Almost seven years after Paris was officially designated as the site for the Games of the 33rd Olympiad, the 2024 Summer Olympics finally commenced this morning during a rain-soaked opening ceremony at the City of Light.
These Olympic Games are occurring 100 years after France last held the world's biggest sporting event—with the 1924 Paris Games marking the 8th Olympiad.
On Team USA's side, the Los Angeles Lakers' LeBron James was the flag bearer for the American team...which consists of 594 athletes who rode on a giant ferry down the Seine River during the opening ceremony.
In regards to U.S. and Canadian celebrities who showed up in Paris today, rapper Snoop Dogg was one of the Olympic torch bearers, Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo were on-hand to promote their upcoming November film Wicked, while Lady Gaga had a musical number on a large staircase that overlooked the Seine. Celine Dion serenaded the crowd from atop the Eiffel Tower prior to the Olympic cauldron being lit about 5 kilometers (3.1 miles) away, near the Louvre.
Even Arno Dorian—the main character from the 2014 video game Assassin's Creed Unity(whose story takes place during the French Revolution)—made an appearance thanks to a costumed parkourist who spent most of the opening ceremony leaping across rooftops and inside different locales throughout Paris.
I'm absolutely stoked to watch the Summer Olympics on TV whenever I can over the next 14 days (technically, Olympic competition officially started two days ago)! I can't wait for gymnast Simone Biles, swimmer Katie Ledecky, track and field athlete Noah Lyles as well as LeBron and the rest of the U.S. men's basketball team to win gold for Team USA during these Games!
Though one question remains: Will the Olympic cauldron remain airborne 24/7 over the next two weeks? The answer is no.
Yesterday, President Joe Biden stunned the American public when he posted a letter on social media announcing his intention to not run for reelection on November 5.
Instead, Biden endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris instead...catching Donald Trump's campaign by surprise and galvanizing Democrats throughout this country to rally behind her with less than four months remaining before the U.S. election.
As of this Blog entry, Kamala Harris has raised up to $231 million in campaign donations, and received the endorsement of scores of prominent Democratic figures and officials such as Hillary Clinton, Nancy Pelosi, Cory Booker, Gretchen Whitmer, John Fetterman, Reverend Raphael Warnock, Mark Kelly and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Harris should officially receive the nomination as the party's presidential candidate before the Democratic National Convention (DNC)...to be held in Chicago from August 19-22.
(Online voting for the DNC's presidential candidate should take place by August 7.)
On the MAGA side, Trump and his supporters were blindsided by Biden's decision—to the point where Trump did not yet know how to attack Harris on his Truth Social account and instead continued to lob pointless attacks at Biden (as seen in the very last embedded post below).
So the November 5th U.S presidential election literally comes down to good vs. evil...with a former prosecutor/attorney general running up against a convicted felon/sex predator. Also, with Biden stepping aside, the mainstream media is now grasping with the fact that Trump (at age 78) is officially the oldest presidential candidate in American history.
Just like what they did to President Biden since his last debate with Trump in late June, it's time for CNN, the New York Times, MSNBC and other media outlets (probably not Fox News—which isn't a real news network anyway) to show some integrity and question Trump's age and mental acuity as well.
If the last embedded post below is any indication, the media shouldn't have a hard time calling Trump out on his tendencies to sound unhinged in rallies and on the Internet over the next couple of months. Also, the media can do the American public a favor and talk about the Republican travesties that are Agenda47 and PROJECT 2025.
Godspeed, Kamala!
My fellow Democrats, I have decided not to accept the nomination and to focus all my energies on my duties as President for the remainder of my term. My very first decision as the party nominee in 2020 was to pick Kamala Harris as my Vice President. And it’s been the best… pic.twitter.com/x8DnvuImJV
I've known Kamala Harris a long time. This brilliant prosecutor will make the case against convicted felon Donald Trump and the Project 2025 agenda to take away our freedoms.
With immense pride and limitless optimism for our country’s future, I endorse Vice President Kamala Harris for President of the United States. I have full confidence that she will lead us to victory in November. -NP pic.twitter.com/vBwv602GuR
For the last decade, I’ve had the privilege of calling Kamala Harris a friend, a Senate colleague, my Vice President — my sister. I cannot wait to do everything I can to help her make history, and call her Madam President. pic.twitter.com/aUjwv9q5nY
Today, not only am I fired up to endorse @KamalaHarris for President of the United States, I’m proud to serve as a co-chair of her campaign.
In Vice President Harris, Michigan voters have a candidate they can count on to lower their costs, protect their freedoms, and build an… pic.twitter.com/f57SCl6itj
I join millions of Americans in thanking @JoeBiden for a half century of public service!
I’ve been proud to work alongside him & our very able Vice President, @KamalaHarris. I am proud to endorse her candidacy to be the next President of the United States.
— Reverend Raphael Warnock (@ReverendWarnock) July 22, 2024
I couldn’t be more confident that Vice President @KamalaHarris is the right person to defeat Donald Trump and lead our country into the future. She has my support for the nomination, and Gabby and I will do everything we can to elect her President of the United States. 🇺🇸
NASA’s Curiosity Rover Discovers a Surprise in a Martian Rock (News Release - July 18)
Among several recent findings, the rover has found rocks made of pure sulfur — a first on the Red Planet.
Scientists were stunned on May 30 when a rock that NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover drove over cracked open to reveal something never seen before on the Red Planet: yellow sulfur crystals.
Since October 2023, the rover has been exploring a region of Mars rich with sulfates, a kind of salt that contains sulfur and forms as water evaporates. But where past detections have been of sulfur-based minerals — in other words, a mix of sulfur and other materials — the rock that Curiosity recently cracked open is made of elemental, or pure, sulfur. It isn’t clear what relationship, if any, the elemental sulfur has to other sulfur-based minerals in the area.
While people associate sulfur with the odor from rotten eggs (the result of hydrogen sulfide gas), elemental sulfur is odorless. It forms in only a narrow range of conditions that scientists haven’t associated with the history of this location. And Curiosity found a lot of it — an entire field of bright rocks that look similar to the one the rover crushed.
“Finding a field of stones made of pure sulfur is like finding an oasis in the desert,” said Curiosity’s project scientist, Ashwin Vasavada of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. “It shouldn’t be there, so now we have to explain it. Discovering strange and unexpected things is what makes planetary exploration so exciting.”
It’s one of several discoveries that Curiosity has made while off-roading within Gediz Vallis channel, a groove that winds down part of the 3-mile-tall (5-kilometer-tall) Mount Sharp, the base of which the rover has been ascending since 2014. Each layer of the mountain represents a different period of Martian history. Curiosity’s mission is to study where and when the planet’s ancient terrain could have provided the nutrients needed for microbial life, if any ever formed on Mars.
Floods and Avalanches
Spotted from space years before Curiosity’s launch, Gediz Vallis channel is one of the primary reasons the science team wanted to visit this part of Mars. Scientists think that the channel was carved by flows of liquid water and debris that left a ridge of boulders and sediment extending 2 miles down the mountainside below the channel. The goal has been to develop a better understanding of how this landscape changed billions of years ago, and while recent clues have helped, there’s still much to learn from the dramatic landscape.
Since Curiosity’s arrival at the channel earlier this year, scientists have studied whether ancient floodwaters or landslides built up the large mounds of debris that rise up from the channel’s floor here. The latest clues from Curiosity suggest that both played a role: some piles were likely left by violent flows of water and debris, while others appear to be the result of more local landslides.
Those conclusions are based on rocks found in the debris mounds: Whereas stones carried by water flows become rounded like river rocks, some of the debris mounds are riddled with more angular rocks that may have been deposited by dry avalanches.
Finally, water soaked into all of the material that settled here. Chemical reactions caused by the water bleached white “halo” shapes into some of the rocks. Erosion from wind and sand has revealed these halo shapes over time.
“This was not a quiet period on Mars,” said Becky Williams, a scientist with the Planetary Science Institute in Tucson, Arizona, and the deputy principal investigator of Curiosity’s Mast Camera, or Mastcam. “There was an exciting amount of activity here. We’re looking at multiple flows down the channel, including energetic floods and boulder-rich flows.”
A Hole in 41
All this evidence of water continues to tell a more complex story than the team’s early expectations, and they’ve been eager to take a rock sample from the channel in order to learn more. On June 18, they got their chance.
While the sulfur rocks were too small and brittle to be sampled with the drill, a large rock nicknamed “Mammoth Lakes” was spotted nearby. Rover engineers had to search for a part of the rock that would allow safe drilling and find a parking spot on the loose, sloping surface.
After Curiosity bored its 41st hole using the powerful drill at the end of the rover’s 7-foot (2-meter) robotic arm, the six-wheeled scientist trickled the powderized rock into instruments inside its belly for further analysis so that scientists can determine what materials the rock is made of.
Curiosity has since driven away from Mammoth Lakes and is now off to see what other surprises are waiting to be discovered within the channel.
As a big fan of the popular CBS sitcom The Big Bang Theory, I'll always remember Bob Newhart for his role as Arthur Jeffries (a.k.a. Professor Proton), Sheldon Cooper's childhood hero and reluctant mentor in the last six seasons of the hit TV show.
NASA Ends VIPER Project, Continues Moon Exploration (News Release)
Following a comprehensive internal review, NASA announced Wednesday its intent to discontinue development of its VIPER(Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover) project.
NASA stated cost increases, delays to the launch date, and the risks of future cost growth as the reasons to stand down on the mission. The rover was originally planned to launch in late 2023, but in 2022, NASA requested a launch delay to late 2024 to provide more time for preflight testing of the Astrobotic lander.
Since that time, additional schedule and supply chain delays pushed VIPER’s readiness date to September 2025, and independently its CLPS (Commercial Lunar Payload Services) launch aboard Astrobotic’s Griffin lander has also been delayed to a similar time. Continuation of VIPER would result in an increased cost that threatens cancellation or disruption to other CLPS missions.
NASA has notified Congress of the agency’s intent.
“We are committed to studying and exploring the Moon for the benefit of humanity through the CLPS program,” said Nicola Fox, associate administrator, Science Mission Directorate, NASA Headquarters in Washington. “The agency has an array of missions planned to look for ice and other resources on the Moon over the next five years. Our path forward will make maximum use of the technology and work that went into VIPER, while preserving critical funds to support our robust lunar portfolio.”
Moving forward, NASA is planning to disassemble and reuse VIPER’s instruments and components for future Moon missions. Prior to disassembly, NASA will consider expressions of interest from U.S. industry and international partners by Thursday, August 1, for use of the existing VIPER rover system at no cost to the government.
Interested parties should contact HQ-CLPS-Payload@mail.nasa.gov after 10 a.m. EDT on Thursday, July 18. The project will conduct an orderly close out through spring 2025.
Astrobotic will continue its Griffin Mission One within its contract with NASA, working toward a launch scheduled for no earlier than fall 2025. The landing without VIPER will provide a flight demonstration of the Griffin lander and its engines.
NASA will pursue alternative methods to accomplish many of VIPER’s goals and verify the presence of ice at the lunar South Pole. A future CLPS delivery – the Polar Resources Ice Mining Experiment-1 (PRIME-1) — scheduled to land at the South Pole during the fourth quarter of 2024, will search for water ice and carry out a resource utilization demonstration using a drill and mass spectrometer to measure the volatile content of subsurface materials.
Additionally, future instruments as part of NASA’s crewed missions – for example, the Lunar Terrain Vehicle — will allow for mobile observations of volatiles across the south polar region, as well as provide access for astronauts to the Moon’s permanently shadowed regions for dedicated sample return campaigns. The agency will also use copies of three of VIPER’s four instruments for future Moon landings on separate flights.
The VIPER rover was designed to search Earth’s Moon for ice and other potential resources – in support of NASA’s commitment to study the Moon and help unravel some of the greatest mysteries of our solar system. Through NASA’s lunar initiatives, including Artemis human missions and CLPS, NASA is exploring more of the Moon than ever before using highly-trained astronauts, advanced robotics, U.S. commercial providers and international partners.
So a few hours ago, I watched the season finale of The Acolyte on Disney+...and all I can say is— Screw the haters. Renew The Acolyte for a second season immediately!
After viewing Episode 8, titled "The Acolyte," it made me that much eager to see the story of Osha (Amandla Stenberg) continue as (SPOILERS AHEAD) her journey down the path of the Dark Side quickly unfolded once she killed her former Jedi mentor, Master Sol (Lee Jung-jae), upon finding out that he murdered her mother on Brendok 16 years earlier. I want to see what awaits Osha and her cortosis-welding teacher Qimir (Manny Jacinto) after the would-be Sith spared the life of Mae (also played by Stenberg) in exchange for her sister Osha becoming his apprentice instead.
And of course, as shown in the screenshot at the top of this Blog entry, I want to see how Darth Plagueis plays a role in the future trials and tribulations of Qimir and Osha. I expected Darth Tenebrous to show up in tonight's finale instead (I definitely wouldn't be surprised if he made an appearance in Season 2), but it's still awesome that Darth Sidious' former master appeared in this Star Wars streaming series.
And let's not forget the final scene of today's episode...with Vernestra Rwoh (Rebecca Henderson) meeting a certain green-eared Jedi Master at the Jedi Temple to seek his counsel following the discovery that her former Padawan was still alive after being seduced by the Dark Side of the Force a long time ago. That Padawan, of course, being none other than Qimir.
So yea— If Lucasfilm wants to politely give all the haters the middle finger for review-bombing The Acolyte, Season 1 on Rotten Tomatoes and other sites, as well as continuing the story of Qimir and Osha and revealing how Plagueis and Yoda factor into their tale, then giving The Acolyte at least one more season is the way to go!
We've seen the Old Republic in the Star Wars prequels, the reign of the Galactic Empire in Solo, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Andor, Rogue One and the original Star Wars trilogy, and the New Republic in the Star Wars sequel trilogy (as well as in The Mandalorian and Ahsoka)... Let's see more of the High Republic in live-action through the eyes of creator Leslye Headland!
Tomorrow will mark three decades since 21 fragments from the remains of Comet Shoemaker–Levy 9(which broke apart in July of 1992) began striking the planet Jupiter...with the celestial event occurring from July 16 to July 22 in 1994.
It was cool seeing a new image of Jupiter with a freshly-formed impact site in its southern hemisphere on the front page of the Los Angeles Times newspaper each day during that one-week span 30 years ago. The summer of 1994 was a tumultuous time for me, personally-speaking (I won't elaborate), and I gotta hand it to the cosmos for allowing this planetary fireworks show to provide some much-needed distraction during that period of time.
This is all I have to say about Donald Trump getting shot during a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania yesterday. Not only is this convicted felon still primed to officially become the Republicans' presidential candidate at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee tomorrow, but media pundits say that Trump has a greater chance of winning the election this November because of the assassination attempt...despite Trump's PROJECT 2025 and him getting shot by a fellow white Republican who used an AR-15, the favorite mass-shooting weapon of choice for U.S. conservatives and the National Rifle Association.
Pathetic.
If Republicans want to blame someone besides Thomas Matthew Crooks for shooting Donald Trump, start with the gun lobby's top recipients this year:
Donald Trump: $500,564 Ted Cruz: $107,077 Elise Stefanik: $49,449 Mike Johnson: $45242 Marsha Blackburn: $38,474 pic.twitter.com/ABv6Q3HPBc
Ocasio-Cortez Introduces Articles of Impeachment Against Justice Thomas and Justice Alito (Press Release)
Washington D.C. — Today, July 10, 2024, Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (NY-14) introduced articles of impeachment against United States Supreme Court Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito.
“The unchecked corruption crisis on the Supreme Court has now spiraled into a Constitutional crisis threatening American democracy writ large. Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito’s pattern of refusal to recuse from consequential matters before the court in which they hold widely documented financial and personal entanglements constitutes a grave threat to American rule of law, the integrity of our democracy, and one of the clearest cases for which the tool of impeachment was designed.
"The Constitution of the United States explicitly outlines a higher standard of conduct for the judiciary to meet, far surpassing its existing bars on treason, bribery and other high crimes and misdemeanors for all civil officers: the standard of Good Behavior. Judicial ethics and rules, to which even the lowest level judges are held, make those standards clear.
"The lifetime appointments of Supreme Court justices make enforcement of these standards a solemn responsibility for the protection of our democracy,” said the Congresswoman.
“Justice Thomas and Alito’s repeated failure over decades to disclose that they received millions of dollars in gifts from individuals with business before the court is explicitly against the law. And their refusal to recuse from the specific matters and cases before the court in which their benefactors and spouses are implicated represents nothing less than a constitutional crisis.
"These failures alone would amount to a deep transgression worthy of standard removal in any lower court, and would disqualify any nominee to the highest court from confirmation in the first place.
"Given the court’s demonstrated inability to preserve its own legitimate conduct, it is incumbent upon Congress to contain the threat this poses to our democracy and the hundreds of millions of Americans harmed by the crisis of corruption unfurling within the court. Congress has a legal, moral and democratic obligation to impeach,” she continued.
The first impeachment resolution includes the following impeachment articles against Justice Thomas:
- Failure to disclose financial income, gifts and reimbursements, property interests, liabilities and transactions, among other information.
- Refusal to recuse from matters concerning his spouse’s legal interest in cases before the court.
- Refusal to recuse from matters involving his spouse’s financial interest in cases before the court.
The second impeachment resolution includes the following impeachment articles against Justice Alito:
- Refusal to recuse from cases in which he had a personal bias or prejudice concerning a party in cases before the court.
- Failure to disclose financial income, gifts and reimbursements, property interests, liabilities and transactions, among other information.
The Congresswoman maintains that such conduct—while under a Judicial Oath to “faithfully and impartially discharge and perform” duties and a Constitutional Oath to “support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic”—warrants impeachment, trial, removal from office, and disqualification from holding future office in the United States of America.
On June 11, 2024, Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez and Congressman Jamie Raskin hosted an oversight roundtable with expert panelists and legislators, including Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), entitled High Court, Low Standards, and Dark Money: Flagging a Supreme Court Ethics Crisis in America, to examine corruption on the court.
On June 20, they wrote a letter to Chief Justice John Roberts to learn what immediate action he would take to restore public trust in the Court amidst severe ethical conflicts.
Additionally, on June 25, the lawmakers introduced the High Court Gift Ban Act to prohibit Supreme Court justices from receiving gifts valued at more than $50, bringing them in line with Members of Congress and other federal officials.
Read the full text of the resolution filed against Justice Clarence Thomas here.
Read the full text of the resolution filed against Justice Samuel Alito here.
Europe's New Ariane 6 Rocket Powers Into Space (Press Release)
Europe's new heavy-lift rocket, Ariane 6, made its inaugural flight from Europe's Spaceport in French Guiana at 16:00 local time on 9 July (20:00 time BST, 21:00 time CEST).
Ariane 6 is the latest in Europe's Ariane rocket series, taking over from Ariane 5, and featuring a modular and versatile design that can launch missions from low-Earth orbit to farther out into deep space.
"A completely new rocket is not launched often, and success is far from guaranteed. I am privileged to have witnessed this historic moment when Europe's new generation of the Ariane family lifted off – successfully – effectively reinstating European access to space,” said ESA's Director General Josef Aschbacher.
"An inaugural launch is a huge undertaking from thousands of people who have worked relentlessly for years. To see it perform wonderfully at the first attempt is testament to their dedication and a demonstration of European excellence in engineering and technology. Heartfelt thanks go to the teams at ESA, CNES, ArianeGroup and Arianespace for their hard work to get to this point. I also want to sincerely thank our Member States for having enabled and supported the Ariane 6 programme along the way. Not always easy, but the endurance shown has paid off handsomely today."
This inaugural flight, designated VA262, is a demonstration flight whose aim is to show the capabilities and prowess of Ariane 6 in escaping Earth's gravity and operating in space. Nevertheless, it had several passengers on board.
At 17:06, a little over an hour after liftoff, the first set of satellites on board Ariane 6 were released from the upper stage and placed into an orbit 600 km (373 mi) above Earth. Satellites and experiments from various space agencies, companies, research institutes, universities and young professionals were included on this inaugural flight.
In addition to the rocket, the liftoff demonstrated the functioning of the launch pad and operations on the ground at Europe's Spaceport. The new custom-built dedicated launch zone was built by France's space agency CNES and allows for a faster turnover of Ariane launches.
On the occasion of the launch, Philippe Baptiste, CEO of CNES, said: “With this first successful launch by Ariane 6, Europe has finally recovered its capacity to access space. Beyond the great emotion I am feeling right now, my first thoughts are for all the teams in Kourou, Paris, Vernon, Les Mureaux, Toulouse, Bremen, Lampoldshausen, Liège, Barcelona, Colleferro, Zürich and everywhere else in Europe who made this success possible. I would like to acknowledge the commitment of the employees of CNES, ESA, ArianeGroup, Arianespace and our subcontractors. The last few months have been intense, and I would like to thank them all. Europe can be proud of its space programme, Europe can be proud of its knowledge and expertise. Together, let's prepare the future of launchers and space.”
Ariane 6 was built by prime contractor and design authority ArianeGroup. “With the successful first flight of Ariane 6, the European space industry has moved into a new era,” said Martin Sion, CEO of ArianeGroup. “This historic launch demonstrates the unfailing commitment of our teams and partners, whom I would like to thank warmly for this success, which reflects on the entire European industry. Seeing Europe’s new launcher lift off into space marks the culmination of an outstanding technical and technological adventure, and the beginning of a long history of Ariane 6 operations. The next flight models are already in production and the stages of the second model will be shipped to the Guiana Space Centre this autumn for the first commercial flight of Ariane 6.”
Happy Fourth of July, fellow Americans! Just thought I'd share these two pics that I took of Firefly Aerospace's latest launch of its Alpha rocket last night.
Alpha's fifth flight since October 2022 took place from Vandenberg Space Force Base in Santa Barbara County, California, at 9:04 PM, Pacific Daylight Time...carrying 8 NASA-sponsored CubeSats to low-Earth orbit as part of Firefly's Noise of Summer mission (which is officially designated as FLTA005).
I watched the Noise of Summer launch from a window at my house in Pomona, California, just like I did with the very first SpaceX Starlink flight which I photographed back in March. Assuming that the next Alpha rocket lifts off in the evening just like FLTA005, I'll be sure to at least step outside my home to capture images (probably with a new smartphone and not my current Google Pixel 4A) as Firefly's sixth operational launch vehicle soars toward space from the Central California coastline!
Enjoy the fireworks that will occur much closer to the ground tonight, my awesome Yanks.
Richard T. Par
🎵 After the #NoiseofSummer have gone 🎵 – After expected deployment, the CubeSat teams are now awaiting Acquisition of Signal.
— NASA's Launch Services Program (@NASA_LSP) July 4, 2024
Great way to kick off America's birthday! The Alpha #FLTA005#NoiseofSummer team completed orbital insertion, payload deployment, second stage relight, and orbital plane change. More here: https://t.co/RlPand8NuW
NASA’s Parker Solar Probe Completes 20th Close Approach to the Sun (News Release)
NASA’s Parker Solar Probe completed its 20th close approach to the Sun on June 30, 2024, matching its own distance record by coming about 4.51 million miles (7.26 million kilometers) from the solar surface.
The close approach (known as perihelion) occurred at 3:47 UTC (11:47 p.m. EDT on June 29), with Parker Solar Probe moving 394,736 miles per hour (635,266 kilometers per hour) around the Sun, again matching its own record. On July 2, the spacecraft checked in with mission operators at the Johns Hopkins University's Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland (where the spacecraft was also designed and built), with a beacon tone indicating that it was in good health and all systems were operating normally.
The milestone also marked the midpoint in the mission’s 20th solar encounter, which began on June 25 and continues through July 5.
Parker will fly around the Sun at the same distance and speed one more time this year — on September 30 — before making the first of its three final planned closest approaches on December 24. At that point, with Parker’s orbit shaped by the mission’s final Venus gravity assist-flyby on November 6, the spacecraft will zoom just 3.8 million miles from the solar surface, moving about 430,000 miles per hour.
Earlier today, the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) ruled that Donald Trump is immune from "official acts" that he performed in his final days at the White House over three years ago...i.e. helping to incite the January 6, 2021 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.
Unsurprisingly, the ruling was a 6-3 decision—with all six conservative justices giving Trump this huge break only four months before the presidential election, and all three liberal justices (Sonia Sotomayor, Ketanji Brown Jackson and Elena Kagan) dissenting with strong rebukes.
Sotomayor herself pointed out that this partisan ruling provides very disturbing but realistic scenarios of future presidents (and even President Biden himself) using executive immunity to carry out acts that would otherwise cause them to be impeached, sent to prison or even executed for outright treason.
Sotomayor had this to say about her conservative colleagues' decision:
"Orders the Navy's Seal Team 6 to assassinate a political rival? Immune.
"Organizes a military coup to hold onto power? Immune.
"Takes a bribe in exchange for a pardon? Immune. Immune, immune, immune.
"Even if these nightmare scenarios never play out, and I pray they never do, the damage has been done.
"In every use of official power, the President is now a king above the law."
So as of July 1, 2024, the Supreme Court—which consists of three Republican justices (Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett) who were sworn in under Trump thanks to Kentucky senator Mitch McConnell—just paved the way for a government that the United States fought Great Britain to rid from this country about 250 years ago to return to American soil.
The whole point of impeachments—letting government officials know that they're not above the law—has been rendered moot.
The United States Supreme Court, led by a conservative majority that has been corrupted by the MAGA mentality, has betrayed the democratic foundation upon which the greatest country in the world was built on.
It's up to us Americans who do not want a crooked demagogue like Trump to take the highest office of the land to stop him from doing so this November.
And if this SCOTUS ruling doesn't scare you, then Google PROJECT 2025...the Heritage Foundation-conjured blueprint that Trump and his regime will implement should he be sworn in next January. If you love American democracy, then you must prevent this devastating plan from being realized at all costs.
Vote on November 5. And VOTE BLUE.
Carry on.
President Biden: It will now depend on the character of the men and women who hold the presidency to define the limits of the power of the presidency because the law will no longer do it. I know I will respect the limits of the presidential powers as I have for three and a half… pic.twitter.com/IKCgMezJHl
Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh in September 2018:
“Under the Constitution, the president is not above the law. No one is above the law…The president remains subject to the law.” @AccountableGOP pic.twitter.com/MlP5ANRXXf
— The Intellectualist (@highbrow_nobrow) July 1, 2024
🚨This SCOTUS ruling on immunity is a dire warning for our republic. It could enable Trump to use Project 2025 and be immune from consequences.
We're dangerously close to a dictatorship, and that isn't what we served to defend.
Over the past 235 years, America has had 46 Presidents of the United States. All have sworn, to the best of their ability, "to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States."
Previously, no President ever attempted to overturn the will of the people.
The fact that the Founding Fathers included Impeachment in the Constitution proves that they did not believe or intend for any President to have any kind of immunity.
You do not have to be a Constitutional scholar to know this.
— Secret Agent Number Six (@DesignationSix) July 1, 2024
