Congressional Discourse Getting Dumber, Study Says

Moscow Mitch suggested yesterday that the Supreme Court should punish at least two Democratic senators over their calls for Justice Samuel Alito to recuse himself from cases related to former President Donald Trump. And you won't believe the convoluted reasoning. Via CNBC: Sens. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut and Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island are bound by court rules that “provide for discipline against those who engage in conduct unbecoming an officer of the court,” McConnell said on the Senate floor.

I'm sure there was nothing political about this! The Georgia Court of Appeals just ordered a halt to the proceedings in the election interference case against Trump and eight other defendants, pending the outcome of their appeal seeking to disqualify Fulton County District Attorney Fani T. Willis. Via the Washington Post: The order means the case, which accuses them of a criminal conspiracy to try to overturn Trump’s defeat in the state, will almost certainly not be scheduled for trial before the fall election or even the new year.

Former GOPer Ken Buck told Daily Show host Jon Stewart on Monday that he left Congress because he “couldn’t tell the lie” that the 2020 election was stolen. Via Mediaite: “I think the problem right now is everybody gets their news sources in silos and they just keep getting reinforced with certain ideas,” Buck told Stewart, before recalling, “I went to a neighbor’s house the day after the 2020 election, their flag was upside down.” “You live next to the Alitos?!” Stewart interrupted as Buck and the audience laughed. The former congressman continued, “Close.

Despite its “Democracy Dies in Darkness” motto, WaPo created its own darkness by keeping Justice Alito’s flag story under wraps. The New York Times published two gigantic stories about insurrection-supporting flags flying at Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito’s house, even as Jan. 6-related cases were pending before the court. The first article was published on May 16, 2024, the second on May 24, 2024. On May 25, The Washington Post revealed it had known about Alito’s upside-down flag since January 2021 but had decided against reporting on it, ostensibly because it was not clear that the flag was really meant to signal support for MAGA “Stop the Steal” election deniers. The Post decided not to report on the episode at the time because the flag-raising appeared to be the work of [wife] Martha-Ann Alito, rather than the justice, and connected to a dispute with her neighbors, a Post spokeswoman said.

driftglass: On the transgression of the unwritten law. Just An Earth-Bound Misfit, I: Trump is lying about the Mar-a-Lago search. Strangely Blogged: All the bad guys. Rewire: Eight Supreme Court cases to watch. Finally, for the 80th anniversary of D-Day, here's audio of some of Studs Terkel's interviews for his World War II book, The Good War. This installment by Batocchio.

In the aftermath of his conviction Thursday on 34 felony counts in the state of New York related to hush-money payments ahead of the 2016 election, former president Donald Trump predictably denounced the trial as a "rigged" process and a "sham" as he declared that ultimately the "real verdict is going to be November 5 by the people" on this year's election day. But is the disgraced politician—the first of any sitting or former president to be convicted of a felony by his peers in U.