(Permanent Musical Accompaniment To The Last Post Of The Week From The Blog’s Favourite Living Canadian)
Maybe this is what Justice Alito and the once and future president chatted over during their recent phone call.
The TikTok ban hit the Supreme Court on Friday and the justices seemed to … duck. From Politico:
During the arguments, there were signs the justices were considering issuing an “administrative stay” that would have the effect — if not necessarily the stated intent — of punting the ball into President-elect Donald Trump’s court by staving off the law’s Jan. 19 deadline temporarily while the high court works on a more formal ruling. He’s asked the justices to give him breathing room to try to work out a deal that would accommodate national security concerns while avoiding a disruptive shutdown of the popular platform and the political backlash that would produce. A stay would allow TikTok to avoid a shutdown that could begin over the next few days, and serve as a test of Trump’s influence on the high court before he takes office in 10 days.
TikTok’s lawyers argued that the law demanding that TikTok shut down U.S. operations on January 19 unless it can find a U.S. buyer violated the Chinese company’s First Amendment rights. First Amendment rights of a foreign company, you say? From SCOTUSblog:
Jeffrey Fisher, who represents the group of TikTok users, added that the law directly restricts his clients’ First Amendment right to participate in a “modern public square.” Restricting speech because it might sow doubt about U.S. leaders, he stressed, “is what our enemies do.” But U.S. Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar countered that the Chinese government’s control of TikTok “poses a grave threat to national security.” She pointed to both the possibility that the Chinese government could secretly manipulate content on TikTok and to the risk that TikTok’s “immense data set would give the People’s Republic of China a powerful tool” for harassment and espionage. Millions of Americans, Prelogar acknowledged, enjoy expressing themselves on TikTok. But they can still continue to do so even if ByteDance sells the U.S. company.
I tend to go along with the assessment that the justices will punt this case until the once and future president takes office when, as we know, all things will change and angels will sing his praises once again.
They’re coming for everything. Somebody tell John Fetterman and the rest of the Vichy Democrats. From Politico:
The early list of potential spending offsets obtained by POLITICO includes changes to Medicare and ending Biden administration climate programs, along with slashing welfare and “reimagining” the Affordable Care Act. Five people familiar with the document said those provisions are options to finance Republicans’ massive party-line reconciliation bill or other spending reform efforts, including those being spearheaded by the so-called Department of Government Efficiency.
The people, granted anonymity to discuss closed-door negotiations, said that the list originated from the House Budget Committee, chaired by Rep. Jodey Arrington (R-Texas). Republicans involved in the reconciliation plans have been generally targeting the listed programs for several months, but internal GOP fights over trillions of dollars in potential cuts are just beginning.
None of that should matter. This list is a statement of what they want to do, a statement of what they believe the proper role of government, and a statement that they don’t find the Musk-Ramaswamy project as worthy of ridicule as it actually is. There is no compromising with people like this. Also, I think we should keep an eye on this Arrington cat. He seems to be the ambitious Jim Jordan type.
Weekly WWOZ Pick To Click: “Marie LaVeau” (Papa Celestin’s New Orleans Band): Yeah, I still sort of love New Orleans.
Weekly Visit To The Pathé Archives: Here, from 1937, just so we all feel better about inaugurations, is FDR’s second one. The narrator seems quite taken with the president. History is so cool.
Speaking of Jim Jordan, he’s raring to go after snipes again. From Politico:
The House Judiciary Committee will continue its probe into the criminal investigation of Hunter Biden, committee Chair Jim Jordan said in an interview on Thursday. It’s a sure sign that, even as President Joe Biden prepares to leave office, his family will still face scrutiny from Republicans—and that the sweeping pardon of his son is unlikely to serve as a total shield for the next four years.
Excuse me? How is the president’s pardon power not a total shield? What part of “full and unconditional” does Jordan not understand? How is any committee hearing into Hunter Biden not simply a dumbshow for TV?
Jordan implied his panel could begin with bringing in David Weiss, the Trump-appointed special counsel who ultimately recommended to the Justice Department that Hunter Biden be convicted of federal gun charges and tax evasion. The House Judiciary Committee interviewed Weiss behind closed doors as part of its inquiry in the last Congress into whether the president committed impeachable offenses by allegedly using his political to further his family’s interests. “We think we need to look at David Weiss, the special counsel,” Jordan said. “There will be some additional work we need to do, I think, there because when we deposed him, he wasn’t willing to—he didn’t answer any questions, really, because it was [an] ongoing investigation.”
The circus never ends.
Discovery Corner: Hey, look what we found! From The Guardian:
The weapon is in an exceptional state of preservation and is being likened to the sword found at Sutton Hoo, the Anglo-Saxon burial in Suffolk. It has a silver-and-gilt hilt, with a decorative pattern in fine craftsmanship, and a blade bearing a runic script. Even elements of its leather-and-wood scabbard and the beaver fur that lined it have also survived. Attached to its pommel is a ring, perhaps symbolising an oath to a king or another high-status individual.
My epee is silver and has a dinged up bell guard because it has been bounced more than once off the floor after an unsuccessful six-parry. Anything else is too showy.
Hey, LiveScience, is it a good day for dinosaur news? It’s always a good day for dinosaur news!
The mini dino, which was about the size of a chicken, was likely a distant ancestor of the largest creatures to ever walk Earth. Its discovery has shocked paleontologists, who previously assumed that no dinosaurs existed in the Northern Hemisphere at this time. Partial remains from multiple individuals of the new species, Ahvaytum bahndooiveche, were first discovered in 2012 at the Popo Agie Formation in Wyoming. The fossils, which predominantly consisted of leg bones, date back to roughly 230 million years ago during the Triassic Period (251.9 million to 201.3 million years ago). The species’ name broadly translates to “long ago dinosaur” in the language of the Eastern Shoshone Tribe, whose ancestral lands include the site where the fossils were found.
Living then to make us happy now is an all-consuming task. It’s nice to know that the dinos got off to an earlier start than we thought.
I’ll be back on Monday to see what fresh hell awaits. Be well and play nice, ya bastids. Stay above the snake-line and wear the damn masks, and take the damn shots, especially the boosters and The New One. In your spare time, spare a thought for everyone in the fire zones in Los Angeles, and for all the folks in Ukraine, who stubbornly fight on, and all the folks in Gaza, with winter coming on, and all the people in New Orleans, Las Vegas, and Queens, who were visited by The Crazy before the year had hardly begun. And the folks in Lahaina, who are still rebuilding. And all the folks we regularly cited here in the year gone by, and especially for our fellow citizens in the LGBTQ+ community, who deserve so much better from their country than they’ve been getting. And for all of us, who will be getting exactly what we deserve.
