Marcus Henry Vs. Karen Hartley-Nagle: Looks like one of them will be our Next County Executive. Henry is already campaigning, KHN put out an announcement yesterday:
“I’m good at what I do, (being sued?) and experience matters,” she says. “And I believe that my experience is what sets me apart. As the president of New Castle County Council I have gained valuable experience in county governance including budget oversight, policy development and stakeholder engagement.”
And when I grow up I want to be a veterinarian because I like working with people. (Name the source of that bon mot. Hint: It wasn’t me.)
Could Biden Maybe Give Netanyahu More Than A Nudge? Stopping him from creating a dictatorship is hardly ‘being against Israel’:
Israel’s attorney general issued a sharp rebuke to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday, warning him that he had broken the law by announcing that he would become more personally involved in his government’s efforts to overhaul the judiciary.
The attorney general, Gali Baharav-Miara, said Mr. Netanyahu’s announcement on Thursday night had breached a Supreme Court ruling from earlier in the year that said the prime minister must avoid conflicts of interest between his professional role and private interests.
Mr. Netanyahu is currently on trial for corruption in the same judicial system that his government is trying to overhaul.
“Your statement last night,” Ms. Baharav-Miara wrote in a letter to Mr. Netanyahu on Friday, was “illegal and tainted by a conflict of interest.”
The development added a dramatic new complexity to Israel’s internal turmoil, which was set off in January when Mr. Netanyahu’s government announced plans to increase government control over who gets to be a judge and reduce the judiciary’s ability to strike down laws passed by Parliament.
Supporters of the plan say it is necessary to give elected lawmakers primacy over unelected judges. But critics say it will remove one of the few checks on government overreach, potentially paving the way for authoritarian rule.
The standoff has led to one of the gravest domestic crises in Israeli history.
It looks more and more to me that Israel is becoming–Florida. Which reminds me–shouldn’t Biden be doing something to stop that state from becoming a fascist entity within the walls of the United States?
Utah Parent: Ban The Bible For Being Pornographic. I’m right there with them:
“Incest, onanism, bestiality, prostitution, genital mutilation, fellatio, dildos, rape, and even infanticide,” the parent wrote in their request, listing topics they found concerning in the religious text. “You’ll no doubt find that the Bible, under Utah Code Ann. § 76-10-1227, has ‘no serious values for minors’ because it’s pornographic by our new definition.”
The code cited is the Utah law passed in 2022 to ban any books containing “pornographic or indecent” content from Utah schools, both in libraries and in the classroom. It came after outcry from conservative parents groups, who have been pushing to have titles removed.
“Get this PORN out of our schools,” the parent wrote. “If the books that have been banned so far are any indication for way lesser offenses, this should be a slam dunk.”
Dildos? In the Bible? Gonna need the proper Chapter-and-Verse citation on that one. BTW, on its merits, this case is a slam dunk.
Tampons Too ‘Woke’ For Idaho. Can’t make this stuff up:
An Idaho bill aimed at providing students with free feminine hygiene products in school failed on Monday after Republicans slammed the prospect as “woke” and “liberal.”
The one-page House Bill 313, introduced on March 13, would have required that public and public charter schools provide students with free tampons, sanitary napkins and other menstrual products.
Dissenting Republicans decried the bill as “woke” and overly generous.
“This bill is a very liberal policy, and it’s really turning Idaho into a bigger nanny state than ever,” said state Rep. Heather Scott, according to The Daily Beast. “It’s embarrassing not only because of the topic but because of the actual policy itself. So you don’t have to be a woman to understand the absurdity of this policy. And you don’t have to feel that you’re insensitive to not address this.”
Heather Scott’s ’embarrassment’ supersedes the health concerns of Idaho students. Got it.
Of Course The US Supreme Court Can’t Be Trusted To Police Itself. In fact, that’s why the Rethugs have placed so many walking conflicts-of-interest on the bench:
Last July Samuel Alito, one of the nine justices of the US supreme court, delivered the keynote speech at a gala dinner held in the gilded splendour of the Palazzo Colonna in Rome.
Alito ruminated on the “proud civilization” achieved by the Romans two millennia ago, asking himself how modern America would be remembered thousands of years hence. “As I think back, I also think ahead, and I wonder what historians may say centuries from now about the contribution of the United States to world civilization,” he said.
The justice had been flown out to Rome by the Religious Liberty Initiative, an outpost of the University of Notre Dame law school that advocates for religious freedom informed by the Catholic tradition. This was not the group’s first contact with Alito.
The initiative and its faculty have filed amicus briefs with the supreme court in at least six high-profile cases since it was founded in 2020. Two of the group’s fellows filed amicus briefs arguing against the constitutional right to an abortion in Dobbs, the case that led to the court overturning Roe v Wade in a contentious ruling written by Alito.
But Alito’s Rome jaunt is just one of many factors that have swung an ethical spotlight over the nation’s highest court in recent months.
A series of ethical scandals have struck the court, the most toxic of which was the refusal of conservative justice Clarence Thomas to recuse himself from a case in which Donald Trump tried to block documents relating to the 6 January 2021 insurrection at the US Capitol from reaching the congressional committee investigating the riot.
May have more later. Got a 9 am social call on my docket. Besides, isn’t this enough to chew on?
What do you want to talk about?