DL Open Thread: Thursday, May 4, 2023
The Family That Rules Montana. As in, the man who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee; his daughter, who chairs the House Judiciary Committee; and his son, who is the Speaker of the House. They are Christian conservatives with decidedly un-Christian views:
During a legislative hearing in 2011 that was a prelude to Montana’s debates on abortion, State Representative Keith Regier displayed an image of a cow and made the argument that cattle were more valuable when pregnant.
The comparison drew a prompt rebuke from some women in the room, but Mr. Regier, a Republican, declined to apologize. Over the years, the former schoolteacher and sod farmer has seldom demurred from his growing brand of combative Christian-oriented politics, in which the Ten Commandments are the foundation of good law and some of the biggest battles have been with moderates in his own party.
Mr. Regier has now emerged as the patriarch of a new family political dynasty that has injected fresh conservative intensity into debates over abortion, diversity training and, this spring, transgender rights.
The Regier family hails from the Flathead Valley of northwest Montana, a majestic region of glaciers and fir forests around Kalispell that has become a destination for conservatives looking to flee urban life and liberal politics in other states. Militia groups and far-right religious leaders have also found a home in the valley, some of them drawn to the notion of establishing what is often called a “redoubt” in the American Northwest.
I hear the Dental Floss Harvest there is something to behold.
Texas’ ‘Idolatrous’ Ten Commandments Bill Blasted. Settle back, get some coffee, and watch this:
Mic Drop From Rep. Talarico. One of the best eviscerations I’ve ever heard.
Florida House Votes To Hide DeSantis’ Travel Records From Public. Meaning, he has shit he needs to keep hidden.
Trump Loses Yet Another Of His Nuisance Suits. Will have to pay everybody’s court expenses:
A New York judge dismissed former President Donald Trump’s lawsuit against The New York Times on Wednesday, saying the newspaper’s reporting on his tax returns was protected by the First Amendment.
Trump sued the paper, three of its reporters and his niece Mary Trump in 2021 after a series of bombshell reports about his tax records. The former president demanded “no less” than $100 million at the time, accusing the journalists of taking part in an “insidious plot” to obtain the records from his niece.
The series later won a Pulitzer Prize.
The judge rejected the former president’s argument on Wednesday, saying the case failed “as a matter of constitutional law,” ordering Trump to pay legal fees and associated costs for the Times and its reporters.
“Courts have long recognized that reporters are entitled to engage in legal and ordinary news-gathering activities without fear of tort liability — as these actions are at the very core of protected First Amendment activity,” New York Supreme Court Justice Robert Reed wrote in his decision.
Has Clarence Thomas Ever Paid For Anything? Harlan Crow picked up the tab on this. Of course, Thomas never disclosed it:
In 2008, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas decided to send his teenage grandnephew to Hidden Lake Academy, a private boarding school in the foothills of northern Georgia. The boy, Mark Martin, was far from home. For the previous decade, he had lived with the justice and his wife in the suburbs of Washington, D.C. Thomas had taken legal custody of Martin when he was 6 years old and had recently told an interviewer he was “raising him as a son.”
Tuition at the boarding school ran more than $6,000 a month. But Thomas did not cover the bill. A bank statement for the school from July 2009, buried in unrelated court filings, shows the source of Martin’s tuition payment for that month: the company of billionaire real estate magnate Harlan Crow.
“Harlan picked up the tab,” said Grimwood, who got to know Crow and the Thomases and had access to school financial information through his work as an administrator.
Before and after his time at Hidden Lake, Martin attended a second boarding school, Randolph-Macon Academy in Virginia. “Harlan said he was paying for the tuition at Randolph-Macon Academy as well,” Grimwood said, recalling a conversation he had with Crow during a visit to the billionaire’s Adirondacks estate.
The payments extended beyond that month, according to Christopher Grimwood, a former administrator at the school. Crow paid Martin’s tuition the entire time he was a student there, which was about a year, Grimwood told ProPublica.
Thomas did not report the tuition payments from Crow on his annual financial disclosures. Several years earlier, Thomas disclosed a gift of $5,000 for Martin’s education from another friend. It is not clear why he reported that payment but not Crow’s.
Ex-Marine Kills Disturbed Man On Subway. Kept him in choke-hold for three minutes. Nobody came to his rescue:
The man who pinned down Neely has not been identified but has been described in local reports as a 24-year-old former US marine. The man held Neely in a chokehold with his legs wrapped around his body; Neely lost consciousness during the struggle and later died in the hospital.
On Wednesday, a spokesperson for the New York police department told the Guardian the investigation was “ongoing”. The veteran, who appeared to be white, was taken into custody and released without charges. His name has not been released publicly.
The killer was every bit as disturbed as the man he killed. Today, he walks free.
Delaware State Legislators Urge Congressional Delegation To Declassify Marijuana As Scheduled Drug.
A bipartisan group of state lawmakers has urged Delaware’s congressional delegation to support legislation that federally declassifies marijuana as a scheduled drug.
The letter, dated April 6, came weeks before Gov. John Carney allowed marijuana legalization and regulation to become law without his signature.
“To support this request, the Delaware State Senate approved (March 9) Senate Resolution 11, urging our delegation to deschedule the substance. Through its passage, SR 11 recognizes that marijuana does not belong in Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act, a classification intended for exceptionally dangerous substances with high potential for abuse and no medical use,” the letter states.
To supplement their request, lawmakers outlined several points why marijuana should be removed from the federal schedule.
The bipartisan group cited the fact marijuana has numerous medicinal benefits and has been prescribed to more than 350,000 patients in states with medical marijuana laws. It also noted that, because of marijuana’s federal designation, 5.4 million state-legal patients in the U.S. are unable to receive medical insurance for their medicinal marijuana.
“Due to the current federal designation, monies that can be traced back to a state marijuana operation could be considered aiding and abetting a federal crime and money laundering,” the letter states.
“Most financial institutions are unwilling to accept this risk, meaning medical marijuana distributors have limited access to traditional banking and financial services, and are forced to operate in cash.”
What do you want to talk about?
Sod farmer. Some shit you just can’t make up.
I have to take yearly training on various topics, including bribery, as a condition of employment. I’m instructed that pretty much anything other than covering lunch at McDonalds is verboten. I’m longing for the day someone puts forth the “Clarence Thomas” defense to get their ass out of the wringer. Obviously, what a frickin Supreme Court justice is allowed to accept in the way of gifts should set the bar for the rest of us, no?
Checks and balances my ass.
Does anyone besides me think the footage of the Russians shooting down that drone in the “nick of time” looks like a UFO conspiracy nutter’s homemade film?
if i was watching a cloak and dagger show about global politics and i saw that, id be mad at the writers for making the false flag too obvious.
The battle to free the weed now moves to the idiotic federal level and the classifying of weed as a “controlled substance”, evaluated the same as heroin and cocaine. The political stupidity… It burns! Suspect there will be the usual rear guard actions and absurd claims from the usual suspects lawyers. Tra la, the job is done where it counts, and bold talk or not the politicians know an attempt to make weed illegal nationally will damage them first and foremost. See? Once every now and then something good happens, like usual by default.
“classifying of weed as a “controlled substance”
Might be a good issue for a Carper primary opponent to claim; it might inspire some people who have never voted in a primary before.
“Proud Boys, Proud Boys, whatcha gonna do when they come for you?” Guilty times five:
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/justice-department/jury-reaches-verdict-proud-boys-seditious-conspiracy-trial-rcna81129
itll be trump’s first pardon when he steals the presidency again.
Other than himself.
Frank Zappa reference, 2 thumbs up!!!!!!!