June 14, 2024

Friday, June 14, 2024. 🇺🇸 Annette’s News Roundup.

I think the Roundup makes people feel not so alone.

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Joe is always busy.

Here are the latest developments at the G7.

Joe’s brilliant answer to help Ukraine without depending on aid authorization votes from the House.

The United States and the other large Group of 7 economies agreed Thursday on a plan to give Ukraine a $50 billion loan to help it buy weapons and begin to rebuild damaged infrastructure at a crucial moment in the war, when Russia has the momentum on the battlefield.

The loan is expected to be repaid using interest earned on $300 billion in frozen Russian assets, which are mostly in European banks. Announced at a G7 summit in southern Italy, the loan will be underwritten by the United States, but American officials say they expect their allies, including members of the European Union, to provide some of the funds.

President Biden also will signal a long-term American commitment to Ukraine by signing a 10-year security agreement with President Volodymyr Zelensky, an administration official said. Mr. Biden and the Ukrainian leader are expected to hold a joint news conference on Thursday.

Mr. Biden is trying to persuade allies that the United States will continue backing Ukraine even if former President Donald J. Trump, who has spoken openly of pulling the United States out of NATO, prevails in the November election. But if re-elected, Mr. Trump could abandon any security agreement with Ukraine, underscoring the political challenges shadowing Mr. Biden and other G7 leaders. (New York Times).

Secretary Yellen apparently was the source of the idea the President adopted.

Joe wisely embraced it.

Touch 👇 to read the full story.

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For now, Mifepristone is safe but the Supreme Court remains a shocking mess.

Listen to Representative Ro Khanna talk about the Court. 👇

More revelations about Justice Clarence Thomas too.

Harlan Crow Provided Clarence Thomas at Least 3 Previously Undisclosed Private Jet Trips, Senate Probe Finds.

The Supreme Court justice flew to Montana and other destinations on the billionaire GOP donor’s dime. Crow’s lawyer revealed these flights to the Senate Judiciary Committee, whose ongoing investigation was sparked by ProPublica’s reporting.

Billionaire political donor Harlan Crow provided at least three previously undisclosed private jet trips to Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas in recent years, an investigation by Senate Judiciary Committee Democrats has found.

The flights, which were detailed by Crow’s lawyer in response to inquiries from the committee, took the justice to destinations including the region near Glacier National Park in Montana and Thomas’ hometown in Georgia.

The committee launched its investigation in response to ProPublica reporting last year that revealed numerous undisclosed gifts Crow provided to Thomas, including private school tuition for a relative and luxury vacations virtually every year for more than two decades. Democrats on the committee authorized a subpoena for information from Crow last November, but the subpoena was not issued, and the new information came as a result of negotiations between the Senate and Crow’s attorneys.

It’s possible more revelations are yet to come. The office of the panel’s chair, Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., said that a report detailing the full findings of committee Democrats’ investigation would be released later in the summer.

“As a result of our investigation and subpoena authorization, we are providing the American public greater clarity on the extent of ethical lapses by Supreme Court justices,” Durbin said in a statement. He added that the newly discovered gifts make “crystal clear that the highest court needs an enforceable code of conduct.”

Crow’s office said in a statement that he gave the senators information covering the past seven years and that the committee “agreed to end its probe with respect to Mr. Crow.”

“Despite his serious and continued concerns about the legality and necessity of the inquiry, Mr. Crow engaged in good faith with the Committee,” the statement said.

Thomas did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The newly revealed flights add to the picture of Thomas’ frequent use of Crow’s jet for personal travel, allowing the justice to fly in the style of the ultrawealthy. Crow owns a high-end Bombardier Global 5000, a jet that can cost over $10,000 per flight hour to charter, according to charter company estimates. Thomas has repeatedly flown to a destination and back again on the same day.

The relationship between the two men began on Crow’s jet: In 1996, Crow offered to fly the justice to Dallas for a speech and while they were in the air, they hit it off, Crow has said. Crow has since flown Thomas to destinations around the world.

The new details released by the Senate don’t make clear the purpose of the trips, only listing flight dates and locations. They include a May 2017 trip from St. Louis to Kalispell, Montana — the location of Glacier Park International Airport — then from Montana to Dallas two days later. Thomas was scheduled to be in St. Louis at the time for a speech to a local bar association.

In one instance, he flew on June 29, 2021, from the East Coast to San Jose, California, and returned home later that day. In another, the justice took a round-trip flight on March 23, 2019, from Washington, D.C., to Savannah, Georgia.

ProPublica could not immediately find evidence of Thomas making public appearances in Montana, Georgia or California on the dates in question.

Last May, Senate Democrats requested detailed information from Crow about his relationship with Thomas, including an itemized list of all gifts he’d given to Supreme Court justices over the years. In November, Democrats upped the pressure by authorizing a subpoena. That decision met fierce Republican opposition, with GOP senators on the committee walking out of the hearing in protest.

The committee also authorized a subpoena for conservative legal activist Leonard Leo. Leo joined Thomas on at least one trip with Crow and also helped organize a luxury fishing vacation for Justice Samuel Alito, which was paid for by political donors. Leo has said he will not comply with the subpoena.

Last fall, amid public outcry about ethics controversies, the Supreme Court adopted a code of conduct for the first time in its history. The code, however, has no enforcement mechanism.

On Wednesday, Senate Democrats attempted to pass a bill that would tighten the court’s ethics rules and create a process for fielding and investigating complaints of potential misconduct. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., called the legislation “unconstitutional overreach” and led a group of Republican senators who blocked the bill from advancing.

Last week, Thomas acknowledged for the first time that he should have told the public about food and lodging he received from Crow on a pair of free vacations, both of which were first uncovered by ProPublica. Thomas said he “inadvertently omitted” the gifts on previous financial disclosure filings. Thomas has not reported the recent private jet trips from Crow, which many legal experts have described as a violation of the federal financial disclosure law. Thomas’ attorney has maintained that the justice did not need to report the free flights.

The committee launched its investigation in response to ProPublica reporting last year that revealed numerous undisclosed gifts Crow provided to Thomas, including private school tuition for a relative and luxury vacations virtually every year for more than two decades. Democrats on the committee authorized a subpoena for information from Crow last November, but the subpoena was not issued, and the new information came as a result of negotiations between the Senate and Crow’s attorneys.

It’s possible more revelations are yet to come. The office of the panel’s chair, Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., said that a report detailing the full findings of committee Democrats’ investigation would be released later in the summer. (ProPublica).

Mifepristone ruling: Supreme Court preserves access to abortion pill.

In a 9-0 ruling, the high court shot down a challenge to the FDA’s approval of mifepristone, allowing the drug to continue to be prescribed online.

The Supreme Court has unanimously dismissed a case that would have limited access to mifepristone, one of the two drugs used in a medication abortion. The decision leaves access to the abortion drug unchanged for now. 

In the ruling, the high court’s justices said that the collection of anti-abortion physicians challenging the drug’s availability had not shown they had been directly harmed by the federal Food and Drug Administration’s 2016 and 2021 decisions to expand the use of mifepristone. As a result, the court’s majority said, they did not have the right to file suit.

“The federal courts are the wrong forum for addressing the plaintiffs’ concerns about FDA’s actions,” said the opinion, authored by Justice Brett Kavanaugh. “The plaintiffs may present their concerns and objections to the President and FDA in the regulatory process, or to Congress and the President in the legislative process. And they may also express their views about abortion and mifepristone to fellow citizens, including in the political and electoral process.”

Mifepristone is used in combination with another drug, misoprostol, to induce medication abortions. The regimen, which data shows is very safe and effective in terminating a pregnancy, has surged in popularity in the past few years, and now accounts for more than 60 percent of all abortions. 

It has also become a key tool for people seeking to circumvent state abortion bans. Because these medications can be prescribed through telehealth appointments, health care providers in a handful of states where abortion is legal have begun to mail the pills to patients in states with bans. 

As a result, the anti-abortion movement has prioritized limiting access to mifepristone, which was approved by the FDA in 2000. The case at hand, filed in Texas, originally sought to reverse the drug’s approval altogether. The high court, citing how much time had passed, heard only a narrower set of questions: whether to reverse a 2021 decision that allowed the drug to be prescribed through telemedicine, and a 2016 one that approved its use up to 10 weeks of pregnancy instead of seven and allowed it to be prescribed by health care providers other than physicians.

A ruling in the doctors’ group’s favor would have banned mifepristone’s use in telemedicine, and made it only available through in-person appointments. Patients would have had to make three visits to a provider — a requirement that could be prohibitive, especially for those who must travel long distances, or who are unable to secure time off or child care for three separate days. It also would have limited prescriptions to doctors, rather than nurses or physicians assistants.

Thursday’s decision means that the pill will remain accessible in states where abortion is legal. Still, the decision is hardly the end of the fight over medication abortion, either on a state or federal level.

Abortion is mostly or entirely outlawed in 14 states. Others have enacted restrictions on the procedure, including six-week bans in three states, or outlawing abortion through telemedicine.

In advance of the Supreme Court’s ruling, some states sought to criminalize the drugs used in medication abortion, including Louisiana, which in May issued a law declaring both “controlled dangerous substances.” 

In oral arguments this March, Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas both singled out an 1873 anti-obscenity law called the Comstock Act, which has not been enforced in decades but was never repealed, and which some hope to use as the basis for a national abortion ban. The law forbids the mailing of material “intended for producing abortion, or for any indecent or immoral use. Alito referred to the Comstock Act as a “prominent provision” in the criminal code, though it has only recently become a commonly-discussed vehicle for an abortion ban. (19th News).

One more thing.

According to Notus, this happened in Trump’s meeting with House Republicans -

Donald Trump came to the Capitol Hill Club Thursday morning supposedly to discuss his agenda for a second term with House Republicans. Instead, Trump treated his meeting as an opportunity to deliver a behind-closed-doors, stream-of-consciousness rant where Trump tried to settle scores in the House GOP, trashed the city of Milwaukee and took a shot at Nancy Pelosi’s “wacko” daughter.

As one source in the room put it, Trump was “rambling.”

“Like talking to your drunk uncle at the family reunion,” this source said.

Lawmakers who attended the meeting — which was nearly the entire House GOP conference — kicked off the affair with their own show of devotion: They sang ‘Happy Birthday’ to Trump. The former president, who turns 78 on Friday, was then presented with a game ball from Wednesday night’s Congressional Baseball Game, where Republicans whooped Democrats 31-11.

But perhaps the most bizarre moment of all was Trump’s rant about one of Pelosi’s daughters. Trump told House Republicans that she once told him, “If things were different, Nancy and I would be perfect together.”

“There’s an age difference though,” said Trump, who is about six years younger than Pelosi and 24 years older than his wife, Melania.

Pelosi’s daughter Christine almost immediately refuted Trump’s claim on X. Speaking for all four Pelosi daughters, she denied Trump’s claim and condemned the former president as “unwell, unhinged and unfit to step foot anywhere near her — or the White House.”

Toward the end of his roughly one-hour speech, Trump proved the sheer randomness of his affections.

For instance, Milwaukee, the host city for the Republican National Convention next month, is apparently on Trump’s bad side. Trump called Milwaukee “a horrible city,” according to Punchbowl.

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Then this happened minutes after House Republicans met with their Felonious Nominee.

A few more things.

My favorite stupid comment Trump made about climate change recently.

“You’re gonna have a little more beachfront property.”

Really!

Watch the Trump medley of moronic. 👇

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And then, your daily reminder.

Trump is a convicted felon.

On May 30th, he was found guilty on 34 felony counts by the unanimous vote of 12 ordinary citizens.

He will be sentenced on July 11.

Trump was in DC yesterday, and headlines in our press were similar to this one from the New York Times -“Trump returns to Washington with a renewed grip on the Republican Party.” , and this from The Washington Post, Trump touts ‘tremendous unity’ after GOP meetings on Hill.

But below is the first paragraph 👇 of the Times coverage explaining why Trump was really in Washington.

Donald J. Trump flew into Washington last summer in a state of misery. He was there for his criminal arraignment, and he told associates afterward that the city was disgusting. He could feel Washington’s hostility, aides said.

The information in this truthful paragraph was then ignored and the Times coverage resumed as if a Trump fanzine.

The Washington Post didn’t even mention the Felon Trump was in town for a criminal arraignment.

Did you know the Felon Trump was arraigned yesterday?

Shame on the Times and the Post.

Since Donald can feel Washington’s hostility, why not make him happy and do everything in your power not to prevent his return to the White House which he once called “a dump”?

“Worry Less. Do More.”

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