Jeffrey Toobin says it’s important to spell out what Trump’s next Supreme Court pick is going to mean, because they won’t spell it out for us.

As with Gorsuch, the nominee will be supported with meaningless buzz phrases: he or she will be opposed to “legislating from the bench” and in favor of “judicial restraint.” Like Gorsuch, the nominee will rely on airy generalities rather than on specific examples. It’s all the more important, then, to articulate in plain English what, if such a nominee is confirmed, a new majority will do.

It will overrule Roe v. Wade, allowing states to ban abortions and to criminally prosecute any physicians and nurses who perform them. It will allow shopkeepers, restaurateurs,

More on the Portland street brawls yesterday.

From CBS:

Two opposing protest groups — Patriot Prayer and antifa —  clashed in downtown Portland Saturday, CBS Portland affiliate KOIN reports. Portland police said failure to leave the area could leave to arrests, calling the demonstration a riot.

More than 100 members of Patriot Prayer group gathered at Terry Schrunk Plaza for a “freedom rally,” while more than 100 counter protesters with an antifa group gathered across the street at Chapman Square for rallies before a march. Police revoked Patriot Prayer’s permit for the rally after the two groups began to clash.

From NPR:

What began in downtown Portland Saturday as a permitted march by the far-right group Patriot

In light of the slaughter of journalists in Annapolis the other day, this promo by the National Rifle Association’s Dana Loesch hasn’t worn well.

H/t Asha Rangappa

https://twitter.com/AshaRangappa_/status/1012718598647934976… Read the rest

Trump on June 27:

HOUSE REPUBLICANS SHOULD PASS THE STRONG BUT FAIR IMMIGRATION BILL, KNOWN AS GOODLATTE II, IN THEIR AFTERNOON VOTE TODAY, EVEN THOUGH THE DEMS WON’T LET IT PASS IN THE SENATE. PASSAGE WILL SHOW THAT WE WANT STRONG BORDERS & SECURITY WHILE THE DEMS WANT OPEN BORDERS = CRIME. WIN!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 27, 2018

Trump on June 30:

I never pushed the Republicans in the House to vote for the Immigration Bill, either GOODLATTE 1 or 2, because it could never have gotten enough Democrats as long as there is the 60 vote threshold. I released many prior to the vote knowing we need more Republicans to win in Nov.

— Donald J.

Yesterday in Portland (the Oregon one not the Maine one):

For the first time in more than a year of street brawling, Portland police today deemed a march by Proud Boys and other right-wing protesters too violent to continue.

Marchers with the right-wing protest group Patriot Prayer beat antifascist protesters with wooden and PVC pipe flag poles that federal police had allowed the group to keep.

Portland police policy is to confiscate all possible weapons, and they did not allow the antifascist protesters to have flag poles. At least one protester was severely injured in the brawl and lay motionless on the ground after police broke up the altercation.

Seems like a conscious deliberate attempt to recapitulate the rise of … Read the rest

This one’s a jaw-dropper.

A Trump administration appointee to the State Department tore into standard UN documents that condemn racism as a threat to democracy.

The deputy assistant secretary for refugees and migration, a foreign service officer promoted by the White House to an unusually senior position for his rank, disputed the idea that leaders have a “duty” to condemn hate speech and incitement, and repeatedly rejected use of the words nationalism, populism, and xenophobia.

“The drafters say ‘populism and nationalism’ as if these are dirty words,” wrote Andrew Veprek, the deputy assistant secretary for refugees and migration, in documents obtained exclusively by CNN. “There are millions of Americans who likely would describe themselves as adhering to these concepts.

H/t Dave Ricks… Read the rest

Women don’t exist any more, apparently. Only “egg producers.”

Asking egg-producers:

Have you ever been denied a sterilization procedure?

— LeahNTorres.bsky.social (@LeahNTorres) June 28, 2018

Without the question about sterilization one would think she was talking to farmers.… Read the rest

Now he’s talking about eradication. Literally. Using that word.

To the great and brave men and women of ICE, do not worry or lose your spirit. You are doing a fantastic job of keeping us safe by eradicating the worst criminal elements. So brave! The radical left Dems want you out. Next it will be all police. Zero chance, It will never happen!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 30, 2018

To the great and brave men and women of ICE, do not worry or lose your spirit. You are doing a fantastic job of keeping us safe by eradicating the worst criminal elements. So brave! The radical left Dems want you out. Next it will be all police. Zero

To the surprise of no one…

U.S. intelligence agencies believe that North Korea has increased its production of fuel for nuclear weapons at multiple secret sites in recent months — and that Kim Jong Un may try to hide those facilities as he seeks more concessions in nuclear talks with the Trump administration, U.S. officials told NBC News.

The intelligence assessment, which has not previously been reported, seems to counter the sentiments expressed by President Donald Trump, who tweeted after his historic June 12 summit with Kim that “there was no longer a nuclear threat from North Korea.”

Analysts at the CIA and other intelligence agencies don’t see it that way, according to more than a dozen

Have a good rant:

According to new research from Queen’s University Belfast, narcissists are some of the most successful people in the world. If you spend your life marauding around with a bellyful of unearned self-worth, it’s claimed, you’ll soon develop a mental toughness that will drive you to beat your more humble peers in education, work and romance.

That may be, but I’d rather live under a toadstool than spend my life marauding around with a bellyful of unearned self-worth. I can’t stand people like that and I would never want to be one.

Everywhere you look, it’s perfectly clear that the narcissists won long ago. Social media drips with wrongheaded opinion masquerading as violent certainty. The

It turns out Rosenstein was not happy about that whole fire-Comey memo setup.

In the days after the F.B.I. director James B. Comey was fired last year, the deputy attorney general, Rod J. Rosenstein, repeatedly expressed anger about how the White House used him to rationalize the firing, saying the experience damaged his reputation, according to four people familiar with his outbursts.

In public, Mr. Rosenstein has shown no hint that he had second thoughts about his role — writing a memo about Mr. Comey’s performance that the White House used to justify firing him. “I wrote it. I believe it. I stand by it,” Mr. Rosenstein said to Congress last year.

But in meetings with law enforcement officials in

A press release from Leo Igwe:

The Humanist Association of Nigeria (HAN) is deeply concerned over the persistent violent clashes between herdsmen and farmers in Central Nigeria. The association condemns very strongly the killings in Plateau state over the weekend that left over 100 people dead and several hundreds injured. It urges that the perpetrators be brought to justice.

HAN deplores the poor and ineffective handling of the herdsmen/farmers crisis by the government of President Muhammadu Buhari especially the government’s apparent inability to take strong measures to stop the killings by herdsmen in central Nigeria and beyond. HAN calls on the Buhari government to rise to the challenge of protecting the lives and property of all Nigerians and of enforcing … Read the rest

The Times lets us know, rather belatedly, that Trump and Anthony Kennedy have a link.

But they had a connection, one Mr. Trump was quick to note in the moments after his first address to Congress in February 2017. As he made his way out of the chamber, Mr. Trump paused to chat with the justice.

“Say hello to your boy,” Mr. Trump said. “Special guy.”

Mr. Trump was apparently referring to Justice Kennedy’s son, Justin. The younger Mr. Kennedy spent more than a decade at Deutsche Bank, eventually rising to become the bank’s global head of real estate capital markets, and he worked closely with Mr. Trump when he was a real estate developer, according to two people

Seen on Facebook – a recruiting poster for the joys of attending the University of Adelaide:

Updating to correct: actually not for the University at all: those are two separate posters.

… Read the rest

Back in mid-October 2016 the Times ran a story on rabid hostility to journalists at Trump rallies.

[E]ven reporters long accustomed to the toxic fervor of Trump rallies were startled — and even frightened — at the vitriol of a Cincinnati crowd on Thursday evening as more than 15,000 supporters flashed homemade signs, flipped middle fingers and lashed out in tirades often laced with profanity as journalists made their way to a crammed, fenced-in island in the center of the floor.

The Trump supporters crowded by the metal barriers protecting the area, leaning over to get in one last insult before returning their attention to the stage as Rudolph W. Giuliani strode out.

Mr. Trump’s efforts to discredit news

And then this.

I will tweet what I can while I wait to be interviewed by police.

— Phil Davis (@PDavis_LLC) June 28, 2018

A single shooter shot multiple people at my office, some of whom are dead.

— Phil Davis (@PDavis_LLC) June 28, 2018

Gunman shot through the glass door to the office and opened fire on multiple employees. Can't say much more and don't want to declare anyone dead, but it's bad.

— Phil Davis (@PDavis_LLC) June 28, 2018

There is nothing more terrifying than hearing multiple people get shot while you're under your desk and then hear the gunman reload

— Phil Davis (@PDavis_LLC) June 28, 2018

Maybe the choice of target was completely random, and Trump’s … Read the rest