Ruling Due Today on Presidents Ruling Absolutely

July 1: Agencies attacked … Christian victory in Ukraine … Trump ruling … Bannon gets a new suit …

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Religious Extremists Launch Simultaneous Attack on Federal Agencies

In a strategic, coordinated attack Friday, robed religious extremists battered multiple federal agencies, destroying much of their capacity to defend America. It was one of the worst attacks on this nation’s soil since corporate polluters pumped toxins into the ground in hundreds of literal attacks on this nation’s soil.

The attackers all belong to the same once-respected organization, which in recent years decades has descended into militant religious extremism. Known as the Supreme Court, and once known as “the high court” until it slid to new depths, the organization is now majority controlled by allies of both religious and corporate enemies of democracy.

The attack came in the form of a ruling that judges don’t have to defer to federal agencies any more in deciding how to rule on shit. The attack is deceptively boring and bureaucratic-sounding.

In practice, the ruling means that the attackers just knocked out much of the power these agencies needed to defend America’s air, water, food, workers, consumers, money-needers, and other living humans. The six attackers transferred that power to judges, some of whom belong to the same extremist movement and others of whom were purchased by America’s enemies, often at rock-bottom prices and ethics.

No matter how ignorant, corrupt, or ideologically compromised, these judges no longer have to defer to federal agencies that are supposed to police America’s corporate polluters, poisoners, con artists, thieves, and other predators.

In short, the six attackers, all part of the same faction of militant religious zealots, in one blow took out much of America’s self-defense capacities. The attack did not involve the Pentagon, which primarily defends America in places where America isn’t.

Instead, the attackers targeted defense agencies that stand on the front lines, defending people in their homes, schools, and jobs from biochemical attacks by biochemical companies, poisoning by pretty much every industrial company that makes things, and looting by Wall Street and its many autonomous cells operating inside the nation’s borders.

Now, agencies will only have whatever powers Congress explicitly grants them, a heavy lift given that a significant cohort in Congress consists of militant sympathizers and allies.

As with most terrorist attacks, American officials and intelligence agencies had absolutely tons of warnings beforehand.

Still, the attack received little to no notice on the nation’s TV news media, as it was carried out with paper, which is virtually invisible to the threat-detection systems of TV journalism, which are programmed primarily to intercept great video. The attackers were also able to thwart detection by shrewdly opting to cloak themselves in Christian religiosity, rather than Muslim religiosity, which is known to trigger alarms, neighbors, and people who think “See something say something” isn’t some insidious fucking shit.

One of the attackers, identified as Clarence Thomas, previously served as a public defender of the nation’s regulatory systems, and the legal precedent undergirding them. Intel reports suggest, however, that Thomas was compromised by extremist bankrollers.

After Thomas wrote a landmark 2005 opinion supporting the long-standing defense regiment, a shadowy money man who goes by the nom de argent “Harlan Crow” firehosed Thomas with millions of dollars worth of shit. And bankrolled Thomas’s wife, another anti-democratic religious extremist.

Last week, Thomas joined the ranks of religious militants attacking the very government structures he once defended.

Until Friday, these federal redoubts had stood for four decades, defending American neighborhoods from bioweapons and small businesses from Wall Street missiles. Tons of attacks got through, sure, but the system itself remained intact, available for presidents interested in using it to defend us.

The core of these defense systems was the precedent that, when Congress told agencies to take care of a threat, agencies could take care of it — even if Congress didn’t specify exactly how. The way it doesn’t specify how with the Pentagon. And we know Congress was okay with this because for forty years they didn’t start writing laws that said they’d take care of it.

Now, however, judges will no longer have to defer to agency expertise. So they’ll make shit up. Or more likely defer on industry expertise. Or Federalist Society expertise.

With America’s defenses crippled, there’s already chatter about follow-up attacks in the form of incoming lawsuits. There were no immediate casualty reports from last week’s initial assault, but the death toll is expected to mount for years.

Ukraine Surrenders…to the Christian Right

At Ukraine’s first official National Prayer Breakfast on Saturday, Pres. Volodymyr Zelenskyy formally surrendered to the forces of the Christian right that have been insinuating themselves into the country and finally launched a full-on invasion after Ukraine’s defenses were weakened by months without U.S. military aid.

In his surrender, Zelenskyy said that the war against Russia, which is also still trying to invade, was being fought for the values of “normal people.” Values like respect for life. And cherishing the family.

The phrasing he used consisted of codewords consistently used in hostage videos made by political prisoners of the religious right. The codewords refer to stopping LGBTQ+ people from doing fun stuff, and forcing women to keep stuff in their uteruses even if they’ve decided to declutter.

As TFN reported exclusively last night, the breakfast was attended virtually by Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) and former Vice President Mike Pence. And by congressional Republicans and Democrats.

Oh, and the person behind Ukraine’s new, official prayer breakfast is also the Ukrainian point man for the U.S. prayer breakfast group, the Fellowship Foundation, aka The Family. And he’s got a history of crusading against LGBTQ+ and reproductive rights, and using his breakfasts to do so.

Ukraine had already caved in another way to its Christian right invaders — who represent literally only about 2% of its population. As I reported last week, a bill to go after Russian collaborators has been held up by — you guessed it, savvy attentive Newsfucker — the same guy, who says the bill represents a “slippery slope” toward losing religious freedom.

So he’s leveraging Ukrainian fear of losing U.S. evangelical support (and therefore U.S. military aid) to keep the bill bottled up. Reportedly, debate on the bill would resume after the breakfast, when the Americans were safely back home. But one MP told me they didn’t think the bill would ever come back. We’ll see.

This is how countries fall to the Christian right, folks. Homegrown extremists leverage their evangelical U.S. connections to attain domestic power and move the country rightward. Author Jeff Sharlet showed it writ large in The Family, the book he writ. And my own follow-up reporting has shown it virtually in real time in Uganda, Guatemala, and now Ukraine.

There is literally no equivalent secular force countering or even monitoring any of this. (Would this be a crass time to solicit donations as literally the only person uncovering entire nations succumbing to Christian theocracy? Relatedly, have I ever shied from being crass?)

Ed. note: I didn’t email the story out because I’ve noticed that every time I send out my original reporting, some otherwise awesome Newsfuckers unsubscribe, presumably because they’re only here for the weekday morning snark-takes, not overlong, over-detailed, typically Byzantine original reporting. Which, I feel your pain. I mean, I had to write the things!

Point being, I’m trying to brainstorm ways to have my snark and eat it, too, without losing subscribers. I sometimes post my original reporting at my original Substack, so I’m considering somehow dividing up the content between that one and TFN. Thoughts?

Ruling Due Today on Presidents Ruling Absolutely

The Supreme Court today is expected to release its ruling on whether all of those laws it’s been deciding on for centuries only apply to the little people. Specifically, non-presidents. And soon, by extension, non-CEOs.

Former-somehow-President Donald Trump has asked the court to rule that presidents rule. Specifically, that he deserves a get-out-of-jail-free card — for trying to steal the presidency with that whole “send thousands of supporters to obstruct and/or kill Congress so it can’t execute the lawful transfer of power” thing — solely because he was president at the time and ergo, ipso facto, nyah nyah nuh-nyah nyah.

Trump, of course, has already been convicted in a New York State court for successfully attempting to steal the presidency in 2016 by illegally concealing from voters how he spent campaign money. Other courts have found that he’s a fraud and a rapist. In fairness, if anyone really needs to be above the law, it’s someone often under indictment.

The case requires the high court to grapple with several complex issues. There’s the question of whether laws don’t apply to special people. And whether really powerful people should be able to commit crimes. As well, of course, as the tricky legal dilemma of whether it’s appropriate for the justices to rule in favor of someone who has not directly given them money or gifts.

The justices appear likely to split the baby that America now must carry to term and basically kinda uphold that whole “no one is above the law” thing that Americans used to believe, while also giving Trump some wiggle room to wiggle out of the most serious repercussions for the most serious presidential crime since … okay, I guess it actually hasn’t been that long.

In recent rulings, the court let a Jan. 6 defendant off the hook by narrowly defining obstruction of official proceedings to require that it involves paperwork. But they also decided that Trump aide Steve Bannon must report to prison today. (See below. Lower. Lower.)

It would be extremely weird and inconsistent if the court establishes today that presidents are above the law but their proxies aren’t. So they’ll probably do that.

Crime Watch

BANNON Today Steve Bannon goes straight to prison. He is expected not to pass Go and not to collect $200, except in prodigious fundraising from suckers.

Bannon for years has fought to delay his imprisonment after being convicted sometime before the birth of Christ of failing to comply with a lawful congressional subpoena. House investigators had sought details of his complicity in the Jan 6 attack, as well as the pre- and post-Jan. 6 attacks.

The Supreme Court last week declined to rescue Bannon from his four-month sentence, ruling that even the court’s bottomless corruption has Bannon-shaped limits.

POLICE A Utica, NY, police officer Friday shot and killed a 13-year-old immigrant boy whose family fled Myanmar to escape the violence.

Nyah Mway allegedly had a real toy gun. And was shot after police had already wrestled him to the ground after he ran away when he was stopped because he matched the description of an armed robbery suspect. There’s video that shows the police not taking about 1,000 alternate paths, choosing instead the path of absolute zero tolerance for any disobedience.

Not only could they not have shot him, they could have let him go when he ran. Why? Because (a) he wasn’t an imminent threat to anyone and (b) they had a friend of his in custody. Any cop that can’t sweat a 13-year-old to give up his 13-year-old friend Should. Not. Be. A. Cop.

The police are not releasing the robbery report because it’s an ongoing investigation. In related news, “it’s an ongoing investigation” is a bullshit reason not to release the robbery report. More to come on this one, for sure.

Two Quickies

• CONGESTION PRICING New York State lawmakers are pressing Gov. Kathy Hochul (D-NY) to revive Manhattan’s scuttled congestion-pricing plan, possibly with a lower toll, the New York Times reports. Hochul killed it last month, after weeks of proclaiming how obviously necessary the plan was and that only political cowardice could kill it.

• MENENDEZ The prosecution rested Friday after presenting their case in the corruption trial of Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ). And the prosecution must’ve needed the rest because they presented a lot of corruption. That included all kinds of witnesses, bad guys and good guys, incriminating the shit out of Menendez, who of course is presumed innocent except by everyone not legally obligated to. Menendez is expected this week to pursue a defense strategy of telling jurors his accusers are liars, or merely pointing to something random and yelling “Look over there!”

TCB

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Go get ‘em, kids. You got this.