by jpitney | Jul 13, 2024 | Bureaucracy, Congress, Judiciary, Regulation, Supreme Court
Don Wolfensberger at The Hill: A favorite campaign tactic of members of Congress, regardless of party, has been to attack “those unelected bureaucrats” for trying to regulate every aspect of our lives. At the same time, Congress has often avoided enacting detailed...
by jpitney | Jul 11, 2024 | Russia, Social Media, Ukraine, Uncategorized
From DOJ The Justice Department today announced the seizure of two domain names and the search of 968 social media accounts used by Russian actors to create an AI-enhanced social media bot farm that spread disinformation in the United States and abroad. The social...
by jpitney | Jul 10, 2024 | Iran, Israel, Middle East, Protest
Statement from Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines on Recent Iranian Influence Efforts WASHINGTON, D.C. — Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines today released the following statement: “The Intelligence Community recognizes the importance of...
by jpitney | Jul 9, 2024 | Congress, House of Representatives
Don Wolfensberger at The Ripon Forum: In the mid-20th Century, a conservative coalition of southern Democrats and Republicans became a dominant ruling group in the House. On the Rules Committee, two southern Democrats, “Judge” Howard Smith of Virginia and Bill Colmer...
by jpitney | Jul 7, 2024 | California Politics, Law
LAist asks a good question: Fireworks are illegal in most of LA County but they still light up the sky. So, where’s the law? Not a trivial question. Illegal fireworks pollute the air, start fires, cause serious injuries, and trigger PTSD in combat...
by jpitney | Jul 6, 2024 | Civility
A man with the good sense to marry a CMC alumna shows grace and civility in defeat. Dan Sabbagh at The Guardian: “Today power will change hands in a peaceful and orderly manner, with goodwill on all sides,” a gracious Rishi Sunak declared in the small hours of Friday...
by jpitney | Jul 4, 2024 | Patriotism, Reagan
President Reagan, July 4, 1986: All through our history, our Presidents and leaders have spoken of national unity and warned us that the real obstacle to moving forward the boundaries of freedom, the only permanent danger to the hope that is America, comes from...
by jpitney | Jul 3, 2024 | Bureaucracy, Congress, Regulation
Michael Macagnone at Roll Call: A Supreme Court decision Friday left an uncertain and more difficult path for Congress to shape how the federal government carries out laws on major issues such as environment, health, immigration and more, lawmakers and legal experts...
by jpitney | Jul 1, 2024 | California Politics, Water
Rachel Becker at CalMatters: Almost 400 water systems serving nearly a million Californians don’t meet state requirements for safe and reliable drinking water supplies — and fixing them would cost billions of dollars. More than two-thirds of these failing water...
by jpitney | Jun 30, 2024 | Civility, Higher Education
Erwin Chemerinsky at MSN: As a dean of a public university law school, do I violate my students’ free speech rights when I encourage them to speak respectfully to one another, to demonstrate civility and to refrain from hateful expression? There are countless...
