Thank you for the opportunity to overturn Roe v. Wade, Mr. President. Im sure these girls will appreciate it.
"Thank you for the opportunity to overturn Roe v. Wade, Mr. President. I'm sure these girls will appreciate it." Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images

Presidents Are Above the Law: That's according to an article written by Judge Kavanaugh, the man Trump nominated to the Supreme Court Monday evening. Josh Marshall over at TPM is good on the rest of Kavanaugh's biases: "Kavanaugh is entirely on board with Citizens United jurisprudence, weaponizing the Court against organized labor and finally overturning Roe v Wade in its entirety. But we should not overlook his focused opposition to the Affordable Care Act and the way he is likely to use his power on the Court to further gut the law and send us back to the era of no coverage for pre-existing conditions."

Picking Kavanaugh May Have Been A Condition of Justice Kennedy's Retirement: LOL. Reporting from Politico and NBC seriously complicates Kavanaugh's claim that "no president has ever consulted more widely or talked to more people from more backgrounds to seek input for a Supreme Court nomination." Update: NBC reporter retracts claim that talks between Trump and Kennedy were transactional. The fact remains "the president was always leaning toward accepting Kennedy’s partiality for Kavanaugh," according to Politico.

Vulnerable Senators Begin Kabuki Performances: Politco provides a nice round-up. Sen. Heitkamp is going to do her "due diligence" before probably voting to confirm Kavanaugh. Sen. Manchin promises he'll ask a question about Obamacare before probably voting to confirm Kavanaugh. Sens. Jones, Donnelly, and McCaskill are going to think real hard before probably voting to confirm Kavanaugh. Sens. Collins and Murkowski can't wait to meet with Kavanaugh before probably voting to confirm him.

"Don't Despair About the Supreme Court": Some words of wisdom from good ol' Howard Zinn, circa 2005, when George W. Bush nominated Chief Justice Roberts: "Our culture—the media, the educational system—tries to crowd out of our political consciousness everything except who will be elected President and who will be on the Supreme Court, as if these are the most important decisions we make. They are not. They deflect us from the most important job citizens have, which is to bring democracy alive by organizing, protesting, engaging in acts of civil disobedience that shake up the system."

When You're Not Busy Protesting, You Can Also: Vote Democrats into statehouses and push them to pass laws that explicitly protect abortions and expand voting rights. That's it. We already did that here in Washington, but there's plenty more to do and we need to hold the line.

And Subscribe To Newspapers:


The Government Is Not Doing A Good Job of Reuniting Children With Parents: A judge ordered the Trump administration to reunite 100 toddlers—we're talking about kids under 5 years old here—with their parents by today. They'd only reunited 2 as of Monday, according to the The Texas Tribune. "The government expects to reunite less than 60 of those children with their parents by the Tuesday deadline," and, in all, 3,000 kids remain separated from their parents.

We Have The Worst President:


Judge Rules Trump Can't Detain Families Indefinitely: "[This] means to comply with a separate court order requiring families to be reunited, the families must be released," says Judd Legum at ThinkProgress.

All the Kids Trapped In the Cave Have Been Rescued: Coach is okay, too. No thanks to Elon Musk.

Wildfire Closes I-90 East of Ellensburg: Nobody's dead, one building has been lost, and firefighters evacuated the town of Vantage this morning at 2:00 a.m., says King 5. No word yet on how this might affect the race in WA08, but here's some background.


Our Electric Bills Will Increase Soon: The City Council approved the 4.5 percent hikes on Monday, according to The Seattle Times, but they're asking the utility to pretty please make the hike more "progressive and equitable."

Lock Up Your Guns Or Pay a $500 Fine: Bonus points if you melt them. Read more from Heidi.

24 Stories Worth of Affordable Housing Going Up Near Light Rail In Northgate: If all goes according to plan, says the Times.

Cool Things To Do Today Include: Protest SCOTUS pick at the Federal Building. Learn about the mysteries of the tides at Elliott Bay Books. Eat a Portuguese dinner. Check out Summer Dreams at Winston Wächter and Megumi Shauna Arai's Midst at Jacob Lawrence, if only to spell away the clouds.