Holly Brewer

finally in deep archival mode again after far far too long away

and lord, the more I read by Hamilton the executive officer with Washington's ear, the more bizarre it seems that he's been transmogrified into a prophet of the royal residuum.

Iraq plunged into nationwide blackout as US tells citizens to leave immediately - Türkiye Today Iraq's entire national power grid has collapsed in a total blackout as the country reels from the widening US-Israeli military campaign against Iran

Iraq plunged into nationwide blackout as US tells citizens to leave immediately
www.turkiyetoday.com/region/iraq-...

Hegseth seeming to claim that here too. Scary & wrong

I was a kid, but a friend’s uncle knew people in Hollywood and got free tickets.

Galileo’s handwritten notes found in ancient astronomy text Discovery sheds new light on how famed astronomer came to lead a scientific revolution

I love everything about this! The conviction that a major figure was not struck by a bolt of lightning but worked to understand the system he would ultimately critique and help dismantle. The scholarly sleuthing rare books — all of it. 😎🤓
www.science.org/content/arti...

I saw Star Wars on opening night at Grauman’s Chinese Theater in Los Angeles (May 25 1977)

“‘Nobody gets to hide and give the president an easy pass or an end-run around the Constitution,’ Sen. Tim Kaine, the chief architect of the war powers effort in Congress, said the day before the vote.”

Pearls before swine and all of that.

🔥

[TW: graphic fracture, sound of breaking bone]

Sen Tim Sheehy (R-Montana) badly breaking the arm of a Marine veteran protesting the war Iran.

AOC: We already have multiple American service members who are dead for an illegal action that the president has pursued with no plan out. They don’t know why they got into this war. They’re talking about a hundred different reasons, and they don’t know how they’re getting out.

The “authorities” part is key.
Who authorizes this “death and destruction” and on what grounds?
Reminded of William Blackstone’s admonition to judges: “To shed the blood of our fellow creature is a matter that requires the greatest deliberation, and the fullest conviction of our own authority. …,”

He continues:“The guilt of blood, if any, must lie at their doors, who misinterpret the extent of their warrant; and not at the doors of the subject, who is bound to receive the interpretations, that are given by the sovereign power.” Blackstone 4:11

The fact that POTUS and his “secretary of war” are acting without legislative imprimatur makes it all the more clear that they are taking the role of judges in their own hands.

Vol 4, page 11, from Blackstone’s section on crime and punishment.
His point is: who are we as judges, and on what authority do we act to take peoples’ lives without strong evidence it is justified? Hegseth and POTUS have acted as judges without such evidence, and only assert their authority.

The Province of Legislation Determined A comprehensive account of English legal thought in the age of Blackstone and Bentham for nearly a century, The Province of Legislation Determined advances an ambitious reinterpretation of eighteenth-...

One of my favorite overall books about Blackstone’s Commentaries on the Laws of England:

Blackstone’s synthesis of the common law was debated in his own time. But I think volume 4 is his most important. In it he was the most thoughtful in his critique of England’s laws, especially their “bloody code” which prescribed the death penalty for so many crimes (160), even minor ones.

He continues:“The guilt of blood, if any, must lie at their doors, who misinterpret the extent of their warrant; and not at the doors of the subject, who is bound to receive the interpretations, that are given by the sovereign power.” Blackstone 4:11

Vol 4, page 11, from Blackstone’s section on crime and punishment.
His point is: who are we as judges, and on what authority do we act to take peoples’ lives without strong evidence it is justified? Hegseth and POTUS have acted as judges without such evidence, and only assert their authority.

“…for life is the immediate gift of God to man; which neither he can resign, nor can it be taken from him, unless by the command or permission of him who gave it; either expressly revealed, or collected from the laws of nature or society by clear and indisputable demonstration.” Commentaries, (1769)

The “authorities” part is key.
Who authorizes this “death and destruction” and on what grounds?
Reminded of William Blackstone’s admonition to judges: “To shed the blood of our fellow creature is a matter that requires the greatest deliberation, and the fullest conviction of our own authority. …,”

Crockett concedes: “This morning I called James and congratulated him on becoming the Senate nominee. Texas is primed to turn blue and we must remain united because this is bigger than any one person.”

(Statement via NBC’s Priscilla Thompson)

So interesting.
This might not hold. But it appears that one of the most powerful Republicans in NC politics lost his primary — by two votes —

The U.S. Supreme Court has chosen not to hear a case regarding the copyright eligibility of art created by artificial intelligence. This decision leaves uncertainty around IP rights for AI-generated works.

sources

Crude awakening: Iran oil shock Also on the daily podcast: Student loans in Britain and a line dancing revival

Also on the daily podcast: Student loans in Britain and a line dancing revival

The point of reading and writing about literature is precisely the act of thinking: slowly, attentively, and in conversation with the text. The shaping of ideas remain human responsibilities. That work cannot be outsourced. It’s the core of literary practice.Journals exist to foster that process.

pile of circle stickers that say "Everything is better with footnotes." With a footnote callout to me.

Reordered these. Bc the world.

Political scientist Jeanne Zaino calls it democracy's "day two problem": revolutions are exciting. Building and sustaining self-governance is the hard part.

250 years after Common Sense, we're still working on day two

🎧 benfranklinsworld.com/435

#Revolution250 #America250 #History #Democracy

on this day in 1933 "the US Senate confirms Frances Perkins as Secretary of Labor and she is sworn in the same day, making her the first female member of the United States Cabinet."

Does anyone actually know why we…ya know…started a WAR IN IRAN?!