August 8, 1974 President Richard M. Nixon resigned from office, the first U.S. president ever to do so. The House Judiciary Committee had, with bipartisan support (the Democrats and one-third of the Republican members), voted for three articles of impeachment: obstruction of justice, abuse of power, and contempt of Congress.A week later, one of the White House tapes was finally made public, showing the President’s direct involvement in the Watergate scandal cover-up: “…call the FBI and say that we wish, for the country, don’t go any further into this case, period…” – Nixon to Chief of Staff Haldeman, June 23, 1972 (six days after the Watergate break-in) He officially left office August 9, and was fully pardoned one month later by his successor, President Gerald Ford. Asked years later about some of his administration’s questionable activities, Nixon said, “Well, when the president does that, it isn’t illegal.” The headlines in Washington that day
August 8, 1999 A 53-mile peace walk commemorating the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki ended near Clam Lake, Wisconsin, at the site of the U.S. Navy’s Project Elf (extremely low frequency) submarine communications transmitter. Twelve of the demonstrators were arrested for trespassing, adding to the nearly 500 previously arrested for sit-ins, Citizen Inspections, blockades and disarmament actions at the transmitter site in Ashland County.
After a little nuclear rhetoric from former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev, Trump decided to reposition two nuclear submarines. He told Newsmax while on his way to play golf…again, that he “sent them to the region” and that “they’re closer to Russia.”
Medvedev has fallen from being president to being less useful to Putin than the caddy is to Trump, who kicks his golf balls closer to the green.
Medvedev made comments about Moscow’s capability to deliver a nuclear strike on America, even if everyone in Russia is dead. And then he tweeted to Trump an emoji of laughter through tears and the nuclear threat, warning Trump of the dangers of the “Dead Hand,” while also making references to the TV “The Walking Dead.” Medvedev was totally trolling Trump, and somehow did it without mentioning Epstein.
The Kremlin walked back Medvedev’s rhetoric and assured the world that only the head of state can make nuclear decisions, though that head of state, Vladimir Putin, has previously threatened to use nukes in Ukraine.
Trump gave Putin a 10 to 12-day deadline to do something something about a peace deal with Ukraine, or there will be more sanctions placed on Russia. That deadline is in two days, or maybe four, or whenever Putin says so.
Trump has been using some tough talk with Russia, but don’t make any mistakes about it. He’s still Putin’s puppet. The deal he’s offering Russia is still slanted in their favor. Trump is also trying to have a trilateral meeting with Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, but wants a private meeting with Putin first. The trilateral meeting will probably end up like Zelensky’s last visit to the Oval Office.
Trump’s “peace deal” includes giving Russia half of Ukraine and a guarantee that Ukraine will never be a member of NATO.
You know that when you see a man in a muscle car or a monster truck, that he’s overcompensating for a tiny ding dong. Trump is basically doing the same thing with submarines. ‘
I think Trump has watched too much UFC, WWE, and Rocky III. Or was it Rocky IV when he fought the roided-up Russian?
I’m worried that if Trump says he wants a fight, even if he’s bluffing, that he might get one. (snip-MORE)
This is hugely pertinent to our interests. And the history callback of Dobbs/Roe is spot on!! This needs we the people’s work sooner rather than later. The story linked within is important background for working on this. Seriously: pick one or two (or more!) rights organizations and do what you can with them, now, while it’s not still too late, and stick with it until the other side is defeated. Please don’t wait until this is in court. Then:
A very sound scheme is to check in with your states on their legislative websites, see what the laws are right now, and what’s in the chute. Overturning Obergefell can’t/won’t change state laws regarding marriage, just as overturning Roe didn’t change state laws regarding repro rights. But knowing what could be coming, especially in red states, is imperative for getting ourselves protected, and protecting others. If your state is safe, well, pick another state that isn’t, and help them out. If your state has no law at all, lobby hard to get one, ASAP. And thanks!-A.
Some of Trump’s judicial nominees have refused in confirmation hearings to acknowledge that the Supreme Court’s 2015 decision in Obergefell v. Hodges, striking down state bans on same-sex marriage as unconstitutional, was correctly decided. According to an analysis by JP Collins at the legal website Balls and Strikes, Eric Tung, who Trump nominated to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, said only, “the Supreme Court granted such a right.” William Mercer, a nominee to the U.S. District Court for the District of Montana, said Obergefell is “binding precedent,” but declined to “grade the Supreme Court.”
As Collins points out, these verbal gymnastics to avoid saying the case was correctly decided mirror those of Trump’s first term Supreme Court nominees who said Roe v. Wade was precedent but would not say it was correctly decided — and then voted to overturn it.
One might say marriage equality is different from abortion. Obergefell is just 10 years old, and Roe was decades old. But the most important feature that both decisions share is the enmity of the Christian right, and its determination to overturn them, no matter how many years or decades it takes.
Even before the court decided Obergefell in 2015, the Christian right was already planning to treat it just like Roe. The Supreme Court’s 1973 decision, they argued, was not the end of the abortion issue but rather the beginning. They used money, media, political might, religion, and relentless organizing to use abortion to drive politics and shape the judiciary. Their plans for Obergefell and LGBTQ rights are no different.
Photo by Astrid Riecken For The Washington Post via Getty Images
Next month, beauty brand Ami Colé will shutter, marking an unfortunate reality for many Black-owned businesses — what happens when financial interest dries up?
Founder Diarrha N’Diaye-Mbaye’s July announcement, which she detailed for The Cut, shocked many across the beauty space.
In the piece, N’Diaye-Mbaye outlined the journey of starting her business, from growing up in her mother’s Harlem braiding salon to pitching Ami Colé — known for their innovation in lip oils and shade-inclusive makeup — to over 150 investors in 2019. After a surge in support for Black entrepreneurship following the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis in 2020, N’Diaye-Mbaye said she received more interest in the brand, becoming one of 30 Black women to raise $1 million for her start-up within months.
But four years after her official launch, N’Diaye-Mbaye said growth at Sephora couldn’t compete with corporate brands, and scaling up production to meet potential demand came at a steep cost when online influence fluctuated.
“Instead of focusing on the healthy, sustainable future of the company and meeting the needs of our loyal fan base,” N’Diaye-Mbaye wrote, “I rode a temperamental wave of appraising investors — some of whom seemed to have an attitude toward equity and ‘betting big on inclusivity’ that changed its tune a lot, to my ears, from what it sounded like in 2020.”
This sentiment isn’t unique among Black entrepreneurs. Five years after venture capital firms, investors and consumers alike followed a wave of support for Black-owned businesses, interest in diverse brands has waned significantly. Through TikTok and other social media platforms, access to an audience has never been greater, but the capital needed to sustain brands at a high profile has dropped off.
Diarrha N’Diaye-Mbaye, Founder and CEO of Ami Colé speaks at an event on October 15, 2022 in New York City. (Craig Barritt/Getty Images)
Nationally, there has been a societal swing — in tandem with pressure from President Donald Trump’s administration — against intentional incorporation of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) in creators’ paths, with waning urgency to support these businesses en masse. And the amount of money flowing to Black-founded companies has hit a multiyear low, according to the business publication Crunchbase News. Only $730 million — 0.4 percent of all funding — went to startups with a Black founder or co-founder last year, down more than two-thirds from 2021. The startups that did receive funding were mostly in the tech or health spaces.
Esthetician and beauty influencer Tiara Willis said she has noticed that cultural shift in support over the last five years. Brands rushed to onboard diverse creators in the summer of 2020. Now, the long-term partnerships, increased shade ranges and targeted marketing seem to have wavered. N’Diaye-Mbaye’s struggle to meet demand as influencers promoted her products is something that would have been covered by investors who were in it for the long haul, Willis said.
She pointed to celebrity founders like Hailey Bieber, whose Rhode makeup and skin care brand began with millions of dollars to swing big while starting her business. Rhode was acquired by e.l.f Beauty for $1 billion in May.
“They rarely ever start by themselves, like the rest of us do — they already have someone on their team,” Willis told The 19th. “Trying to build your own brand while trying to compete with companies who are able to launch products every two seconds, and are able to fill retail space and have less obstacles than brands like Ami Colé — it’s not entirely surprising she wasn’t able to keep up.”
Black creators voiced concern immediately following N’Diaye-Mbaye’s announcement, calling her brand’s shuttering “disheartening” and indicative of larger trends in the Black beauty space. Being able to trust that a brand like Ami Colé would have inclusive shade ranges and products by virtue of their leadership made shopping simpler, some said on social media.
Sephora store shelves reflect a mad dash to support Ami Colé and restock on favorites before the brand officially closes in September. Sales associates told The 19th that the lip oils had sold out online and in store immediately following the announcement, though the demand for other products has slowed since.
But consumers should not feel the pressure to support Black-owned businesses when the larger issue is who has access to capital and investors, some creators pointed out. The issue isn’t the lack of customers, Javon Ford, a cosmetic chemist and entrepreneur, said in a recent TikTok video.
“That is not a sustainable business model. The issue is money. It’s capital. Operating in a retailer like Sephora is expensive,” Ford said. “That’s how cutthroat retail is when you scale to a certain extent, and this is also why exit strategies are important, because it’s really hard to keep up with legacy brands.”
Willis echoed the unstable environment in which Black influencers like herself find themselves: “It creates financial insecurity, where I get the most support of brands based on what’s going on in the news, versus getting support because of my work and my talent and the things I provide to the table.”
The Treasury Department reported that Trump’s tariffs brought in over $28 billion in revenue last May. Naturally, this got MAGAts hyped up and excited as they think this is “winning.”
Hey, it doesn’t matter that Trump’s tax cuts for asshole billionaires will lead to even larger deficits, we’re getting all this revenue from foreign nations. They got more “winning” last week when the European Union agreed on a tariff on their goods of 15 percent. Holy Wowzers. That’s a lot of winning.
What MAGAts don’t realize is that the $28 billion wasn’t paid for by China, Mexico, Canada, or even Penguin Island. They don’t understand that the 15 percent on EU stuff won’t be paid for by the EU. American consumers pay for the tariffs. Even if you suck at economics, and it’s a hard subject, learning how tariffs work can be easy.
In easy terms, a tariff is a tax. While Donald Trump is cutting taxes, he’s also raising them.
Let’s say I live in Denmark and I sell wooden shoes. That’s Denmark, right? Or was it Holland? I just looked it up, and it’s Holland. The shoes are called “Klompens,” probably because you klomp around in them. Anywaysies, I’m in Europe and I sell stupid shoes. When I sell them to stores in the United States, Trump forces me to pay a 15 percent tariff. How do I make up that 15 percent, because I don’t want to eat it. I raise the price of my Klompens by 15 percent. The store doesn’t want to eat that 15 percent either, so guess what they do. They raise the price of the shoes they bought from me by at least 15 percent. That means American customers of those stupid, ugly wooden shoes pay the tariffs.
The way this can hurt me is that people may not want to purchase my stupid, ugly wooden shoes, and will tell me to get the klomp out of here. Fortunately, American consumers may not even notice the price increase. We still purchase iPhones even though every new version costs more than the last one, and the only changes are that they come in more colors and with “enhanced” AI, like we need more of that shit. Siri doesn’t let me talk to myself anymore. I’m sticking with my 12 until it dies of natural causes or I accidentally murder it deliberately. So far, it’s fine, knock on Klompens. (snip-MORE)
The Advance wrote with today’s cartoon: Reporting this past week by Adele Uphaus that a member of the Fredericksburg School Board took a first-class flight to a conference in Atlanta, had school division transportation personnel shuttle her to the airport in Richmond, and was traveling with School Board clerk Angie Roenke’s credit card which was shut down due to “possible purchase card usage issues” drew a great deal of attention. As did Uphaus’ reporting on July 8about travel to Hawaii by another Board member. Yes — Clay Jones noticed.
I have covered this subject not just once but twice before. This is the third version, and it’s based on some new reporting by Adele Uphaus.
I know that if I ever flew first class on my last employer’s dime, I would have some ‘splaining to do. After every convention, the editor who managed expenses would call me into her office and review everything on my expense report, which typically had very low expenses. The editor’s presumption with each review was that you were trying to steal from the company. It was about as enjoyable as a body cavity search, unless you’re into those kinds of things.
Anyway, I don’t get how a school board member is flying first class and getting away with it while teachers are buying their own school supplies. (snip-MORE)
Scottie's Playtime 