There are many things totally wrong with Justice Kavanaugh's concurrence in the Wisconsin case yesterday, but this one piece takes the cake. Kavanaugh writes: "those States also want to be able to definitively announce the results of the election on election night, /1
or as soon as possible thereafter." Let's be clear -- there are ZERO states that definitively announce the results of the election on election night. ZERO. The results announced on election night are all partial returns since EVERY state, tallies absentee ballots and /2
provisional ballots in the days after an election. When an election winner is "announced" on election night it is a projection announced (ironically enough) by the media based on partial returns, percentage reporting, and exit polling. It is NEVER the official result /3
which ALWAYS trails by days (and in cases of a close contest and a recount, weeks). For Kavanaugh to extol election day certainty as a value that a State may adopt to justify its decision to reject post-election day absentee ballots is /4
just factually in error. NO STATE has ever done that because no state can possibly announce an official result on election night. And as a political statement, it is mendacious clap-trap. /fin
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Your periodic reminder that there are so very many reasons to vote against Trump. Today's version -- for purely personal reasons I was doing some looking around on the National Park Service for information about Glacier Bay National Park. I happened to wander over to /1
the web page that would have information about how and if the glaciers are melting -- nps.gov/glac/learn/nat…) and when you go there, all the data is missing. Though the thumb nail below shows a glacier /2
if you click through on the link to the actual page there is only a picture of a skunk and the phrase "well that stinks" and "we can't find the page." Trump is deleting science. There are lots of other more important reasons to think he is terrible, but just a reminder of /3
Four years ago, when the US gave up its contractual control of the DNS system, I thought it was unwise. My reasoning was simple -- I thought that the US govt had stood as a bulwark against authoritarian influence on the network since it was created and that continued US /1
influence as a protector of network freedom would be a net benefit to the world. Critical to that assessment was my belief that no USG would ever support an effort to severely restrain freedom of expression on the network. There were exceptions to this general rule /2
of course, like the dot xxx fiasco, but as a general proposition I thought it was well-supported.
I was wrong. Today the USG actually moved to control the content that US citizens can put on their phones, purporting to ban WeChat and TikTok. Besides being utterly /3
How bad a president is @RealDonaldTrump? Let me count the ways:
1.#DerangedDonald: Thinks windmills cause cancer
2.Thinks nuclear bombs stop hurricanes
3.Still thinks the hurricane is going to Alabama
4.Thinks UV light and bleach stop C29
5.Thinks QAnon followers are OK
6.Person, Woman, Man, Camera, TV
7.#TrumpsNotWell: Can’t walk down a ramp
8.Needs two hands to drink water
9.Slurs his words
10.Won’t release his medical records
11. #PutinsPuppet: Took Putin’s word in Helskinki over the ICs
12.Shared Israelis secrets with Russia 13.Is taking troops out of Germany
14.Won’t support democracy in Belarus
15.50+ days an no response to Russian bounties on US soldiers
Barr lied. It is that simple. Yesterday he said that Berman had resigned. That was not true.
This is not, of course, the first time that Barr has proven to be a stone cold liar. He lied about the contents of the Mueller report. /1
But the question is why? And the answer lies at the intersection of the effort to fire Berman (now, apparently, approved by the President -- though maybe Barr is lying about that too) and the firing of Jessie Liu. /2
By firing Liu, Barr and his henchmen took control of the DC US Atty's Office. With that control they intervened politically in the sentencing of Roger Stone, and now in an effort to dismiss the case against Flynn. This is how an authoritarian works to subvert justice. /3
Congress cannot, directly, prohibit the President from firing Inspectors General -- though it could at some point amend the IG Act to allow the IGs to contest their dismissal as pretextual in court. But that would take a new law that won't pass anytime soon. So what to do now?/1
In the forthcoming Covid-19 bill, Congress could consider any number of ways to condition aid on the President's actions. Here's one draft possibility: "Provided, however, that no funds authorized or appropriated under this Act may be obligated or disbursed on any day /2
on or after the date on which the President exercises his authority under [cite to IG Act] in dismissing any Inspector General." I can think of other formulations, but that is a start.
One further point: To drive this home, Congress would need to explicitly declare /3