Tomorrow USA

NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani gave a marvelous speech to mark the holiday.

There had been some recent reporting, accurate or not, about the retirement of Justice Samuel Alito from the US Supreme Court.

That has led to speculation about who Trump might appoint to replace him. The names that have popped up make Alito look like Earl Warren or Thurgood Marshall.

I added bold type to the names of potential Trump appointees to SCOTUS.

It’s tough to imagine a Supreme Court with justices worse than the current crop of conservatives, but the folks who are currently vying to replace whichever justice steps down first are definitively, openly, gleefully much more terrible.  [ ... ] Judge James Ho is arguably the worst judge on the worst federal appeals court, the Fifth Circuit. Ho has genuinely lost the plot, arguing that the Supreme Court is not there to “check the excesses of other branches.” Perhaps being a fancy federal appeals judge and a former clerk to Justice Thomas rots your brain and sense of civic duty, because being a check on the excesses of other branches is kind of the whole job description for the Supreme Court. [ ... ] Another Trump appointee to the Fifth Circuit, Andrew Oldham, is also busy treating his current position as a way to show Trump that he has no intention of ever ruling against him. According to Judge Oldham, a former Alito clerk, if Trump declares that there is a terrible invasion by Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, no court can ever review it, and Trump can therefore deport all Venezuelan citizens.  [ ... ] Judge Neomi Rao has made sure to let her colleagues know how incandescently angry she was when they didn’t treat a Supreme Court shadow docket ruling as a permission slip for Trump to fire whoever he wants.  There’s also Gregory Katsas, who believes that courts cannot impose any consequences on Trump or the executive branch. [ ... ] Over in the Second Circuit, Judge Steven Menashi is showing what a loyal justice he would be by haranguing his colleagues about Trump’s attempt to throw out the jury verdict finding him liable for sexually abusing E. Jean Carroll. Katsas whined about how unfair the lower court was in not letting Trump provide evidence that he believed her lawsuit was “concocted by his political opposition” and therefore he could not have defamed her. [ ... ] Emil Bove, formerly one of many personal attorneys who represented Trump in criminal cases, was rewarded for his efforts with an appointment to the Third Circuit Court of Appeals. You would think that normally, being the subject of multiple whistleblower complaints about refusing to follow court orders would be a bit of a hindrance to a lifetime seat, but for Trump, Bove’s actions were a feature, not a bug.  And then there’s U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon. Cannon’s efforts at protecting Trump from any criminal consequences are truly unparalleled. She didn’t just throw out the criminal case over Trump’s retention of top secret documents after he left office, documents which he stashed in a bathroom at Mar-a-Lago. She also came up with a very … unique theory that former Special Counsel Jack Smith could never release the report of his investigation and that even writing up the investigation was somehow illegal.

Those people shouldn't be on the federal bench in the first place. They probably shouldn't even have been accepted at law school.

They are federal judges because the Republican-controlled Senate in 2017-2021 and 2025-2026 confirmed these Trump lickspittles.

If for no other reason, we need to flip the Senate to prevent additional Trump SCOTUS pics from being confirmed.

THIS YEAR'S SENATE BATTLEGROUND STATES:

1] Seats currently held by Republicans...

Texas

Maine

Ohio

Alaska

Iowa

North Carolina

2] Seats currently held by Democrats which need to be shored up...

Michigan

New Hampshire

3] GOP seats which could be vulnerable in a wave election...

Florida

Nebraska

South Carolina

The obsequious Lindsey Graham is only 3 points ahead in a June poll in the South Carolina US Senate race. In a deep red state like SC, an incumbent GOP senator should be way ahead.

^^^ Attendance estimate at Trump's Great American State Fair.

— Maureen Dowd at the New York Times comparing George Washington with Donald Trump.

Of course the biggest contrast between the two would be attitudes towards factuality.

We've touched on this just a few days ago. Thanks to AI, the prices of electronic goods are soaring.

Yes, cheap laptops have become an endangered species. Without the excellent $600 MacBook Neo, they’d be on the precipice of extinction. But halfway through 2026, our hopes that the rising prices would be contained to cheap laptops have been washed away by reality. Today, price increases have come for every tier of the laptop market — and plenty of other consumer tech products, as well. Midrange laptops are priced like premium options from last year. High-end devices are arriving with price tags that are making our eyes water. Game console prices have gone up by hundreds of dollars, too.  Usually price increases are difficult to attribute to a single cause, but that isn’t really the case here. These price hikes are because of AI.  Data-center construction by big AI players and a rush to manufacture the hardware to fill those data centers is creating unprecedented demand and diverting components across the supply chain. Because of that, the parts necessary to build laptops are now more scarce and more expensive. [ ... ] AI companies are building new data centers to grow and improve their products. The processing requirements, or “compute” demands, for AI are increasing by 4.5 times per year, according to the Epoch AI research institute. To meet that demand and keep up with the competition, companies have to build more data centers full of servers, and constructing them requires the same kinds of materials as building any other computer. 

It's bad enough that big tech wants to build monstrosity data centers in your county and drive your electric bills up in the process. But those data centers are also sucking computer chips out of the market causing the prices of electronics to soar. Multi-billionaire tech broligarchs get even more filthy rich at your expense.

Most people want greater regulation of AI.

Voters of both parties want tighter AI regulation, poll finds

Of course Trump is siding with his donors in Big Tech. He doesn't care what you pay for electronics.

How big tech got its way on Trump’s AI executive order

Over this holiday weekend, members of House and Senate will be spending more time back home. If you see your Congress creature at some festivity, demand a moratorium on new data centers and tighter regulation of AI.

^^^ It's a good thing Abe doesn't know what Trump did to his reflecting pool.

When your local reflecting pool or pond turns green with algae, don’t reach for chemicals – nature has better solutions

If you want an alternative to the disaster zone which Trump has created in DC, visit Lincoln's tomb in Springfield, Illinois.

Lincoln's Tomb is not huge and not kitschy – so Trump wouldn't like it. But it is dignified and is open to the public all but seven days a year. And it's even free.

Springfield is also the home of the Old State Capitol where Lincoln gave his 1858 "House Divided" speech. Barack Obama in 2007 announced outside the building that he was running for president.

^^^ When you're a billionaire getting even richer through graft, you don't have to care what regular Americans are going through.

Trump doesn’t have any conflicts of interest. That’s because he really has only one interest: himself. »

— Robert Reich, former Secretary of Labor, on Donald Trump having conflicts of interest. At The Guardian.

Ethics Experts Sound Alarm After Trump Reports Shocking $2.2B Income Driven by $1.4B Crypto Windfall

John Oliver devoted his main focus this week to redistricting. You get an excellent idea of just how irredeemably racist the Republican Party is.

True, Republicans have given themselves a modest advantage this cycle by drawing maps which screw Blacks. But in a wave year, that electoral advantage could be minimized.

Democrats need to flip both chambers of Congress this year to restore balance to the country. Doing that requires two things:

Getting out the vote at the grassroots level by talking with neighbors one at a time. Zohran Mamdani got elected mayor largely because volunteers asked people in the neighborhoods what their main concerns were and then pointed to Mamdani's proposals relating to those concerns. If people agree with 80% of what you say, they are allies – not opponents. Don't make it difficult for people to agree with you.

A unified party is a winning party. Spending more time vilifying other Democrats than defeating MAGA Republicans is a sure way to guarantee GOP control for years to come. And yes, I'm talking about ALL sides involved. Once the primaries are over, it's time to shift the focus to winning the Midterm Elections. Purity is essential with food safety but it is poisonous when building winning coalitions.

Péter Magyar is now prime minister of Hungary because he won despite severe gerrymandering and media manipulation by authoritarian Viktor Orbán. Not only did the Tisza Party win, it even has enough power now to amend Hungary's constitution. This is the result of people to people power. We can learn from the Hungarians.

If we really want change, we need to work hard for it at both the state and federal levels. To push through the reforms suggested by John Oliver near the end of that segment, we need TWO good cycles in a row. While Trump and Capitol Hill Republicans will try to obstruct Democratic majorities in House and Senate in the 120th Congress, we can use their anti-reform obstructions against them in 2028.

^^^ Looking for a quiet place to get away from it all? Try Donald Trump's Great American State Fair at the National Mall.

Another account of Trump's low-energy fair for LOSERS.

I Went to Trump’s Great American State Fair So You Don’t Have To

A child rolled around in the grass, crying and screaming, “I. WANT. TO. GO. HOME!!!” Creed’s “Higher” blared over the loudspeakers, and a sparse crowd milled about the various exhibitions. The bare-bones setup—flimsy, fake two-dimensional columns that looked like something Wile E. Coyote would run into while chasing the Road Runner—left much to be desired, as America’s 250th anniversary was celebrated with kitsch and ennui rather than grandeur and appreciation.  [ ... ] More than anything, the event lacked energy—and people. There wasn’t any line or wait to get in. The vibe was more conference-like than celebratory, and the state exhibits varied wildly in effort and presentation. Utah and Guam had particularly involved setups, while others like South Carolina felt totally sterile. Connecticut and Maine shared a space that looked like the waiting room of a pediatrician’s office, while Hawaii and Alaska didn’t have anyone attending to visitors. There were $25 pretzels, an AI George Washington, an interactive “Loyalist or Patriot?” test, and a whiteboard wall full of messages from attendees, one of which read “a felon and predator resides at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave!!”

So far, the most exciting thing about the Trump fair was that a MAGA influencer got arrested for jerking the turkey.

If you choose to attend this spectacle over the next few days, be aware that DC is under an Extreme Heat Warning through Saturday evening.

If you are from outside the US and are unfamiliar with our quaint way of measuring temperatures, 103° F = 39.4° C.

EDIT: Some of our friends at The Bulwark made a return visit to the Trump fair. But before Tim Miller spoke with Jared Poland and Brendan Hartnett, he played footage of a chunk of the stage at the fair suddenly crashing to the ground. Nobody was hurt, but this is the same stage where Trump is supposed to give his pre-fireworks 4th of July harangue on Saturday.

— Frank Bruni at the New York Times.

One feature of Orwell's dystopia in Nineteen Eighty-Four was the Two Minutes Hate. Trump's political career has produced a Two Decades Hate.

Trump electrifies the disturbed, the bigoted, and the easily duped with his negative violent energy.

Trump is an outrage factory who invents new targets when he needs them. His framings need not be reality based.

^^^ The perfect metaphor for this July 4th.

Trump doesn't care that you know he is using his office to enrich himself.

Of course this isn't normal. Did you expect Trump to act ethically and above board?

Just for comparison, Jimmy Carter put his peanut farm into a blind trust before he became president. He wanted to avoid even the appearance of impropriety.

Trump claims he has nothing to do with his money these days. But he also claims he won the 2020 election and didn't know Jeffrey Epstein very well. So...

Crypto is one of the biggest sources of Trump's newly acquired wealth. Never mind that the president has some say about how crypto is regulated.

He's crooked and greedy AF and operates the government as a self-enrichment device for himself and his crime family.

Happy Canada Day! 🇨🇦 Bonne fête du Canada !

It must be nice to have a rational leader who isn't the head of a dodgy crime family.

Elbows up!

[ ... ]

The Great American State Fair is exactly what you’d expect from Donald Trump. It’s a real life manifestation of Trumpland. An attempt to buy goodwill with more bread, and more circuses. He’s slapped together some cheap, gaudy crap and then thrown a giant flag on top to hide the glue and tape for the chumps and suckers. »

— Dominic Gwinn at Wonkette reporting on his visit to Trump's tacky fair at the National Mall.

Any real state fair is better than Trump's depressing shit-hole in DC. Here's are some of the best...

Top 5 State Fairs

There's a good reason most state fairs are not held during the hottest weeks of summer. Here's the weather for the next few days at the DC MAGA Fair:

Extreme Heat Watch URGENT - WEATHER MESSAGE National Weather Service Baltimore MD/Washington DC

An excerpt...

IMPACTS...Heat related illnesses increase significantly during extreme heat and high humidity events. Hot temperatures and high humidity may cause heat illnesses.

On Tuesday the US Supreme Court just barely upheld the right of birthright citizenship. It doesn't get any closer than a 5 to 4 vote at SCOTUS.

At least for now, the Donald Trump-Stephen Miller vision of an ethno-nationalist US lies in ruins. But don't think they won't try this again in some form.

After Chris Hayes denounced the Trump-Miller assault on the US Constitution, he spoke with constitutional scholar Sherrilyn Ifill.

^^^ Trump wants "American flag blue".

If we work for the next 18 weeks, we can give Trump more blue than he could ever imagine.