The Widdershins

It’s been quite the week (quite the 2 years, really.) Of course, the horrific massacre in Las Vegas has taken up the bulk of the news coverage since Sunday night. The murderer seemed to have planned things out quite extensively, including setting up cameras around the hotel and feeding the signal to his tablet, so he could see what was happening outside of the room and knew when the cops were coming. Needless to say, Fox News’ Tucker Carlson dedicated a fair amount of his show on Monday night discussing…Hillary Clinton. Clinton tweeted about the need for gun-laws and the NRA’s death grip on the Senate, so naturally, it had to be addressed. Wait until Fox News finds out Hillary isn’t running in 2020.

But a few other important stories came out over the past few days that I wanted to mention so we don’t forget them.

Because irony committed suicide a million times over the past year, we learned that Javanka had a 3rd (third) private email account on a private server. They forgot to mention this third one to the Senate, like they forgot to mention the other two.

The emails — which include nonpublic travel documents, internal schedules and some official White House materials —were in many cases sent from Ivanka Trump, her assistant Bridges Lamar and others who work with the couple in the White House. The emails to the third account were largely sent from White House accounts but occasionally came from other private accounts.

Then there’s, of course, the issue of several cabinet officials taking private planes for personal business. Tim Price already resigned over it, but he’s not the only one. Scott Pruitt, the evil EPA chief determined to destroy the environment, did lots of flying, as did Steve Mnuchin.

For lunch on April 26, Scott Pruitt, the new administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, dined with top executives from Southern Company, one of the nation’s largest coal-burning electric utilities, at Equinox, a white-tablecloth favorite of Washington power brokers.

That evening, it was on to BLT Prime, a steakhouse inside the Trump International Hotel in Washington, for a meal with the board of directors of Alliance Resource Partners, a coal-mining giant whose chief executive donated nearly $2 million to help elect President Trump.

Before those two agenda items, Mr. Pruitt met privately with top executivesand lobbyists from General Motors to talk about their request to block an Obama administration move to curb emissions that contribute to climate change.

There are many more Pruitt meetings with agencies he is supposed to oversee. All while flying on the tax-payer’s private jet dime.

In rather stunning news, the US voted against a UN resolution condemning the execution of LGBTQ people, among others.

[UN resolution] called for the death penalty to be banned “as a sanction for specific forms of conduct, such as apostasy, blasphemy, adultery and consensual same-sex relations”, as well as criticising its use on minors, mentally ill people and pregnant women.

Of the 47 countries on the Human Rights Council, 27 voted in favour while 13 states voted against.

The United States voted against the motion, alongside Botswana, Burundi, Egypt, Ethiopia, Bangladesh, China, India, Iraq, Japan, Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates.

Cuba, South Korea, Philippines, Indonesia, Tunisia, Nigeria, Kenya all abstained.

And let us cross our fingers, toes, legs, arms, anything we can, about the SCOTUS case dealing with gerrymandering in Wisconsin: Gill vs. Whitford. Though Democrats have won more votes in Wisconsin for the past 8 years, through extensive gerrymandering Republicans (evil Governor Scott Walker) have arranged so that Republicans control all levels of government in the state. That case is now before SCOTUS. After the briefings today, it is obvious that the court is divided along ideological lines. That’s why Gorsuch will be such a catastrophe for our country for generations to come. (Fuck you Bernie, Jill Stein, Susan Sarandon, Rosario Dawson, etc.) The swing vote will be Kennedy, and observers seemed to think he might have been leaning against Wisconsin. He only asked questions of state officials defending gerrymandering.

“Suppose the court…decided that this is a First Amendment issue, not an equal protection issue. Would that change the calculus?” Kennedy asked as the court debated the legality of the Wisconsin plan. A three-judge panel ruled that the GOP-led legislature tilted the table so sharply against Democrats that it ran afoul of the Constitution.

Kennedy also seemed irked when a lawyer for GOP legislators in Wisconsin would not immediately say whether a state law that explicitly stated a policy to harm either Democrats or Republicans would be illegal.

“If the state has a law or constitutional amendment that’s saying all legitimate factors must be used in a way to favor party X or party Y, is that lawful?” he asked attorney Erin Murphy, adding later: “I’d like the answer to the question.”

Murphy eventually conceded that such a law would be unconstitutional, a concession that seemed to open the door to the idea that a redistricting plan that was hopelessly skewed but contained no explicit partisan goal would also be suspect.

Even John McCain (in a joint statement with Sheldon Whitehouse) said he hopes SCOTUS will rule against Wisconsin. And at the briefing, there was a moment between Gorsuch and the notorious RBG.

The court’s newcomer, Justice Neil Gorsuch, said he worried that states would not know what standard they’re supposed to meet without “having every district subject to litigation.” He compared the tests courts were considering to a steak rub.

“What’s this court supposed to do? A pinch of this and a pinch of that?” he asked.

Gorsuch also seemed to irritate Ginsburg when he suggested that maybe the Supreme Court shouldn’t be intruding on how a state draws lines for state offices. “Where exactly do we get authority to revise state legislative lines?

Moments later, Ginsburg shot back that the court’s been doing just that for years. “Where did one-person, one-vote come from?” she said.

I am not a religious man, but as somebody once said, “Let us pray.”

Of course I must end with Madonna. Fun fact: the solo guitar on this song is played by the uncredited Prince. Madonna and Prince recorded a duet for the “Like a Prayer” album called Love Song. But Prince also played guitar on three additional songs on the album, though his name was not (at his own request) included in the credits at the time: the title track, Keep It Together and Act of Contrition. Once Eric Clapton was asked what it felt like to be the greatest guitarist in the world. He replied: “I don’t know. Ask Prince.”