DL Open Thread: Friday, June 30, 2023
Supreme Court Kills Affirmative Action. Because why should Black kids be as entitled as legacy fuck-ups at major institutions?:
“With let-them-eat-cake obliviousness, today, the majority pulls the ripcord and announces ‘colorblindness for all’ by legal fiat. But deeming race irrelevant in law does not make it so in life,” Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson wrote in a blistering dissent. “If the colleges of this country are required to ignore a thing that matters, it will not just go away. It will take longer for racism to leave us. And, ultimately, ignoring race just makes it matter more.”
Jackson’s dissent gets to this history. “The flagship educational institution of a former Confederate State has embraced its constitutional obligation to afford genuine equal protection to applicants,” she wrote. “Surely that is progress for a university that once engaged in the kind of patently offensive race-dominated admissions process that the majority decries.”
Pickleball Noise: Almost As Bad As Giant African Snails. Stand-Your-Ground confrontations at Florida pickleball courts coming soon…
Comer’s Source Debunked Biden Allegations. No wonder Comer can’t find him:
A Ukrainian oligarch who ran the energy company that hired Hunter Biden to serve on its board told associates of Rudy Giuliani that Burismanever had any contacts with then-Vice President Biden while his son worked at the company.
The conversation with Mykola Zlochevsky, part of the package of information received by lawmakers during former President Trump’s first impeachment, was highlighted by the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee as evidence undercutting a GOP-led probe into an alleged bribery scheme.
“No one from Burisma ever had any contacts with VP Biden or people working for him during Hunter Biden’s engagement,” Zlochevsky says in the exchange, which appears to be with Vitaly Pruss, whom the letter describes as “another long-time associate of Mr. Giuliani who was a close friend of Mr. Zlochevsky.”
“As part of the impeachment inquiry against then-President Trump, Congress learned that Mr. Zlochevsky, the Ukrainian oligarch and the owner of Burisma, whom Republican Committee Members appear to have identified as the source of the allegations memorialized in the Form FD-1023, squarely rebutted these allegations in 2019,” he wrote.
An admittedly-truncated Open Thread due to an early dental appointment. Which makes it a DIY Open Thread. C’mon, I’m counting on you.
What do you want to talk about?
https://www.thedailybeast.com/well-be-talking-about-justice-ketanji-brown-jackson-dissents-for-decades
Sen. McBride as the featured guest on The Daily Beast’s “The New Abnormal” podcast. She gives a terrific interview and you can tell how good she is at this kind of press and engagement after, like, a decade and a half of activism.
https://twitter.com/MorePerfectUS/status/1674453689363226632
Delaware is getting national attention over a bill to let LLCs vote in a city’s elections.
But we heard that there was more going on, so we took a look.
It turns out LLCs can already vote in at least 17 Delaware towns—and this bill may even allow churches to vote.
Thread.
@MorePerfectUS
One last thing today. In 20 years the next group of local bloggers will have taken over and they’ll start making memes of Sarah McBride with a Nascar jacket on with the logos of all the corporations she sold out to (a la the Carper image Jason loves so much).
Luckily, everyone on here including me will be dead by then.
https://delawarecall.com/2023/06/05/old-reformers/
All politicians will eventually disappoint. The trick is getting ones who can be good for a little while.
Good article by Delaware Call, had Soles for a Delaware politics history class, best political science class ever. He knew all the dirt and where a great many political bodies were buried, as in think you’ve seen corruption. As for voting LLC’s and even churches I hate it with a vile passion, but then I remember Seaford remains Seaford and Delaware remains a corporate fiefdom.
As the Delaware Call noted recently, it’s already allowed in quite a few Delaware jurisdictions. GA should pass a law, or a constitutional amendment, barring the practice. Voting Is For Humans.
Sherry Dorsey Walker has introduced such a bill. Needless to say, it’s been buried. If you guessed that it’s been buried in Pete’n Val’s Administration Committee, you would be correct:
https://legis.delaware.gov/BillDetail?LegislationId=140507
Supreme Court kills student loan debt relief. $400 billion in relief. Gone:
https://www.inquirer.com/wires/ap/supreme-court-rejects-bidens-plan-wipe-away-400-billion-student-loans-20230630.html-2
Seems the court has forgotten or ignored the reaction to overturning Roe vs. Wade, seems we need to remind them on a frequent basis. We’re not done with this far right court and extremely activist court as their arrogance knows no bounds.
Now I want a Tuition Inflation Reduction Act, so that Federal student loans can only be used at institutions that follow prescribed cost containment guidelines.
When I graduated college, interest rates were capped at 2% and interest didn’t start accruing until nine months after graduation. Now interest begins accruing the day you sign the paperwork the first day of freshman year and rates go as high as 9.5%.