The countdown to the new year in Times Square is getting some high-profile help from U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor. The organizers of the annual celebration said Sunday that Sotomayor will lead the final 60-second countdown and push the ceremonial button to signal the descent of the Times Square New Year's Eve ball. The giant New Year's Eve ball is covered in more than 2,600 crystal triangles and lit from within by more than 32,000 lights.
Report typos and corrections to: corrections@rawstory.com.
Stories Chosen For You
Rudy Giuliani went from 'political buffoon' to 'pathetic spectacle' after another week of humiliations: columnist
July 02, 2022
According to Politico columnist Jack Shafer, Rudy Giuliani's downward spiraling fortunes have reached the point where it is no longer enjoyable to make fun of him anymore.
As the columnist notes, the man once known as "America's mayor" has fallen on hard times since he hitched his wagon to former president Donald Trump and every day suffers another blow to what little is left of his reputation -- this past week included.
According to Shafer, "Rudy Giuliani has been a national punchline for so long that the high hilarity that once accompanied his antics is finally no more," adding, "These warm memories of Giuliani the political buffoon — the man willing to say stupid things in defense of Trump, the imaginative smear artist, the braying conspiracist, the muddled elderly man — have tickled us for so long. But the 78-year-old suffered such a chastening this week that human compassion demands that we stop laughing at the former mayor’s suffering and start sobbing instead."
The columnist noted Giuliani was featured in testimony by former senior White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson who brought up his desire for a pardon from Donald Trump -- to which he goofed and inadvertently admitted that he had asked for a pardon while attempting to dismiss her remarks.
Add to that, his son Andrew suffered a major defeat in his attempt to run for governor of New York, he made a big deal about being assaulted in a grocery store that was debunked --- with Shafer claiming the hits just keep on coming.
"How much further can a man fall than being a MyPillow pitchman? Plenty. The FBI is still investigating Giuliani’s Ukraine activities, and in June the Washington, D.C., Office of Disciplinary Counsel filed ethical misconduct charges against him," he wrote. "Often, Giuliani pieces make reference to his drinking — he says he likes scotch with his cigars but he has no drinking problem, and contests any statement to the contrary. Last month, he called Trump campaign aide Jason Miller a liar in a mid-June tweet (later deleted) after Miller testified to Giuliani’s alleged tipsiness on election night 2020."
Pointing to Giuliani's protests that he was not drinking heavily when he counseled Trump to claim victory on election night, Shafer wrote, "Was a categorical denial the smartest strategy? When accused of doing something really stupid, like advising the president to declare victory prematurely, shouldn’t you think about availing yourself to the clemency automatically granted to people who confess to having imbibed too much — even when no sipping has occurred?"
"It’s not too late, Rudy," he advised. "As your miserable week turns into a miserable month and then a miserable year, you could do worse than to find something outside of yourself to blame your troubles on."
CONTINUE READING
Show less
Supreme Court official demands Maryland's governor halt picketing in front of justices' homes: report
July 02, 2022
According to a report from the Washington Post, the top security official for the Supreme Court fired off letters to Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan (R) and Montgomery County Executive Marc Elrich (D) demanding they enforce laws on the books and stop picketing in front of the homes of justices who voted to overturn Roe v. Wade.
The report states that Supreme Court Marshal Gail Curley claimed protests are continuing -- and growing -- long after the conservative court overturned the right of a woman to get an abortion no matter which state she lives in, and that the picketing represents a "threatening activity."
In the letters Curley wrote, "For weeks on end, large groups of protesters chanting slogans, using bullhorns, and banging drums have picketed Justices’ homes in Maryland. Earlier this week, for example, 75 protesters loudly picketed at one Justice’s home in Maryland for 20-30 minutes in the evening, then proceeded to picket at another Justice’s home for 30 minutes, where the crowd grew to 100, and finally returned to the first Justice’s home to picket for another 20 minutes. This is exactly the kind of conduct that the Maryland and Montgomery County laws prohibit.”
According to Curley, Maryland law states that a "... person may not intentionally assemble with another in a manner that disrupts a person’s right to tranquility in the person’s home” and that law “provides for imprisonment for up to 90 days or a $100 fine.”
RELATED: After Roe v Wade, here’s how women could adopt ‘spycraft’ to avoid tracking and prosecution
The Post's Jasmine Hilton and Ann E. Marimow wrote, "Following the release of the leaked draft, but before the court issued its opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, a California man was arrested near Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh’s home in Chevy Chase and charged with attempting to kill a judge," before adding, "The ongoing demonstrations outside of justices’ homes have sparked legal debate over whether laws banning picketing outside of the private homes of judges are constitutional."
The report notes that Maryland officials have yet to respond to the demand, before adding, "Montgomery County Police Department website says on its homepage: 'The Montgomery County Department of Police is committed to preserving the first amendment rights of all individuals wishing to participate in peaceful, lawful, protest and assembly," while also linking to the laws cited in the letters.
You can read more here.
CONTINUE READING
Show less
You ever look at your paystub and get depressed? Am I only one who sees my paycheck deductions and feels like I'm not getting my money's worth for the government services provided?
This article first appeared in Salon.
Don't get me wrong. I'm not saying we shouldn't pay taxes. I'd like to think any good citizen would be happy to contribute to a healthy functional society. I just feel like I'm not getting my money's worth. Especially when I know the ridiculously wealthy, the true welfare queens, are not contributing 33% of their incomes in the years they even pay income taxes at all. When I look at my depleted stubs, analyze the deductions and see the job that my city, state and federal governments are doing with those funds, I can't help but think the juice ain't worth the squeeze.
Let's talk about basics — roads and bridges. I have traveled to countries where some roads are left incomplete — as in, you are driving on the highway and then the highway just stops — so I appreciate the infrastructure we do have in America. However, I live in Baltimore City, where the streets are crumbling like a damp cookie. Don't think about drinking a cup of coffee on the way to work because the truck-sized potholes will guarantee multiple stains all over your shirt. Sometimes I feel like I should buy my daughter a helmet because the uneven grooves make her bounce up and down. (Thank God we sprung for the expensive car seat.) One of the main roads to my house literally looks and feels like some sort of sick virtual reality video game. I have to bob and weave between orange traffic cones and city workers and dump trucks and excavators before slowing down to drive over the chunks of earth that have been gutted and try not to collide with the construction that has been going on for over three years. And the only thing that has been broken longer than that road to my house is funding for our public school system.
I've been feeling this way about the system and its return on our investments for a while, but the recent Supreme Court decisions just made everything feel more urgent.
I have been very vocal about my love for public schools and public school teachers. Many of them are beyond excellent. They work extremely hard and have made giant strides in elevating the lives of our children. But those same excellent, hardworking teachers may still never reach their full potential because school funding depends in part on local property taxes, which means the ones in poor neighborhoods who need the most almost don't have a chance at competing against schools in wealthier neighborhoods full of resources.
And in some of those underfunded, overwhelmed schools, it can be easier for some poor administrators and teachers to slip through the cracks than it would be in institutions with fewer overall stresses on their systems. I once dreamed of sending my daughter to public school so that she can have an experience like mine and be socialized in diverse realities. But my experiences have also forced me to consider private schools. I feel more and more like this is yet another institution I pay into but will never be able to use, like the police.
I have a history of joking with cops when they confront me: "Offer me top rate service, officer, I pay your salary!" But I never call the police myself unless I need to file a police report because it's needed for insurance reimbursement. Other than that, never. For one, they tend to be bad at their jobs. And two, they might shoot me.
Once I called the cops after someone slashed all four of my tires. I was a broke grad student at the time, no drama in my life that would have provoked an act of spiteful vandalism. Honestly, I think the slasher targeted the wrong car. But when I called the cops to have one come down and fill out a report, the joker got mad at me.
"I'm not sure these tires were slashed, buddy," the short unibrowed officer said, circling the car in his tiny work boots, scratching his head with the brim of his hat. "These look like pretty standard flats to me."
"You think I got four flats at the same time? Are you kidding me?"
"Listen here, buddy, my dad owns a garage in Detroit," he said. "So I like to think I know a thing or two about tires."
"Detroit, what? Just write the report." I laughed to suppress my anger, to avoid an argument that could turn ugly, and to get the paperwork I needed to file my insurance claim.
The cop begrudgingly wrote the report.
When will these broken systems be held accountable like the rest of us already are?
If a person puts a gun to my head and robs me of my belongings, I will not call the police even though my taxes help pay for their services. I don't expect the police to comfort me, listen to me, or to solve the crime. And even if they were likely to solve the crime, I don't think jail would solve the problems that caused the person to rob me in the first place. And that's another thing we have to pay for, too.
I've been feeling this way about the system and its return on our investments for a while, but the recent Supreme Court decisions just made everything feel more urgent.
Last week, the court reversed Roe v. Wade, declaring that a woman's constitutional right to abortion, precedent that has been in place for nearly a half century, no longer exists. This happened after justices responsible for the change had denied any intentions of overturning the landmark decision during their confirmation hearings. Donald Trump appointees Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett, along with Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito, also just curbed the Environmental Protection Agency's ability to mitigate climate change by setting limits on how they regulate power plants. And we paid their salaries while they did it.
Our hard-earned money pays for their homes, the island vacations they take their families on, the cars they drive, the meals they eat. Associate justices make $274,200 a year; the chief justice brings in $286,700. Which may not be a lot of money in the grand scheme of the federal budget, but let's remember the estimated average salary of the American worker last year was $58,260. And who among them has a job guaranteed for life?
I'm sure I'm not the only one feeling, in this moment, like the judicial branch of the government might have been one of the greatest mistakes of the nation's founders, filed right below allowing slavery to exist in this new country they fought to create. Maybe they imagined those lifetime appointments would always be held by somber experts in jurisprudence who would put the good of the nation first, and not an assembly of ideologically-drunk, politically-motivated clowns. How can checks and& balances exist when the majority on the court's goal appears to be serving the interests of one political party? And we get the bill!
Again, I'll proudly pay my fair share of taxes because I believe in accountability and doing my part. But when will these broken systems be held accountable like the rest of us already are?
CONTINUE READING
Show less
Copyright © 2022 Raw Story Media, Inc. PO Box 21050, Washington, D.C. 20009 | Masthead | Privacy Policy | For corrections or concerns, please email corrections@rawstory.com.
{{ post.roar_specific_data.api_data.analytics }}