jeb!) Eli Stokols of Policito: "With conservatives up in arms over [Chief Justice John] Roberts' role in preserving Obamacare, Jeb Bushsuddenly finds himself called to answer for the chief justice appointed by his brother, George W. Bush. And not just Roberts -- Jeb is also taking flak for David Souter, the liberal justice appointed by his father, George H.W. Bush." CW: Yo, Eli, Souter is not a liberal. He's an old-fashioned New England Republican. If you'd ever read one of his opinions, you'd get that. P.S. Roberts' opinion on the ACA isn't even close to liberal; in fact, there's a good change he was one of the justices who agreed to hear the King case, albeit he may have decided from the get-go to use the case as a warning to ideological litigants on both sides: don't clutter up my courts with attempts to nix legislation on frivolous grounds.
News Ledes
New York Times: "Iran's top nuclear negotiator was heading back to Tehran on Sunday to consult with his nation's leadership, as negotiators remained divided over how to limit and monitor Tehran's nuclear program and even on how to interpret the preliminary agreement they reached two months ago. With all sides now acknowledging that the talks would need to continue beyond Tuesday, once considered the absolute deadline for a final deal, officials from several nations said some of the politically difficult questions ... are still just as vexing as they were when the 18-month negotiation odyssey began."
New York Times: "David Sweat, the remaining prison escapee on the run in northern New York for three weeks, was shot by a state trooper on Sunday, according to the authorities. Mr. Sweat, 35, was shot twice in the torso and was taken to Alice Hyde Medical Center in Malone, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo said Sunday night at a news conference here. Mr. Sweat was in stable condition. 'The nightmare is finally over,' Mr. Cuomo said. The shooting occurred about 3:20 p.m. after Sgt. Jay Cook saw a suspicious man walking down a roadway in the Town of Constable, according to the state police. The sergeant ordered Mr. Sweat to stop, but he broke into a run and the sergeant, a firearms instructor, opened fire...." ...
Washington Post: "An unmanned SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket bound for the International Space Station exploded a couple of minutes after liftoff Sunday morning. It was the third cargo mission to the space station to be lost in recent months."
Guardian: "A solar plane took off for what could be the longest solo flight in history on Monday, with its Swiss pilot confronting the 'moment of truth' of a journey around the Pacific Ocean and around the world. The Solar Impulse 2 set off about 3am from Nagoya, Japan, en route to Hawaii, a trip expected to take five days and nights of continuous flight."
New York Times: "Greece will keep its banks closed on Monday and place restrictions on the withdrawal and transfer of money, Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said in a televised address on Sunday night, as Athens tries to avert a financial collapse."
AP: Law enforcement officials are confident they are closing in on New York state prison escapee David Sweat.
The White House, last night.... Steven Mufson of the Washington Post: "On Friday morning, President Obama stood in the Rose Garden exalting the 'thunderbolt' of justice that had come from the Supreme Court, which guaranteed the right of marriage to gay and lesbian couples after many spent decades in often lonely, perilous activism. About five hours later, leaning into the microphone at the memorial for the late South Carolina state senator and pastor Clementa Pinckney, Obama sang alone the opening lines of 'Amazing Grace,' before a crowd of nearly 6,000 rose to its feet to join him in an extraordinary ending to a eulogy that lamented racial hatred but drew on what Obama called the grace of God to predict its eventual defeat. Rarely has a single day so completely encapsulated the emotional peaks and troughs of the presidency of Barack Obama." ...
... David Love of the Grio: "With victories for Obamacare, the Fair Housing Act and marriage equality in the U.S. Supreme Court, it was a tremendous week for the commander in chief. And yet, in the midst of tragedy and soul searching -- forced to grapple with its centuries' old curse of slavery and a virulent symbol of racial oppression in the form of the Confederate flag -- South Carolina may have had its finest hour when President Obama honored the fallen Rev. Pinckney. If you have not viewed the eulogy, please do so, for it was a proud time to be black, and to be American. Never in recent history, or in any part of history for that matter, have we witnessed a president say what Barack Obama said that day." ...
... As several commenters also mentioned yesterday, you'll want to watch this, right to the end:
Photo via Ferguson Action.Some Kind of Hero. AP: "The Confederate flag has been temporarily removed from in front of the South Carolina Statehouse. An unidentified black woman was about halfway up the more than 30-foot steel flagpole just after dawn Saturday when State Capitol police told her to come down. Instead, she continued up and removed the flag before returning to the ground. The woman and another man who had entered the wrought-iron fence surrounding the flag were arrested." ...
... Dion Rabouin of International Business Times: "The woman, who has not been named by local authorities, was identified on social media as Brittany 'Bree' Newsome, an activist from North Carolina. Her actions inspired the hashtag #keepitdown, which was a one of the top trending topics in the United States on Twitter Saturday. Later in the day the hashtag #FreeBree was also trending in the United States.... Newsome is an activist and graduate of New York University's Tisch School of the Arts." ...
... According to Ferguson Action, Newsome took down the flag "in time for the funerals." More photos & video at the linked Twitter page. ...
... Alan Yuhas of the Guardian: "A woman identified by a protest organizer as Bree Newsome, a 30-year-old youth organizer from Charlotte, North Carolina, climbed the flagpole before 6am [Saturday] and took down the controversial emblem of the antebellum, slaveholding south, with the assistance of another activist."
Gail Collins: "The Roberts Supreme Court is on a roll. Gay marriage, national health care and a surprising vote of support for the Fair Housing Act, all in a couple of days. Great job, guys! We are totally over the fact that you destroyed the nation's campaign finance laws, limited workers' rights to challenge wage discrimination and women's rights to control their bodies. And basically disemboweled a 50-year-old Voting Rights Act that Congress had renewed by increasingly large margins on four different occasions."
Paul Lewis of the Guardian: "Justice Samuel Alito said the ruling could leave the country suffering from 'bitter and lasting wounds' in a dissenting opinion that veered away from legal argument, and head-first into political and cultural commentary. 'I assume that those who cling to old beliefs will be able to whisper their thoughts in the recesses of their homes, but if they repeat those views in public, they will risk being labeled as bigots and treated as such by governments, employers and schools,' he wrote. 'By imposing its own views on the entire country, the majority facilitates the marginalization of the many Americans who have traditional ideas.' The stark warning from Alito stood apart from the opinions of the three other dissenting judges, who mostly avoided discussing the merits of gay marriage itself, opting for more legalistic complaints about what they believe should have been the limits of judicial power." ...
... Rick Hasen: "In his dissent in Obergefell v. Hodges CJ Roberts writes: 'Stealing this issue from the people will for many cast a cloud over same-sex marriage, making a dramatic social change that much more difficult to accept.' That seems quite unlikely. Think of Loving v. Va, striking down bans on interracial marriage, and laws barring de jure discrimination generally. This has not led to more discrimination. It has led to less. By the next generation, same sex marriage will be no big deal for almost everyone in the country. Legality brings normalization, not the other way around." ...
... Cass Sustein in Bloomberg: "Contrary to appearances, the court usually pays attention to an actual or emerging moral consensus, certainly with respect to fundamental rights. It follows public opinion; it does not lead it. When Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote that the Constitution protects 'the right of all persons to enjoy liberty as we learn its meaning,' he didn't mean the justices consult philosophical texts or make things up. He meant to refer instead to an emphatically social process, in which the justices learn from their fellow citizens."
This Supreme Court decision overturns the will of the people of Louisiana, and it takes away a right that should have been left to the states.... There is not yet a legal requirement for officials to issue marriage licenses or perform marriages for same-sex couples in Louisiana. -- Louisiana Attorney General James D. "Buddy" Caldwell (R)
... David Fahrenthold, et al., of the Washington Post: "When Friday began, there were 14 states where same-sex couples still could not legally marry. By the afternoon -- after a confusing day of orders and counter-orders by governors, attorneys general and county clerks -- couples had married in all of them but one.... Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal (R) ... criticized the justices' decision but said his state will comply with it once an appeals court officially gives the order.... Mississippi ... blocked almost all same-sex marriages, saying it needed a lower court's permission to proceed. A few same-sex couples in Mississippi did get married in the window between the Supreme Court's ruling and the state's order to stop.... In Alabama, two officials announced ... they said they would no longer issue marriage licenses to anyone, gay or straight, ever again.... And then there was Texas, where confusion reigned." ...
... CW: Turns out all this confederate consternation, these calls to abandon or amend the Constitution (see Presidential Race below) & incidences of official civil disobedience are nothing compared to left-wing radicalism:
We see a French Revolution-like tendency to move with the speed of light from a reasonable and perhaps overdue change (taking down the Confederate flag over state buildings) to an all-out determination to expunge from our history any recognition or respect for that which doesn't fully comport with contemporary progressive sentiment. -- Bill Kristol, via Steve M.
I am just now constructing a guilliotine out of scrap wood. Wanted: spare blade. -- Constant Weader
Laurel Raymond of Think Progress: "Instead of the classic 'Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough,' Ben & Jerry's consumers this summer can enjoy spoonfuls of equality by choosing 'I Dough, I Dough.' The flavor was renamed by the company on Friday in celebration of the Supreme Court's historic ruling legalizing same-sex marriage throughout the United States."
Pete Souza, White House photographer: "The President was in the middle of his daily briefing on Thursday when Brian Mosteller, the director of Oval Office operations, abruptly opened the door at 10:10AM.... Brian told the President that, in a 6-3 decision, the Court upheld a critical part of the Affordable Care Act, preserving affordable coverage for millions of Americans.For one split second, the President's face was blank as if he was trying to comprehend the news. He then reacted in jubilation:
CW: Click of Souza's blog page, which includes other great photos of the moment. ...
White House: "In this week's address, the President called the Supreme Court's decision on the Affordable Care Act a victory for hardworking Americans across the country, whose lives are more secure because of this law":
... Dylan Matthews of Vox: "After Thursday's Supreme Court ruling, there's no longer any doubt: Barack Obamais one of the most consequential presidents in American history -- and he will be a particularly towering figure in the history of American progressivism." CW: There will be statues. ...
... Ed Kilgore: "Yes, Obamacare haters may dismiss the experience of virtually every other wealthy country by intoning 'American exceptionalism', as though we have some long-cherished right to die young that's as essential to the national character as unlimited possession of guns. But this has been a constant issue in our own country, too, and it's a token of how far our political system has drifted to the right that redeeming the vision of Teddy Roosevelt and Harry Truman and Richard Nixon strikes so many people as a horrifying lurch into socialism." ...
... Digbyexplains the reaction to the ACA ruling of an Obama-hating ObamaCare beneficiary. ...
... CW: In fairness to that jerk, I must say that I take advantage of every unfair GOP-writ tax deduction I get.
Presidential Race
Gabriel Debenedetti of Politico: "Hillary Clintonlooked to draw a red line for her Republican rivals on LGBT rights in her first large swing-state [-- Virginia --] rally outside of the early-voting states on Friday night.... While the event was not intended to be a Clinton rally, it quickly turned into one as speaker after speaker praised the [f]ormer secretary of state in front of the crowd of around 2,000.... 'Today's [Obergefell] decision confirms we've been working toward equality as a nation step by step, case by case, court by court, and that equality has been right there in the Constitution all along,' said the former first lady and senator, who didn't support marriage equality when she first ran for president in 2008.... Coming straight to the rally from the Charleston funeral of the Rev. Clementa Pinckney..., Clinton also promised to fight for a 'better, smarter, safer, approach to getting the gun violence in this country under control.'... 'Across the board, [Republicans] are the party of the past,' she said to applause."
Karen Tumulty of the Washington Post: "The dilemma presented by the same-sex marriage ruling expressed itself almost immediately in the reactions from the party's enormous field of declared and presumed 2016 presidential candidates. They ranged from defiant to pragmatic, apocalyptic to philosophical.... 'I will not acquiesce to an imperial court any more than our Founders acquiesced to an imperial British monarch,' former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee said. 'We must resist and reject judicial tyranny, not retreat.'... Sen. Ted Cruz (Tex.) ... told a rally in northwestern Iowa on Friday that the court decision was 'the very definition of lawlessness.'... 'While I disagree with this decision, we live in a republic and must abide by the law,' said Sen. Marco Rubio (Fla.).... Jeb[! ... said,] 'I believe the Supreme Court should have allowed the states to make this decision. I also believe that we should love our neighbor and respect others, including those making lifetime commitments. In a country as diverse as ours, good people who have opposing views should be able to live side by side.'"...
... Brendan James of TPM: "Presidential candidate Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) on Friday called opposition to the Supreme Court's decision to uphold same sex marriages 'a divisive effort that would be doomed to fail.' 'I am a proud defender of traditional marriage and believe the people of each state should have the right to determine their marriage laws,' he said in a statement on Friday, before adding 'I will respect the Court's decision.'"
... Bobby J. Condemns Constitution. Mark Hensch of the Hill: "'The Supreme Court is completely out of control, making laws on their own, and has become a public opinion poll instead of a judicial body,' the 2016 contender said in a statement. 'If we want to save some money, let's just get rid of the court,' Jindal added." CW: Hey, less radical than secession.
I fundamentally disagree with the court rewriting the law and assaulting the 10th Amendment. Our founding fathers did not intend for the judicial branch to legislate from the bench, and as president, I would appoint strict Constitutional conservatives who will apply the law as written. -- Former Texas Gov. Rick Perry
Hey, less radical than secession. Also, too, the states have always promoted equal rights for minority groups & women. -- Constant Weader
Mollie Reilly of the Huffington Post: "After calling the last day 'some of the darkest 24 hours in our nation's history,' Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) is now calling for Supreme Court justices to face elections.... To challenge ... 'judicial activism,' Cruz said he is proposing a constitutional amendment to require Supreme Court justices to face retention elections every eight years." CW: Not so radical.
Terrence Dopp of Bloomberg: "New Jersey Governor Chris Christiewill join the crowded Republican 2016 field Tuesday, two people with knowledge of his plans said." CW: Christie plans to make his announcement on the New Jersey side of the iconic George Washington Bridge. To accommodate the anticipated rally of supporters, Christie has ordered the closing of the bridge shortly before morning rush hour; reopening TBA.
Trump Trumps His Own Customary Assholery. Dylan Byers of Politico: "Donald Trump published a photograph of a handwritten letter from Univision's Jorge Ramos on Friday that included the anchor's personal cellphone number.... In the letter, sent Thursday, Ramos asks if Trump will sit with him for an interview. Ramos then provides his cellphone number, in the event that Trump 'would like to talk first over the phone.' Trump published the photo to his personal Instagram account on Friday, noting that Univision was 'begging' him for interviews even after publicly severing business ties with him."
News Ledes
New York Times: "Richard W. Matt, one of the two convicted murderers who engineered an elaborate escape from New York's largest prison, was shot and killed on Friday by a federal agent.... A team of agents from the federal Customs and Border Protection agency found Mr. Matt in the woods in Malone, N.Y., after he fired a shot at the back of a camping trailer, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo said at a news conference. Officers heard him cough as he fled on foot, and a federal agent killed him when Mr. Matt, still armed with a 20-gauge shotgun, refused orders to put up his hands, the authorities said. On Friday night, officers closed in on the other inmate, David Sweat, 35, who was believed to be penned inside a perimeter of law enforcement officers...."
Cradle of Democracy. New York Times: "In an unexpected move, Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras went on national television early Saturday to call for a referendum on July 5, so that Greek citizens can decide whether to accept or reject the terms of a bailout deal proposed by the country's creditors."
Guardian: "In what is becoming a regular pattern, Fifa has been forced to insist hurriedly that Sepp Blatter will not stand again for the presidency and will 'lay down his mandate' as promised. Blatter sparked a fresh wave of speculation when a Swiss newspaper reported him as saying: 'I have not resigned, I put my mandate in the hands of an extraordinary congress.'”
** Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "In a long-sought victory for the gay rights movement, the Supreme Court ruled on Friday that the Constitution guarantees a nationwide right to same-sex marriage. Justice Anthony M. Kennedy wrote the majority opinion in the 5 to 4 decision. He was joined by the court's four more liberal justices.... Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., in a dissent joined by Justice Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas, said the Constitution has nothing to say on the subject.... In a second dissent, Justice Scalia mocked Justice Kennedy's soaring language. 'The opinion is couched in a style that is as pretentious as its content is egotistic,' Justice Scalia wrote of his colleague's work. 'Of course the opinion's showy profundities are often profoundly incoherent.'" CW: Not sure where Alito is supposed to be here, but clearly he joined one dissent on the other. ...
... Okay, here's the answer from Robert Barnes of the Washington Post: "All four of the court's most conservative members -- Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and Justices Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas and Samuel A. Alito Jr. -- dissented and each wrote a separate opinion, saying the court had usurped a power that belongs to the people." ...
... Nick Gass of Politico: "The Supreme Court on Friday ruled 5-4 that same-sex couples nationwide have the constitutional right to marry, splitting the 2016 candidates sharply along partisan lines. Democratic candidates hailed the decision as another marker for equality, while Republican candidates reacted with disappointment and, in some cases, white-hot anger. ...
... The Washington Postis liveblogging reactions to the Court's marriage ruling. Some of the corporate responses are pretty sweet. ...
... Michael Rosenwald of the Washington Post: "The craziest thing just happened to Jim Obergefell: He became a civil rights icon. The real estate broker from Cincinnati was the lead plaintiff in the historic gay marriage case.... Obergfell is unlike the other plaintiffs in the case: He doesn't get to go home and celebrate with his loved one. His husband, John, died from ALS. They were wed on the tarmac of Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport, flying there because they couldn't get married in Ohio."
Doug Palmer of Politico: "The House voted 286-138 Thursday to renew a 50-year-old worker entitlement program with overwhelming support from Democrats, who reversed themselves on the legislation after losing a battle with the White House and Republicans over a bill to 'fast-track' approval of the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement.... The vote sends the bill to President Barack Obama to sign into law." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Michael Shear of the New York Times: "... on Thursday, [President] Obama walked into the Rose Garden to accept vindication as the Supreme Court, for a second time, affirmed the legality of a part of the Affordable Care Act. Mr. Obama ... called for an end to the vitriolic politics that have threatened it. 'The point is, this is not an abstract thing anymore,' Mr. Obama told reporters, with Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. smiling broadly beside him. '... For all the misinformation campaigns, all the doomsday predictions, all the talk of death panels and job destruction, for all the repeal attempts -- this law is now helping tens of millions of Americans.'... [Meanwhile,] House Speaker John A. Boehner, Republican of Ohio, promised to 'do everything we can' to undermine the law. Jeb Bush, a Republican candidate for president, vowed 'to repeal and replace this flawed law' if he succeeds Mr. Obama in the Oval Office'":
... Paul Krugman: "... what you have is a portrait of policy triumph -- a law that, despite everything its opponents have done to undermine it, is achieving its goals, costing less than expected, and making the lives of millions of Americans better and more secure..... What conservatives have always feared about health reform is the possibility that it might succeed, and in so doing remind voters that sometimes government action can improve ordinary Americans' lives.... That's why the right went all out to destroy the Clinton health plan in 1993, and tried to do the same to the Affordable Care Act. But Obamacare has survived, it's here, and it's working. The great conservative nightmare has come true. And it's a beautiful thing." ...
... Linda Greenhouse: "The chief justice’s masterful opinion showed [Justice Scalia's] line of argument for the simplistic and agenda-driven construct that it was.... The chief justice cited two [pro-ACA] briefs in his opinion, one from the health insurance industry and the other, which he referred to several times, from the country's leading experts on the economics of health care. This whole exercise was unnecessary, the outcome too close for comfort. But there is cause for celebration in a disaster narrowly averted -- for the country and the court, which is to say, for us all." CW: Greenhouse also echoes what I wrote yesterday about the Supremes' decision to hear King v. Burwell & about Scalia's previous opinions asserting that context matters." ...
... Rick Hasen: The Court's "means of interpretation is important for a number of reasons. First, it means that a new administration with a new IRS Commissioner cannot reinterpret the law to take away subsidies. Second, it puts more power into the hands of Congress over administrative agencies (and therefore the executive), at least on issues at the core of congressional legislation. Third, and most important as a general principle, it rehabilitates a focus on the law's purpose as a touchstone to interpretation, over a rigid and formalistic textualism that ignores real-world consequences.... The Court said that in close cases, make the law work the way Congress obviously intended it. That's a very good thing."...
... Cass Susstein in Bloomberg: "Roberts's impressive opinion ... is a masterwork of indirection. It's already being seen as a final vindication of Obamacare. But it is also a strong assertion of the court's, and not the executive branch's, ultimate power to say what the law is." ...
Brian Beutler of the New Republic: "The ruling thus combines a standard textualist mode of interpretation -- a view to the statute's full context to determine the meaning of isolated provisions -- with a common sense analysis of the law's structure into a mode of interpretation you might call heurism.... The opinion the Court actually wrote turns out to be perfectly stitched. A victory for the government, and little succor for Obamacare foes, which is exactly as it should be." ...
... CW: Beutler misunderstands the meaning of textualism -- in legal theory, it means nearly the opposite of Beutler's definition; ergo, in King, the Court specifically rejected Scalia's narrow textual interpretation (a/k/a Moops theory). But Beutler is right about the far-reaching -- and remarkable -- heuristic approach the majority took to resolving the ambiguity of the text in question when it looked to the purpose of the law, as Hasen outlines." ...
... ** Roberts Burns Congressional Republicans. Ryan Cooper of the Week: "Roberts' clear account of ObamaCare's policy mechanism, and the damage that would be done should any of its main prongs be removed, deals a body blow to the conservative health care wonks who have been trying to cook up a replacement policy for the last five years -- in particular, a plan without the unpopular individual mandate. But as Roberts plainly shows, that leads straight to disaster." ...
... Steve M. has a couple of theories about why Roberts & Kennedy decided to uphold the ACA: First, they probably believed initially that "the Republican majorities in Congress would have a remedy ready to avert chaos." But when they realized Republicans were never going to do any such thing, they changed their minds. Also, too, "The preservation of Obamacare by the Roberts court does a couple of things for the GOP for 2016: It preserves Obamacare as a voter-motivating grievance for the party's base, and it makes it much more difficult for Hillary Clinton (or Bernie Sanders or whoever) to say that the Supreme Court is a force for wingnuttery that will only get worse if a Republican is elected president next year." ...
... CW: Following Cass Susstein's lead, I'd add that Roberts also used the opinion to enhance the power of the judiciary at the expense of the executive branch. That is, Roberts wrote that an executive agency -- at least in this case -- does not have the power to decide how to interpret ambiguous or contradictory legislative language unless Congress specifically gives them the authority to do so in a sort of "hey, whatever" provision.
..."Roberts Burns Scalia." Max Ehrenfreund of the Washington Post: "Roberts used the dissent's ;own words againstScalia.... Back in 2012, [Scalia] had written that without subsidies, 'the exchanges would not operate as Congress intended.'" Roberts cited Scalia's dissent in his majority opinion. "It's not the first time a dissent by Scalia has been used to support a view he opposes. His dissent against gay marriage has been widely cited by lower courts arguing that bans on same-sex unions are unconstitutional." ...
... CW: As Greenhouse & I noted, Roberts cited other Scalia opinions in his majority opinion in King. It appears Roberts is tiring of an obnoxious junior colleague who continually berates & belittles everyone who disagrees with him & whose own arguments are not just rude but inconsistent. Scalia makes both conservatism & the Court look stupid and/or batty, & that surely displeases the chief justice. ...
... Juliet Eilperin & Robert Barnes of the Washington Post: "President Obama and Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. got off to a rough start from the very beginning.... They occupy nearly opposite ends of the ideological spectrum.... But in Thursday’s Supreme Court decision upholding federal subsidies offered under the Affordable Care Act, Roberts again helped sustain the president's policy legacy in a way that few could have anticipated when Obama took office. In voting with the majority and writing the opinion, the chief justice has ensured that the legacies of both the Obama presidency and the Roberts court are forever intertwined." ...
... CW: They had better get along. Unless he doesn't want the job, I would be surprised if President Hillary didn't nominate President Obama to the Supreme Court. ...
... George Will: Chief Justice Roberts is overthrowing the Constitution! The separation of powers is defunct! No more due process! ...
... Josh Gerstein of Politico: [Chief Justice] "Roberts' decision to side with the Obama administration for a second time on the high-profile health care law threw a huge splash of fuel onto a long-simmering debate about whether Republicans misjudged the chief justice when he was nominated a decade ago or whether he has grown more moderate in his years on the court -- a phenomenon many conservatives complained about with earlier Republican appointees such as Justices David Souter, Sandra Day O'Connor and John Paul Stevens. ...
... Noam Levey of the Los Angeles Times: "With no serious Republican alternatives and a historic expansion in medical coverage well underway, Obamacare is about as firmly ensconced as a new law can be in a politically divided country." ...
... Manu Raju & Burgess Everett of Politico: "As Republicans process Thursday's sharp rebuke at the hands of the Supreme Court, they're struggling with what to do next -- beset by internal divisions and procedural roadblocks that severely limit their options." ...
... Over there at the Blaze, Glenn Beck's Website, Wayne Root asks, "Has Supreme Court Justice John Robertsbeen blackmailed or intimidated? I would put nothing by the Obama administration that lives and rules by the Chicago thug playbook." CW: Yeah, that was my first thought, too, Wayne. After all, ...
In all the excitement over King, Charles Pierce wants us to remember that Roberts joined the crazies in the Texas housing anti-discrimination case also decided yesterday. Because Jewish & Muslim (Moops?) doctors in the 17th-century Ottoman palace.
Looks as if Republicans are in disarray about more than ObamaCare. Jake Sherman & Anna Palmer of Politico: Oversight Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) has reversed his "decision to strip North Carolina Rep. Mark Meadows of his subcommittee gavel. Top Republicans had wanted to punish Meadows for voting against GOP leaders and not supporting the party's campaign arm.... The reversal infuriated loyalists to [Speaker John] Boehner.... 'Disgusting,' one Boehner ally remarked.... It is a stunning reversal for Chaffetz -- and, by extension, the GOP leadership -- and could embolden the several dozen conservative Republicans who defy Speaker John Boehner, Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.)." Seems Chaffetz didn't know the House GOP rule that requires committee chairs to have the support of a majority of Republican committee members before they can remove a subcommittee chair.
Stephen Ohlemacher of the AP: "Investigators are blaming mistakes by IRS employees -- not a criminal conspiracy -- for the loss of thousands of emails related to the tax agency's tea party scandal. IRS workers erased 422 computer backup tapes that 'most likely' contained as many as 24,000 emails to and from former IRS official Lois Lerner, who has emerged as a central figure in congressional investigations, according to IRS's inspector general."
Felicity Barringer of the New York Times: "From the Arabian Peninsula to northern India to California's Central Valley, nearly a third of the world's 37 largest aquifers are being drained faster than they are being replenished, according to a recent study led by scientists at the University of California, Irvine. The aquifers are concentrated in food-producing regions that support up to two billion people."
Presidential Race
Michael Schmidt of the New York Times: "Despite claims by Hillary Rodham Clinton that she gave the State Department all of her work-related emails from the personal account that she used exclusively when she was in office, the department said on Thursday that it had received several related to Libya that she had not handed over. The disclosure is the first significant evidence to raise questions about whether Mrs. Clinton deleted emails from the account that she should have given to the State Department because they were government records. The State Department said that in comparing emails from Sidney Blumenthal, a confidant of Mrs. Clinton's, to the ones she gave to the department, officials could not find nine and portions of six others."
John DiStaso of WMUR, Manchester, New Hampshire: "Clinton leads Sanders, 43 to 35 percent, in a new WMUR/CNN Granite State Poll, which was conducted ... from June 18 to 24. The poll included 360 likely 2016 Democratic primary voters and has a margin of error of 5.2 percent, meaning Sanders is close to being in a statistical dead heat with the frontrunner." ...
... Arit John of Bloomberg: "Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders on Thursday responded to criticism from his Senate colleague, Claire McCaskill of Missouri, that he is too liberal to credibly challenge Hillary Clinton. 'To the best of my knowledge, this is the first time that a colleague has attacked me,' said Sanders...." ...
Jonathan Topaz & Daniel Strauss of Politico: "All jokes aside, the Republican Party is officially afraid ofDonald Trump. He has virtually zero chance of winning the presidential nomination. But insiders worry that the loud-mouthed mogul is more than just a minor comedic nuisance on cable news; they fret that he's a loose cannon whose rants about Mexicans and scorched-earth attacks on his rivals will damage the eventual nominee and hurt a party struggling to connect with women and minorities and desperate to win." ...
... Ja Ja Ja Ja Ja Ja Ja. Alan Rappeport of the New York Times: "Univision[, the Spanish-language network] said that it was ending its relationship with the Trump Organization, that it will not air the Miss USA pageant on its network next month, and that it is severing ties with the Miss Universe Organization. [Donald] Trump is a part owner of the Miss Universe Organization, the umbrella group for both the United States and world beauty pageants. Univision said the decision was because of Mr. Trump's recent remarks about Mexican immigrants." (Emphasis added.) ...
... Mark Hensch of the Hill: "The Chilean actor scheduled to host this year's Miss USA pageant is quitting over GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump's remarks on Hispanic immigrants. Cristian de la Fuente, who performs on the television series 'Devious Maids,' said on Thursday he is abandoning his role in the annual beauty competition.... Trump countered on Thursday that Fuente was not the host of next month's Miss USA event."
Beyond the Beltway
Jennifer Medina of the New York Times: "Under a bill expected to be approved Thursday by state lawmakers, schoolchildren in California will be required to receive vaccinations unless there is a medical reason not to do so. The bill would end exemptions for personal or religious reasons, which parents who oppose vaccinations routinely request. The legislation would make California the largest state by far with such sweeping requirements for vaccinations, joining West Virginia and Mississippi, which have had similar laws for years." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Erik Eckholm of the New York Times: "A Kansas state judge on Thursday temporarily blocked a new law that would have banned the most common method of abortion in the second trimester. The law, adopted in April and the first of its kind in the nation, would have barred a method known as dilation and evacuation, which doctors say is usually the safest and most convenient abortion technique after about the 12th to 14th week of pregnancy.... The suit, brought on behalf of two Kansas obstetricians by the Center for Reproductive Rights, based in New York, argued that the law amounted to illegal interference with the right to abortion and could force some women to undergo an 'invasive unnecessary medical procedure even against the medical judgment of her physician.'"
Southern Poverty Law Center: "In a landmark victory, a state jury in New Jersey found today that a 'conversion therapy' program offering services it claimed could change clients from gay to straight was fraudulent and unconscionable. The jury ordered JONAH (Jews Offering New Alternatives for Healing), the group's founder and a counselor to pay $72,400 to compensate five plaintiffs for fees they paid to the group and for mental health counseling one of the plaintiffs needed afterward." The SPLC filed the suit.
Sarah Kaplan of the Washington Post: "A fire that engulfed a small, predominantly black church in Charlotte[, North Carolina,] was set on purpose, local officials said Wednesday. Now they are trying to determine whether the act of arson was a hate crime." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
The Abstinence News. Dan Savage: "Single Christian lady Bristol ... Palinis pregnant again. This will be Bristol Palin's second child. This one is either by her second ex-fiance or some poor man to be named later.... If Bristol Palin's last name was 'Obama' the whole Hee Haw gang at Fox News would spend half of every day for the next nine months telling us that Bristol Obama has terrible parents.... Bonus thing: you have to watch Bristol Palin's abstinence ed PSA...."
News Ledes
New York Times: "Terrorists attacked sites in France, Tunisia and Kuwait on Friday, leaving a bloody toll on three continents and prompting new concerns about the spreading influence of jihadists. In France, attackers stormed an American-owned industrial chemical plant near Lyon, tried unsuccessfully to blow up the factory, and left behind a decapitated corpse. In Tunisia, at least one gunman disguised as a vacationer opened fire at a beach resort, killing at least 37 people before security forces shot him to death, officials said. And the Islamic State claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing in one of the largest Shiite mosques in Kuwait City during Friday prayers."
New York Times: "The Vatican on Friday signed a treaty with the 'state of Palestine,' a development that the church hopes will lead to improved relations between Israel and the Palestinians."
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