June 27, 2015

We have at least one more big ruling to come from SCOTUS

NOTE: This could have huge implications for Congressional races in AZ, CA and IA.

As dramatic and consequential as last week was, with rulings on Obamacare and marriage equality, the U.S. Supreme Court is not quite finished. On Monday, the high court is expected to issue its ruling in an Arizona case that could detonate one of California’s most significant political reforms.

At issue is whether a state’s voters have the authority to empower a citizens commission — rather than state legislators — to draw congressional boundaries.

Arizona’s 2000 voter initiative set up a bipartisan commission to handle the decennial redistricting process. It’s composed of two Republicans, two Democrats and a fifth member chosen by the other four.

Republicans who control the Arizona Legislature are challenging that system in the case that has reached the U.S. Supreme Court. It is no coincidence that Republicans could reap a big payoff if they seized control of the redistricting process: They now hold five of the state’s nine congressional seats, and could gain two more if they were able to redraw the lines in competitive areas now represented by Democrats.


http://www.sfchronicle.com/opinion/diaz/article/Diaz-Court-s-next-big-ruling-could-shake-up-6352854.php

June 27, 2015

Inhofe: Lots of my gay friends think the ‘liberal’ Supreme Court blew it on gay marriage.

Republican senator from Oklahoma, who one brought a snowball onto the Senate floor to disprove climate change, expressed his dismay with the Supreme Court clearing the path for same sex marriages nationwide, adding he has friends in the gay community who agree with him.

Sen. James Inhofe (R) told KJRH that the U.S. Supreme Court is “A very liberal court and we saw what happened last week,” referring to an earlier court decision allowing the Affordable Care Act to continue forward.

Adding, “They haven’t ruled right on anything in a long time,” Inhofe turned to Friday’s landmark decision making same sex marriage the law of the land, saying he has gay friends who agreed with him that it was decided improperly.

“I’ve been disappointed, and I was not surprised. I thought they would rule the way they did. I know a lot of people, actually a lot of people who are friends of mine in the gay community, who also think it was a bad decision,” he explained.



http://www.rawstory.com/2015/06/oklahoma-gop-senator-lots-of-my-gay-friends-think-the-liberal-supreme-court-blew-it-on-gay-marriage/

June 27, 2015

GOP keeps in place funding ban on gun violence research

A GOP-led panel blocked a proposal Wednesday that would have reversed a nearly 20-year-old ban on funding for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to research on gun violence.

The House Appropriations Committee voted 32-19 against ranking member Rep. Nita Lowey's (D-N.Y.) amendment to a bill that would fund health, education and labor programs in the next fiscal year.

“When it comes to gun violence, my friends, this committee won’t give one dime for the CDC to conduct research on something that is killing Americans by the thousands,” Lowey said.

Lowey attempted to undo the 1996 congressional ban that was first proposed by then-Rep. Jay Dickey (R-Ark.). She noted that Dickey later supported lifting the prohibition on the CDC.

“I rise to oppose the amendment,” Rep. Tom Cole (R-Okla.) said of Lowey’s proposal. “We don’t think this place is the appropriate place for a debate over the Second Amendment.”


http://thehill.com/policy/finance/245983-gop-panel-votes-to-keep-funding-ban-for-gun-violence-research

June 27, 2015

Pixar’s “Inside Out,” childhood depression and the emotional stranglehold of “Minnesota nice”

In Pixar’s latest effort, “Inside Out”, an 11-year-old girl named Riley Anderson and her parents move to San Francisco from Minnesota. It’s a stressful undertaking that puts Riley’s emotions through the wringer, yet allows her the deeper sense of emotional wellbeing necessary to become a balanced and reasoned adult. However, buried in the subtext of the film is a message that speaks deeply to the reality of growing up in the Midwest.

Often classified as “Minnesota nice,” the Nordic background of much of the upper Midwest contributes to a mindset that values emotional restraint over honest dialogue about wellbeing. In the pop culture landscape, this dysfunction is often cast in a (darkly) humorous light, the most recent example being the television adaptation of Coen brothers’ classic film “Fargo.” Showrunner for the FX series Noah Hawley even speaks to the repression of the area, saying, “It felt to me like a regional thing, where someone who’s so buttoned up and constrained by polite society, to make a declarative sentence is to risk offending someone.”

In “Inside Out”, this sense of emotional misrepresentation makes for a perilous situation, leaving a young girl, raised in an environment where appearing happy is valued over all else, left unequipped to process difficult emotions when they come calling.

Riley and her parents’ relocation to the West Coast is more than a story catalyst, it’s an opportunity to undo the latent damage of a restrictive social environment. For Riley, that is. To look at the emotional consoles of Riley’s parents is to see the cost of living too long in a place that encourages uniformity and repression. Running each parent’s respective console is a team made up of a single gender, uniformly represented. For mom, the team leader is Sadness. For dad, Anger. For both, Joy takes a backseat. While each parent has a fully functioning console run by a cooperative team, it’s telling that they each default to emotions far from the Joy they encourage their daughter to exhibit.


http://www.salon.com/2015/06/26/i_couldnt_be_their_happy_girl_pixars_inside_out_childhood_depression_and_the_emotional_stranglehold_of_minnesota_nice/

June 27, 2015

Trump’s Latino outreach continues: Univision workers banned from using his Miami golf course

Reality star Donald Trump continued his feud with Univision on Friday, telling the broadcaster’s CEO that no company employee would be admitted inside the Miami golf course and resort Trump owns, Politico reported.

“Under no circumstances is any officer or representative of Univision allowed to use Trump National Doral, Miami — its golf courses or any of its facilities,” Trump wrote in a letter to Univision head Randy Falco. “Also, please immediately stop work and close the gate which is being constructed between our respective properties. If this is not done within one week, we will close it.”

The letter was released a day after the network announced it would no longer broadcast the Miss USA pageant, which is run by Trump’s organization of the same name, citing Trump’s anti-immigrant comments during his campaign launch event earlier this month. Univision said in a statement that it was cutting all ties with the real estate mogul.

“At Univision, we see first-hand the work ethic, love for family, strong religious values and the important role Mexican immigrants and Mexican-Americans have had and will continue to have in building the future of our country,” the statement read.

http://www.rawstory.com/2015/06/trumps-latino-outreach-continues-univision-workers-banned-from-using-his-miami-golf-course/

June 27, 2015

Ted Cruz thinks the past 24 hours have been darker for America than the Charleston killings.

It's safe to say Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) was horrified by this week's landmark Supreme Court rulings on Obamacare are gay marriage.

In an appearance on Sean Hannity's radio show on Friday, Cruz, who is running for president, made it clear he thought the rulings represented a sad moment for America.

"Today is some of the darkest 24 hours in our nation's history," Cruz said after Hannity asked how he was doing, according to audio posted by Mediaite.

Cruz went on to describe both rulings as "naked and shameless judicial activism."



http://www.businessinsider.com/cruz-supreme-court-rulings-mean-the-darkest-24-hours-in-history-2015-6#ixzz3eDaikZtA

June 26, 2015

Roberts used Scalia's own words against him in ACA case.

Justice Antonin Scalia strongly objected to Thursday's Supreme Court decision upholding the Affordable Care Act, so it was amusing to see Chief Justice John Roberts use Scalia's own dissent in the last major Obamacare case against him.

It was buried in a footnote and amounted to a small dart lobbed Scalia's way, especially when compared to Scalia's blistering dissent that ripped Roberts' legal reasoning.

To defend making the subsidies available to consumers everywhere, Roberts cited a line the dissent to the 2012 decision in favor of Obamacare, in which Scalia said, "Without the federal subsidies . . . the exchanges would not operate as Congress intended and may not operate at all."

Roberts used the line to argue that it "is implausible that Congress meant the Act to operate" in a manner to limit the subsidies only to those states with state-operated exchanges, as the challengers in King v. Burwell argued.


http://talkingpointsmemo.com/dc/scalia-dissent-obamacare-used-against-him

June 26, 2015

Eric Clapton - Promises (VIDEO)

June 26, 2015

NBC Releases Statement Distancing Network from Trump’s Mexico Remarks

Donald Trump managed to piss off Latinos so much with his comments about Mexican immigrant rapists, Univision called off its simulcast of the Miss USA pageant––which Trump runs––and despite Trump’s threat of a lawsuit, the damage from his remarks has already been done.

Now, all of this leaves NBC awkwardly stuck in the middle. NBC is also partnered with the Miss Universe Organization and airs both Miss USA and Miss Universe. On top of that, Trump has hosted their long-running reality show series Celebrity Apprentice.

Earlier this month, NBC said they would be “reevaluating” his role at the network, given his presidential run, but today they released a statement seemingly distancing themselves from the Donald.

It reads: “Donald Trump’s opinions do not represent those of NBC, and we do not agree with his positions on a number of issues, including his recent comments on immigration.”

http://www.mediaite.com/online/nbc-releases-statement-distancing-network-from-trumps-mexico-remarks/

June 26, 2015

Pat Boone asks Obama to empathize with Dylann Roof’s racial fears

Boone expressed similar concerns to Charleston terror suspect Dylann Roof about the coverage of Trayvon Martin’s killing by George Zimmerman, and he echoed police claims about the shooting of Michael Brown – who he described as a “very large black man.”

“At no time do I recall your mentioning the far greater instances of ‘black on black’ crimes, the high percentage of crimes of all types committed annually by blacks, or the senseless looting and violence that follows the inflamed ‘protests’ after one of the above-mentioned incidents,” Boone said. “Strange that you, our half-white president, have little to say about these things.”

Boone dismisses the massacre of nine black worshipers last week by an avowed white supremacist as a “satanically inspired” attack against Christians.

“Yes, I said, ‘inspired by Satan’!” Boone reiterated. “Though this had a racist element, to be sure, it was more than that and of far greater significance to America than that. This boy wasn’t just a sadist, or even criminally insane – he was carefully prepared and led by the Devil himself to kill as many Christians as he could. The fact that they were black was an excuse more than a reason.”


http://www.rawstory.com/2015/06/pat-boone-asks-obama-to-empathize-with-dylann-roof-as-he-echoes-charleston-gunmans-racist-fears/