Random News and Notes 30 June
Welcome to the final edition of RNN for June. We roll into July starting tomorrow. I just have to remember that when I do the title. . .
On this date in 1908, a mysterious explosion rocked the Siberian tundra near the Podkamennaya Tunguska River in Yeniseysk Governorate (now Krasnoyarsk Krai). The explosion was equivalent to between 3–50 megatons of TNT. For reference, Fat Man, the nuke we dropped on Nagasaki was a mere 21 kilotons. The blast flattened 830 sq mi of Siberian forest and may have killed 3 people.
The explosion registered at seismic stations across Eurasia, and air waves from the blast were detected in Germany, Denmark, Croatia, and the United Kingdom – and as far away as Batavia, Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia), and Washington, D.C., United States. It is believed to have been caused by the air-burst of a stony meteor or asteroid.
In a play to consolidate power within the Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei, Adolf Hitler carried out the Nacht der langen Messer. It is also historically known in Germany as the Röhm-Putsch (Röhm Purge) or Unternehmen Kolibri (Operation Hummingbird). The primary target was Ernst Rohm, head of the Sturmabteilung (SA), or Brownshirts and his deputies.
Hitler didn’t stop there. The Schutzstaffel (SS) murdered political rivals, critics and old enemies during the welter of violence. All told some 500 people were eliminated.
Today marks the final day of this term at SCOTUS. Here are the decisions that have been released. The first one released was West Virginia v. B. P. J. This is the autoparts on high school sports teams case. Brett Kavanaugh writing for the majority held that under Title IX, schools can limit what teams a student can participate on based solely on their biological sex. The breakout is a bit of a mess, so here it is copied directly from the opinion:
KAVANAUGH, J., delivered the opinion of the Court, in which ROBERTS, C. J., and THOMAS, ALITO, GORSUCH, and BARRETT, JJ., joined. THOMAS, J., and GORSUCH, J., filed concurring opinions. SOTOMAYOR, J., filed an opinion concurring in the judgment in part and dissenting in part, in which KAGAN and JACKSON, JJ., joined. JACKSON, J., filed an opinion concurring in the judgment in part and dissenting in part.
The next one released was NRSC v FEC. This one concerns federally imposed spending caps by party committees. In another Kav opinion, a 6-3 Court held that spending caps violate the 1st Amendment. The breakout of this one is exactly what you’d expect, with the three libs dissenting.
Trump v Barbara is the birthright citizenship case. Roberts, writing for the majority says children born in the United States to parents unlawfully or temporarily present are “subject to the jurisdiction” of the United States and are citizens at birth under the Fourteenth Amendment’s Citizenship Clause. Once again, the breakout is a mess:
ROBERTS, C. J., delivered the opinion of the Court, in which SOTOMAYOR, KAGAN, BARRETT, and JACKSON, JJ., joined. JACKSON, J., filed a concurring opinion, in which SOTOMAYOR, J., joined as to the introduction and Part I. KAVANAUGH, J., filed an opinion concurring in the judgment and dissenting in part. THOMAS, J., filed a dissenting opinion, in which GORSUCH, J., joined. ALITO, J., and GORSUCH, J., filed dissenting opinions
There was a mass shooting in Germany yesterday. The attack Monday at the facility in Stade left four women and two men dead—five at the scene and one in hospital—with three others seriously injured. Police arrested a 45-year-old German-born man of Turkish descent shortly after; he had fled with a 65-year-old female relative before officers stopped their car.
Officials described it as a family tragedy sparked by the temporary removal of his three-month-old daughter from the home due to his behavior issues; neither the mother nor baby was harmed.
If you’re in the eastern half of the US, be prepared for hot weather and the accompanying thunderstorms. A massive ‘heat dome’ has settled in and shows no signs of leaving any time soon.
Your editor is located in Upstate NY, and the local forecast calls for highs in the mid-to-upper 90’s through the weekend. The average high for the first week of July here is 80℉.
If you are under the heat dome, be sure to stay hydrated and out of the heat as much as you can.