ChunkMcHorkle

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I was posting this in another discussion today and thought others might also enjoy it.

This is easily the most informative – and moving – piece I have ever read on Haiti. It began as a journalist’s attempt to tally the actual numbers involved in all the money that has left Haiti over the centuries in unjust "reparations" to France -- essentially, having the slaves that freed themselves repay the value of their own bodies and labor to France -- and ended up being a great deal more.

This article also explores how it wasn’t just the loss of Haiti’s cash to France that has vastly impoverished Haiti and prevented its growth at the same rate as its Caribbean neighbors, but the parallel loss of not having any of that cash invested in its own people, commerce, or society: it was a crippling double blow that has gone on for centuries.

While this is a very long read, it is a deep and accurate dive into the French history, endless threats of war and repayments, and then the US coming into take whatever was left in the 20th century. And the pictures and illustrations are also incredibly good, especially the ruins of La Citadelle in the fog having just read exactly what it was there for.

If you're interested in Haiti and the chaos that is going on there right now, this is an invaluable read.

Suggesting that Americans inject disinfectants into their veins. Declaring that people believe he’s been treated worse than Abraham Lincoln. Claiming wind turbines are killing whales. Saying environmental regulations are forcing people to flush their toilets “10 times, 15 times as opposed to once.” Over the course of Donald Trump’s 77 years on earth, he’s had a lot of uniquely bizarre comments come out of his mouth. That streak continued over the weekend, as he reportedly suggested to a group of billionaires that Joe Biden had literally shit on a piece of White House furniture.

Archive link to above Vanity Fair article

From the original NY Times article quoted by Vanity Fair:

Mr. Trump blamed his successor, Mr. Biden, for the influx of migrants and mocked him and aides for what Mr. Trump said were bad decisions made around the Resolute Desk, which has been used by two dozen presidents.

“The Resolute Desk is beautiful,” Mr. Trump said. “Ronald Reagan used it, others used it.”

He then denigrated Mr. Biden, sounding disgusted, according to the attendee: “And he’s using it. I might not use it the next time. It’s been soiled. And I mean that literally, which is sad.”

The attendee who witnessed the moment said that dinner guests laughed and that Mr. Trump’s remark was interpreted as the former president saying that Mr. Biden had defecated on the desk.

Archive link

Excerpt:

It’s extremely difficult to square this ruling with the text of Section 3 [of the Fourteenth Amendment]. The language is clearly mandatory. The first words are “No person shall be” a member of Congress or a state or federal officer if that person has engaged in insurrection or rebellion or provided aid or comfort to the enemies of the Constitution. The Section then says, “But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each house, remove such disability.”

In other words, the Constitution imposes the disability, and only a supermajority of Congress can remove it. But under the Supreme Court’s reasoning, the meaning is inverted: The Constitution merely allows Congress to impose the disability, and if Congress chooses not to enact legislation enforcing the section, then the disability does not exist. The Supreme Court has effectively replaced a very high bar for allowing insurrectionists into federal office — a supermajority vote by Congress — with the lowest bar imaginable: congressional inaction.

This is a fairly easy read for the legal layperson, and the best general overview I've seen yet that sets forth the various legal and constitutional factors involved in today's decision, including the concurring dissent by Justices Kagan, Sotomayor, and Jackson.

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Brett Kavanaugh, the US supreme court justice, will “step up” for Donald Trump and help defeat attempts to remove the former president from the ballots in Colorado and Maine for inciting an insurrection, a Trump lawyer said.

“I think it should be a slam dunk in the supreme court,” Alina Habba told Fox News on Thursday night. “I have faith in them.

“You know, people like Kavanaugh, who the president fought for, who the president went through hell to get into place, he’ll step up. Those people will step up. Not because they’re pro-Trump but because they’re pro-law, because they’re pro-fairness. And the law on this is very clear.”

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