Better in their words…

*COVID NEWS AND COMMENTARY*

In a 6-3 decision released yesterday, the Supreme Court expanded religious rights for government employees, ruling in favor of a part-time Christian public high school football coach in Washington state who was fired for refusing to stop leading prayers with players on the field after games.

Writing for the majority, Justice Gorsuch rejected the local school district’s arguments that prayers and Christian values in a public school could be seen as coercive to students, or as the government’s endorsement of a particular religion, in violation of First Amendment religious liberty rights. The Court held that Kennedy’s conduct was protected by his own personal rights under the First Amendment.

In other words, religion isn’t just something you do in private.

Gorsuch explained, “Respect for religious expressions is indispensable to life in a free and diverse republic – whether those expressions take place in a sanctuary or on a field, and whether they manifest through the spoken word or a bowed head.”

The opinion also did some critical cleanup work on prior religious liberty doctrines, effectively killing off a nasty one called the Lemon test. The 1971 Lemon test requires all government activity to have a secular purpose. Overriding Lemon, the Court now says there is a better approach, and there’s no such thing as a “modified heckler’s veto,” where a speech by a government employee that includes religious references can be banned just because one person or even some people might be offended.

The Fifth Circuit reversed a lower court, putting the freeze back on Biden’s vaccine mandate for federal workers. Now the case will return to the lower court to re-hear the arguments with the full panel of all judges, not just the original three-judge panel that set aside the injunction.

At this point, there’re a LOT of good reasons to ashcan the mandates. Here’s hoping the full panel does the right thing.

You know, conservatives have somehow lived with the Supreme Court stampeding the culture to the left — for decades. But when the Court pushes the culture back toward the right for two weeks, woke progressives scream for protests, riots, Court-packing, radical restructuring, jurisdiction-stripping, assassinating justices, and suicide-bombing the Supreme Court. I am not making that up.

Chill, people.

Fox News reported on another blockbuster Supreme Court decision late last week in a story headlined, “Supreme Court Gun Decision Shoots Down NY Rule That Set High Bar for Concealed Carry Licenses.”

In the lengthy opinion, the Supreme Court ruled 6-3 that New York’s regulations made it too hard to get a concealed-carry license, are unconstitutionally restrictive, and it should be easier to obtain the license.

“We know of no other constitutional right that an individual may exercise only after demonstrating to government officers some special need… we agree… ordinary, law-abiding citizens have a {} right to carry handguns publicly for their self-defense… and now hold… that the Second and Fourteenth Amendments protect an individual’s right to carry a handgun for self-defense outside the home,” Justice Clarence Thomas wrote for the majority.

Thomas continued, “Put simply, there is no historical basis for New York to effectively declare the island of Manhattan a ‘sensitive place’ simply because it is crowded and protected generally by the New York City Police Department.”

Justice Thomas appears to be finally having his time.

In gun-free Nigeria, the government is pivoting. ZeroHedge ran a story yesterday headlined, “Nigerian Governor Orders Mass Issuance Of Gun Permits To Counter Murderous Hordes.” Historically, it was almost impossible for Nigerian citizens to get a carry license. But now, in the face of rampant violence by huge gangs of heavily armed bandits, one state governor has ordered the mass issuance of gun permits to citizens desperate for a chance to protect themselves.

The Associated Press was skeptical. What are these gun things of which you speak? It pondered, “It was not yet clear how arming citizens would help prevent the attacks; authorities have admitted that even the Nigerian police are sometimes overwhelmed during violent attacks.”

Arming citizens? How can THAT help against bandits with guns? But arming Ukrainians, that’s a different story. Arming Ukrainians makes perfect sense. But Nigerians? C’mon, man.

Haha, bad political news is now an excuse for time off from work, apparently. LibsOfTikTok posted an “open letter” written to Amazon management by pouty employees who demanded that the company immediately stop shipping its products to any states banning abortion. Oh, and also Amazon should give them some time off to “grieve” for Roe v. Wade.

Corporations! Wake up! You’ve let the inmates try running the asylum, and things aren’t going too good.

📈 The AP ran a story yesterday headlined, “More Than 1 Million Voters Switch to GOP in Warning for Dems.” Haha! And hopefully they’re not sleepers! The AP doesn’t seem to think so, since the switch occurred over the last year, as 1M voters in 43 states switched their party affiliations, in both Democratic and Republican states, and in both big cities and small towns.

The AP said, “nowhere is the shift more pronounced — and dangerous for Democrats — than in the suburbs, where well-educated swing voters who turned against Trump’s Republican Party in recent years appear to be swinging back.”

Welcome back! Now you’ve seen what it’s like under democrat rule. Don’t make that mistake again. A few mean tweets are not our biggest problem.

 *THE MINORITY REPORT*

🚀 Escalation! Yesterday, NATO spokesman Jens Stoltenberg said, “A broad dialogue between NATO and Russia is no longer possible.” Wait, you meant there HASN’T been a broad dialogue so far? Weird.

NATO also announced it is increasing the number of rapid reaction forces — in other words, troops — from 40,000 to 300,000 soldiers. That’s a big jump. It also said it plans to increase operations in Russia’s neighbor, Georgia, because nothing in recent history that I can think of would suggest that would irritate Russia or anything.

NATO’s escalation appears to be a direct response to a HUGE story you can’t easily find in Western Media. Yesterday, Business Insider ran a quiet story headlined, “Russia and China Are Brewing Up a Challenge to Dollar Dominance by Creating a New Reserve Currency.”

China and Russia announced late last week they are creating a competing “Eurasian IMF” plus a new commodities-backed reserve currency. One implication is that countries who join could have no incentive to pay back international debts in Dollars and Euros.

“We are ready to openly work with all fair partners,” Putin announced at the BRICS Business Forum last week. ING’s global head of markets Chris Turner explained to investors that the move “will allow BRICS to build their own sphere of influence and unit of currency within that sphere.”

The new currency is not really a ‘new’ reserve currency. The “SDR” is based on a basket of currencies made up of the Dollar, the Euro, the British Pound, the Japanese Yen, and China’s Yuan. In other words, it would replace the Dollar as the world’s reserve currency.

It’s smart. Nobody has to bet on an all-new currency. And right now, the other currencies in the basket are looking a lot stronger than the Dollar.

Thanks Joe Biden! Gosh, that was fast.

Biden’s bellicose confidence looks to be wilting like a warmed-up lettuce garnish that sat too long under the heater before being served. In the wee hours at 2AM this morning, CNN released a story — read by a handful of bleary-eyed insomniacs before it was buried under the regular morning news — headlined “Biden Officials Privately Doubt That Ukraine Can Win Back All of Its Territory.” It’s the most fact-filled and truthful story CNN has run in three years.

You might need to sit down first, if you’ve been believing the official corporate media narrative about how Russia has been badly losing, confounded by the brave and diverse freedom-fighting Ukrainians, who’ve been heroically assisted by chiseled CIA commandos and NATO’s glorious unified support, all while relentless economic sanctions have shrunk the Russian bear into a miniature Pomeranian. Or something.

Anyway, it turns out all that wasn’t exactly true. But they had good intentions.

Anonymous U.S. officials told CNN that the White House is losing confidence that Ukraine will EVER be able to take back all of the land it has lost to Russia, even when it gets the heavier and more sophisticated weaponry the US and its allies are planning to send. The second sentence of the article drops this MOAB:

“Advisors to President Joe Biden have begun debating internally how and whether Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky should shift his definition of a Ukrainian ‘victory’ — adjusting for the possibility that his country has shrunk irreversibly… Internally, there is a sense among some in the Biden administration that Zelensky will need to start moderating expectations for what Ukrainian forces can realistically achieve.”

Okay, this is all a horrible tragedy and a living nightmare for Ukraine’s people, and I don’t want to zip by that grim fact too quickly. But come on. You have to admit the sentence I quoted above is comedic GOLD. (“That’s gold, Jerry! Gold!”)

They’re not figuring out how to win the ACTUAL war. Biden wants to lend Zelenskyy his best POLITICAL weapon: redefining stuff. Like “covid deaths,” “cases,” or even “woman,” for that matter. Things not going your way? Just change the definition and voilá! You’re back in business.

So Biden is telling Zelenskyy, c’mon man, all you need to do is change the definition of ‘victory’ to something you can handle, and it’s all good. But Zelenskyy is thinking, I won’t last ten seconds after I sign a peace deal that gives away half the country, and who is this old guy and why does he keep sniffing my daughter’s hair?

Following the traditional recipe, CNN then consulted its handpicked experts. A “US military official” and a “source familiar with Western intelligence” (another reporter!) agreed “it was unlikely that Ukraine would be able to mass the force necessary to reclaim all of the territory lost to Russia during the fighting — especially this year.”

The article reports that according to Ukrainian officials, Russian forces now control more than half of the eastern Ukrainian region of Donetsk. Ukraine was forced to retreat from the key eastern city of Severodonetsk on Friday after weeks of bloody battles. Russian forces also captured ground around Lysychansk, the last city in the eastern Luhansk region still controlled by Ukraine. Ukrainian military commanders are now grappling with the reality that they may have to withdraw from that area and try to defend territory to the west.

Worse, Ukraine appears to lack any ability to mount an effective counterassault. CNN said “Ukraine has struggled to repel Russia’s advances in the Donbas and has suffered staggering troop losses, reaching as many as 100 soldiers per day. Ukrainian forces are also burning through their equipment and ammunition faster than the West can provide.”

As if that weren’t bad enough, the ENTIRE WORLD is burning through ammo. At least, for the kinds of weapons the Ukrainians use. The article reported that the U.S. and its allies “have been scrounging the world for the kind of Soviet-era ammunition that fits the equipment Ukraine already has, including 152 mm artillery ammunition. NATO-standard weapons fire larger, 155mm rounds. But … that effort is effectively reaching its end, with almost everything available that countries are willing to provide having already gone in.”

That can’t be good for business.

Not to mention, “Russian oil revenues have only been going up as oil prices have skyrocketed, even amid the harsh sanctions imposed by the West.” What? Sanctions failed? This can’t be true, let’s ask the experts! … oh, never mind. They’re over there in the corner, counting their toes, baffled again.

But don’t worry! The Administration can get even more moronic. According to CNN, they’re considering … price controls! “US officials said on Monday that the US and its allies are going to try capping the price of oil so Russia does not profit from it anymore, but how and when that cap will take effect remains to be seen.”

Uh-huh. Ask people who were drivers in the 1970’s about how well price controls work. Those drooling idiots are going to sanction us back to the stone age.

Link: https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/28/politics/white-house-ukraine-projection/index.html.

PS: Whatever it looks like, I am NOT mocking the Ukrainian people or their suffering. I mock lying corporate media and the government psyops teams, which once again are being forced to “pivot” now that reality is becoming literally undeniable. And I wonder, I really wonder, about all the people whose brains are so plastic they can credulously keep up with the ever-changing narrative without missing a stitch.

🚀 Oh boy. More bad news for Biden. At the G7 Summit yesterday, Plucky French Prime Minister Emmanuel Macron bent Biden’s ear about U.S. policy driving oil shortages — in front of the cameras. That couldn’t possibly have been an accident. In my mind’s eye, I see all the other G7 leaders, except Putin, of course, he skipped the get-together, all of them leaning in during one of Biden’s frequent bathroom breaks, and drawing straws. Macron got the short one. “Now YOU have to tell him!”

Reuters reported the story headlined “Macron Tells Biden That UAE, Saudi Can Barely Raise Oil Output.” Reuters transcribed the short conversation, where Macron was obviously grabbing Joe’s arm to stop him walking toward a building, and saying “I had a call with MbZ,” (MbZ = UAE leader Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan). “He told me two things. I’m at a maximum, maximum (production capacity). This is what he claims.”

Macron continued, right in front of tons of reporters and G7 watchers, “And then he said (the) Saudis can [only] increase by a little bit, maybe 150 [thousands barrels per day)]. Maybe a little bit more, but they don’t have huge capacities before six months’ time,” Macron said. Macron appeared to be talking more to Joe’s top aide Jake Sullivan rather than to Joe.

Then Joe started mumbling and trying to pull away. Macron hung onto his arm and began a third point. Reuters and the other corporate media didn’t report it, but you can make some of it out on the videos. Anyway, he starts telling Joe, with a little more urgency, “the last one, the last one” — Joe mumbles again, pulling away — “the very last one is about what you do on the Russian oil; he told me that you should…”

That’s when Biden’s handlers fell upon the pair, loudly saying “thank you thank you excuse us we have to go,” and the confab was interrupted.

From a different video, it looks like Macron tried to stop Joe again, and Jake Sullivan immediately interrupted. “Careful, careful. Maybe we SHOULD just go inside.” Then they walked into the building.

As a result of the public airing, most major media networks carried the conversation, at least up till when Macron began talking about Russia. The conversation seems to torpedo the Biden Administration’s current narrative on oil, which is they are going to pressure OPEC to pump some more. Macron just told Biden — in public — your plan won’t work.

Many commenters thought Macron was really saying: the U.S. needs to produce more oil.

If you watch the video, you’ll also notice that Joe Biden is totally disconnected. He just stands and waits while Macron speaks. He doesn’t engage in conversation at all. He has nothing to say. Is it because he didn’t want to say anything? Or because he really has nothing to say?

I report, you decide.

Have a terrific Tuesday and I’ll see you back here tomorrow for more.

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Source: ☕️ Coffee & Covid ☙ Tuesday, June 28, 2022 ☙ MORE GOOD NEWS 🦠