Steven Mazie

More on Trump’s nominee to lead the office investigating Jack Smith:

➡️ He said that the descendants of slaves should pay reparations to the descendants of slave owners

➡️ He urged Congress to make J6 a national holiday

➡️ He called for Trump’s birthday to be made a national holiday (“MAGA Day”)

BIG SCOTUS NEWS: the justices today ordered the parties in the Louisiana redistricting case to file briefs on whether it's unconstitutional to create electoral districts that boost minority voting power.

👉 a STRONG HINT the conservatives want to strike down what remains of the Voting Rights Act

Wow. A group of top scholars at Harvard just sent a letter to its president, Alan Garber, warning against surrendering to Trump.

Signatories include Steven Levitsky, Dani Rodrik, Ryan Enos, Theda Skocpol, and Steven Walt.

Someone forwarded it to me. Read it here:

Trump: Based on the highly provocative statements of the Former President of Russia, Dmitry Medvedev, who is now the Deputy Chairman of the Security Council of the Russian Federation, I have ordered two Nuclear Submarines to be positioned in the appropriate regions, just in case these foolish and inflammatory statements are more than just that. Words are very important, and can often lead to unintended consequences, I hope this will not be one of those instances. Thank you for your attention to this matter! 81 ReTruths 245 Likes 8/1/25, 9:53 AM

Trump says he’s ordered two nuclear submarines to be “positioned in the appropriate regions,” after comments from Russia’s Dmitry Medvedev, “just in case these foolish and inflammatory statements are more than just that.”

This is a dissent worth listening to. Note the warble in Justice Kagan’s voice at the end when she mentions that she & her colleagues dissent “with great sadness”. apps.oyez.org/player/#/rob...

Today's gerrymandering news in Texas; the close of Justice Kagan's dissent in Rucho v. Common Cause, the 5-4 decision that green-lighted partisan gerrymandering in 2019

Her take and mine.

The $200m is the least of it my goodness.

“Your money and your university please”

say hello to the new college of florida in manhattan

To an extent, sure. But sacking a general counsel is quite different from sacking board members. And Biden didn't take Collins v Yellen as license to fire any agency head anywhere.

Two questions:

1. Will Democratic presidents one day resort to equally partisan (but apparently allowable) hackery in managing the executive branch?

2. Will SCOTUS let them?

Uncharacteristic of the usually politic Kagan to subtly dig a justice she tries to entice to join the liberals on occasion

Uncharacteristic of the usually politic Kagan to subtly dig a justice she tries to entice to join the liberals on occasion

Yep. At least Kavanaugh acknowledges the procedural fuckery of abandoning a nearly century-old precedent on the emergency docket

We are watching America’s separation of powers go up in smoke, wisp by wisp

We are watching America’s separation of powers go up in smoke, wisp by wisp

Kagan: “By means of such actions, this Court may facilitate the permanent transfer of authority, piece by piece by piece, from one branch of Government to another.”

Justice Kagan pens a pointed dissent as she did in the Wilcox case. Justices Sotomayor and Jackson join her.

The majority includes a short explanation largely tracking its order in Trump v. Wilcox involving dismissals at two other federal agencies. Kavanaugh writes a concurrence.

BREAKING: Supreme Court votes 6-3 to let Trump fire the Democratic members of the Consumer Product Safety Commission in an emergency order

Who's watching city hall? Nobody—and that should scare you Dave Busiek: A study released this month details a shocking decline in the number of journalists covering local news today.

New post by Dave Busiek: A study released this month details a shocking decline in the number of journalists covering local news today.
(Iowa's decline is bad but it's even worse in many other states)
#media #journalism
www.bleedingheartland.com/2025/07/19/w...

E.P.A. Says It Will Eliminate Its Scientific Research Arm

As arms go, the scientific research one seems possibly important for an agency tasked with protecting the environment www.nytimes.com/2025/07/18/c...

Surveying last month’s meal

167. The Inconsistent Court Strikes Again Comparing Monday's unexplained grant of emergency relief in the Department of Education downsizing case to how the justices handled President Biden's student loan program is ... telling.

www.stevevladeck.com/p/167-the-in...

Read this @stevevladeck.bsky.social post on how today’s order looks really bad when compared w the Court’s handling of Biden‘s student-loan relief

One of the tasks of the Court w emergency cases is to “balance the equities“—to think about which side has more to lose.

Somehow effectively gutting the DOE is not a real problem but paying workers temporarily is.

The six conservatives are letting Trump dismantle a federal agency as if it’s just another day at the office.

As usual, the majority offers not a single word of explanation for enabling the gutting of a federal agency

BREAKING: Supreme Court sides with the Trump
administration in yet another emergency plea. This one involves mass layoffs at the Department of Education. The three liberal justices vigorously dissent, accusing the majority of sanctioning “lawlessness“.

SCOTUS recently blessed this cruel deportation policy for a small group of men. That wedge opened a door.