Bits ’n’ Pieces

From east, west and beyond

East, west or beyond, sooner or later events elsewhere may have a local impact. A recent sampling:

In a 17-12 vote, Texas passed a bill requiring posting the Ten Commandments in classrooms. According to CNN, proponents said the measure enables students to become better Texans. Opponents said parents should decide what religious materials their children learn, not lawmakers.

House Republicans will vote this week on their plan to pay the nation’s already incurred debts. Failure to pay would result in economic calamity, yet Republicans have resisted raising the current debt ceiling — despite doing so numerous times under former-President Donald Trump.

According to CBS News and the Coalition on Human Needs, House lawmakers would OK raising the debt ceiling into next year, in exchange for spending cuts of $130 billion, thereby undoing and/or undermining some of President Joe Biden’s accomplishments.

Republican cuts proposed for 2024 would affect health care, housing, education, child care, climate efforts, the IRS (which has lowered client wait times with new funding and put more resources into pursuing wealthy tax cheats), substance abuse and mental health treatments, the Social Security Administration, as well as putting restrictions on Medicaid and food benefits. There was no Republican plan to reverse tax cuts for the wealthy, which has expanded federal debt figures.

Washington state has signed into law the prohibition of sales, manufacture and importation or assault weapons. The bill includes a 10-day waiting period and safety training for all firearm purchases. Proponents of the new law said firearms have become the leading cause of death of children in the U.S. Assault weapons were singled out because they can kill twice as many people as compared to someone with a handgun or non-assault rifle. The bill allows current legal owners to retain their assault weapons.

Fox News has settled the defamation suit against the network by agreeing to pay $787.5 million to Dominion Voting Systems. The suit came in response to Fox’s accusations in 2020 that Dominion illegally flipped votes from Trump to Biden.

As critics have noted, the advantage of the settlement for Fox is that employees will not testify in court about their documented lies. Also, Fox said it can use the settlement payout as a tax deduction.

Documentation of Fox falsehoods included then-host Tucker Carlson saying the stolen election claims made by the network and its guests were “insane,” and Fox’s Sean

By Lorraine H. Marie Reader Columnist

Hannity privately said he did not believe the lies about Dominion “for one second.” Dominion also has litigation pending against OAN, Newsmax and several Trump allies.

Meanwhile, Fox is preparing a defense for a similar suit brought by voting company Smartmatic, used in more than 50 countries, which is suing for $2.7 billion for reputational damages. Smartmatic has stated that its aim is to repair damage done to the company and “hold Fox accountable for undermining democracy.”

Fox’s defense: they were reporting what was “newsworthy.” The judge said being newsworthy “doesn’t mean you can defame somebody.”

Amid the furor at Fox, the network announced April 24 that it would “part ways” with Tucker Carlson. Numerous media reported that Carlson was quickly offered a number of jobs with Russian state media. Russia Today frequently used Carlson’s Fox clips to promote its war against Ukraine, Newsweek noted. Russia Today stated it will welcome “diverse personalities,” and had invited Trump to join the state news network.

Investigation, impeachment or both? Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas is in the hot seat after allegations of corruption. Even a Fox News analyst friend says an investigation is warranted, The Guardian reported. Complaints about Thomas include acceptance of high-end gifts, exceptionally favorable real estate deals (both involving billionaire Harlan Crow, who has links to groups that file amicus briefs lobbying the Supreme Court) and failure to make financial disclosures. Notably, The Lever reported that Thomas in 2010 voted in favor of removing limits on corporate spending in politics via the Citizens United ruling (which claimed that “independent expenditures, including those made by corporations, do not give rise to corruption or the appearance of corruption”), and issued an opinion that the Supreme Court “should invalidate mandatory disclosure and reporting requirements.” He’s also written that judges should be able to overturn all rules requiring transparency in political spending.

Blast from the past: In 2010, after a right-leaning majority on the Supreme Court approved Citizens United, former-President Jimmy Carter stated, “[Citizens United] violates the essence of what made America a great country in its political system. Now it’s just an oligarchy, with unlimited political bribery being the essence of getting nominations for president or to elect the president. …So now we’ve just seen a complete subversion of our political system as a payoff to major contributors.”