June 28, 2024

Friday, June 28, 2024. Annette’s News Roundup.

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The Debate.

We may be scared but Biden has been a very good president and will be a very good president if he is re-elected in 2024. He surrounds himself with good people. He is a moral man and he delivers for America and the American people he loves.

The optics were terrible. Our man had a weak, raspy voice, and is clearly an older man, but did anyone who has been supporting Biden and American Democracy turn to Trump?

On substance Biden won the debate against a lying sociopath. Though still, there are those optics.

How this one night will play out is yet to be seen.

For a point of comparison, may I remind you of a Debate that occurred in 2012, when our young President, a gifted orator, had a very bad night. Here is an account of Obama v. Romney in 2012. People sometimes really do have bad nights.

When Romney trounced Obama.

CNN) — The sheer panic Democrats felt in 2012 after Mitt Romney demolished Barack Obama at their first presidential debate in Denver can’t be overstated.

It wasn’t one of those classic debate gaffes: Richard Nixon mopping his sweaty brow; Michael Dukakis’s robotic response to whether he’d favor the death penalty if someone raped and murdered his wife; or George H.W. Bush checking his watch; or even Al Gore’s audible sighs.

With Obama, it was more nuanced. The usually witty and at times-electrifying President who could fire up a crowd better than anyone was confined to a stage he did not want to be on – and viewers saw that immediately.

He was contemptuous of the whole exercise and surprisingly unprepared to rebut the shape shifting of his opponent, who suddenly morphed from the “severely conservative” governor who skated through the Republican primary to the kind of Massachusetts moderate any swing voter might fall for.

Obama hated debates, his former speechwriter Jon Favreau recalled in a recent column for The Ringer. The President viewed them as phony gladiator matches and “a highly subjective test of style and demeanor over substance and accuracy.”

And it showed in his wince-worthy performance that night, his annoyance at having his record challenged, his disengagement, all magnified by the split screen images of the two candidates.

“In the green room, we were on our feet, hooting and hollering; like watching an early Tyson fight,” recalled Will Ritter, a Republican strategist who was Romney’s 2012 director of advance. “Gov. Romney humbled the sitting president who was too arrogant to prepare.” (CNN).

Worry less. Do more. And support Biden-Harris. Make clear that Donald Trump is not a viable option.

One more thing.

Eve and I made a donation to Biden-Harris last night. We thought that was the best answer to a bad night.

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Joe is always busy.

June is Gay Pride Month, commemorating the Stonewall Riots, which began in the early hours of June 28, 1969 when police raided the Stonewall Inn, a gay club in Greenwich Village, New York City.

What followed were 6 days of protests and violent clashes, as Drag Queens and other Stonewall patrons and employees fought back against the police.

Stonewall was the catalyst for the gay rights movement in the United States and around the world. (Source. History.com).

Touch to watch a new Joe ad. 👇

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The Supreme Court Wednesday and Thursday

Wednesday

Did the Supreme Court hope this verdict in support of corrupt officials would be lost in the whirlwind of the Presidential Debate?

If so, they seem to be correct. Share it!

Heather Cox Richardson, Letters from an American, June 26, 2024.

These three justices rejected Wednesday’s SCOTUS blessing for corrupt officials.

“By a 6–3 vote, the Supreme Court today [Wednesday] blessed the practice of taking “gratuities” as a gift for past behavior by an official, distinguishing them from “bribes,” which require proof that there was an illegal deal in place. The case involved a former mayor from Indiana who helped a local truck dealership win $1.1 million in city contracts and then asked for and received $13,000 from the dealership’s owners. The mayor was found guilty of violating a federal anti-corruption law that prohibits state and local officials from taking gifts worth more than $5,000 from someone the official had helped to land lucrative government business.

For the majority, Justice Brett Kavanaugh suggested that the law prohibited officials from accepting “gift cards, lunches, plaques, books, framed photos or the like” in thanks for an official’s help, although David G. Savage of the Los Angeles Times noted that the law came into play only when the gift was worth more than $5,000.

Savage pointed out that as the federal law in question covers about 20 million state and local officials, the decision could have wide impact. This decision that officials can accept “gifts” so long as they are not “bribes” might have something to do with the fact that Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito have accepted significant gifts from donors—Thomas’s count is upward of $4 million—and it doesn’t relieve the sense that this Supreme Court, with its three right-wing Trump-appointed justices, is untrustworthy.

Writing for justices Elena Kagan, Sonia Sotomayor, and herself, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson said, “Officials who use their public positions for private gain threaten the integrity of our most important institutions.” (Letters from an American, June 26, 2024, Heather Cox Richardson).

Thursday.

Idaho.

1.Abortion.

The Supreme Court will allow Idaho hospital physicians to provide abortions when they are needed in medical emergencies, the court ruled Thursday, in an opinion that was briefly made public Wednesday and reported by Bloomberg. (Source. The 19th news ).

The decision was essentially 6 to 3, with three conservative justices siding with the liberal wing. (New York Times)

2. EPA Regulations.

The Supreme Court temporarily put on hold on Thursday an Environmental Protection Agency plan to curtail air pollution that drifts across state lines, dealing another blow to the Biden administration’s efforts to protect the environment.

The ruling followed recent decisions chipping away at the agency’s authority to address climate change and water pollution.

Under the proposal, known as the “good neighbor” plan, factories and power plants in Western and Midwestern states must cut ozone pollution that drifts into Eastern ones. The emissions cause smog and are linked to asthma, lung disease and premature death.

The ruling was provisional, but even the temporary loss for the administration will suspend the plan for many months and maybe longer. (New York Times).

3. SEC

In SEC v. Jarkesy, Supreme Court strikes serious blow against the administrative state.

In a potentially groundbreaking decision, the Supreme Court on Thursday ruled that defendants accused of fraud by the Securities and Exchange Commission have the right to a jury trial.

Why it matters: The decision in SEC v. Jarkesy deals a serious blow to the administrative state, part of a yearslong project by the financial sector and conservatives to weaken federal power. The decision hobbles not just the SEC but other federal agencies like the EPA and Labor Department that rely on administrative law judges, which report to federal agencies and are part of the executive branch and not the judicial.

Jarkesy could weaken the ability of a range of federal agencies who use these judges — from the EPA to OSHA — to enforce laws in the public interest.

The big picture: It's one of a handful of cases the Court has taken on this term that chip away at federal agency power — the most important one, a case regarding the deference courts show to agency decisions, is still to be decided.

Catch up fast: George Jarkesy ran two hedge funds that the SEC said were a fraud, so the agency brought a case against him before an administrative law judge — one of about 2,000 who work for a range of federal agencies.

The judge ordered Jarkesy to pay a penalty of $300,000 and disgorge $685,000 in illicit profits. Jarkesy appealed to the conservative 5th Circuit, which ruled that, under the 7th Amendment, he was entitled to a trial by jury.

State of play: Before Thursday's decision, the SEC, like many other agencies, had the option of bringing a case to an administrative law judge or taking its claims to court.

The SEC had already taken the hint from a 2018 case that the Supreme Court wasn't thrilled with in-house judges and cases and brought its most serious types of fraud cases to the courts, says James Tierney, a former staff attorney for the agency. But the new ruling could mean that even run-of-the-mill actions go to court. For example, a case where a defendant agrees to a penalty and settles.

That's a far more expensive and time consuming endeavor. "The SEC doesn't have infinite resources, and so if the cost of settlement goes up, it means they're going to have fewer resources to bring enforcement actions," says Tierney, who is now an assistant professor at Chicago-Kent College of Law.

That's good news for the financial industry which has long pushed back on the agency's actions. Between the lines: The 6-3 decision fell along ideological lines, with chief justice John Roberts writing for the majority.

"A defendant facing a fraud suit has the right to be tried by a jury of his peers before a neutral adjudicator," Roberts writes. The other side: In a blistering dissent, calling the decision a "massive sea change," Justice Sonia Sotomayor argues that the court's ruling violates well established precedent — that Congress had long given federal agencies the right to adjudicate certain kinds of cases.

"The majority pulls a rug out from under Congress without even acknowledging that its decision upends over two centuries of settled Government practice."

"The majority takes a wrecking ball to this settled law and stable government practice. "

Limiting agency's ability to enforce the laws, and throwing it to the courts amounts to a "power grab" by the court's majority, she writes.

What's next: The ramifications of the decision will play out in the courts for years as agency's try and figure out the new world it established. (Axios- https://www.axios.com/2024/06/27/scotus-sec-jarkesy-decision.

What to expect next at the Court?

From the SCOTUS website: “The Court may announce opinions on Friday, June 28, and Monday, July 1.”

One more thing.

(with gratitude to Roundup consultant, Linda Wharton.)

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Touch to watch Trump threatening a second January 6.👇

Touch to watch Reese Weatherspoon watching.👇

Denver gave people experiencing homelessness $1,000 a month. A year later, nearly half of participants had housing.)

• The Denver Basic Income Project helped participants secure housing and full-time jobs.
• The pilot program provided direct cash payments to over 800 Coloradans experiencing homelessness.
• Results showed 45% of participants secured housing, while $589,214 was saved in public service costs. (Business Insider)

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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.

Countdowns.

3 days until Monday, July 1 when Steve Bannon reports to jail.

A federal jury reached a unanimous verdict on two misdemeanor charges for Contempt of Congress against Bannon on July 22, 2022 and sentenced on October 22.

On June 26, the Justice Department confirmed to the Supreme Court, Steve Bannon should report to prison as scheduled on July 1.

Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar wrote the court filing, referring to former Trump adviser Peter Navarro who is presently in federal prison. Navarro is also serving a 4 month sentence for Contempt of Congress for refusing to obey a subpoena from the January 6th Select Committee.

13 days until Thursday, July 11 when Convicted Felon Donald J. Trump is sentenced.

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