June 30, 2017

Dan Rather perfectly explains why Trumps attacks on Mika are the symptom of a much larger problem

Speaking with CNN’s Don Lemon, veteran broadcast journalist Dan Rather laid out the real reason why President Donald Trump’s tweet-attacks against MSNBC’s Mika Brzezinski are so damaging.

Rather, who worked with Brzezinski at CBS News, focused on the dangers this sort of behavior poses to the office of the presidency rather than the content of the tweets themselves.

“This is unbecoming of the president, and I think even the most ardent Trump supporter has to somewhere deep in themselves realize that,” Rather began.

“It’s “not about policy,” Rather continued. “It’s not even about politics. This is really about common decency.”


(Includes CNN video - interview with Don Lemon): http://www.rawstory.com/2017/06/dan-rather-perfectly-explains-why-trumps-attacks-on-mika-are-the-symptom-of-a-much-larger-problem/

June 27, 2017

Robert Reich slams the door on conservative's Trumpcare illusions - Anderson Cooper 6/26/17

June 27, 2017

The Supreme Court's Artful Dodge

A pragmatic ruling on Trump’s travel ban preserves the peace for now—though Gorsuch is willing to stir the pot.

The Supreme Court’s announcement on President Donald Trump’s travel ban Monday morning gave each side something to point to as a temporary victory. The Court will hear arguments this fall on the merits of Trump’s executive order, and it split the baby on the question of what to do in the meantime. Until the Court renders a final decision, Trump’s entry ban will remain suspended in many cases, but go into effect for people who don’t have bona fide family, professional, and perhaps other similar reasons for coming into the U.S. Trump took a victory lap on Twitter – “Very grateful for the 9-O decision from the U. S. Supreme Court. We must keep America SAFE!" – but if he’d read the decision a little more carefully, it would be clear that the victory is only partial and only temporary. In fact, temporary victories might be the only kind anyone ever wins in this case.

The Court did agree to hear the case, but it also all but guaranteed that it will never render a decision on the merits. That’s because of the timing of the hearing. It won’t happen until the Court’s next session, in October. By then much of the order will have expired already: The order has a 90-day ban on nationals of six Middle Eastern countries entering the United States, a 120-day ban on the entry of any refugees, and a fiscal year 2017 cap on the total number of refugees. The Court started those clocks ticking today by letting the ban go into partial effect; by the time of the October hearing, both the fiscal year and the 90-day ban will be over, and only the 120-day refugee ban still in effect. Even that issue will become moot shortly thereafter, almost surely before the Justices get around to writing opinions. It's settled doctrine that federal courts won't decide moot issues, and every Justice knows it. In short, it seems that the Court agreed to hear a case that it plans never to decide.

Clearly the Court knows what is happening. Counting days on a calendar is not terribly difficult, not even for Supreme Court Justices. And if the Court wanted to decide the case before it became moot, it could schedule a morning of argument anytime in the next few weeks. Both sides’ lawyers are ready to go, and nothing in the Constitution requires the Court to take a long summer vacation. So the question is why the Court chose this evasive maneuver. And plausible explanations are easy to come by.

If the Court rules on the merits of the order, it must either endorse an ugly fit of executive-branch bigotry or else risk direct confrontation with an impulsive President who seems happy to go to war with federal judges. By splitting the difference, the Court prevents some of the worst human costs of the order, avoids committing itself to any ultimate view of the case, and contrives to let the whole affair end with a whimper. It’s a pragmatic institutionalist move, not a bold assertion of legal principles. But the current Court has a strong complement of pragmatists and institutionalists, led by the Chief Justice himself. As a young lawyer, John Roberts saucily quipped that only Justices and schoolchildren take the whole summer off; as Chief Justice, he knows the utility of being seasonally unavailable. (“Your case is very important to us. Please hold, and we’ll hear you out as soon as we’re back, a little more than ninety days from now.”)


More: http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/06/26/the-supreme-courts-artful-dodge-215310

June 27, 2017

Seth Myers - Senate Trumpcare Would Leave 22 Million More Uninsured: A Closer Look 6/26/17

June 23, 2017

Paul Ryan's Challenger: Paul Ryan Not Listening, Donald Trump Untrustworthy The Last Word MSNBC

Meet Randy Bryce (@IronStache), Paul Ryan's Democratic challenger for WI-01:

June 15, 2017

The Grateful Dead is helping to save bees and butterflies through Jerry Garcias legacy

Jerry Garcia passed away 22 years ago, but the legacy of the lead singer of the Grateful Dead lives on in a new effort to boost wild honeybee and monarch butterfly populations.

Embarking on a summer tour across America, Dead & Company, the group headed by former Garcia bandmates Bob Weir, Mickey Hart, and Bill Kreutzmann (with special guest John Mayer), will give fans at each venue a way in which they can help repopulate the winged creatures.

The band will be hosting a charity outreach program in the form of Participation Row: a series of tents dedicated to presenting meaningful causes and organizations. One of the tents will feature the most recent work of the Jerry Garcia Foundation.

To encourage butterfly and bee conservation among Deadheads, the Foundation will be passing out free milkweed seeds and garden pollinator packs to the first 300 concert-goers to visit their tent at the venues, courtesy of the Save Our Monarchs Foundation.

More: http://www.rawstory.com/2017/06/the-grateful-dead-is-helping-to-save-bees-and-butterflies-through-jerry-garcias-legacy/