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The well-worn adage that opinions are like a**holes has never been more accurate than following today's blockbuster Supreme Court decisions. The birthright citizenship decision was less about birthright citizenship and more about limiting federal judges from issuing nationwide injunctions. This gives more power to the executive branch. And not just any executive branch. This executive branch. NYT (Gift Article): In Birthright Citizenship Case, Supreme Court Limits Power of Judges to Block Trump Policies. Justice Sotomayor for the minority: "No right is safe in the new legal regime the Court creates ... With the stroke of a pen, the President has made a ‘solemn mockery’ of our Constitution. Rather than stand firm, the Court gives way. Because such complicity should know no place in our system of law, I dissent." In another 6-3 decision, the Court ruled that "public schools in Maryland must allow parents with religious objections to withdraw their children from classes in which storybooks with L.G.B.T.Q. themes are discussed. Sotomayor: "The Court’s ruling, in effect, thus hands a subset of parents the right to veto curricular choices long left to locally elected school boards. Because I cannot countenance the Court’s contortion of our precedent and the untold harms that will follow, I dissent." Meanwhile, the Court "upheld a Texas law requiring age verification to access adult websites, saying despite First Amendment claims, the law 'only incidentally burdens the protected speech of adults.' The ruling, in Free Speech Coalition v. Paxton, opens the door to age-gating in states nationwide." (Gee, this oughta be popular...) Decisions like these that empower the executive and right-leaning religious enthusiasts are precisely what this SCOTUS majority was formed to render. To quote another more recent adage: "They are who we thought they were."
+ From NYT (Gift Article): The Major Supreme Court Decisions in 2025. Read em and weep.
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Virginia Wolf
The Court gives the executive branch more power on a day when the executive branch reminds us how it will continue to abuse that power — and that others will often cede to it. "The University of Virginia’s president, James E. Ryan, has told the board overseeing the school that he will resign in the face of demands by the Trump administration that he step aside in order to help resolve a Justice Department inquiry into the school’s diversity, equity and inclusion efforts." A headline that would have been unthinkable in the America of a few months ago. NYT(Gift Article): University of Virginia President Resigns Under Pressure From Trump Administration.
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Et Tuvalu?
Last week, I suggested a series called Families Like Ours, in which the entire nation of Denmark shuts down in the face of impending floods, instantly turning all Danes into refugees. For residents of the Island of Tuvalu, that's not a limited series, it's a reality show. A third of Pacific island nation applies for Australian climate change visa.
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Weekend Whats
What to Watch: In The Better Sister on Prime, "Chloe, a high-profile media executive, lives a picturesque life with her handsome lawyer husband Adam and teenage son Ethan by her side while her estranged sister Nicky struggles to make ends meet and stay clean." And, as with pretty much every show these days, there's a murder. The series stars Elizabeth Banks and Jessica Biel and Jessica Biel's shoulders (which seem to be shown off in almost every scene and have completely reset my pilates goals).
+ What to Binge: The Bear is back. My wife and I burned through the first 4 episodes in one shot. It's as binge-able as ever and the soundtrack is awesome.
+ What to Stoke: I've recommended it before, but here's one more reminder to watch 100 Foot Wave on Max. It's a great series with awesome settings, excellent music, amazing cinematography, and it's a sports-related documentary that's not afraid to show flaws in the athletes it covers.
+ What to Bruce: "It's a great day when your favorite artist releases a new record. But what if they released seven new records at once, recorded across almost three decades, full of music you didn't even know existed?" The essential listening guide to Bruce Springsteen's Tracks II: The Lost Albums. After you've read a little background (or skipped that part), pop in the airpods and get listening.
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Extra, Extra
Face the Face: "Mike German, a former FBI agent, said officers’ widespread use of masks was unprecedented in US law enforcement and a sign of a rapidly eroding democracy. 'Masking symbolizes the drift of law enforcement away from democratic controls.'" (It's not a drift, it's a sprint.) The alarming rise of US officers hiding behind masks. (Just tell them the masks can protect against Covid. They'll take them off.)
+ Disorder at the Border: "Perhaps nowhere is fear among farm workers more palpable than on the farms and ranches along the southwestern U.S.-Mexico border, where for centuries workers have considered the frontier as being more porous than prohibitive." NYT (Gift Article): On a Quiet Southern Border, Empty Farms and Frightened Workers.
+ Erased But Not Forgotten: Pentagon Strips Harvey Milk’s Name From Navy Vessel. (Feel safer?) Hope they saved the letters because we're gonna put 'em back some day.
+ Married to the Taliban: "There is a saying in Pashto (language): A woman’s place is either inside the house or in the grave. But this is not merely a simple proverb, it is rather a law that dictates the social role of women among the Pashtun people. It means that a woman has no place outside the walls of her house. She has no right to study and no right to work. Deprived of these fundamental rights, women remain far removed from any kind of participation in society. The confines of their home become their whole world and, in that small space, they continue to suffer all kinds of violence." Aeon: Taliban bride. "Women in Afghanistan are prisoners in their own homes. This is the story of Marjan, married at 12 to a Taliban fighter."
+ Balls Deep: Earlier this week, we learned that the infamous, 19-year-old DOGE-ist known as Big Balls had retired from government. No such luck. Key Member of Musk’s DOGE Moves to Social Security.
+ Harmers Market: The market doesn't seem to mind the chaos in Washington. It climbed back to pre-tariff levels and then some. S&P 500 hits record high as stock market surges.
+ Defame and Fortune: Gavin Newsom sues Fox News for defamation and demands $787m. (Suing Fox for defamation is like suing a fish for getting wet.)
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Feel Good Friday
We hear a lot about the dangerous rise in crime. But the numbers suggest that America’s Incarceration Rate Is About to Fall Off a Cliff. And, the US is on track to record the lowest violent crime rate since 1968.
+ "For the students who made it here to graduation, and especially for the 70 or so who stand, today is a celebration. As they move their tassels from right to left and toss their caps into the air, they cry and hug and take in this moment of reprieve from living in hotel rooms, waiting in line at donation centers and sitting in unending uncertainty." At Jackie Robinson's high school, Altadena rebuilds after fire.
+ Gates Foundation commits $1.6 billion to Gavi over five years.
+ "In a