Personal account for award winning political columnist, radio host, internet lawyer and native Rhode Islander. See @InternetLawCent for legal tweets.
Nov 18, 2022 • 7 tweets • 4 min read
1/ The Qatari Royal Family has stepped in to ban beer sales at stadiums during the #FIFAWorldCupQatar2022, creating a big conflict for FIFA with sponsor Budweiser. /www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/sportsnews/article-11442203/Qatar-want-alcohol-sales-World-Cup-stadiums-BANNED.html
2/ Qatar is also warning that female fans who dress immodestly could be arrested. #FIFAWorldCupQatar2022wionews.com/sports/wait-wh…
Nov 17, 2022 • 8 tweets • 8 min read
1/ 2021 - Glen Youngkin gets elected Governor of Virginia running on critical race theory. #GlennYoungkin#CRT#Virginia2/ On his first day in office, Youngkin signs an executive order banning the teaching of #CRT in #Virginia and sets up a hotline for parents to report it. #GovernorVA#Virginia
Nov 8, 2022 • 11 tweets • 8 min read
1/So the lead promise in the GOP's "Commitment to (Screw) America" is "Fight Inflation and Lower the Cost of Living", in which they seek to blame Biden for inflation but have no plan of their own. #VoteBlue2022#inflationsltrib.com/opinion/commen…
2/That's right - no plan. "A party that talks about a single problem so relentlessly must have a solution to offer. So the Republicans must be out on the hustings offering chapter and verse about their answer to inflation, right? Alas, no." #VoteBlue2022latimes.com/business/story…
Nov 6, 2022 • 9 tweets • 7 min read
1/ What an amazing win for #LAFC in the #MLSCup in what may have been the greatest MLS Cup ever. Per MLS: We're confident in saying this was the greatest MLS Cup – if not the greatest game – the league has ever seen. mlssoccer.com/news/best-mls-…2/ LA Times: #LAFC’s first championship comes in greatest MLS Cup final. “It was like a Halloween movie,” Vela said, “and then we finished with a Hollywood movie.” #MLSCuplatimes.com/sports/soccer/…
Nov 5, 2022 • 6 tweets • 3 min read
1/On this day, #JimmyCarter was defeated by Ronald Reagan on the one-year anniversary of the hostage crisis. His Presidency deserves reevaluation and if today's Republicans had 1 percent of his decency, the world would be a better place. bennetkelley.wordpress.com/2015/08/22/the…
2/The latest historian Presidential rankings list him as #40 in a key category - luck. He had to deal with inflation caused by the end of Nixon's price controls and two oil shocks - the OPEC embargo and the Iranian revolution.
Sep 6, 2022 • 11 tweets • 7 min read
1/ As we celebrate #LaborDay an often overlooked facet is the history of the Labor movement and how workers seeking better pay and conditions often were met with fatal force, extradition or arrest. 2/ This includes the #GreatRailroadStrike of 1877 in which the National Guard and federal troops were used to suppress the strike and fired into crowds with an estimated 100 deaths nationwide. #LaborDay
Jun 27, 2022 • 17 tweets • 11 min read
1/ My starting point for #SupremeCourt jurisprudence since 2000 is a telling quote from Joel Klein's "The Natural" in which a Republican Senator concedes to Clinton that Republicans don't believe in government, but they love power.
2/2000: #BushvGore, the Supreme Court stays the Florida recount with any opinion justifying the stay and then reverses the Fla. Supreme Court recount order as violating the Equal Protection Clause in a per curiam opinion that can't be cited as precedent.
Jun 15, 2022 • 13 tweets • 14 min read
1/Tonight, for the 17th time in the last 50 years, the #StanleyCup champion returns to defend their crown. This time, the #TBLightning are going for that rare feat - a three-peat and #dynasty status.
2/Three-peats and dynasties themselves are relatively rare. Below is a tour of the dynasties from the last 50 years starting with the 1974 Oakland #Athletics completing a three-peat with a 4-1 win over the #Dodgers with this home run.
Dec 1, 2020 • 9 tweets • 9 min read
1/ #GivingTuesday#COVID19 Thread
The global pandemic has been devastating and we can help on Giving Tuesday. One way to help is to give to a COVID charity that is giving grants to an array of communities impacted - such as #GlobalGiving.
1/ A conservative friend of mine argued at various times and in different contexts (including racial preferences or affirmative action), that slavery ended in 1865, he had nothing to do with it, so why don't African-Americans "just get over it." #RaceMatters2/ Yes, slavery ended in 1865 and while it contributed greatly to the wealth of white America, African-Americans were given nothing in return as the government reneged on its promise of 40 acres and a mule after the end of the Civil War. #RaceMatterspbs.org/wnet/african-a…
DC #MayorBowser is invoking the 3rd Amendment to force out of state Natl Guard troops to leave the city. It is most obscure of Bill of Rights and only one never considered by Supreme Court. Only one appeals case and it found NG troops are soldiers. #3rdAmendment
The absence of any case law directly construing this provision presents a serious interpretive problem and little illumination can be gleaned from the debates of the Constitutional Convention. Engblom v. Carey, 677 F.2d 957 (2d Cir. 1982). #dc#3rdAmendment
Jan 31, 2020 • 9 tweets • 6 min read
1/ @SenToomey , it is hard to believe that is has been nearly 40 years since you and I made our first trip to Washington as part of #CloseUp_DC in February 1980, where for a week we would see Washington from the inside. 2/ @SenToomey, on our first night, the keynote address was given by former Congressman Brook Hays (D-AR), who lost his seat in Congress because he chose the right side of history in the battle over integrating Little Rock's Central High School. washingtonpost.com/archive/politi…
Jan 28, 2020 • 12 tweets • 8 min read
Just to recap and circulate at a more visible time, early this morning I circulate a few threads making the case AGAINST #BernieSanders who is Trump's and the Republicans' Dream Candidate.
Thread #1: He is a #ZEALOT who gets nothing done and is #UNELECTABLE. #BernieSanders
1/ With the #IowaCaucus just days away, I am going to use a series of threads to make the case AGAINST #BernieSanders. PART 7: Bernie is no progressive saint. 2/ While BernieLama cultist claim #BernieSanders has always fought the good fight from the 1960's on, the reality is Bernie has always been about Bernie and did not even bother to vote until it was about Bernie.
1/ With the #IowaCaucus just days away, I am going to use a series of threads to make the case AGAINST #BernieSanders. PART 5: Bernie is a hypocrite and criticizes others when he has taken the same positions.
1/ With the #IowaCaucus just days away, I am going to use a series of threads to make the case AGAINST #BernieSanders who is Trump's and the Republicans' Dream Candidate. PART 1: He is a #ZEALOT who gets nothing done and is #UNELECTABLE. 2/ The #NYTimes dismissed #BernieSanders and his my way alone approach. "Three years into the Trump administration, we see little advantage to exchanging one over-promising, divisive figure in Washington for another."
Oct 30, 2019 • 5 tweets • 4 min read
1/5 My very first op-ed was to denounce Cardinal Medeiros for suggesting that Catholics had to vote for Reagan in 1980. Since then I have repeatedly denounced the Church's political myopia on abortion and communion rail politics. #JoeBiden#Communion2/5 In 2004, I jokingly threatened a Million Altar Boy March on Washington. Altar boys could protest by refusing to extend the communion plate to right-wing politicians or handing out “rate cards” for obtaining marriage annulments. bennetkelley.wordpress.com/2004/06/23/alt…#JoeBiden#Communion
Sep 13, 2019 • 15 tweets • 11 min read
1/15 This race reminds me of the rule in boxing, a split decision goes to the champ. That's how Biden has stayed on top, plus he's authentic both in screw ups and in sincere moments such as talking about the loss of his wife/kids. #ABCDemDebate#joebidenbeta.washingtonpost.com/politics/biden…2/ Elizabeth Warren's strength is her wonky, thoughtful "I'm not a typical Washington politician" and "I have a plan for that". Dodging the tax question makes her a typical Washington politician. #ewarren#ABCDemDebate#taxestheatlantic.com/politics/archi…
Sep 4, 2019 • 20 tweets • 11 min read
1/20 September 4, 1781 is the official date for the "founding" of El Pueblo de la Reina de los Angeles" ("The Town of the Queen of the Angels") by Spanish settlers - its second settlement in California. Below are some events that shaped this great city. #LosAngeles2/ With Mexico gaining independence from Spain, Los Angeles became the capital of Alta California, bringing in many immigrants, including Frenchman Jean-Louis Vignes in 1831 who started a vineyard and built LA into a wine powerhouse. #LosAngelesatlasobscura.com/articles/histo…
Aug 7, 2019 • 5 tweets • 4 min read
1/5 In my lifetime, I can recall numerous times when a President has stepped forward not as head of the executive branch or to propose legislation, but as our healer and comforter-in-chief to bring together and reassure a weary nation. #healerinchief