News bits: New nuclear reactor design gets approval, etc.

Nuclear reactor design approved: The AP reports that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has certified the design for what will be the first small modular nuclear reactor in the US. This is a big deal. The US desperately needs to get away from carbon energy as fast as possible. Doing that will require a lot of non-intermittent power generation unless battery technology makes a vast advance real soon. That’s unlikely. For right now, nuclear power is probably the best option we have for generating a lot of clean power to supplement intermittent solar and wind power. The AP writes:

The rule that certifies the design was published Thursday in the Federal Register. It means that companies seeking to build and operate a nuclear power plant can pick the design for a 50-megawatt [about 37,500 homes], advanced light-water small modular nuclear reactor by Oregon-based NuScale Power and apply to the NRC for a license.

It’s the final determination that the design is acceptable for use, so it can’t be legally challenged during the licensing process when someone applies to build and operate a nuclear power plant, NRC spokesperson Scott Burnell said Friday. The rule becomes effective in late February.

This is really good news. We need hundreds of these little reactors.

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Rut roh! Biden really screwed the pooch this time: After a 13-hour search of Biden’s home in Delaware, DoJ investigators found another batch of classified US government documents. The NYT writes:

Investigators for the Justice Department on Friday seized more than a half-dozen documents, some of them classified, at President Biden’s residence in Wilmington, Del., after conducting a 13-hour search of the home, the president’s personal lawyer said Saturday evening.

The remarkable search of a sitting president’s home by federal agents — at the invitation of Mr. Biden’s lawyers — dramatically escalated the legal and political situation for the president, the latest in a series of discoveries that has already led to a special counsel investigation. 

During Friday’s search, six more items with classified markings — including some documents from his time as a senator and others from his time as vice president — were taken by investigators, along with surrounding materials, according to the statement from Bob Bauer, Mr. Biden’s attorney.

Jeez, what a mess. One can just feel Faux News firing up its sanctimonious outrage machine.

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Exemptions in anti-abortion laws are not being granted: One of the things that I greatly fear from radical right Christian nationalism is how it deals with the rule of law. In my opinion, it is often biased and/or incoherent. Therein lies the power of government to discriminate. The NYT writes:

Last summer, a Mississippi woman sought an abortion after, she said, a friend had raped her. Her state prohibits most abortions but allows them for rape victims. Yet she could not find a doctor to provide one.

In September, an Indiana woman learned that a fetal defect meant her baby would die shortly after birth, if not sooner. Her state’s abortion ban included an exception for such cases, but she was referred to Illinois or Michigan.

An Ohio woman carrying triplets faced a high risk of dangerous complications, including delivering too early. When she tried to get an abortion in September through Ohio’s exception for patients with a medical need, she was turned away. 

In the months since the court’s decision, very few exceptions to these new abortion bans have been granted, a New York Times review of available state data and interviews with dozens of physicians, advocates and lawmakers revealed.

The NYT article goes on to point out that women with money are travelling out of states that have abortion exemptions because the requirements to qualify are difficult and unpredictable. On top of that, doctors and hospitals turn away patients, because laws are ambiguous and they face of threat of criminal penalty for making a mistake in applying an exemption. 

So, even when a law looks neutral, how it is written and/or implemented can be highly discriminatory. In my opinion, this is the kind of result that Christian nationalist elites want. To them, the rule of law is God-given for them to apply as they see fit. That is theocracy, not democracy.

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Blowback against the Supreme Court investigation of who leaked the Dobbs anti-abortion decision intensifies: The NYT writes:

The investigation was an attempt by Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. to right the institution and its image after a grievous breach and slide in public trust. Instead, it may have lowered confidence inside the court and out. 

While noting that 97 workers had been formally interviewed, the report did not say whether the justices or their spouses had been. .... Public reaction was scathing: “Not even a sentence explaining why they were or weren’t questioned,” tweeted Sean Davis, co-founder of The Federalist, a conservative magazine.

A day later, the court was forced to issue a second statement saying that the marshal had in fact conferred with the justices, but on very different terms from others at the institution. Lower-level employees had been formally interrogated, recorded, pressed to sign affidavits denying any involvement and warned that they could lose their jobs if they failed to answer questions fully, according to interviews and the report.

In contrast, conversations with the justices had been a two-way “iterative process” in which they asked as well as answered questions, the marshal, Gail A. Curley, wrote. She had seen no need for them to sign affidavits, she said.

But Chief Justice Roberts was a staunch defender of the court’s independence, reluctant to let outsiders interfere. “The Judiciary’s power to manage its internal affairs,” he had written months before, “insulates courts from inappropriate political influence and is crucial to preserving public trust in its work as a separate and co-equal branch of government.”

Once again, the court is blind to the fact that the six Republicans on the bench are seem by many Americans, maybe most, as political partisans. One can imagine that many or most Republicans believe that the three Democrats on the court are political partisans too. In general, some polling indicates that much or most of the public is distrustful. 

Roberts cannot or will not see that the unwarranted secrecy he believes insulates the court allows the public to believe that Republican judges are political partisans working for the Republican Party. Supreme Court secrecy can cut two ways. It can make the court less susceptible to outside political influence or it can make it more susceptible to hidden inside political influence.

News bits: About the Supreme Court leak investigation, etc.

First bit context

Everything degenerates, even the administration of justice, nothing is safe that does not show it can bear discussion and publicity. .... Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. -- Lord Acton, 1834-1902

Power cloaked in unwarranted opacity, tends to accelerate, harden and deepen corruption. The Supreme Court has an awful lot of power and it is awfully opaque. That opacity can hide an awful lot of corruption, including partisan politics. Hidden corruption in government deceives and betrays the public. -- Germaine, 2021 

Our thesis may be simply stated: basic democratic theory requires that there be knowledge not only of who governs but of how policy decisions are made. .... We maintain that the secrecy which pervades Congress, the executive branch and courts is itself the enemy. .... For all we know, the justices engage in some sort of latter-day intellectual haruspication[1], followed by the assignment of someone to write an opinion to explain, justify or rationalize the decision so reached. .... That the opinion(s) cannot be fully persuasive, or at times even partially so, is a matter of common knowledge among those who make their living following Court proclamations. -- A.S. Miller and D.S. Sastry, Secrecy and the Supreme Court: On the Need for Piercing the Red Velour Curtain, 1973

The investigation told us nothing, and that plus the totality of circumstances leaves plenty of room for rational cynicism: A couple of points are worth mentioning about the internal investigation into the leaked draft Dobbs anti-abortion decision of last year. First, the Republican court put Michael Chertoff in charge of the investigation. Chertoff is a longtime loyal Republican elite who worked as Homeland Secretary under George Bush. For some people, that leaves him with no credibility, for others it bolsters his credibility, while others have no idea of who he is and/or don’t care. For some, the investigation’s credibility will reflect their trust in the court and/or Chertoff.

Second, the final report claims that al though the investigation was thorough, the investigators were unable find a “preponderance of evidence” for anyone who might have leaked the draft.  The preponderance of evidence standard is the lowest level the law recognizes as needed to establish liability for any law breaking. In common language, it literally means more likely than not, or any amount over 50% likelihood. One interpretation of that is that internal court operations are rather sloppy. 

Two court watchers speculated that the investigation did not even talk under oath to any of the justices themselves. They just pleasantly chatted off the record. That feels probably right to me. The boundless smug arrogance and utter unwillingness of Supreme Court judges to even think about any significant public transparency or accountability has been well-known for decades. For decades, the court has refused to allow cameras at oral arguments. For centuries, the court has refused to allow one glimpse of the inner workings of its decision-making process. The Supreme Court is just an arrogant beast that puts out decisions is strict secrecy. 

On rare occasions when anyone has the guts to actually ask a Supreme Court judge why all the secrecy, the answer always has been and still is, more or less, “the secrecy is needed for obvious reasons.” Of course that assumes the judge will answer the question. Usually they won’t answer because they know there is no rational answer. The secrecy is in place to hide the judge’s partisanship and party loyalty, prejudices, incompetence, conflicts of interest, irrationality, authoritarianism, sympathy for corruption, treason, etc.

Finally, the first sentence of the investigation report flatly stated that the leak of the draft Dobbs anti-abortion birth decision, which now underpins forced-birth laws in red states, constitutes one of the greatest breaches of trust in Supreme Court history. Think about that for a moment. What trust was breached? How was it breached? By letting the public get a glimpse of the court’s reasoning in a draft opinion, the public got to see something that it us usually prevented from seeing. The justices would answer those questions about any allegedly breached trust with a dismissive the secrecy is needed for obvious reasons. 

Pardon my French, but what a bunch of fucking lies from a bunch of fucking arrogant, lying jackasses. In my opinion, lying jackass justice Sam Alito leaked the draft pro-theocracy Dobbs decision, just like he leaked his 2014 pro-theocracy Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Store decision. If he didn’t, I put the burden of proof on him to show his innocence. Of course with his vast imperial arrogance, he would never deign to even listen to the allegation. So, my opinion will remain safely unrebutted forever.

At least, that’s how I analyze it. (Woof! Sounds like someone was in a snit! Cool your jets there dude!)

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The endless legal morass that is Trumplandia: What an awful mess of blither, lies, slanders and enough crackpottery to make QAnon flinch (briefly) before posting it or Faux News flinch (briefly) before “reporting” on the horrors and persecutions that poor Trump was suffering under. Two days ago, a judge finally blew up. The judge whacked scumbag Trump and his scumbag lawyer for filing a frivolous lawsuit against Hillary and a slew of other people. The judge imposed $937,989.39 in liability against Trump and Alina Habba, his lead attorney. Clinton's share of those legal fees will be $171,631.

Yesterday, Trump withdrew an other lies and crackpottery lawsuit he had filed against NY AG Letitia James. James was suing Trump for $250 million in a fraud lawsuit against his New York-based real-estate empire, the Trump Organization. The same judge was handling both cases. The judge had already warned Trump that his lawsuit against James “had all the telltale signs of being both vexatious and frivolous.” 

Vexatious and frivolous? That’s an understatement to say the least. Trumplandia is a hellscape. 

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From the Aw Crud, Rut Roh! Files: Playing Russian Roulette with climate change and our lives: Accidental discoveries about a massive glacier in the Antarctic is sending out waves of intense creepiness and mounting fear. The NYT writes about a series of accidental discoveries that are deeply worrying. Now the possibility is at least 15 feet of sea level rise. This could happen in an unknown time period from a massive glacier that was believed to be stable but isn’t. 

The article is long and complicated, but the upshot is that scientists are now scrambling to get research ships and remote controlled submarine instrument vessels sent to the site as soon as possible. The glacier in now play for sea level rise is called the Denman Glacier. Not only is it gigantic, it acts as a cork to keep much larger glaciers from being exposed to sea water than has just been discovered to be much warmer than was previously believed. 

The initial accidental discovery was when a big elephant seal with instruments attached to it traveled to Denman Glacier in 2011. Elephant seals were not believed to go there. The data the instruments sent back was scary, i.e., the water was too warm, but scientists overlooked it and the data was ignored. Then another accident occurred when a remote controlled submarine instrument vessel got taken off course by water currents and it wound up at Denman in 2020. It sent back very scary data. The water was way too warm compared to what it was believed to be. Scientists went back to the data from the seal in 2011 and confirmed that warm water (slightly below freezing, which is way too warm for that area) had reached Denman.

Now, everybody is frantically planning trips to Denman. Research ships from Australia and Germany are now planned to get to Denman in 2024. The NYT article concludes with this:

One of the most disconcerting things about climate change is that what we do not know may hurt us the most. When it comes to Denman, said Van Wijk, “we probably know more about parts of the moon.” It is thanks in part to good fortune that we know as much as we do. We have had news from a seal and a robot, but it looks like it is time to send in the humans.

What the hell else is there we still do not know about?

This being a site about politics, this has to be said: The pro-pollution, pro-climate change, anti-climate science Republican Party and businesses that profit from polluting and climate change are playing Russian Roulette with our lives, our standard of living and modern civilization. Climate change is deadly serious business, but the polluters lie about it, downplay it, deny it, slander the scientists, lie about the science and do whatever they can to maintain a profitable but dangerous and unsustainable status quo. This is far beyond unacceptable. 

This is not democracy. This is fascism. 

News bits: Supreme Court investigation fizzles out, etc.

From the Blithering Nonsense Files: The Supreme Court has released results of its investigation into who leaked the draft opinion that obliterated the right to an abortion (Dobbs). The culprit? They don’t know who done it. It’s an unsolvable mystery if one believes the results. Here’s the whole 28 page shebang, or maybe it’s better called a shefizzle. Foschizzle?

The first sentence of the report reads: In May 2022, this Court suffered one of the worst breaches of trust in its history: the leak of a draft opinion. The legal community seems to be somewhat skeptical, to say the least. Top peanut gallery commentary includes these delightful gems:

It hasn't identified them because it doesn't want to, because they know precisely who did it. (60 upvotes)

Liberal judges are ethical. Conservative justices aren’t. It was Alito or Thomas - the two most unprincipled justices on the bench. (11 upvotes)

So, Alito then. (173 upvotes)

Translation: It was obviously someone in the circle of one of the Republican Justices, and therefore we will end the investigation rather than pursue it to the ends of the earth as we would if we believed it was someone connected to one of the liberal Justices. Roberts is such a contemptible pussy. (125 upvotes) 

[Quoting the report and referring to the leaked draft opinion] one of the worst breaches of trust in its history. My trust was breached when a half drunk rapist went to a job interview and cried while bearing his teeth about a Clinton conspiracy and revenge and still got the fucking job. (58 upvotes)

Dang, I think the legal community is in some sort of snit about this. A contemptible pussy? My goodness gracious.

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From the Snowball in Hell Files: House Democrats have introduced a bill to overturn the 2010 Supreme Court ruling in Citizens United v. FEC, which eliminated restrictions on corporate, nonprofit and union campaign spending. The chances of that becoming law? This:

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From the Anti-Woke Laws Files: Once again, Florida leads the way in radical right anti-wokeness. The NYT writes:

Florida Rejects A.P. African American Studies Class

The state’s Department of Education said in a letter that the course content was “inexplicably contrary to Florida law and significantly lacks educational value”

Florida will not allow a new Advanced Placement course on African American studies to be offered in its high schools, stating that the course is not “historically accurate” and violates state law.  

Last year, a federal judge blocked part of the Stop WOKE Act — officially named the Individual Freedoms Act — that would have regulated workplace trainings on issues such as race and diversity. But the law still applies to public schools. So does another 2022 law, the Parental Rights in Education Act, which critics call “Don’t Say Gay,” that among other things bans instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity in kindergarten through third grade.

By golly, public school children in Florida are not going to be woke. And, they also won’t be aware of some chunks of American history, mostly inconvenient chunks. This anti-woke thing seems to be expanding. 

Supreme Court update: Bigoted Christian nationalism is poised to strike secularism down

The Supreme Court has agreed to decide a case called Groff v. DeJoy. This one could shove a massive stake through the heart of secular society and commerce. DeJoy is a Christian who did not like having to work on Sundays for the post office. So he quit his job and sued the post office. He demands a special religious dispensation for Christians who do not want to work on Sundays. Vox writes:

The Supreme Court announced on Friday that it will hear Groff v. DeJoy, a case that could give religious conservatives an unprecedented new ability to dictate how their workplaces operate, and which workplace rules they will refuse to follow.

Yet Groff is also likely to overrule a previous Supreme Court decision that treated the interests of religious employees far more dismissively than federal law suggests that these workers should be treated.

The case, in other words, presents genuinely tricky questions about the limits of accommodating an employee’s religious beliefs. But those questions will be resolved by a Supreme Court that has shown an extraordinary willingness to bend the law in ways that benefit Christian-identified conservatives.

That could lead to a scenario in which the Court announces a new legal rule that disrupts the workplace — and that potentially places far too many burdens on non-religious employees.  

A federal law requires employers to “reasonably accommodate” their workers’ religious beliefs and practices unless doing so would lead to “undue hardship on the conduct of the employer’s business.” But Hardison established that this law does not require employers to “bear more than a de minimis cost” when it provides religious accommodations (the Latin phrase “de minimis” refers to a burden that is so small or trifling as to be unworthy of consideration).

One question is why should a person’s religion make any difference at all? Why treat religious believers better than the rest of us? What is wrong with equal treatment? One could argue that atheists should be entitled to every benefit that Christians are entitled to, but that is a huge loser for atheists and the non-religious community. Christians would be delighted to discriminate atheists and non-believers right out of their jobs in return for a few Christians maybe occasionally facing the same. Among the non-believers, I do not sense anywhere near the same bigotry, hostility and intolerance against believers that Christian nationalists hold toward non-believers.

There are damn good reasons to defend secularism and resist the greedy, morally bankrupt American Christofascist theocratic movement. That movement undeniably intends to elevate religious freedom above all others. Then they will use that advantage to cut down whoever or whatever stands in the way of full blown American Christian Sharia law run by an intolerant, bigoted White male-dominated Christian Taliban. 

Once the Republican Christofascist Supreme Court guts secular protections, the bigotry, racism, intolerance and hate can come gushing out and enjoy legal protection. Targeted groups prominently include women, racial and ethnic minorities, the LGBQT community and atheists, agnostics and non-Christians. Those deemed unworthy will feel the sanctimonious wrath of an enraged Old Testament God. Bigoted, wealthy White heterosexual men (the Christian Taliban) are going to have some of the best times in human history that morally rotted, empowered wealthy men could possibly have. America under Christian Sharia and the Christian Taliban will be a hellscape much worse than the hellscape Musk has turned Twitter into.

As usual, what about the Republican rank and file? Do they support this or are neutral, downplay it, deny it is happening, and/or are they just mostly unaware? I bet that ~75% would say they are neutral or support it but it will not be nearly bad as critics like me say it will be and the remaining ~25% would deny it is happening in any significant way. Recent poll data indicates that ~75% of the Republican rank and file support what the current Supreme Court is doing. That data suggests there some non-trivial level of rank and file knowledge and acceptance.

News bits: Old Trump crimes moldering away, etc.

From the too little, too late files:  

Donald Trump’s former lawyer, Michael Cohen, said he met for 2½ hours Tuesday with Manhattan prosecutors who have revived a years-old investigation into payments made to a porn star to keep her quiet about an alleged extramarital tryst.

Cohen said he had been “ordered not to disclose” any of the people present at the meeting or to discuss prosecutors’ area of interest in any detail.

Cohen pleaded guilty in 2018 to federal charges that he violated campaign finance law by arranging payouts to porn actor Stormy Daniels and model Karen McDougal to keep them from going public with claims of extramarital affairs with Trump. Trump has denied the affairs.

The U.S. attorney’s office in Manhattan decided not to prosecute Trump personally over the hush-money payments. The Manhattan district attorney’s office then began investigating the payments to see if any state laws were broken.

No charges were brought against Trump during the tenure of former Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr., who shifted the probe’s focus to the Trump Organization’s business practices. The company was convicted of tax fraud last month and fined $1.6 million. 

After that conviction, Vance’s successor, District Attorney Alvin Bragg, said its Trump investigation was moving to the “next chapter,” but he offered no specifics on where it was headed next.

We all know where the next chapter is heading, i.e., nowhere. That is the same place as the DoJ’s past, next or whatever chapter is going.

Don’t forget. Of Trump’s 56 credibly accused crimes, at least 9 are no longer prosecutable because too much time has passed and the statute of limitations bars prosecution. Trump wins, while democracy, the rule of law and we lose. Again. As usual. 

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Ohio Republicans ramp up anti-election voter restrictions: 

Ohio Republicans quietly enact ‘alarming’ new voting restrictions

Law puts Ohio among states with strictest voter ID rules and will make it harder for elderly people, the disabled and the poor to vote

Ohio Republicans quietly enacted a measure earlier this month that imposes sweeping new restrictions on voting access in the state, including more stringent voter ID requirements, cutting the early voting period and giving voters less time to return their mail-in ballots.

The new law puts Ohio among a handful of states with the strictest voter ID rules in the country. The state had already required voters to show identification at the polls, but allowed an exception for voters who couldn’t produce one, allowing them to present a bank statement, paystub or other document to prove their identity. The new law gets rid of that exception and only allows someone to vote if they provide certain forms of photo ID.

Those new restrictions will make it harder for people who tend to lack identification – elderly people, the disabled and the poor – to vote, voting rights advocates said.

Looks like people who want to vote are going to have to stop messing around and get IDs and do whatever hoops Republican are forcing them to deal with. That is more important for non-Republican voters than for Republican voters. This is what Republican Party fascism looks like.

 

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National Republican groups ramp up anti-election voter restrictions:

Rightwing group pours millions in ‘dark money’ into US voter suppression bid

The advocacy arm of the Heritage Foundation, the powerful conservative thinktank based in Washington, spent more than $5m on lobbying in 2021 as it worked to block federal voting rights legislation and advance an ambitious plan to spread its far-right agenda calling for aggressive voter suppression measures in battleground states. 

The Brennan Center reported that more voter suppression laws were passed in 2021 than in any year since it began monitoring voting legislation more than a decade ago.

The expenditures also signal a dramatic increase in Heritage Action’s advocacy activities. In 2020, Heritage Action had reported no spending at all on outside lobbying.

Heritage Action, whose board includes the Republican mega-donor Rebekah Mercer, is set up as a 501(c)4 under the US tax code which exempts it from paying federal taxes. It operates as a “dark money” group, avoiding disclosing the sources of its total annual revenue of over $18m.

In the past two years the organization through its public messaging has echoed Donald Trump’s lie that US elections are marked by rampant fraud. A private plan prepared by Heritage Action last year set out a two-year, $24m “election integrity” strategy.

This is what Republican Party anti-democracy fascism looks like. This Republican Party voter suppression and election subversion effort called “election integrity” is not going to go away. Anyone who believes otherwise is sorely mistaken, just as is anyone how sees little or no significant threat to democracy, civil liberties, secularism, truth and the secular rule of law.

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From the I'll be baaack files -- Poll indicates that the ex-pres still has major support in the GOP: 

The Hill writes: A Morning Consult poll released Wednesday showed Trump with 48 percent support among potential Republican primary voters, followed by DeSantis with 31 percent. .... DeSantis has an advantage among potential voters who view each of them unfavorably. Only 11 percent said they view DeSantis unfavorably, while 23 percent said they view Trump unfavorably.

JUST FOR FUN

 To loyal followers of this forum, let's have some fun, shall we?

What's the difference between God and a Republican? God knows He's not a Republican.

The Republicans are the party that says government doesn't work and then gets elected and proves it.

Q: How many Republicans does it take to change a light bulb? A: Three. One to hire a Mexican guy and two to deport him when he's done.

What do Republicans and porn stars have in common? They are experts in switching positions in front of a camera.

If ignorance is bliss, why aren’t there more more happy Republicans?

Q: Why do Republicans avoid living on the West Coast? A: They're scared to live that close to the edge of the Earth.

What is the difference between a Republican ass-kisser and a brown-noser? Depth perception.

Funeral: A Republican died and a friend went around collecting for a fund for his funeral. A woman was asked to donate ten dollars. "Ten dollars?" she said. "It only takes ten dollars to bury a Republican? Here's a hundred - go bury 10 of them!"

Genie: A Conservative found a magic genie's lamp and rubbed it. The genie said, "I will grant you one wish." He said, "I wish I were smarter". So the genie made him a Liberal.

Q: Why did the Republican cross the road? A: There was a black guy on the first side.

OK OK, thanks for the applause.........

NOW I leave it up to you to post your own jokes.