Early June 2023 News.

The Senate passed the debt limit deal to avert default. The deal was a compromise. There are good and bad parts of the legislation. This is not about crushing political extremists (on the left) as Joe Scarborough says (who forgets was the progressive activists, not moderates, who gave America civil rights legislation, the Clean Air Act, Medicaid, Medicare, and other benefits helping millions of Americans for decades). Malcolm X, Dr. King, Ella Baker, and John Brown were never moderates, so moderates are never the superior ideological persons. The reality is that there was very little options among the choices that we were faced in dealing with the debt limit crisis. This crisis was a manufactured crisis created by far right MAGA extremists who hate the federal social safety net and have a market fundamentalism that desires no regulation of the economy at any circumstance. President Joe Biden and Kevin McCarthy worked together to compromise measure. Dissent with some parts of the bill is not about insulting Biden. It's about telling the truth about the bill. The bill suspends the debt limit through 2025. It expands work requirements for some food stamp recipients, and cuts form of COVID-19 relief funds (it will retain $5 billion in funding to accelerate the development of COVID-19 vaccines and treatments). The Senate voted 63 to 36 to pass the bill. The House passed the bill 314 to 117.

Donald Trump is facing more criticism over being caught on tape saying that he had a classified Pentagon document after leaving office. More prosecutors are investigating him for possible criminal activities. There is the criminal trial in New York City that comes from the investigation into his alleged role in a hush money scheme, will deal with the March primary contests. There is the October 2023 trial from the New York attorney general's 250 million dollar lawsuit against Trump, his eledest children, and the Trump Organiation. The Trump Organization was already convicted of criminal tax fraud in December of 2022. Trump has been found liable in a civil case for sexually abusing former magazine writer E. Jean Carroll in a New York department store in the mid 1990's. Appeals are ongoing. Carroll wants the judge to amend her initial defemation case against him after Trump's offensive comments about her during a CNN town hall special in the Spring.

The re-election of the President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Tukey against Kemal Kilicdaroglu is a development that is important to know about. Erdogan had ran for a third term in violation of Turkey's constitution, resorted to media censorship, had police state repression, and used the illegal use of state resources to win the election. Erdogan has been a person whose government's response to the pandemic still led to almost 300,000 deaths in Turkey. The Turkish banking sector had record wealth. There were many wildcat strikes in Turkey because of the rising costs of living starting in 2022. Class struggle has existed in Africa, Europe, Asia, and internationally in other locations. There was the historic earthquake in Turkey back in February 2023 killing at least 50,000 people. Turkey is part of the NATO alliance. Erdogan supports NATO. Kilicdaroglu made a video openly demonizing refugees as potential rapists and criminals. Erdogan won reelection with 52 percent of the vote. The 2023 elections in Turkey make the point that working class activism, being against austerity, opposing imperialism, fighting unjust wars, and opposing police state rule are necessary policies to endorse. 

The Supreme Court recently limited EPA's regulatory control over certain wetlands. The Supreme Court determined that the agency can't regulate wetlands isolated from larger bodies of water. This is the court's 2nd major decision in recent years that harms the EPA's ability to handle pollution. It limits the power of the Clean Air Act. Justice Samuel Alito wrote that the Clean Water Act only extends to wetlands with a continuous surface connection. Justice Elena Kagan in a concurring opinion that the Court is acting wrong in handling environmental policy by making overt decisions on them. This decision will erode longstanding clean water protections. Environmental protections are important parts of a real democracy. They can fight cancer, prevent many people from having debilitating illnesses, and seek solutions to problems.

Days was the Birthday of Sister Glenda Hatchett, and she is 72 years old. She was the former court show host of Judge Hatchett. She is the current day member of The Verdict with Judge Hatchett and founding partner at the national law firm of The Hatchett Firm. She was born in Atlanta, Georgia. Hatchett earned her B.A. in political science from Mount Holyoke College in 1973. She has an honorary degree in 2000 by the same college. She attended Emory University School of Law and earned her juris doctor degree in 1977. Hatchett completed a coveted federal clerkship in the United States District Court in the Northern District of Georgia. She worked as senior attorney and public relations manager of Delta Air Lines. She is a famous judge who helped tons of lives for decades. Her law firm announced that they will be representing the family of Philando Castile in all civil legal matters. Her ancestry came from the Yoruba and Husa people of Nigeria. She loves her two sons, and she is an author. I wish Sister Judge Glenda Hatchett more Blessings.

By Timothy