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Wednesday, September 25, 2024

A former House GOP lawmaker says Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas should be removed from the bench over his "unethical" behavior and taunted people to challenge him. "Come at me. I got receipts," Denver Riggleman posted to X, calling Thomas' wife, Ginni Thomas, "disturbed." Riggleman posted in response to a clip of Donald Trump saying at a rally that "people should be put in jail for the way they talk about our judges and justices." "Clarence Thomas is, at the least, unethical. Should be removed from the bench. His wife, Ginni Thomas, is disturbed. Come at me. I got receipts." Riggleman said. read more


Saturday, September 21, 2024

An international team of astronomers reported in a study Wednesday that the second generation model of Starlink satellites is hampering radio astronomy, which is essential for the study of the non-visible universe, like black holes, for example. read more


Thursday, September 19, 2024

Republicans in North Carolina were bracing Thursday for what some anticipated would be a damaging CNN story on Mark Robinson, the Republican nominee for governor in North Carolina... read more


Wednesday, September 18, 2024

Lebanon's health ministry said 14 people had been killed and 450 injured on Wednesday, while the death toll from Tuesday's explosions rose to 12, including two children, with nearly 3,000 injured.


Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on Wednesday said the kingdom would not recognise Israel without a Palestinian state and strongly condemned the "crimes of the Israeli occupation" against the Palestinian people. "The kingdom will not stop its tireless work towards the establishment of an independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital, and we affirm that the kingdom will not establish diplomatic relations with Israel without that," the crown prince, known as MbS, said.


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More: The law is clear. It's up to the State Board of Elections to decide on late changes to the ballot. That's why I agree with Justice Allison Riggs in her dissent: "Today, any public aspersions cast on the impartiality, independence, and dignity of our state courts are well-earned."

By removing Kennedy's name at this late hour, Republicans hope potential Kennedy voters will become Trump voters. The Republicans on the court cared not one iota it would create so much uncertainty 130,000 North Carolinians who requested mail-in ballots don't know when they'll be able to vote, county state officials are scrambling to beat a federal deadline for sending out absentee ballots, and it will cost maybe a $1 million to sort the whole mess out. There were nearly 3 million ballots " with a combined 2,348 styles " printed before court intervention. They are now null and void, must be scrapped for no good reason.

There is no sugarcoating this. At least some NC Supreme Court should justices are purely political actors disguised in black robes.

Four years ago, President Joe Biden lost to Trump by less than 2 percentage points in North Carolina. Since then, the U.S. Supreme Court uprooted the half-century long precedent that was Roe v. Wade, and the GOP nominated extremist N.C. Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson as its standard bearer. The Roe decision has been a potent get-out-the-vote engine for Democrats across the country, while the Robinson pick has made the state GOP a laughingstock. Did the party really have to nominate someone who dabbles in anti-blackness, antisemitism, and is a hypocrite abortion, among many other unsavory things?

According to the latest WRAL poll, voters have noticed those Republican choices. Attorney General Josh Stein, a Democrat, has a 14-point lead over Robinson. Stein has been boosted not just by a Democratic base that's been energized since Harris became the Democratic presidential nominee, but also by conservatives who still believe in democracy and are willing to extremism even if it's found on own their side of the aisle.

The GOP had already gerrymandered its way to a supermajority in Raleigh, even though North Carolina has more registered Democrats than Republicans. This time, though, they won't be able to hide the damage their power grab has left in its wake. Voters will notice, because voters of all backgrounds and ideologies are being directly affected.

In November, that diverse mix of voters can tell the GOP, in no uncertain terms, the foolishness has to end.

More: Foremost among these is the fetish for free speech as the sole end of political life. Loath to actually govern, lest it encroach on donor-class prerogatives, the institutional right has long substituted procedural claims " why can't I ask questions! " for substantive ones about the good life. Free speech and inquiry are valuable. But treated as the highest good, these ideals give rise to a pure shock-jock politics.

Second, and there is no delicate way to put this, the right suffers from a talent shortage. For all the rhetoric about free inquiry, the same donor class severely disciplines the mainstream right's media and academic operators. To go beyond certain hawkish, free-market lines is verboten.

This leaves conservative institutions dominated by doctrinaire hacks who can churn predictable opinion pieces, but can't report or write at anywhere close to the level expected of left-of-centre counterparts. There are many applicants to be the next Fox or Newsmax loudmouth, but few young rightists aspire to the excellence and enterprise daily showcased by the New York Times or the New York Review (for all their shortcomings). Being a successful loudmouth is much easier: all you need is to bellow about how "they" want us to eat bugs and take poison vaccines.

The third and final cause is what might be called the young right's epistemic snap. Thoroughly alienated from the American mainstream, they feel compelled to believe that everything they've been taught is a big lie " even the relative decency of the Allied effort against the Nazis.

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