“A former US Olympian was arrested for allegedly vandalizing the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool in Washington DC. David Hearn, a three-time Olympic canoeist, was cycling past the monument on Friday when he said he stopped and noticed a piece of the pool’s liner floating in the water. President Trump announced that ‘many additional people’ have also been arrested in connection to the ‘disgraceful Vandalism [sic].’ … Trump claimed that the vandals poured destructive chemicals into the pool and that it would have to be drained so that repairs could be made. … Hearn, 67, claimed to the Washington Post he reached out and touched the detached piece and was quickly taken into custody by Park Police at the beleaguered monument.” [editor’s note: This story seems to imply that Hearn had no ill intent; so what is the real story? – SAT] (06/20/26)
“From the gas pump to the produce aisle, Americans are seeking respite from high prices. They now have a new champion. On Wednesday, Kevin Warsh made his debut as head of the Federal Reserve, easily the world’s most influential economic institution. The central bank chief told reporters the many ways he would change the Fed to rein in inflation. Yet, after being in office for only about three weeks, he also noted his own surprise at one immediate change. ‘I was just incredibly impressed” about how much the Fed’s colleagues have been ‘very open about changes,’ he said. The comment is noteworthy because Mr. Warsh believes that ‘genuine’ deliberation among experts – relying on patient inquiry, respectful listening, and civil attentiveness to alternative views and data – is key to controlling the nation’s money supply and interest rates.” (06/18/26)
“Supporters of India’s viral Cockroach Janta Party banged steel plates with spoons in a protest Saturday to demand the resignation of the education minister over allegations of examination irregularities and repeated paper leaks. The protest near Parliament in New Delhi by hundreds of students and young supporters of the nascent movement added to the pressure on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government while also seeking wider support among Indians. Authorities deployed heavy security and police used cameras and drones to monitor the protest. Some carried placards and others banged plates, their noise cutting through the crowd protesting and demanding the resignation of Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan. The banging of plates appeared to satirize Modi’s call for Indians to step onto balconies and rooftops and bang utensils in solidarity with front-line health workers during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.” (06/20/26)
“The farther south you go on Flatbush Avenue in Brooklyn the more it becomes the sort of lively hectic commercial strip/ party that exists in few places outside of New York. The new sneaker stores and roti restaurants and weird places to buy garish $200 suits and fishnet body suits sit in chipped brick buildings with slapped-up painted wooden signs and you can feel the continuity of history pulsing through, like you could close your eyes and slide right back to the cigar stores and dressmakers that filled those spots a century ago. Set amid this strip is the refurbished King’s Theater — impossibly grand inside, soaring carved wooden columns with twisting, golden wooden flowers and fleur-de-lis and rich crimson curtains dripping in gold fringe. Spectacular. Its unlikely grandeur is somehow enhanced by the fact that it’s shoved down there next to the discount liquor store and the Taco Bell Cantina.” (06/19/26)
“France has banned alcohol at some events at massive national music festival as a heatwave pushes temperatures towards record levels. The annual Fête de la Musique celebrations draw millions to the streets but with the most serious heatwave warnings being issued for 35 of France’s departments, the government has banned alcohol consumption in public places under the red alerts. ‘For all events organised by the state and its agencies, instructions have been given not to offer alcohol,’ the office of Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu said. On Sunday, temperatures of 39C-40C are expected from the southwest through the Paris region into Burgundy, with some areas possibly reaching 41C.” (06/20/26)
“President Rodrigo Paz on Saturday declared a state of emergency that gives the military broad power to remove road blockades that have put a stranglehold on fuel and food supplies in Bolivia’s seat of government and other major cities. A wave of protests over the last five weeks has called for Paz to step down over austerity measures imposed by the government, including the cancellation of fuel subsidies, and other issues. The demonstrations have unleashed violent confrontations between dynamite-wielding demonstrators and riot police, leading to at least 365 arrests and 37 injuries, according to authorities. At least 17 people have died, most of them linked to a lack of medical care caused by transportation disruptions, according to Bolivia’s ombudsman’s office and human rights organizations..” (06/20/26)
“The two candidates for U.S. Senate in Georgia could hardly be more different, both in their presentations and their policies. Voters will choose between two very different views of the world in a race that is emerging as emblematic of the larger midterm election clash of the political parties. Republican Mike Collins, who was elected in 2022 to represent Georgia’s 10th Congressional District, was endorsed by President Trump and won a primary runoff this week over former University of Tennessee football coach Derek Dooley. Mr. Collins, a successful businessman who founded a trucking company, speaks with an easy Georgia drawl you can imagine coming from a CB radio on a long-haul 18-wheeler. The incumbent, Democrat Jon Ossoff, is a Hollywood-connected former documentary filmmaker who is scripted and focus-grouped — the sort of glossy politician the online left swoons for.” (06/18/26)
Source: The Nation
by US Representative Jamie Raskin (D-MD)
“You will hear no more disorienting or self-defeating a platitude uttered on Capitol Hill in this 250th year of the American journey, by politicians of either party, than the sixth-grade dogma that America has ‘three co-equal branches of government.’ That ‘co-equal’ thing is confected nonsense. To begin with, if it is a real word at all, ‘co-equal’ is a mediocre concoction whose lackadaisical users cannot even decide whether it should be hyphenated. By adding the gratuitous prefix to the indispensable stand-alone word, which the Declaration of Independence applied to people, ‘co-equal’ establishes a confusing false equivalency among institutions, making it seem as if the framers wanted the three branches to be involved in a perpetual game of rock-paper-scissors with no apparent preference for actual progress toward a more perfect union.” [editor’s note: Ironic that this do-nothing Congressthug is writing this screed; if he and his colleagues ever bothered to pass a competent bill he might have some standing – SAT] (06/18/26)
“I challenge you to prove your sexual orientation. Go! Not sure how to do that? Good, because I don’t really want to know what you might come up with to prove it, any of it, in any direction. Plus, I’m not really interested; I don’t care what you do as long as whoever you do it with is of age and willing. That being said, California is asking some people to prove that they’re gay so their companies can qualify for certain government contracts. Why? Because if there are set-asides for gay-owned businesses, someone might simply claim to be bisexual and get some of those contracts. How can you prove they’re lying? The state has a checklist to make sure recipients of gay set-asides are gay enough, which means we finally found some fraud Democrats are against.” [editor’s note: It reminds me of when conservatives were claiming that jobsite quotas would mean daily blowjobs for the foreman – SAT] (06/18/26)
“In a society where a woman’s status is still largely viewed as subordinate to that of a man, a recent ruling by India’s Supreme Court spotlights the significant, and largely unacknowledged, contributions of women to both individual households and the national economy. In dry legalese, the June 11 verdict establishes a monetary value for ‘loss of domestic care’ in a compensation case for a 2001 vehicle crash that claimed the life of a young wife and mother of three. The court granted the woman’s family a sum of 6.3 million rupees (about $66,000) – more than 25 times the initial award offered in 2003. And the judges also set a minimum estimate for domestic ‘homemaker’ duties at 30,000 rupees ($317) per month – which is about 10 times the amount previously used. Arriving at the current award and the benchmark for future compensation is about much more than numbers, however.” (06/17/26)
