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Joseph Britt@zathras5.bsky.social |
53 followers 38 following 390 posts
Wisconsin and the world. Opinions my own. Once a Republican.
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Mauri Pelto
@mauri-pelto.bsky.social
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I first worked on this icefield in 1981. Change was expected, but the change we are reporting in 2024 is breathtaking in scale and acceleration. Project led by masterfully by @bethandavies.bsky.social, coordinating many data streams. apnews.com/article/glac...
4 replies 17 reposts 40 likes
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Joseph Britt
@zathras5.bsky.social
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We wanted a decision, we got a decision. Time will tell if it was the right decision, but the word is given.
1 replies 0 reposts 5 likes
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Joseph Britt
@zathras5.bsky.social
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Gettysburg isn’t really about the Civil War. It’s about the battle of Gettysburg. It had ambition and authenticity in that regard you have to admire, and ends with a whole lot of dead Confederates (including Ted Turner!). But as for why the war was fought, etc. it isn’t that kind of movie.
1 replies 0 reposts 1 likes
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Joseph Britt
@zathras5.bsky.social
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Professional parochialism, borne of the smug, self-satisfied entitlement that is the American legal profession’s distinguishing characteristic, is a major reason it has failed so badly at defending American democracy.
0 replies 0 reposts 11 likes
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Benjamin Wittes
@benjaminwittes.bsky.social
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A decision of surpassing recklessness in dangerous times, with @qjurecic.bsky.social: www.lawfaremedia.org/article/a-de...
5 replies 21 reposts 41 likes
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Joseph Britt
@zathras5.bsky.social
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A feature of Roberts’ jurisprudence that has grown more prominent the longer he has been on the Court.
0 replies 1 reposts 38 likes
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Joseph Britt
@zathras5.bsky.social
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No. No it won’t.
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Joseph Britt
@zathras5.bsky.social
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How much would the Court’s Republicans lay out to protect Trump? More than I thought they would, honestly. I didn’t count on Thomas and Alito getting radicalized like Florida retirees who watch Fox News all day. And the others seem afraid of crossing him directly.
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Joseph Britt
@zathras5.bsky.social
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I had wondered that about the Court’s Republican Justices going back to 2017. All of them shared an affinity for Trump’s party. But the three seniors owed nothing to Trump personally, and after their confirmation to lifetime seats the three Trump appointees were not dependent on him either.
1 replies 0 reposts 0 likes
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Joseph Britt
@zathras5.bsky.social
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Debate reaction thread from last night. It’s about the President needing to respond to a serious setback with — as someone once wrote after another misfortune — candor, dignity, and resolve to absorb its lessons.
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Joseph Britt
@zathras5.bsky.social
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4. Americans like comebacks and redemption stories. Biden can make this one. But he has to do it himself. Campaign staff and surrogates can’t do it for him. [end]
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Joseph Britt
@zathras5.bsky.social
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3. Tonight, the story is Biden being old. There’s no way he wins with that, and a lot of Democrats could go down with him. Biden messing up (as other Presidents have done on a debate stage) and resolving not to let his supporters down again is much better.
1 replies 0 reposts 0 likes
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Joseph Britt
@zathras5.bsky.social
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2. The good news is that it is June, not October. If tonight’s debate had taken place in October, the race might be over. As it is, there is time for a bad debate performance to be minimized, if Biden takes responsibility for it. He has to change the story, right away.
1 replies 0 reposts 0 likes
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Joseph Britt
@zathras5.bsky.social
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OK. Bottom line reaction: what matters now is less Biden’s debate performance than how he responds to it. He did badly tonight. This is his responsibility, no one else’s. The Democrat delivering this message to the public needs to be Joe Biden. [Short 🧵]
1 replies 0 reposts 2 likes
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Joseph Britt
@zathras5.bsky.social
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I wonder if this will come up during tonight’s debate. We’ve already seen what a Trump Presidency looks like, and how it would respond if the nation faced a crisis. It would fall apart, and let whatever was going to happen, happen — just as it did @fouryearsagotoday.bsky.social
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Joseph Britt
@zathras5.bsky.social
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At the level of academic discourse it might be defensible to be comfortable talking about an American fascist tradition. Political discourse is different; elections are not won in a classroom. You run against people & ideas by portraying them as aberrant, alien, turning their backs on the country.
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Joseph Britt
@zathras5.bsky.social
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Just remarkable how many Americans have spaced on what was happening @fouryearsagotoday.bsky.social. It was horrible. Thousands of people were dying every day from COVID, the economy was in a power dive, and the head of government was just out to lunch.
0 replies 1 reposts 0 likes
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Joseph Britt
@zathras5.bsky.social
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Just remarkable how many Americans have spaced on what was happening @fouryearsagotoday.bsky.social. It was horrible. Thousands of people were dying every day from COVID, the economy was in a power dive, and the head of government was just out to lunch.
0 replies 1 reposts 0 likes
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Joseph Britt
@zathras5.bsky.social
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Thread. @gregsargent.bsky.social on the latest eruption of rote outrage from Republicans about immigration. An executive action directed at people who have been in the US for a decade or more becomes a move to further open “the border.” This is likely to come up in next week’s debate.
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CREW
@crew.bsky.social
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With every revelation about Clarence Thomas' gifts from billionaire donor Harlan Crow, it becomes more clear: Thomas needs to resign.
2 replies 7 reposts 28 likes
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Joseph Britt
@zathras5.bsky.social
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Ah, hydroxychloroquine. @fouryearsagotoday.bsky.social reminds us this quack COVID remedy was promoted by Trump & his associates, even using government funds. When responsible public health experts advised the public it didn’t work, Trump drove them out of his administration.
0 replies 1 reposts 0 likes
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Joseph Britt
@zathras5.bsky.social
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The remainder of Vance’s public career is likely to be painful for you. Treating people like idiots is one of his go-to moves. I don’t see that changing.
0 replies 0 reposts 1 likes
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Joseph Britt
@zathras5.bsky.social
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Ah, hydroxychloroquine. @fouryearsagotoday.bsky.social reminds us this quack COVID remedy was promoted by Trump & his associates, even using government funds. When responsible public health experts advised the public it didn’t work, Trump drove them out of his administration.
0 replies 1 reposts 0 likes
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Joseph Britt
@zathras5.bsky.social
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Gingrich probably did more damage overall, but the institutions were weaker by the time McConnell became Senate majority leader. And McConnell was more responsible than anyone for protecting Trump after his two impeachments.
0 replies 0 reposts 8 likes
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Joseph Britt
@zathras5.bsky.social
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Congress is also a bicameral legislature responsible for 330 million people in an era of rapid social and technological change. It is the smug, self-regarding entitlement of the American legal community that leads to gratuitous policy interventions by the Supreme Court getting blamed on Congress.
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ProPublica
@propublica.bsky.social
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BREAKING: Harlan Crow Provided Clarence Thomas at Least 3 Previously Undisclosed Private Jet Trips, Probe Finds Thomas flew to Montana & elsewhere on the billionaire’s dime. Crow’s lawyer revealed the flights to the Senate Judiciary Committee, whose investigation was sparked by ProPublica reporting
40 replies 311 reposts 833 likes
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Joseph Britt
@zathras5.bsky.social
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Good survey of the Supreme Court’s closely linked problems with impartiality and ethics by @kelseyreichmann.bsky.social & @benjaminweiss.bsky.social. A couple of notes: first, the Roberts Court has generally ruled on behalf of Republican Party electoral interests whenever these have been at issue.
1 replies 2 reposts 0 likes
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Joseph Britt
@zathras5.bsky.social
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So Mrs. Alito is like Olaf Scholz? He has made a rather different impression on me, but oh well.
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Joseph Britt
@zathras5.bsky.social
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Issues of impartiality and ethics arising entirely from the actions of Republican Justices are, by default, issues for the Court as a whole.
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Joseph Britt
@zathras5.bsky.social
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….the largesse wealthy Republican donors have lavished on Justice Thomas in particular. They might be expected to object to both. Perhaps they do — but only in private, for whatever good that does.
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Joseph Britt
@zathras5.bsky.social
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The second observation is about the Court’s three liberals, Justices Kagan, Sotomayor, and Jackson — specifically, about their silence as the Court majority steers the institution into dangerous waters. The three liberals neither share the partisan commitment of the six Republicans, nor enjoy….
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Joseph Britt
@zathras5.bsky.social
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….policy outcomes Republican Justices (and the Republican Party) favored that also asserted the primacy of the Court’s authority. The Court majority’s assertiveness must be related to Justices lack of accountability and their close personal ties to Republican politicians and donors.
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Joseph Britt
@zathras5.bsky.social
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….has grown increasingly assertive in cases touching on matters of policy, matching Chief Justice Roberts’ institutional interest in expanding the Court’s turf with the ideological zealotry of the other five Republicans. Bruen and Dobbs are two examples of bald rejection of precedent to create….
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Joseph Britt
@zathras5.bsky.social
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This goes back to Citizens United and Shelby County, over a decade ago. The Court’s Republican majority tended to be less predictable in cases not touching on GOP electoral interests. In more recent years — and especially since Republicans got a six-member majority — the Roberts Court….
1 replies 0 reposts 0 likes
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Joseph Britt
@zathras5.bsky.social
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Good survey of the Supreme Court’s closely linked problems with impartiality and ethics by @kelseyreichmann.bsky.social & @benjaminweiss.bsky.social. A couple of notes: first, the Roberts Court has generally ruled on behalf of Republican Party electoral interests whenever these have been at issue.
1 replies 2 reposts 0 likes
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Joseph Britt
@zathras5.bsky.social
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Not even six months into a lethal pandemic, with thousands of Americans dying every day, Trump starts convening superspreader events, @fouryearsagotoday.bsky.social
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Joseph Britt
@zathras5.bsky.social
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Challenging people’s fantasies can be tough duty. No one in politics depends more on fantasy than does Trump.
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Joseph Britt
@zathras5.bsky.social
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This sounds like good policy. Slides should be prompts for presenter’s narrative. Some of the dullest conferences I’ve ever attended were full of presenters reading what was on their slides. Or, even worse, showing charts or graphs in fonts too small for the audience to see.
1 replies 0 reposts 2 likes
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Joseph Britt
@zathras5.bsky.social
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Imagine being nostalgic for this. Imagine thinking we were better off then. Via @fouryearsagotoday.bsky.social
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CREW
@crew.bsky.social
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The Wisconsin attorney general just filed charges against three allies of Donald Trump accused of taking part in the effort to put forth a slate of fake electors and usurp the 2020 presidential election
1 replies 11 reposts 31 likes
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Joseph Britt
@zathras5.bsky.social
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Illegal on paper, paying off witnesses is said to be hard to prove. A smart defendant can cover it up, for example by limiting documentation. But there are a lot of witnesses in TrumpWorld. By @propublica.bsky.social reporters. www.propublica.org/article/dona...
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Joseph Britt
@zathras5.bsky.social
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God. “Policy.” The “policy” some remember so nostalgically from 2017 to 2019 consisted of coasting on economic growth Trump inherited from Barack Obama, plus a tax cut for the wealthy that inflated the federal deficit but achieved little else. A second Trump term could repeat only the latter.
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Joseph Britt
@zathras5.bsky.social
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On one hand, this never struck me as the kind of day for which anyone would be nostalgic. But on the other, Trump wasn’t a convicted felon yet. Via @fouryearsagotoday.bsky.social
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Joseph Britt
@zathras5.bsky.social
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On one hand, this never struck me as the kind of day for which anyone would be nostalgic. But on the other, Trump wasn’t a convicted felon yet. Via @fouryearsagotoday.bsky.social
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Joseph Britt
@zathras5.bsky.social
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The standard for male adornment seems to have shifted somewhat. What’s next, nose rings and face tattoos?
0 replies 0 reposts 1 likes
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Joseph Britt
@zathras5.bsky.social
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There is a problem with this idea, one peculiar to Republican politicians. Trump cut corners in 2016 to get himself through an election. Republicans have done this themselves pretty consistently, starting long before that. It’s what the panic over voter fraud has always been about.
0 replies 0 reposts 3 likes
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Joseph Britt
@zathras5.bsky.social
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Will you look at that? Considering the number of counts, I had expected the Manhattan jury to deliberate longer. But the prosecution did a thorough job documenting that Trump had done everything he was charged with doing, and for the reasons alleged. Via @jacobtlevy.bsky.social
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Joseph Britt
@zathras5.bsky.social
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Alito’s concurring opinion excerpted here omits his reference to the well known “Governor’s wife exception” that acknowledges passersby on Cambridge Street might conclude that a stray flag was put up at the direction of the Governor’s wife & didn’t represent the views of the state at all.
0 replies 0 reposts 2 likes
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Joseph Britt
@zathras5.bsky.social
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Powerful argument for recusal of Justices Thomas & Alito from two cases involving Trump by Rep. Jamie Raskin (via @hilzoy.bsky.social). The scenario Raskin outlines would require initiative from the Justice Department.
0 replies 1 reposts 1 likes
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Joseph Britt
@zathras5.bsky.social
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I’m not sure it does. My theory as to what is driving the decline in our politics is mostly about decadence, after all, not extremism. Our big clue we were in trouble shouldn’t have been January 6, or even Charlottesville, but Republicans flocking to vote for a guy who’d been married three times.
0 replies 0 reposts 0 likes