Sat - Movement in the Generic Congressional Polls

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Today's Worst Joke in the World

Bad pun:  That's how eye roll.
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Florida law limiting LGBTQ discussions takes effect — and rocks schools
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Today's Worst Person in the World Nominees

If He Is Telling the Truth, He Could Have Opened the Doors and Called for Help

The suspected driver of a truck where 53 migrants died from heat in Texas did not know that the air conditioner had stopped working, court documents say.

Homero Zamorano, 45, was found hiding near the truck on Monday, officials say. He is one of four people charged.

Mr Zamorano and alleged conspirator Christian Martínez, 28, are accused of sending text messages to each other before and after the truck was found.

It is the deadliest human trafficking incident in US history.

Several children found in the vehicle are still being treated in hospital. The victims were from Mexico, Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala.

Mr Zamorano was found hiding in bushes. Mexican officials say he initially tried to pass himself off as one of the survivors.

He was arrested when surveillance photos showed him driving the truck past a US Border Patrol checkpoint in Laredo, Texas.

Of Course He is Running.  Let the Fund Raising Scam Begin!

Former President Donald Trump is anxiously mulling when, exactly, he should announce a presidential run for 2024 – a decision that has become even more pressing as he tries to reclaim control of his image following a spate of damaging revelations by the House select committee investigating his role in January 6, 2021.

Over the past week, Trump has told associates he is eager to launch another presidential campaign as early as this month to capitalize on President Joe Biden’s increasingly dismal poll numbers and put his potential GOP rivals on notice.

But his desire to expedite a campaign announcement – ditching previous plans to wait until after the November midterm elections – grew even deeper after former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson raised serious questions in a televised congressional hearing this week about Trump’s behavior during the final months of his first term, according to sources familiar with the matter.

It Was An Open Secret

Then-President Donald Trump angrily demanded to go to the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, and berated his protective detail when he didn’t get his way, according to two Secret Service sources who say they heard about the incident from multiple agents, including the driver of the presidential SUV where it occurred.

The sources tell CNN that stories circulated about the incident – including details that are similar to how former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson described it to the House select committee investigating January 6 – in the months immediately afterward the US Capitol attack and before she testified this week.

While the details from those who heard the accounts differ, the Secret Service sources say they were told an angry confrontation did occur. And their accounts align with significant parts of Hutchinson’s testimony, which has been attacked as hearsay by Trump and his allies who also have tried to discredit her overall testimony.




Can You Trust the Secret Service Guys to Tell the Truth?  Particularly When They Are Not Under Oath.

Investigative journalist and author Carol Leonnig has claimed that members of Donald Trump's Secret Service detail cheered on the insurrection of January 6, 2021.

"There was a very large contingent of Donald Trump's detail who were personally cheering for [Joe] Biden to fail," she said.

"Some of them even took to their personal media accounts to cheer on the insurrection and the individuals rioting up to the Capitol, as patriots. That is problematic.

"I am not saying that Tony Ornato or Bobby Engel did that but they are viewed as being aligned with Donald Trump, which cuts against them.

"However, if they testify, under oath, 'this is what happened,' I think that is going to be important."


Political SCOUS Decisions Have Political Consequences

Twenty-two percent of U.S. adults name abortion or women’s rights in an open-ended question as one of up to five problems they want the government to work on, according to the poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. That’s more than doubled since December, when an AP-NORC poll found a notable uptick in mentions of abortion from years before, likely in anticipation of the Dobbs ruling on abortion.

The new poll, which included interviews conducted before and after the Supreme Court’s ruling, finds prioritization of the issues grew sharply following the decision.
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As the seismic Supreme Court ruling stripping Americans of abortion rights ripples through the country, multiple polls are now seeing movement toward Democrats in the congressional generic ballot contest.

Those polls include a several-point shift picked up in the Civiqs' generic ballot tracking poll as well as the following pre-/post-decision surveys:

NPR/maristpoll: D+5 —> D+7
MorningConsult: Tie —> D+3
Yahoo/YouGov: D+4 —> D+7

Internal data from Civiqs tracking is picking up the same trend, with a net shift of 4 points toward Democrats from before the ruling gutting Roe v. Wade to after it was released.

Overall, Civiqs now shows Democrats with a 5-point edge in the generic ballot, 47% Democrat - 42% Republican. The data is not publicly accessible, but here's the screen shot.

As Bad As Biden's Approval Is, It's Better Than SCOTUS's.  However, They Don't Have to Run For Reelection.

The latest Emerson College Polling national survey of US voters finds a majority disapprove of President Biden, Congress, and the Supreme Court. Biden has a 40% job approval, while 53% disapprove of the job he is doing as president. Since last month, Biden’s approval has increased two points. The US Congress has a 19% job approval, while 70% disapprove of the job they are doing. The Supreme Court has a 36% job approval; 54% disapprove.

DeathSentence LOVES Those Hearings

Ron DeSantis sees the Jan. 6 hearings as a way to get Trump indicted, report says, as rumors grow of a 2024 run

DeSantis sees the Jan. 6 hearings as a way to get Trump indicted, an anonymous source told Politico.

The hearings have been politically damaging for the former president, and could result in a criminal referral.

Trump and DeSantis are seen as the main rivals for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination.

So Many Crimes to Choose From.  FIND ONE MERRICK!  

President Donald Trump could now be charged with a number of crimes — but one key offense would keep him out of federal office forever, Watergate prosecutor Jill Wine-Banks said on MSNBC Friday.

Wine-Banks said the “best” crime for Trump is Title 18 of the U.S. Code, Section 2383 — the crime of “rebellion or insurrection” against the U.S. — because the penalty is tougher than just prison time.

“I think it would be horrible not to act on what is now blatantly obvious to anyone who has watched the hearings” being held by the House Jan. 6 committee, Wine-Banks said.

“My favorite crime would be 2383 — not the seditious conspiracy” charge, which is Section 2384, she added. “The reason is that the penalty for 2383 is not just jail; it is being barred from ever holding federal office again,” Wine-Banks explained. “And for me, that would be a more important goal than jailing the former president.”

Yet based on various testimony and evidence against Trump, she’s convinced he could also be prosecuted for a number of other crimes.

“There is, of course ... obstruction of Congress, obstruction of justice, witness tampering — so many things just based on Cassidy Hutchinson’s testimony, just hers, for those few hours, [she] laid out all of those crimes,” Wine-Banks said.

“And then you have many more besides that,” she added.

Not Even the Bison Are Happy With the Direction of the Country

A second visitor to Yellowstone National Park in three days has been gored by a bison, according to officials.

It was the third attack in less than a month.

WTF Will a Doctor Do?  Will OB-GYN's leave Red States?

In the wake of the Supreme Court’s ruling on Roe v. Wade, doctors across the country are facing an array of legal questions and concerns that are so new and uncertain they once seemed out of the realm of possibility, according to experts.

From determining whether they can provide care when the life of the mother is at risk and whether they must report a patient for a self-induced abortion, to considering how to code certain medical treatments and how to avoid allegations of aiding and abetting, doctors -- and other healthcare providers and staff -- are finding themselves caught in a precarious legal framework that is still in flux.

"It is a horrible situation to put doctors in, who really just want to help patients," Jessie Hill, of Case Western Reserve University School of Law in Cleveland, Ohio, told MedPage Today. "But at the same time, they have to abide by the law."

The state-by-state complexities of trigger bans that went into effect once Roe was overturned have made matters exceedingly difficult for doctors, Hill and other experts said. Some trigger bans are being challenged, putting several states in legal limbo, while new laws that ban abortions in other states could pop up. Additionally, state legislatures could move immediately or in the coming months to make anti-abortion laws even stricter, threatening access to contraception and in vitro fertilization.

How Bad Can Elections Get?

The Supreme Court said Thursday it would take up a North Carolina case that centers on whether the state's Republican-led Legislature is the only entity that can set the rules for federal elections.

That argument is often referred to as the independent state legislature doctrine, a legal theory that says only state legislators have the authority to set rules for federal elections. Some conservatives have advanced that position in recent years, pointing to a provision in the U.S. Constitution that says the manner of federal elections “shall be prescribed in each State by the Legislature thereof.”

State courts currently have the power to step in if they determine that state legislatures' election rules violate the state constitution or other laws, making them a powerful check and balance on partisan legislatures. Allies of former President Donald Trump made such claims in disputes over the 2020 election, and while state and federal courts largely shot them down, at least four Supreme Court justices have signaled an interest.

While the Supreme Court could take a wide range of actions in the North Carolina case, experts and voting rights advocates say a full-throated endorsement of the independent state legislature theory by a court that has a 6-3 conservative majority could roll back limits on partisan gerrymandering, unwind voter-implemented changes like ranked-choice voting and gut voter protections against discrimination found in state constitutions and more.

Sexual Predators Like Other Sexual Predators

A former California appeals court judge who retired in 2017 following allegations of sexual harassment is now representing former U.S. President Donald Trump in his legal battle with Twitter.

Ex-9th Circuit Appeals Court Judge Alex Kozinski on Friday filed to appear in Trump's appeal of a trial court order dismissing a lawsuit against Twitter over the former president's ban from the social media platform following the Jan. 6 riots at the U.S. Capitol.

This is a Bad Idea.  Zealous Prosecutors Will Arrest and Try the Doctors.

New York Governor Kathy Hochul also asked Biden to give more consideration to his ability to "use federal facilities" for abortion care -- a move the White House has said would have "dangerous ramifications."

"What am I talking about? Veterans hospitals, military bases and other places where the federal government controls the jurisdiction in some of the states that are hostile to women's rights, and make sure that those services can be available to other women," Hochul suggested.

New Mexico's Lujan Grisham said she agreed "wholeheartedly" with Hochul's assessment that there are more federal opportunities to protect women's access to care, and suggested Indian Health Service clinic and sovereign tribal nations could be another avenue for Biden to pursue.

People Are So Stupid -- How Stupid Are They?

In Phoenix, where summer can feel a bit like living through a science experiment or a dystopian dare, the average summertime temperature has risen by 3.8 degrees since 1970, according to data compiled by Climate Central, a nonprofit composed of scientists and journalists. The city now averages 111 annual days of triple-digit heat, and experiences 12 more days above 110 degrees Fahrenheit each year than it did in 1970.

Nighttime temperatures have risen even faster, climbing 5.7 degrees since 1970. The average summertime low now stands at 84 degrees Fahrenheit, depriving those without adequate air-conditioning the chance for the body to cool down before the mercury begins rising each morning with the sun.

“In about a decade, we have seen a sea change in the attitudes” among residents formerly skeptical that humans are causing climate change, said Gallego, who earned an undergraduate degree in environmental studies from Harvard University before getting a master’s degree in business administration from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. Now, she adds, they “would like elected officials to do something.”

Because of the undeniable rise in temperatures, it has become a cliché to say that Phoenix’s climate change future is already here. That way of looking at the problem, however, risks downplaying what’s still to come. By the year 2100, climate models predict, summer highs are expected to rise on average by as much as 10 degrees in the city, which means daily temperature readings of 114 degrees Fahrenheit, which will almost certainly lead to more heat-related deaths.

Since 2014, deaths attributed to heat in Maricopa County — which includes Phoenix and adjacent cities like Mesa, Scottsdale and Tempe — have spiked by 454%, KPNX News reported. For the past two years, the county has set new heat death records, with 323 people killed in 2020 and 331 in 2021, the bulk of those occurring in Phoenix.

Yet people continue to flock to the so-called Valley of the Sun. Between 2010 and 2020, Phoenix grew faster than any other big American city, according to Census Bureau data, adding 163,000 residents.
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Today's Best Person in the World Nominees

New York Isn't Giving Up on Sanity

New York has passed emergency legislation to ban guns from many public places, following last month's landmark Supreme Court ruling which struck down the state's restrictions.

The rules also require gun buyers to prove they can use a gun and submit social media accounts for review.

Analysts say the new restrictions may end up in a fresh legal challenge.

Good Idea, But Earbuds?  Single-Use Earbuds?

India has imposed a ban on single-use plastics on items ranging from straws to cigarette packets to combat worsening pollution in the nation of nearly 1.4 billion people.

The ban on single-use plastic items includes straws, cutlery, earbuds, packaging films, plastic sticks for balloons, candy and ice cream, and cigarette packets, among other products, the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi said in a statement on Friday.

Loitering Was Invented by England to Allow Them to Arrest Poor People

A controversial California bill repealing loitering related to possible prostitution was signed into law Friday by Gov. Gavin Newsom.

A provision in state law previously allowed police to arrest those who “delay or linger without a lawful purpose” if it appeared they were trying to engage in sex work. Police can no longer use this charge, and those who have been convicted are able to petition the court for resentencing or dismissal, according to the law’s language.

Supporters of the bill say that the previous law has long discriminated against transgender people and people of color as law enforcement is allowed to use their own discretion in what constitutes loitering.

The new version of the law doesn’t decriminalize soliciting or engaging in prostitution. Instead, it eliminates the loitering offense “that leads to harmful treatment of people for simply ‘appearing’ to be a sex worker,” a statement from bill sponsor state Sen. Scott Wiener read.

Google Realizes Half It's Users Are Women

Google said late Friday that it will work to quickly delete location history for people going to abortion sites and other medical sites following the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade last week.

“Today, we’re announcing that if our systems identify that someone has visited one of these places, we will delete these entries from Location History soon after they visit,” wrote Jen Fitzpatrick, Google’s senior vice president of core systems and experiences, in a blog post.

Fitzpatrick noted that visits to places like counseling centers, domestic violence shelters, abortion clinics and fertility centers “can be particularly personal.” Google parent Alphabet owns highly popular devices and data services, including Android, Fitbit, Search and Google Maps. That’s become a greater concern since the Supreme Court ruling, because of uncertainty surrounding whether sensitive data could be used to target what is now potentially criminal activity.

Google’s post says, “Fitbit users who have chosen to track their menstrual cycles in the app can currently delete menstruation logs one at a time, and we will be rolling out updates that let users delete multiple logs at once.”
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The Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, leaving it up to individual states to decide whether to allow abortion procedures, has prompted abortion-rights advocates to urge women using period-trackers, and other digital apps that track reproductive health, to delete them.

“If you are using an online period tracker or tracking your cycles through your phone, get off it and delete your data. Now,” tweeted lawyer Elizabeth McLaughlin, founder of the female empowerment non-profit Gaia Project for Women's Leadership.

Abortion-rights advocates are ringing alarm bells not just about the use of menstruation-tracking apps, but the potentially incriminating digital trail of geo-location data, online transactions and web-search histories.
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Invasions Have Consequences

Let's See What Turkey (Or Whatever It's Called) Does

Ukraine has requested Turkey to detain the Russian-flagged cargo ship Zhibek Zholy carrying grain taken from the Russian-occupied port of Berdyansk, according to a Ukrainian official and a document seen by the news agency Reuters.

The Ukrainian foreign ministry official, citing information received from the country’s maritime administration, said the Zhibek Zholy had loaded the first cargo of some 4,500 tonnes of grain from Berdyansk, which the official said belonged to Ukraine.

In a letter dated June 30 to Turkey’s justice ministry, Ukraine’s prosecutor general’s office said separately that the Zhibek Zholy was involved in the “illegal export of Ukrainian grain” from Berdyansk and headed to Karasu, Turkey, with 7,000 tonnes of cargo – a larger cargo than cited by the official.

Kherson

Ukraine has been very, very quiet about Kherson.  However, in the last 24 hours, there has been a little light let into this blackout. What’s happening in Kherson?



Ukraine is still fighting to take the same key locations at Kyselivka, Snihurivka, and Vysokopillya. The front line of forces are still about 15km out of Kherson proper. But just looking at those locations disguises a lot of action.

As has happened so often on the Kherson front, Ukraine has made advances in between the major points of Russian occupation. The counteroffensive that was taking place at the extreme southern end of the line appears to be over for the moment. Instead, the action seems to be in the zone from Kyselivka to Snihurivka. The light blue area on this map indicates a zone of villages and towns that Ukraine has either flipped from Russian occupied, or from disputed, to Ukrainian controlled in the last two weeks. It’s … quite a lot, actually. It represents, if nothing else, a significant solidification of Ukrainian positions.



Note that several sources are still placing that whole wedge along a line from Novopetrivka down to Zahoryanivka under Russian control. However, there are good reasons to believe that the lines of control indicated on the map above are a fairly accurate representation of current conditions.



On Saturday morning, there were several reports that Snihurivka had been liberated, but these appear to be premature. As of Saturday, Russian forces were still confirmed to be present in both Novopetrivka and Snihurivka, but there was active fighting in the area and Ukrainian forces appear to be advancing. It’s possible there will be good news in this area soon. Clearing these two towns would open up major routes for forces moving out of Mykolaiv or coming south from Kryvyi Rih. This area appears to be the area of hard fighting at the moment, with several Ukrainian units maneuvering to advance in line.
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A Little Bit of Strategy, But The Lottery Is Still a Terrible Bet
A Maryland woman has won her third lottery prize of at least $100,000 in five years, a feat she attributes to strategy and luck.

The stay-at-home mom, 30, from Wicomico County won her latest prize playing a $100,000 Lucky scratch-off ticket, Maryland Lottery said Monday.

Mary Elliot of Buckingham County, Virginia, won $110,000 in the state lottery.

When asked by lottery officials how she managed to win for a third time, she said research.

“We figure out which scratch-off games have been on sale for a long time but still have a lot of big-money prizes,” she said.

The information is available on the Maryland Lottery website. The $100,000 Lucky game, for example, debuted last September and still has more than 40 top prizes available.
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While Hospitalizations Approach 5,000, October Can't Come Soon Enough

The next round of Covid booster shots should be modified to target the extremely contagious omicron subvariants BA.4 and BA.5, the Food and Drug Administration announced Thursday.

The FDA has asked Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna to develop so-called bivalent vaccines that are designed to target the original coronavirus strain, as well as the BA.4 and BA.5 subvariants, Dr. Peter Marks, the FDA’s top vaccine regulator, said in a statement.

“As we move into the fall and winter, it is critical that we have safe and effective vaccine boosters that can provide protection against circulating and emerging variants to prevent the most severe consequences of Covid-19,” Marks said.

The FDA hopes the updated vaccines will be available for an anticipated October booster campaign, according to Marks.

Not Even Tigers Are Safe

A tiger at an Ohio zoo has died after developing pneumonia caused by Covid-19, the zoo announced Wednesday.

Jupiter, a 14-year-old old Amur tiger, died Sunday, the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium said in a Facebook post.

According to the zoo, Jupiter had been on long-term treatment for chronic underlying illnesses, which made him more susceptible to this virus.

The tiger was the first animal at the zoo to die from Covid-19, it said.
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What Were They on When They Passed This Law?

Minnesota is now “Minne-stona” thanks to a new state law legalizing THC edibles and drinks.

The new law, which took effect Friday, allows adults 21 and older to buy cannabis consumables containing a limited amount of THC, the ingredient that makes the “wacky weed,” well, wacky.

Under the law, pot edibles and bud-enhanced beverages can contain up to to 5 milligrams of THC per serving ― about half the standard dose found in recreational marijuana products in other states, according to The Associated Press. Each package is limited to a total of 50 milligrams.

Although the law requires that the new THC products be derived from legally certified hemp and not marijuana, attorney Jason Tarasek, founder of the Minnesota Cannabis Law firm and a board member of the Minnesota Cannabis Association, told the Star-Tribune that 5 milligrams produces the same effect whether it’s derived from hemp or marijuana.

“This stuff will get you high, no doubt about it,” Tarasek said. “Everybody’s calling it hemp-derived THC, which makes it sound like something other than marijuana. But I went on social media and I called it adult-use marijuana, because that’s what most people are going to consider this to be.”

Many of Minnesota’s marijuana advocates were frankly surprised the bill was passed in the state’s Republican-controlled Senate.

It’s unclear if state Senate leaders fully realized the law would legalize Delta 9 THC edibles before they agreed to pass it.

Sen. Jim Abeler (R-Anoka) admitted to the Star-Tribune that he thought the new law would regulate only Delta 8 THC products and didn’t realize the new law would legalize edibles with any type of THC.

Delta 8 THC and Delta 9 THC are both cannabinoids found in cannabis, but Delta 9 is more common and easier to extract, according to DiscoverMagazine.com. While Delta 9 is more potent, it also has more side effects, including mental fog. Delta 8 reportedly tends to just relax people.

“I thought we were doing a technical fix, and it winded up having a broader impact than I expected,” Abeler said.
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Nothing Like a Road Trip with a Child.  I Wonder if the Kid Asked "Are We There, Yet?"

With abortion outlawed after six weeks in Ohio, physicians in neighboring Indiana described an influx of out-of-state patients seeking care. Among them: a pregnant 10-year-old.

Dr. Caitlin Bernard, an Indianapolis obstetrician-gynecologist, told the Indianapolis Star that just three days after the federal right to an abortion was reversed she received a call from a colleague, a child abuse doctor in Ohio, who needed her help. The physician had a pregnant patient, a 10-year-old, who could no longer legally undergo the procedure in her home state.
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Shamu Is on a Rampage.  First the Bison.  Now the Orcas.  What Does It Mean?

In 2017, five great white shark carcasses washed ashore in four months in South Africa. Four of them were missing livers, and one had its heart removed.

Now, scientists have zeroed in on the suspects: a pair of male orcas named Port and Starboard with a taste for energy-rich shark liver.

The attacks have continued, and the pair are probably not the only orcas terrorizing great whites in the area. A study published in the peer-reviewed African Journal of Marine Science on Wednesday found that orcas are displacing great whites as the top predator in Gansbaai, a popular shark viewing destination about 75 miles east of Cape Town. With great whites increasingly absent, smaller predators can multiply unchecked, threatening prey species and destabilizing the entire ecosystem.

Similar responses when a new top predator arrives in a land ecosystem have been well-studied, but documenting the same phenomenon in the ocean is rare, according to Alison Towner, a marine biologist at the Dyer Island Conservation Trust who led the study.

“We now have direct evidence that one of the oceans largest apex predators completely displaces the another, and it is the first time in the world that white shark carcasses have been available for scientific examination directly after being hunted by Killer whales,” she wrote in an email to The Post.
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This May Be a Good Idea, But Some Worrying Details

If you’re a California taxpayer being hurt by inflation, you may be getting some financial relief.

The state is sending 23 million residents “inflation relief” checks of up to $1,050 this fall to help ease the financial burden that the highest inflation in 40 years has placed on Americans.

“California’s budget addresses the state’s most pressing needs,” California Gov. Gavin Newsom said in a joint statement with state lawmakers on Sunday, “and prioritizes getting dollars back into the pockets of millions of Californians who are grappling with global inflation and rising prices of everything from gas to groceries.”

The $17 billion inflation relief package at the center of the state’s new budget agreement includes direct payments of up to $1,050, depending on income and the number of dependents, for millions of California residents. The inflation relief package will also suspend the state sales tax on diesel fuel to help combat pain at the pump, and provide more aid to help residents pay their rent and utility bills.  (Why diesel fuel?)

The relief payments will run between $200 and $1,050; the amount will vary depending on a person’s income, their tax filing status and how many dependents they claim, similar to how the Economic Impact Payment stimulus checks were sorted earlier in the pandemic.

The payments are structured into three tiers, as reported by The Mercury News.

Tier one covers 14.2 million taxpayers who make up to $75,000 as single filers or $150,000 jointly, and gives $350 to each individual, plus another $350 if the person has at least one dependent. A couple in this income bracket with a dependent would get the maximum $1,050.

Tier two covers 2.1 million taxpayers who make between $75,000 and $125,000 as single filers or $150,000 to $250,000 jointly, and gives $250 to each individual, plus another $250 if the person has at least one dependent. A couple in this income bracket with a dependent would get $750.

Tier three covers 1.1 million taxpayers who make between $125,000 to $250,000 as single filers or $250,000 to $500,000 jointly, and gives $200 to each individual, plus another $200 if the person has at least one dependent. A couple in this income bracket with a dependent would get $600. (Does someone making $200K really need help buying gas?)
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