Well, this has been a pretty busy week in political news, and while I'm out to dinner with my family tonight, I thought I'd share some tidbits of news that may have slipped through the national consciousness.
Yes, it is a cult and the “Appeal to Heaven” flag is a secret handshake.
new york Times report On Wednesday, Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito “Appeal to Heaven” Flag At his New Jersey beach house. The flag has close ties to far-right Christian nationalists and the insurrectionists who stormed the Capitol on January 6th and raises serious questions about Alito's ability to govern impartially. The conservative Supreme Court of which Justice Alito is a member is largely the product of right-wing dark money tycoon Leonard Leo, who, as we all know, flies the same “Appeal to Heaven” flag outside his home in Maine.
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Annie Laurie Gaylor, co-president of the Freedom From Religion Foundation, which has filed several complaints about the “Appeal to Heaven” flag flown outside government buildings in recent years, said the flag was “adopted to clearly express a Christian nationalist view … its meaning is very clear to those who fly it.”
Threatened on Alito Street?
Emily Burden said she never planned to run against Alito and his wife, Martha Ann, her powerful neighbors who live on the same suburban cul-de-sac outside Washington, D.C.
Then the big black cars of the Alitos family security started parking in front of her mother's house instead of theirs, and Baden realized the perils of being an ordinary citizen going up against one of the most powerful men in the country.
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To be honest, I'm not sure I believe this whole story. I mean, if this is a cul-de-sac, where else are they supposed to park if Alito's security guards want to keep all the entrances and hallways to the house within their sight? But there's also this story:
Baden's husband, who did not want to be named, said he also remembers seeing a large black security SUV parked in the parking lot.In front of their houseMost memorably, Martha Ann Alito confronted the couple in February 2021, saying that Burden Use abusive language To the judge's wife.
“Shortly afterwards, a security vehicle drove up in front of our house and remained there for the rest of the night,” he recalled.
Further background:
Alito was further infuriated when, on January 6, Baden put up signs that read “Trump is a Fascist” and “You are Complicit.” Baden said the latter was meant to condemn all Trump supporters, and not to send a message to Alito, who could not see it from his home.
The next day, Baden said, Martha Ann Alito pulled up in front of her house in her car and glared at her and her partner, now her husband. Security guards also began parking outside the house around the same time…
The next cover of Time magazine:
New Yorker cover:
Hillary Clinton is right, as always.
“This election is an existential crisis, which means that if we don't get it right in this country, we may never have real elections again, and I say that because I believe that,” she said. “And if we never have real elections again, we're going to be dominated by a small number of right-wingers who are well-organized, well-funded and have achieved exactly what they want in terms of turning back the clock on women.”
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“Authoritarians, whether they're political or religious, attack women all the time. It's a part of history. And that's what happens in this country,” Clinton said.
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“More people need to wake up because this is just the beginning,” she said. “They really want us to shut up and go home. That's their goal. And no one should ever be fooled. If they have the chance, they will force us to do it.”. “
Adam Serwer on the real reason Trump is angry:
Even if the justices reject Trump's absurd legal theory, their dithering could prevent a trial from taking place before November. This game played by the justices on behalf of the party that appointed them is far more like a corrupt or rigged process than a trial by a jury of their peers. And that's the problem: Standing in a Manhattan courtroom before 12 ordinary Americans, Trump could not count on the right-wing legal elite to tilt the case in his favor. Trump is angry not because the Manhattan trial that convicted him was rigged, but because it wasn't rigged.
Consider for a moment the utter failure of Republican elites to repeatedly hold Trump accountable. Trump has been impeached twice by Congress for meddling in US elections, first in 2016. Threatening foreign governments making false accusations of criminalizing political rivals; And once tried to maintain power by In both cases, Republican senators spared Trump from punishment by acquitting him: fraudulent schemes and violence.
Is it because they are afraid of Trump and his supporters, or because they agree with his views? The results are the same for authoritarian projects. The leader of the Republican Party is a convicted criminal who despises democracy and wants to seize power to stay out of prison. The Republican Party has only itself to blame for this outcome.
Have a wonderful evening everyone!
