Tuesday Clutter: Robert Mueller, Harley-Davison, Instagram, Wells Fargo, Guardians of the Galaxy, Denzel Washington, Pantera, and more
Thursday Clutter: Supreme Court, Boston Red Sox, Jared Leto, Sheryl Crow, and more

Wednesday Clutter: Important Progressive Primary Win, Supreme Court Shame, Boston Red Sox, Beastie Boys, and more

Hi everyone,

Welcome back!  Come on in, have a seat.  How are you?  I have to admit that I woke up in a bit of a panic this morning, because I thought we might be out of coffee.  The horror, right?  However, BDH and Little Buddha just smiled at me and pointed at the second bag sitting on the shelf that's still about half-full.  Phew!  Stressful way to start a day, but now that we've resolved that crisis, it must be smooth sailing the rest of the way, right?  Right.  The guys say we're ready to go, so help yourself to a nice medium DD, and let's clear out some Wednesday Clutter.

Here's some news that's bound to get a lot of attention in Massachusetts in the weeks ahead: Progressive candidate  Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez defeated Rep. Joe Crowley in New York's Democratic primary yesterday.  It's Ocasio-Cortez's first time running for office, and she knocked out the left-leaning Crowley, who has been in office since 1999.  The parallels between this race and the battle in Massachusetts between Boston City Councilor Ayanna Pressley and Rep. Michael Capuano are striking, and Pressley's team will certainly be looking to duplicate the outcome here this fall.  This should also be a message to the Democratic Party: Progressives will not be taken for granted this year.  Ignore that at your own peril.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez June 27 2018Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez celebrates with her supporters Tuesday night.  Who's next?  (pic via vox.com)

Look at that, Mitt Romney won the Utah Senate Republican primary last night, so he's presumably on his way to Washington in January.  Do you think he will be the new face of the Republican resistance to Trump, or just another GOP lackey for the Great Pumpkin?  Don't worry, he'll be both.

Let's talk about a positive court case first, and that would be a federal judge ordering the U.S. government to reunite migrant families who have been separated at the border.  Again, we're living in a world, where the government has to be told to stop kidnapping children.  It's a lasting shameful stain on this nation's soul.  What ads to that shame is the hunch that there will be an appeal or other resistance to following the ruling, because, again, this bunch of thugs doesn't want to be told it can't kidnap children who aren't white.

That brings us to the U.S, Supreme Court, which disgraced itself with two rulings on Tuesday.  The first was the upholding of Trump's travel ban.  The justices will bend over backwards to protect "tolerance" for Christian beliefs in case after case, but apparently that rigorous standard doesn't apply to Muslims, as the majority opinion completely discounted Trump's anti-Muslim comments during the original implementation of this ban.

The second ruling found that it's fine for so-called "crisis pregnancy centers" to lie to women about the services they provide, saying that forcing these anti-abortion organizations to be honest about their objectives is a violation of their First Amendment rights. 

Both of these decisions were decided by a vote to 5-4, so had Donald Trump not been enabled to appoint Neil Gorsuch, (with an assist by Mitch McConnell to steal a court seat in the first place), they would have gone the other way.  (Well, the travel ban wouldn't have existed in the first place, but you see where we're going with this.)  We'll be rid of Trump one way or the other soon enough, but we'll be stuck with his judicial legacy for years to come.  The next time you talk to some otherwise-seemingly-decent person who felt that there was no difference between Trump and Clinton, tell them to look in a mirror and then slap themselves as hard as they can.

Oh, and the midterm elections are now less than 19 weeks away.

Let's get back to the fun stuff.  The Boston Red Sox crushed the Los Angeles Angels 9-1 last night, and we were there for all of the fun.  David Price gave up the one run on five hits over six innings, and the Boston offense just pounded Angels pitching.  The Sox had four home runs (Mookie Betts, Christian Vazquez, Jackie Bradley Jr., and JD Martinez), and JBJ had himself a night, going 3-4 with 4 RBI.  Could this be the performance that gets the struggling outfielder back on track offensively?   The personal highlight was that two of Boston's four home runs were hit on a direct line to us, but they landed in the Red Sox bullpen instead.  Next time, they just need to go about five rows further, okay guys?  It was a gorgeous night for baseball, and a good time was had by all.  Rick Porcello takes the mound for the Sox tonight.

Sorry to hear that New York Mets GM Sandy Alderson is taking a leave of absence to once again fight a battle against cancer.  It doesn't sound like he's going to return to the team in the future no matter how that plays out, but we wish him all the best in this challenge.

Okay kids, that's going to do it for now.  This feels like a Beastie Boys kind of morning, so let's have them close things out with, "Intergalactic," for today's, "Song of the Day."

Thanks for stopping by, everyone.  It was great to see you, as always.  Enjoy the rest of your day, be good, and we'll see you back here again for more fun soon.  Until next time, that's today's Clearing out the Clutter, and we are outta here.

 

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