01/20/23
Good morning! It’s Friday, January 20th. National Cheese Lovers Day!
Hey, have you heard of cheese? It’s, like, so good.
Here’s a recipe I invented and it sounds nuts, but it’s really really awesome.
Mozzarella, tomato, some fresh basil, and a little olive oil. Mix it all together in a salad, toss it on a sandwich… you can even eat it on its own.
Anyway, that’s something I invented. No one else has ever done that before. I am a culinary genius.
And now, the news.
SCOTUS “Can’t Find” the Leak
-Hobby Lobby leak by NY Times
I don’t know what it is about this story, but I am furious over it. Which means we get to play… hey! I wonder how short I can keep this episode without seeing red and going on a tangent about how absurd this all is.
The Supreme Court!
Whoops – I’m already mad again.
The Supreme Court announced on Thursday that they are unable to identify the Dobbs ruling leaker.
As a reminder, in an unprecedented moment, months before the Dobbs ruling officially came out (which signaled the end of Roe as we know it), Politico somehow obtained the draft ruling.
This was a big deal.
Not as big of a deal as, say, removing someone’s right to bodily autonomy and privacy, but, you know… still a big deal.
And the Court was like – yeah! This is bad! We’re gonna get right on this… probably it was a democrat, right? Probably the democrat was mad? Yeah we gotta look into this and see what democrat did it.
Actually they just said they’d look into it. But it was highly speculated to be a liberal within the High Court, because they were mad and wanted to organize around it asap.
And then the Dobbs report came out, and everyone (reasonably) focused in on that instead.
But then! Okay here are two things that are not related but give a picture of vibes around the Court.
First – In a very special episode of the Meadows hour, we learned that Ginny Thomas, wife of Supreme Court Justice, and historical badman, Clarence Thomas, sent some sketchy, as well truly embarrassing, texts to Mark Meadows about how the election was stolen and Trump needs to fight to stay in office.
Which is not illegal, but it’s also not chill.
And we all just had to take her word, on the stand to the January 6th Committee, that she didn’t tell her husband the same thing.
This has nothing to do with the leak, but speaks to publics feelings on the Court. Because unless you were super into January 6th, you likely didn’t feel comfortable with the wife of the Supreme Court being that close with the President’s chief of staff.
Then, we found out that, years ago, Justice Alito let slip the Hobby Lobby ruling at a dinner party. You may remember I talked about this in November.
As a reminder - In early June of 2014, Justice Alito had dinner with an Ohio couple that donated to Former Rev. Schenck’s anti-abortion group. A day later, one of the women at the dinner emailed the following to Schenck: “Rob, if you want some interesting news please call. No emails.” And that’s when he says he was told about the Hobby Lobby ruling.
After the Dobbs leak, Schenk reached out to Chief Justice Roberts, who ordered the investigation into the Dobbs leak, to tell him about this Hobby Lobby leak. For whatever reason (lol yes. “whatever reason”… democratic House, Senate, and Presidency) Roberts never got back to Schenck.
Important reminder – Justice Alito wrote both the opinions for both the Hobby Lobby and Dobbs rulings. Which I’m sure is just an interesting coincidence.
NOW, given all the puzzle pieces
So given all that context, here’s the headline again.
The Supreme Court announced on Thursday that they are unable to identify the Dobbs ruling leaker.
And like – okay, fine. You haven’t found the leaker yet. BUT here’s where I’m at… sometimes we don’t look too closely into things because we don’t want to know. Because ignorance is bliss. Is that what happened here?
Because if you’re telling me you really truly looked into it and exhausted all options… I don’t know if I believe that. And to be clear, this, right now, this part of this story is opinion. But I just don’t know that I trust that they are taking this seriously enough.
And it’s frustrating. And we can’t do anything about it except just stay on alert – and vote in every single election. Because I know we don’t vote for Supreme Court Justices, but we vote for them earlier in their career. When they’re youth judges. And we vote for the president that picks them. And then Senate that approves them.
And I have fifteen more hours of thoughts on this, but in the meantime let me leave you with this:
A-Leak-O
Charges in the “Rust” Shooting
-via ABC News
Alec Baldwin and armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed will both be charged with two counts of involuntary manslaughter for the 2021 death of Cinematographer Halyna Hutchins.
The first AD David Halls already pled no contest for his charge of negligent use of a deadly weapon.
Infuriatingly, Baldwin’s lawyer put out a statement saying this was a miscarriage of justice and they will be fighting the charges.
My guy – I don’t know what to tell you. You are supposed to check. Stop putting her family through this… accept responsibility. For once.
Charges will be formally filed before the end of the month.
Debt Limit Reached
-via Reuters
Yesterday morning, the US hit its debt limit of $31.4 trillion.
Treasury Secretary Yellen let the House know that her department will be using extraordinary measures to keep us out of default until June 5th.
Hey! June 5th. Here’s hoping the government doesn’t shut down on my birthday.
Yellen called on Congress to act quickly in response to this, since that date, June 5th, is best case scenario.
Naturally, Republicans would like to use this moment to force the White House’s hand and cut government programs.
In response, the White House has hard passed, reminding them that they addressed the debt limit three times under their precious Trump. So… we’ll see.
But for now, the Government remains open.
And that’s it. That’s the news. Honestly, it just has to be. Because I’m in a mood about the SCOTUS leak and the fact that Baldwin wants to drag out his charges. It’s been for everyone if we wrap this bad boy up.
I’m proud of cheese. And my exceptional palate that thought to put together mozzarella, tomato, and basil. Seriously, try it. You’ll be shocked.
But more than that… more than order a cheese pizza and wondering what the point of even having a Supreme Court is if they’re just going to play it fast and loose with the rules and no one even trusts them…. And wait let me stop because, again, I’m genuinely riling myself up again. Like, this isn’t even a bit. I’m so bad that I’m laughing. I’m just frustrated.
Ugh. The point… I’m proud of you.