A 20-year-old father in Texas was arrested after his 8-month-old daughter drowned in a bathtub while he was too “engrossed in video games” to save her life. According to a news release from the Burkburnett Police Department, officers on May 14, 2023, responded to a 911 call regarding an “unresponsive infant.” Upon arriving at the … Continue reading Texas father too ‘engrossed in video games’ left infant daughter to drown in bathtub: police
Tag: left
Supreme Court rulings likely to intensify calls from the left to 'pack' the Court
The ruling Thursday on affirmative action, the rulings Friday for a web designer to refuse to design same-sex websites and the decision to strike down President Biden’s student loan forgiveness plan will likely ignite calls by the left to expand or “pack” the composition of the High Court and impose terms for Supreme Court justices.
Calls to change the makeup of the Supreme Court have come from the left following appointments of more conservative justices under former President Trump. Though Congress has taken no concrete steps to dilute the power of justices appointed by Republican presidents, recent high profile rulings against the Biden administration have already inspired renewed calls to add more justices to the bench.
“People don’t have to live under constant fear of the Supreme Court. We can’t sit on our hands while these justices carry out the bidding of right wing organizations,” wrote Democratic Minnesota Sen. Tina Smith in a tweet Friday. “Expand the Court.”
Biden has not endorsed the idea of expanding the court, even after establishing a commission to study the proposal. He told MSNBC’s Nicole Wallace Thursday that expanding the court would “politicize it, maybe forever, in a way that’s not healthy.”
However, he also stated his view that the current court is “too young and too conservative,” and could harm the country with its rulings.
The left’s grievances against the makeup of the Supreme Court have roots in recent and distant history. Liberals accuse conservatives and Trump of “stealing” at least two seats and perhaps the Supreme Court, tipping the balance of power among the nine justices.
When Trump surprised Democrats with his 2016 election win, the stage was set to change the ideological makeup of the high court.
Senate Minority Leader — then Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) — had refused to allow former President Obama’s pick for the Supreme Court to even have a hearing in 2016 after the death of Justice Antonin Scalia. Obama had nominated current Attorney General Merrick Garland to succeed Scalia, but McConnell and then-Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, blocked Garland.
McConnell argued that the Senate should not confirm a justice in a presidential election year.
After Trump won in 2016, McConnell then shepherded to confirmation Justice Neil Gorsuch to succeed Scalia in the spring of 2017. In fact, McConnell used the “nuclear option” in the Senate to avoid a Democratic filibuster of Gorsuch. Democrats first used the nuclear option to sidestep filibusters for nominations besides Supreme Court justices in 2013. However, McConnell then detonated the nuclear option, just to muscle Gorsuch onto the High Court. Otherwise, Democrats — still smarting from the Garland experience — could have filibustered Gorsuch’s nomination.
The Senate had never filibustered a Supreme Court nomination. However, the Senate did filibuster the promotion of late Justice Abe Fortas from Associate Justice to U.S. Chief Justice in the late 1960s.
McConnell again relied on the nuclear option to confirm Justice Brett Kavanaugh in the fall of 2018.
After the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, McConnell ignored what he said in 2016 about confirming justices in a presidential election year, and pushed through the confirmation of Justice Amy Coney Barrett days before the 2020 presidential election.
So, liberals are livid over the composition of the Supreme Court and thus the rulings. That is why they are pushing for changing the fundamental makeup of the Court. The size of the Supreme Court is set by statute, not the Constitution, and theoretically could be expanded.
Liberals are still upset that the Supreme Court ruled in favor of former President George W. Bush over Democratic nominee Al Gore in the disputed election of 2000. Because of that, Bush was able to secure two seats on the Supreme Court: U.S. Chief Justice John Roberts in 2005 and Justice Samuel Alito in 2006.
The Judiciary Act of 1789 created a Supreme Court comprised of six justices. Congress added a seventh justice in 1807. The Court grew to nine justices in 1837.
The size of the Supreme Court has always been political. In 1863, Congress added a 10th seat to the Supreme Court for President Lincoln. Lincoln never filled that seat, but there was fear that President Johnson may alter the court. So, Congress shrunk the size of the Supreme Court to seven justices in 1867. Once Johnson was gone, Congress switched the number back to nine for President Grant.
President Franklin Delano Roosevelt tried to “pack” the Court in 1937 — adding justices for every member of the Supreme Court who was over the age of 70. Thus, FDR hoped to install six of his own justices on the Court, but the public was opposed, and the Senate Judiciary Committee emphatically torpedoed the plan.
Broncos' Russell Wilson suffers big knot on his head as tackle left him with concussion
Russell Wilson nearly led the Denver Broncos to an incredible comeback victory against the Kansas City Chiefs on Sunday but left the game early with a concussion.
On 3rd-and-11 from the Chiefs’ 16-yard line, Wilson scrambled for a first down and was about 2 yards short of the end zone when he was tackled by safety Juan Thornhill. Wilson went down hard and appeared to be in a daze. He needed to be helped up by medical personnel.
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He wouldn’t return to the game and the broadcast camera showed the veteran quarterback with a big knot in his head as he roamed the sideline.
Brett Rypien came into the game and threw a touchdown pass to Jerry Jeudy to cut their deficit to just six points. But Rypien failed to complete the comeback and the Chiefs won the game 34-28.
BRONCOS’ JERRY JEUDY SCREAMS AT OFFICIAL, BUMPS INTO HIM DURING OUTBURST
Wilson was 24-of-36 passing with 247 yards and three touchdowns and an interception. It was the first time all season the Broncos had scored more than 25 points in a game.
“He was fighting the whole game,” Broncos coach Nathaniel Hackett said. “I give him so much credit and you see it, day-in and day-out. No matter what the situation is, just watching him there in that third-down situation to be able to break the pocket, and he was using his legs a lot. He obviously ended up getting a concussion. I think our medical team did a great job of getting him in here. He’s in the concussion protocol now. So we’ll go through that step-by-step process and do it the right way. But he played really well.”
Wilson’s status is unclear but the Broncos’ chances of making the playoffs are over.
Brazil election: Lula da Silva wins presidency as nation swings left — will Bolsonaro accept the results?
Brazil’s left-wing former president Luis Inacio Lula da Silva, commonly known as Lula, narrowly won a tightly contested presidential election tonight with a margin of just under 2%.
With 50% of precincts reporting, Bolsonaro clung to a narrow 0.5% lead, but the general trend over the course of the evening was a slow and steady upswing for Lula, as votes trickled in from the northeast. Just before 7pm, with 72% of precincts reporting, Lula took his first lead of the night, and continued to expand his lead.
It was also going to be difficult for Bolsonaro in the second round, as Lula won the first round by 5 points, 48% to 43%, nearly winning outright on October 2. Bolsonaro also faced an uhpill battle in the sense that both third place Simone Tebet and fourth place Ciro Gomes backed Lula in the second round.
Bolsonaro turned in a strong showing in the wealthier south of the country, winning Sao Paulo and his native Rio de Janeiro by margins of over 10%, but it was not enough to compensate for Lula’s massive turnout in the Northeast of Brazil, where the Workers Party has long enjoyed dominance. Indeed, Lula won numerous states by margins of 30%, 40% or even 50%, turning in particularly strong performances in the vote-rich states of Bahia, Ceara, and his native Pernambuco.
Bolsonaro flipped the pivotal swing state of Minas Gerais, winning by a narrow margin, and backed by the endorsement of Governor Romeu Zema, but it was not enough to reach 50%.
However, it was not all bad news for the Bolsonaro camp. In the second most important race in the country, for Sao Paulo’s governorship, Bolsonaro-backed candidate Tarcisio de Freitas handily defeated Workers Party candidate Fernando Haddad, who was the 2018 presidential candidate who lost to Bolsonaro.
BRAZIL ELECTION: COUNTRY’S COURTS ACCUSED OF TAKING SIDE OF LULA AGAINST INCUMBENT BOLSONARO
Bolsonaro aligned candidates will now control the three largest states in Brazil: Romeu Zema in Minas Gerais, Claudio Castro in Rio de Janeiro, and Tarcisio de Freitas in Sao Paulo. While he did not win, the Bolsonaro movement remains strong, and Brazil’s 156 million voters will remain deeply culturally and politically divided.
After voting in his native Sao Bernardo do Campo, in the south of Sao Paulo state, Lula headed to downtown Sao Paulo to give a press conference and walk the famous Avenida Paulista, often considered the “main drag” of Brazil. Lula proclaimed, “Today may be the most important day of my life…the people of Brazil are defining the model that they desire to have…the way of life they want.”
Bolsonaro voted in Vila Militar in his home state of Rio de Janeiro, saying he had “the expectation of victory, for the good of Brazil…if it is God’s will, we will be victorious tonight.”
Critics have charged that Bolsonaro would not accept the electoral results in case of a loss, but on Friday he sang a different tune: “Whoever has the most votes takes it. This is democracy.”
In Vila Planalto, Brasilia, a largely pro-Bolsonaro middle class neighborhood near the Palacio da Alvorada, where Bolsonaro is known for taking walks, groups of family and friends had gathered to view election results, with the majority sporting Brazil’s yellow soccer jerseys. They nursed the disappointing news over large bottles of Brazilian beer, served in typical style in tiny glasses.
One voter said, “In my family we are divided. My daughter called me to say that I should vote for Lula, but I said in Brazil we have a secret ballot.”
Across town at the iconic TV tower, Lula’s supporters, many clad in red, packed into a plaza to cheer the results.
Most polls had showed Lula with a slight lead, but there appeared to be a tightening over the last week of the campaign. Furthermore, polls during the first round election on October 2 proved to be biased in favor of Lula, while significantly undercounting support for Bolsonaro.
BRAZIL ELECTION: BOLSONARO, TRAILING BEHIND LULA IN POLLS, SCORES KEY ENDORSEMENT
Lula will likely face a difficult term in office, with considerable Congressional opposition from the large block of Bolsonaro-aligned federal deputies and Senators.
His election tonight represents one of the greatest comeback stories in Latin American history. Lula was convicted and imprisoned on corruption and money laundering charges that were later overturned on a technicality by Brazil’s Supreme Court, clearing the way for him to run for an unprecedented third term.
Lula also is regarded to have made a shrewd move in selecting business-friendly centrist former Sao Paulo Governor Geraldo Alckmin as his vice presidential running mate. In 2018, Workers Party candidate Fernando Haddad selected Rio Grande do Sul federal deputy Manuela D’Avila, from the Brazilian Communist Party, who was widely viewed as too extreme.
Haddad ended up losing the 2018 election to Bolsonaro by 10%.
‘Boy Meets World’ star Maitland Ward explains why she left Hollywood: ‘I'm now my authentic self'
Maitland Ward went from being a sitcom star to an adult film star. From 1998 until 2000, the actress played Rachel McGuire in the last two seasons of ABC’s “Boy Meets World.” After her time on the series, Ward later broke into the adult film industry. She has detailed her surprising career path in a … Continue reading ‘Boy Meets World’ star Maitland Ward explains why she left Hollywood: ‘I'm now my authentic self'
Jojo Siwa says Candance Cameron Bure left out details in Instagram video
The saga continues to unfold after Jojo Siwa described Candance Cameron Bure in a viral TikTok video as the “rudest celebrity” she’s ever met. On Tuesday, Bure, 46, shared a video on Instagram clearing the air with Siwa, but it appears the “Dance Moms” alum does not agree with everything Bure had to say. “We … Continue reading Jojo Siwa says Candance Cameron Bure left out details in Instagram video
Gutfeld: Taliban could use social media to paralyze America with footage of citizens left behind
Hosts of ‘The Five’ criticized Biden for the chaotic troop withdrawal from Afghanistan, which left hundreds of Americans behind.