THE SUPREME COURT AND BIDEN’S EPA POWER GRAB: A pen and phone are no substitute for a statute duly passed by Congress.

The EPA’s attempt to impose such a scheme on states was particularly bold because Congress had just declined to enact a similar scheme. After the 2008 election, Democrats introduced the Waxman-Markey bill, a sweeping cap-and-trade scheme to reduce carbon emissions dramatically. Even with Democratic supermajorities in both houses, Congress failed to pass the bill.

After his party lost the House in 2010 President Obama turned to the EPA, which in 2015 promulgated the Clean Power Plan. The basic idea of the CPP was to pressure states into shutting down coal and (eventually) natural-gas plants and switch to renewable electricity sources. The agency resorted to an obscure provision of the original Clean Air Act that lay largely dormant for decades. It empowers the EPA to designate a “best system of emissions reduction,” or BSER, for existing facilities. The provision had been used only a handful of times, mostly for solid-waste incinerators, to reduce emissions “inside the fence line” of the facility itself. . . .

One issue the court unfortunately didn’t focus on was the federal coercion of state governments. The EPA normally has the power to do itself whatever it’s asking states to do. But in the CPP, even the EPA admitted that it has no statutory authority to impose directly the measures it was asking states to take. It got around that by using its power to shut down coal plants as leverage to seize control of state policy in areas far beyond its jurisdiction.

Regulators tend to use their power that way if allowed.

WHY WOULDN’T THEY, WHEN BIDEN IS CLEARLY DESPERATE FOR A DEAL, ANY DEAL? Iran accused of making ‘maximalist demands’ in nuclear deal talks.

EVERYTHING IS GOING SWIMMINGLY: Jeffrey Carter: Stocks Worst 6 Months in 50 Years.

A SHOW TRIAL IN RUSSIA: Brittney Griner’s ‘sham’ trial in Russia is underway: Politicized trial for WNBA superstar Brittney Griner begins as fellow players (and even Congress) are fighting for her return to the United States. Griner’s trial won’t be fair, legal experts say.

Of course, we have a show trial of sorts going on in the U.S. Capitol as well.

MANY WORLDS: We may be underestimating how many cold, giant planets are habitable.

FASTER, PLEASE: In development: A synthetic foam that heals chronic wounds by suppressing inflammation and spurring blood vessel growth.

NO, IT’S ABOUT PUNISHING AMERICANS FOR BEING WEALTHY AND PRODUCTIVE AND ENJOYING IT: Biden Admin To Families Suffering High Gas Costs: ‘This Is About The Future Of The Liberal World Order.’

PLAGUES FIRST, FAMINE LATER: NY to receive more than 8,000 monkeypox vaccine doses. “Officials recently expanded the group of people recommended to get vaccinated against the monkeypox virus, expanding the pool of people to include those who may realize on their own that they could have been infected. That includes men who who have recently had sex with men at parties or in other gatherings in cities where monkeypox cases have been identified.”

COME SEE THE RACISM INHERENT IN THE LEFTISM: White CNN Host Asks “Why Have You Never Seen Clarence Thomas at an NBA Game?’

GRAFT IS DELICIOUS! Ben & Jerry’s Foundation President Steered Funds to His Own Charity.

SAY ANYTHING: At NATO Summit, Biden Trashes SCOTUS, Says Dobbs Is ‘Destabilizing’ the World.

WHY ARE LAW SCHOOLS SUCH CESSPITS OF BIGOTRY AND OPPRESSION? Get Out: Structural Racism In The Legal Academy And Academic Terror

RACISM, STRAIGHT UP: White House Press Corp Is Not Pleased with Karine Jean-Pierre.

OTHER PEOPLE’S MONEY: Secretary Buttigieg to Spend $1 Billion to Combat Racist Highways.

KEEP COOL IN THE SUN: RIVBOS Polarized Sports Sunglasses Driving shades For Men. #CommissionEarned

FORMER BLACKFIVE MILBLOGGER “LAUGHING WOLF” CONTINUES HIS RECOVERY: Alive Day. “My military friends will know what that means, but potentially countless others will not. It is the day you died, or should have died. The day something catastrophic impacted you and perhaps those around you. In some cases, people I know quite literally died and the docs and doctors brought them back. Some more than once. In other cases, the docs and doctors poured forth their skills and power like water, and kept them alive. Even spending time in Iraq and elsewhere, I never truly thought that I would have an alive day.”

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Nearly 9 in 10 recent student loan borrowers bet on Biden bailing them out.

LAYERS OF EDITORS AND FACT-CHECKERS: Good Morning America: Thurgood Marshall & Clarence Thomas ‘Ain’t Black.’

PROGRESS: DeSantis’ new anti-woke law survives legal challenge.

CRISIS BY DESIGN: New Mexico Rep. Yvette Herrell Says Scrapping Remain in Mexico ‘Will Worsen the Continuing Disaster.’

HOW UT-AUSTIN ADMINISTRATORS DESTROYED AN INTELLECTUAL DIVERSITY INITIATIVE. College admins really, really do not want students to hear unapproved opinions. And FIRE ranks UT-Austin #102 out of 154 schools in its climate for free speech.

KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEFING: Congressional Climate Cult Commies Upset That SCOTUS’s EPA Ruling Would Make Them Do Their Jobs. “The EPA really became an unchecked behemoth during the Obama years. The Lightbringer loved weaponizing his pet agencies with infusions of cash and new bodies to hinder the freedoms of law-abiding citizens in a variety of ways.”

UKRAINE: RUSSIAN OFFENSIVE CAMPAIGN ASSESSMENT, JUNE 30.

YOUR TERMS ARE ACCEPTABLE: DAVID HOGG PROMISES NOT TO HAVE CHILDREN IF WE KEEP ROE V. WADE OVERTURNED AND VALUE GUN RIGHTS.

THEY ONLY ROLLED OUT THE “FACT-CHECKERS” WHEN THE TRUTH STARTED GETTING OUT: This is the age of the “fact checker.”

Politico on Twitter said,

Clarence Thomas claimed in a dissenting opinion that Covid vaccines are derived from the cells of “aborted children.”

No Covid vaccines in the U.S. contain the cells of aborted fetuses.

2,061 Retweets. 1,537 Quote Tweets. 5,676 Likes. Dozens of sneering replies.

And two egregious falsehoods in one tweet.

As Egon Alter (@AlterEgon75) put it in their reply,

This is a gross mischaracterization of Thomas’ words.

HE is not making the claim, the plaintiffs in the case are.

And he said they object because aborted fetus cells were used in the development of the vaccine, which your reporting verifies, not that the vaccine contains them.

UPDATE:

You can see a screenshot of Justice Thomas’s exact words in this tweet from AGHamilton29. Thomas said,

They object on religious grounds to all available COVID-19 vaccines because they were developed using cell lines derived from aborted children.

Firstly, note that he is paraphrasing the opinion of the petitioners, not giving his own opinion. Secondly, note that the petitioners themselves did not claim that the vaccines were made from aborted foetuses, they claim that foetal cells were used in the development process, which they were. As one would expect from a judge, Thomas has noted this crucial distinction.

Again via the estimable AGHamilton29, I see that it was not just Politico spreading this false story.

They sit on a throne of lies, because the truth is fatal to them.