Wednesday, July 01, 2026

Dildo.

 Well tailored, expensive, empty fucking suit.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v6wEPmDn_i4 

Get money out of politics. Start there. Then make things fair. Then the nation can prosper. And will. Healthcare. Day care. general decency. 

End bullshit? This man shows it as counterproductive, favoring the money-rules-the-USA Republican outlook. 

 Actually you cannot end it, but under the First Amendment you are free to expose it.

That goes for Tom Emmer. 

An unfamiliar source reporting on a too familiar outcome - The Supremes do it again.

https://www.pressreader.com/similar/281492168048483 

Great stuff. Money in politics wins the day, again. The bastards.

UPDATE: Search now turns up mainstream direct stories:

AP - https://apnews.com/article/supreme-court-campaign-finance-party-spending-ohio-91e49ee112197ae1210a9abfa46986ed

MPR - https://www.npr.org/2026/06/30/nx-s1-5827039/supreme-court-campaign-finance

NYT - paywalled. 

Too depressing to go into detail. Follow the links. 

FURTHER; Politics for fucking sale. Note the AP headline, Supreme Court strikes down limits on party spending in federal elections, backing Republican appeal

It was the moneyed millionaire party, the Republicans, who wanted the change. No surprise in that, but what continues to amaze and surprise is the fact that party has MAGA low income support. Fucking dumb people. 

At least there's a glimmer of light in the recent string of Democratic Socialist successes. Some of the electorate is paying attention. Listening. Figuring things out.


The Mirror trashes Trump's Great American Fair. Not earth shattering news. But interesting.

 Here and here. One thing out of there - Trump approval holds at 37%.

 How can that many people be that delusional? 5% seems the "earned" level for the war-fucker-upper, while inflation rages. BOTTOM LINE: That performance is not worth a 37% approval rating. No way.

 

ProPublica publishes, "A Troubling Milestone: Most Supreme Court Rulings Are Secretive Votes With Little Justification"

https://www.propublica.org/article/supreme-court-shadow-docket-rulings-milestone 

The Shadow Docket exists, and in a sense, ProPublica pulls the curtain aside like little Toto showing the Wizzard. The item begins:

In its term that ended last October, the Supreme Court passed an important milestone that went unnoticed: For the first time, it decided more cases by secret ballot, and with few signed opinions, than it did for cases argued in open court.

These decisions, which make up the court’s “shadow docket,” are a fast-track way to get a decision from the top court. They rarely include arguments, have limited briefings and have expedited timetables, and justices infrequently provide explanation of how they voted or to cite legal precedent. 

The Supreme Court’s increased willingness to bypass its regular process has empowered President Donald Trump at the same time as the administration has increased use of executive authority. The court has repeatedly green-lit policies of his that lower courts have blocked — and has done so with little to no explanation. 

These emergency decisions have thrown lower courts’ processes into turmoil and have sometimes directly contradicted longstanding legal precedent. The outcomes have been consequential: The high court has used the process to limit federal courts from issuing nationwide injunctions and diminished Congress’ authority over federal agencies, and it has allowed for the detention of American citizens by immigration agents

ProPublica analyzed over two decades of Supreme Court rulings, which cover all of the years under Chief Justice John Roberts and go as far back as the online archives allow. We found that when the last court term ended, justices had issued 63 orders on the shadow docket, as opposed to 56 orders on the more traditional merits docket — where the court hears oral arguments scheduled months in advance and the justices issue signed opinions.

Legal scholars and court watchers were shocked by our finding. They told ProPublica it’s likely the first time in modern history that so many consequential decisions were made in secret by its nine members.

“The patterns show a court going out of its way to enable Trump,” said Stephen Vladeck, a law professor at Georgetown University and a Supreme Court analyst. He said that our findings reinforce the appearance that the justices are voting on their political preferences. 

“That’s the real blow to the court’s credibility,” he said.

Representatives from the Supreme Court did not respond to a detailed list of questions. 

Further in the item:

For the First Time in Two Decades, Decisions on the Supreme Court’s Shadow Docket Outnumber the Merits Docket

Note: Supreme Court terms run from October to October. Ken Morales/ProPublica

There are two ways to get a decision from the Supreme Court. One is to exhaust your appeals to lower courts and ask to argue your case in front of the high court. The justices determine whether to take the case on, and if they do, lawyers argue their case in front of them. The other is to petition the justices directly via the emergency docket — to freeze a lower court ruling or government policy while the case goes through appeal.

The appeals to the emergency docket have long outnumbered those to the merits docket, but most are procedural requests or requests to stay execution for capital offenses. When those are removed, what’s left is known as the shadow docket — cases that seek to skip the usual order of things and ask for a quick ruling from the court’s justices.

The modern shadow docket was born in 2016 when the Supreme Court issued an emergency stay against President Barack Obama’s Clean Power Plan, experts say. Papers obtained by The New York Times show that liberal justices at the time urged Roberts not to decide the case on an emergency basis because it broke with longtime precedent. The conservative justices, meanwhile, forcefully argued that the president’s plan would eventually be overturned by the court anyway and that it would put too much of a burden on the energy industry.

Driven by its numerous losses in lower courts, the current Trump administration appeals to the emergency docket significantly more often than previous administrations, and the court has increasingly agreed to take quick action on its appeals.

The Obama and George W. Bush administrations together filed just eight petitions in 16 years. The Trump administration filed 32 in 2025 alone, an analysis by the Brennan Center for Justice found.

Trump would not call that abusive. Everybody else would, except for the black robed shadow operators. They are okay with it, they yield to it, and that encourages it.

======================================================== 

Read the whole thing. And bless ProPublica for its outstanding citizenship.

Also know about: https://www.supremecourt.gov/docket/docket.aspx 

 

 

Another one bites the dust - Entrenched Dem ousted by Democratic Socialist in Colorado primary -- Taking to a stage under a sign that read “Power to the People," Kiros told her supporters that her win belonged to every one of them. “This is a movement,” Kiros said. “We are just getting started.”

 The italicized part of the headline is an item quote, from here.

Follow that link for the AP video and text.

The DNC - Ken Martin policy is no thumb on the scale in primary contests.

https://democrats.org/news/ --- After the solicitations lead page is toggled off, The DNC congratulates winners of Colorado primary elections held yesterday. Now that the voting is over in the primary, contestants are set, with the goal is to flip the House and Senate. 

Stuff Costs Too Much Action

 https://democrats.org/dnc-launches-nationwide-stuff-costs-too-much-weekend-of-action-with-more-than-200-on-the-ground-events-taking-place-in-communities-throughout-the-country/

While focusing on affordability and holding Republicans accountable for making life more expensive, thousands of Democrats will spend the weekend participating in canvasses, community meetings, voter registration drives, volunteer trainings, phone banks, and service events that reach, engage, and mobilize working families

Today, the DNC announced the launch of a nationwide Stuff Costs Too Much Weekend of Action that will train 150 new organizers, engage thousands of volunteers, and include more than 200 on-the-ground events throughout the country today, Saturday, and Sunday. Democratic volunteers, organizers, and campaign staff will spend the weekend having nearly 10,000 conversations with working families during door-to-door canvasses, innovative voter registration drives, neighborhood meetings, Know Your Rights trainings, service events, and phone banks. While holding Republicans accountable for jacking up costs, the weekend will also focus on the work Democrats are doing to make life more affordable.

In response to the launch of the Stuff Costs Too Much Weekend of Action, DNC Chair Ken Martin released the following statement:

“From groceries and gas to healthcare, childcare, rent, and utilities, everything costs too damn much under Donald Trump and the Republicans. And to stop these skyrocketing prices that are crushing working families, we have to stop the Republicans in November. That’s why Democrats are launching this nationwide weekend of action to reach, engage, register, and mobilize voters who will make the difference in races up and down the ballot. By organizing early and organizing everywhere, Democrats will win these midterms and get to work making life more affordable.”  

The nationwide weekend of action will feature affordability-focused events with elected officials and partner organizations. That includes: 

 [... follow the link at the start for the full item]

Also, https://www.facebook.com/100064184102876/posts/were-launching-our-stuff-costs-too-much-weekend-of-action-with-200-nationwide-ev/1450086040474186/ 

UPDATE: https://x.com/kenmartin73/status/2070522643804025321

Do search = stuff costs too much action -- to get more links, some noting specific State activities under the general attentional goosing effort.

BOTTOM LINE: Stuff costs too much. Really. 

Today's quick thought.

I was born in St. Louis, lived in Ferguson, and never have yet and hope to never assimilate into Tom Emmer's world. While young, I wondered why the Russians were our friends in WWII but then a Red Scare, and J. Edgar Hoover and Joe McCarthy were telling me how to live as an American. 

I will never assimilate into J. Edgar Hoover's world. Or Trump - Epstein. Those are and will be alien worlds to me until I croak. Ditto, Emmer World.

UPDATE: The group Emmer was speaking to. The Ralph Reed kind. Who the fuck would want to assimilate into that snake pit group? Not Somali people. Not me. 

Assimilate to be more like Peter Thiel Palantir? Assimilate to cartoonship, like Hegseth.. 

Assimilate to crypto touting? End of rant.