WEEKEND NOT SO FUNNIES

There are 254 days to the mid-term elections.

In the aftermath of yesterday’s Supreme Court decision, before we go all gooey on the thought of the Court returning to its traditional role, consider that of the six right wing justices, three acted to stop him, and other three tried to contort themselves so as to give the most dangerous threat the country has ever faced even more unconstitutional power than they and the other three have already ladled out for him. This court still cannot be trusted. Yesterday was a fluke.

From Thursday’s Daily News editorial: “It is time to acknowledge what has become tragically obvious: the Trump administration is essentially acting as a massive criminal enterprise. It lies, steals, extorts and murders - all while cloaked in the awesome authority of the state. It is on a crime spree that puts Al Capone to shame. This is not hyperbole or hyperventilation. It is our reality, as the facts amply demonstrate. It is difficult to comprehend the level of state-sponsored criminality we are witnessing because our country has never experienced anything like it. It is also difficult to absorb because it is happening so quickly, and on so many different fronts. In the words of the 2022 movie, it sometimes feels like ‘Everything Everywhere All At Once.’ And that can be exhausting, numbing, and overwhelming.”

And of the five “alternatives” Brett Kavanaugh laid out as alternative ways from Trump to continue wrecking things” It turns out that all five only offer MORE RESTRICTIVE ways to go for the destruction he wants: Three of the five provisions: Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962 and Section 201 and 301 of the Trade Act of 1974 require a federal investigation. Under the first, the Commerce Department has 270 days to return a decision on whether the importation of certain goods are a threat to national security. Under Section 201, the International Trade Commission must hold public hearings and get public comment, and U.S. Trade Representative is usually required to meet with targeted foreign governments before the president can tariff goods under Section 301. Sections 201 and 301, along with Section 122 of the same act, limit tariff duration. And three of the five provisions: Section 338 of the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act of 1930, along with Sections 301 and 122 restrict the tariff rate. The approaches are more piecemeal, can apply to just specific products or industries, and take far longer to enact than a stroke of Trump’s pen.

So, if the Supreme Court wants to continue using the Major Questions Theoryu, Trump can be knocked down under all five laws, particularly since he has already demonstrated his incompetent legal department’s incompetent way to misuse Section 122, which limits the term of tariffs to a maximum 150 days and requires prior Congressional action before he can take such a step. Watch for the lawsuit that will land at the International Court of Trade this coming week.

Yesterday, the Wall Street Journal’s editorial board delivered a blistering rebuke to Trump following his fiery outburst earlier in the day to the Supreme Court’s 6-3 decision striking down his signature emergency tariff policy. In a stinging opinion piece, the conservative publication argued that Trump owes an apology to both the individual justices he attacked and the institution itself. The editors admitted that’s unlikely to happen. The editorial board hammered Trump’s tantrum: “This is ugly even by Mr. Trump’s standards. This is rhetoric that could cause some deranged Trump acolyte to turn to violence against a Justice.” The board noted that Trump had no legitimate grounds for surprise, having been warned from the outset that his tariff action would likely fail legal scrutiny under the IEEPA statute.

Brendan Carr, the Trump-appointed stooge, er, I mean “chairman” of the FCC, is demanding fealty from local broadcasting networks in line with the president’s “pro-America” agenda. In a press release on Friday, Carr announced the FCC’s Pledge America Campaign, which he said is part of “heeding this call” of the White House’s Salute to America 250 Task Force. Through the memo, Carr pressured broadcasters to join in by reminding them of their “public interest obligations.” Carr suggested broadcasters implement such fun pro-America festivities as “starting each broadcast day with the ‘Star Spangled Banner’ or Pledge of Allegiance,” and offering viewers daily “Today in American History” announcements that explain “significant events that took place on that day in history.” To mark the 250th anniversary of the U.S.’s founding, Trump enacted a Task Force that “invites citizens to have a renewed love of American history, experience the beauty of our country, and ignite a spirit of adventure and innovation that will raise our nation to new heights over the next 250 years.” The FCC’s Campaign, Carr said, “enables broadcasters to lend their voices in support of Task Force 250 and the celebration of America’s 250th birthday by airing patriotic, pro-America content that celebrates the American journey and inspires its citizens by highlighting the historic accomplishments of this great nation from our founding through the Trump Administration today.” Under a bottom-of-the-page “Additional Information” section, Carr suggested that broadcasters could “voluntarily choose to indicate their commitment.” I think we should have the biggest “No Kings Day” nationawide demonstrations ever on July 4, 2026.

Last Tuesday, Trump’s Edumacation Department ran up the white flag of surrender: On Tuesday, Trump’s Department of Education conceded defeat on its unconstitutional directive to cut federal funding from any school with DEI programs. After the National Education Association and the ACLU sued, a federal court permanently invalidated the order - it can’t be enforced against anyone, anywhere, ever again.NEA President Becky Pringle stated: “Trump and Linda McMahon tried to use vague directives to stifle speech and erase essential teaching. The courts rejected that attack on public education.”

A new Politico Poll finds that a lasting chill has settled over U.S.-Canada relationship, with a growing number of Canadians saying they now view the United States as a source of global volatility instead of as a stabilizing ally. One especially frosty finding: 69 percent of respondents from Canada agree the U.S. under President Donald Trump tends to create problems for other countries rather than solve them. “Americans are rosy as ever about their northern neighbors, but Canadians don’t share the love. Their message to America: It’s not us, it’s you.”

Elon Musk’s $44 billion Twitter drama is finally headed to trial—but first came the harder task: finding jurors who don’t loathe the world’s richest man. Nine jurors were seated Thursday in San Francisco federal court after the judge spent more than five hours slicing through a pool of 93 prospective jurors in the investor class action suit against Musk, according to reporting by Bloomberg Law. The case centers on claims that Musk violated securities laws by publicly wavering over whether he would complete his 2022 purchase of Twitter—now X—allegedly driving down the company’s stock price in the process. The trial, Pampena v. Musk, is expected to last about three weeks and could include testimony from Musk and former Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal. U.S. District Judge Charles R. Breyer, who is presiding over the case, acknowledged from the outset that finding jurors with no preconceptions about Musk would be nearly impossible. “As a public figure, he will excite strong views, and for him in particular, people have strong views.”The real question, Breyer said, was whether those views could be set aside. That proved difficult. Nearly 40 prospective jurors were swiftly dismissed after admitting they could not put their biases aside. One man wrote in his questionnaire that if this were a criminal trial, he would feel a “moral obligation” to convict Musk and send him to prison. Another said she hated how Musk fired content moderators after taking over Twitter. She was dismissed despite claiming she could be fair. One woman praised Musk as a “brilliant scientist” who had helped humanity,but conceded under questioning that she would be nervous if she were representing the investors and she ended up on the jury. She, too, was eliminated.Musk’s attorney, Stephen Broome of Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, argued the hostility in the jury pool was extraordinary. “We have so many people in the venire who hate him so much that we’re becoming desensitized,” Broome said. In most cases, he added, a juror admitting they “hated” the defendant would be immediately excused. Breyer agreed that strong feelings were common, but reiterated that the legal standard isn’t affection. It’s impartiality. And in a city like San Francisco, that makes seating a neutral jury feel like threading a needle.

Yesterday, the DOJ fired the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia office hours after he took on the role to replace former Trump lawyer Lindsey Halligan. U.S. District Judge M. Hannah Lauck administered the oath of office after longtime litigator James Hundley was unanimously appointed to the position in an interim capacity, the court’s office said in a statement. Lat night, Trump Defense Attorney cosplaying as “Deputy Attorney General” Todd Blanche wrote on the social platform X, directed at Hundley, “you’re fired! Eastern District of Virginia judges do not pick our US Attorney. POTUS does.” The office has been in turmoil since September after Maladministration II pressured former U.S. Attorney Erik Siebert out of his job, pushing Siebert to prosecute New York Attorney General Letitia Jame, who was accused of mortgage fraud before a judge. Siebert refused to prosecute James. One of these illegal Trump “U/S/ Attorney” cases is going to end up at the Unsupreme Court.

Proving once again that you should never let hillbillies within 50 miles of a lever of power: U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee claimed in an interview published Friday that it would be “fine” if Israel took over all of the Middle East, suggesting the Bible gives the Jewish state that right. (Yes, let’s use the book of lies to justify anything) Huckabee told Fucker Carlson that the land “from the river of Egypt until the great river, the Euphrates” belonged to Israel. Carlson pushed back on his fellow former Fox News host, saying that is “basically the entire Middle East.” “So, God gave that land to his people, the Jews, or he didn’t. You’re saying he did. What does that mean? Does Israel have the right to that land? Because you’re appealing to Genesis. You’re saying that’s the original deed?” (Why not? Israel uses the things-that-never-happened chapter to “prove” that Sky Guy gave them the land of Israel.)

“Neither let us be slandered from our duty by false accusations against us, nor frightened from it by menaces of destruction to the Government, nor of dungeons to ourselves. Let us have faith that right makes might; and in that faith, let us, to the end, dare to do our duty, as we understand it.” - Abraham Lincoln

Photo: KarenRN

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