06/23/26
Good morning! It’s Tuesday, June 23rd
National Porridge Day
(in an accent) Oh is it now? Do you want some porridge? Would it be okay if I did the whole episode like this?
Did you put your name in the goblet of fire Harry?
And now, the news.
Starmer, Out
-via NY Times
Starting in Londontown! Just because I did the accent, why not?
Britain’s Prime Minister Keir Starmer resigned on Monday, giving the country their 7th prime minister in the decade since it voted to leave the EU.
Starmer will stay on as Prime Minister until a new leader is voted into office.
Pressure to resign had been building for a while, due to his low polling and especially after he appointed Peter Mandelson as US ambassador, and it came out that not only is Mandelson a co-star in the Epstein files, but Starmer knew.
Wait wait wait, hang on… you’re telling me that low polling and a connection to a child sex trafficker were enough to get him to leave office?
Isn’t that interesting…
Last week, Greater Manchester’s mayor Andy Burnham won a seat in Parliament, which was the final straw in challenging Starmer’s power. It’s not that Burnham is going to automatically become the PM (although he’s definitely going to try!), but now that Parliament saw that there was another option, they started wondering if it was time to make a change.
In America, we vote directly (well, sort of. Don’t even get me started on the Electoral College) on the president. Brits vote for a local Member of Parliament, and then the party that controls the majority forms the government.
The leader of that party then becomes the Prime Minister.
This isn’t a super clean example but think of it like… you vote for a House Rep, and then there’s a House Minority Leader and a Speaker of the House. The difference between those two roles is that the Speaker of the House is usually the leader of the majority party (I say usually the House still has to vote on it. Remember how no one likes Mikey J and he was the last choice?). If a super popular governor were suddenly elected into the House at the same time that people were already feeling disillusioned by the leadership, a change could probably happen.
So Starmer could have stayed and fought for his spot, but Members of Parliament are excited about Burnham and not thrilled with Starmer. The writing was on the wall and so he’s decided to step down instead of staying to lose later.
Senate Passes Housing Bill
-via CBS News
On Monday the Senate passed a BIPARTISAN (were they aware?) housing bill, with an overall goal to, “lower costs, expand housing supply, cut red tape, protect taxpayers, and help more Americans achieve the dream of homeownership.”
The bill bans corporate investors from buying single-family homes but a Senate provision requiring investors to sell newly constructed homes within seven years has been dropped.
The bill now heads back to the House, where it already passed but because a few changes were made in the Senate, the House has to sign off on those changes, before it goes to the president’s desk for signature.
Should I start packing now? I have a $3 down payment ready to go.
Judge Blocks Trump
-via The Hill
Once again proving that, besides that big one, most of the courts still work… a federal judge ruled on Monday that the Trump administration cannot create a centralized database with our social security numbers, voters’ citizenship status, and anything else they want to toss in the bucket.
This is in response to Trump’s demand that each state create a “State Citizenship List” that takes the Social Security Administration’s info and adds in naturalization records and the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) database, which is an existing database maintained by DHS that’s used to determine eligibility for federal programs.
Now, does that sound like something we want this administration to have?
And for what? For why? Fraud by voters has never affected the outcome of any election ever, so there’s nothing to worry about there.
There’s nothing to protect.
There are plenty of things they could disrupt, however. Which the judge noted in her 75-page ruling, part of which said: “Since then, states have partnered with the federal government to access the database and are actively removing United States citizens from voter rolls based on inaccurate information.”
Adding, “All in all, the federal government has knowingly trampled on the privacy rights of American citizens in a manner that threatens the sacred right to vote. This Court cannot stand idly by while that happens.”
Reflecting Pool
-via The Guardian
Actually you know what? No. I can’t talk about the Reflecting Pool again. There’s a link in show notes. This is absurd.
He hired a bad company, they messed up. The thing’s gotta be drained again.
Vandals didn’t do it.
Judge Blocks Trump (Another One)
-via CNN
Here’s a better story:
A different federal judge, in a different case, also had a great ruling on Monday as he blocked the Department of Justice from forcing Minnesota’s Governor Walz, and other dems, from turning over records in their investigation of the Democratic resistance to Trump and Stephen Miller’s white supremacy immigration crackdown.
The judge called the subpoenas: “part of an unconstitutional effort to coerce Minnesota officials into assisting the federal government with enforcing civil immigration laws and to harass and retaliate against them for failing to do so.”
See! The courts still work!
Clive Davis
-via CBS News
Clive Davis, who once heard Kelly Clarkson’s Because of You and thought it was a bad song simply because it didn’t rhyme and sabotaged her entire My December album in a feud so bad that she left the label because, on top of everything else, he made fun of the album in front of other industry people at an event, died on Monday.
He was 94.
SCOTUS Once Again…
-via NPR
Remember the two other stories when I was talking about the courts and how they still work? Yeah, I wasn’t talking about the Supremes.
On Monday the Supreme Court announced that they would not be taking up a 2025 lower court ruling, leaving in place a ruling that, yet again, takes a chunk out of the Voting Rights Act.
That is the legacy of the Roberts Court: That every single time he could have saved voting, he chose not to.
So basically what happened here is that in Arkansas, there is a 1987 Elections Code that says no one other than a poll worker during regular voting or a county or deputy county clerk during early voting can help more than six voters in marking and casting a ballot.
And it also says that poll workers have to maintain a list of names and addresses of anyone helping voters at the polls. In theory, this law is meant to prevent things like ballot harvesting and voter manipulation. Except that we know, we’ve run the numbers, that fraud by voters is a nonissue.
In fact, in Arkansas specifically, there have been, are you ready for this… six cases of fraud by voters.
Not six this year. Not six this decade.
Six since they started tracking in the state in 1982.
Now, because it used to be, before John Roberts got his little grub hand on the VRA, that states couldn’t create laws that disenfranchise voters. So instead, here’s a law that says you can’t help more than six people with their ballot unless you’re a very busy poll worker who doesn’t have time and we’re going to pretend it’s to prevent fraud that, at the time of writing this law, has not happened in the state.
Last year, the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled, as they did in a separate cause in North Dakota, that it doesn’t matter if this law is bunk or not… “We conclude the text and structure of § 208 do not create a private right of action. Neither the VRA nor the Supremacy Clause create a private right of action for § 208.”
In other words, you, as a human being, as a tax-paying American, do not have a right to have a voice in the way the Voting Rights Act is applied to you. Instead, the only people who can argue a section 208 violation of the VRA are the Department of Justice.
Section 208 explicitly states that voters who are blind, disabled, or unable to read may have assistance from a person of their choice at the polling place. Do you think this Department of Justice has any interest in jumping in to help more people vote?
Now, the Constitution does not say outright that you have a right to be heard in court as an individual, but… there is the Due Process Clause in the 5th and 14th Amendments, “No person shall... be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law.”
The 5th Amendment ensures that within the state. The 14th applies that federally.
They guarantee procedural due process, including the right to a fair opportunity to present your case in court.
Article 3, Section 2 says “The judicial Power shall extend to all Cases, in Law and Equity, arising under this Constitution, the Laws of the United States, and Treaties made... to Controversies... between a State and Citizens of another State... [etc.]”
All cases arising under this Constitution. That would include a Due Process Clause case brought on by the fact that a state violated my civil right to cast a ballot.
There are also relevant cases proving that we have a right to be heard in court:
The 1970 case Goldberg v. Kelly established that due process requires a hearing before welfare benefits can be terminated.
In 1976, Mathews v. Eldridge refined the balancing test for what “due process” requires.
And 1950’s Mullane v. Central Hanover Bank rules that “[Due process] requires that parties be given notice and an opportunity to be heard.”
And on top of all of this, there’s the First Amendment. The very first one! “Congress shall make no law... abridging... the right of the people... to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”
This ruling contradicts the Constitution and literal decades of precedent set through previous rulings. Not to mention the fact that the Supremacy Clause only says state laws can’t conflict with federal protections. So in other words – a state voting law can be struck down if it conflicts with the VRA, because that is a federal voting right protection.
It doesn’t say private plaintiffs must be stripped of court access.
“This Constitution, and the Laws of the United States which shall be made in Pursuance thereof; and all Treaties made, or which shall be made, under the Authority of the United States, shall be the supreme Law of the Land; and the Judges in every State shall be bound thereby, any Thing in the Constitution or Laws of any State to the Contrary notwithstanding.”
It factually does not factually state that individuals cannot bring a case to court on an individual basis.
The Supreme Court didn’t want to bring up this case because they know it doesn’t have a legal leg to stand on.
Now, it’s possible that the court may taking this case up later but honestly, I don’t think we want them to. The non-ruling is bad enough. If they take it up, they’re going to end up saying like – anyone who thinks about voting in a positive manner does to jail.
Not Messi’ing Around
-via NBC News
And finally, because now I’m all mad and I can’t leave you with that!
Because this podcast ranks high in soccer news in other countries (that’s real. That is a very real fact), I gotta keep my loyal fan base informed with this piece of info… Argentina’s Lionel Messi just secured his place in history, yet again, setting a record for career goals at the World Cuppa, recording his 17th and 18th goals against Australia.
Side note – an Australian comedian is here in the states and was so sad about losing a game of footie that he literally made a joke about how “well at least our school kids don’t get shot” and I just… I can’t imagine being that cruel and I hope every day he has bad luck. Everyone who laughed, everyone who joined him… bad luck for the rest of your days because we are loving everyone coming here for the Great American Sleepover but you need to call your parents and get picked up early because you guys suck.
Anyway, Messi tied the world record with a hat trick against Algeria, before breaking the record against Australia.
All these A countries!
We’re still in the group stage so I’m not going to go group by group but I will say, America is doing surprisingly well with 6 points (that’s the most you can have).
And that’s it. That’s the news.
I’m proud of soccer. Footie! Footsie.
I’m not proud of that Australian comedian. That dude sucks.
I’m also proud of porridge.
But more than porridge, because you’re great hot or cold, savory or sweet, but you’re not always mushy… I’m proud of you.