It is "Supreme Court Decision Week" in the world of politics, and while a few earlier SCOTUS decisions of this term turned out surprisingly liberal, the court saved its most radically-restrictive rulings for the very end. Three big rulings this week will have the effect of: (1) removing race from college admissions processes and all but killing affirmative action, (2) halting President Joe Biden's student loan forgiveness program before it starts, and (3) making it allowable -- as long as you cite religious reasons -- for businesses to discriminate against and refuse to serve gay people. This was a pretty grim end to the court's legal term, obviously.

As usual with the most contentious decisions, the six conservatives voted together and barely even bothered to cloak their judicial activism in any thin shred of legal reasoning. In the student loans case, the court ruled that even though Congress had passed a law giving the president the power to forgive student loans, that somehow Biden actually using that power was some sort of affront to the law.

In the gay rights case, the court has now opened up the ability of anyone to claim religious reasons for refusing service to anyone they don't like -- all they'll have to say is something like: "My religion forbids me to have contact with people [in gay marriages/in interracial marriages/who have been divorced/who are not of the same religion I follow/or any other reason imaginable]." That's all they'll have to say, and then they'll have the power to discriminate against anybody. This is not an exaggeration, this is taking the Supreme Court's reasoning to its logical conclusion. How is: "the races should not intermarry" any different, theologically, from: "same-sex couples should not be allowed to marry"? The court has now set itself up as the arbiter for which religious bigotries are supposedly constitutionally-allowable and which aren't. This is a shift from "all discrimination is illegal," and will doubtlessly spawn hundreds and hundreds of other lawsuits by ultra-religious business owners. So we've all got that to look forward to.

The Supremes did provide at least a bit of a silver lining to all their rampant judicial activism. They actually voted, in two separate cases, to uphold the basic tenets of the Voting Rights Act and to strongly reject the "independent state legislature theory" which might one day have been used to overturn a presidential election, if it had been allowed any credence by the court. Thankfully, this bizarre idea was rejected by the high court.

This Supreme Court has sunk lower and lower in public opinion, ever since it became so radicalized. Its decisions are so far out of the mainstream of American life it is breathtaking. Add to this the obvious stench of corruption emanating from the most conservative members -- who seem to never pass up the chance for a free luxury vacation or any other largesse from conservative activists -- and what you get is a court that no longer has any degree of respect among the public at all. This is the court John Roberts is going to go down in history with his name attached to, and it will surely be held up as one of the most activist courts in our history.

In other important political legal news, a new tape of Donald Trump plainly admitting criminal activity was publicly leaked this week. Trump carries around stacks of papers -- including classified documents with national security information on them -- and whenever there's a lull in the conversation he's having, he just randomly shuffles through them and pulls out things he think his visitors will be impressed by. Like a war plan for attacking Iran, for instance. Trump does it just to impress people, which is pretty sad and pathetic when you think about it. Here is Trump, showing a classified document to people with no clearance to view such information: "Isn't that interesting? It's so cool."

It is notable that in more than one case against Trump, what is quite likely to convict him is his own words on tape. He has yet to face charges in the case in Georgia for his "find me 11,780 votes" telephone call (charges may be coming in August on that one), and the call released this week makes the national security charges against him somewhat of a slam dunk for the prosecution. Experts are predicting the tape will almost certainly lead to prison time for Trump, in fact.

Trump, as usual, is flailing around, trying out all sorts of new excuses for clearly admitting his criminality on tape. This week, he tried to claim: "It was bravado" -- in other words, he was just lying to his guests. He also made one of his laughably Trumpian sweeping statements, followed by one of his bizarre proclamations about himself: "I don't do things wrong, I do things right. I'm a legitimate person."

This immediately spurred us to wonder: "If Trump is a 'legitimate person,' does that mean he's a member of Fat Tony's 'Legitimate Businessman's Social Club'?" The Simpsons is supposed to be a parody, but at times Trump seems to slip into being his own cartoon parody of himself, almost. Others online had some other amusing reactions to Trump proclaiming himself "a legitimate person," as well.

To cheer himself up this week, Trump filed a defamation lawsuit against E. Jean Carroll (to whom he now owes $5 million for defaming her). Good luck with that one, buddy. A judge rejected Trump's: "I was president therefore I can't be sued" defense against the second defamation case Carroll has brought against Trump, meaning it will go to trial at some point.

Federally, it appears that the special counsel is getting close to filing some more charges against Trump, for either some version of fraud (for promising his donors their money would go to "stop the steal" after he lost the 2020 election), or perhaps for the fake-electors scheme he used to try to steal the election himself. One interesting footnote: Rudy Giuliani apparently voluntarily sat down with the Department of Justice for a chat, and rumors are that he's been offered some sort of deal to point the finger at others. Giuliani was at the heart of the whole fake-electors scam, so he could definitely become a key witness for the prosecution.

Politically, a few fellow Republicans got in some shots at Trump this week, starting with Chris Christie ("[Donald Trump] is the cheapest S.O.B. I've ever met in my life"). The respected conservative former judge J. Michael Luttig wrote a scathing opinion piece for the New York Times which summed up his condemnation not only of Trump but all those who enable him as well:

If the indictment of Mr. [Donald] Trump on Espionage Act charges -- not to mention his now almost certain indictment for conspiring to obstruct Congress from certifying Mr. [Joe] Biden as the president on Jan. 6 -- fails to shake the Republican Party from its moribund political senses, then it is beyond saving itself. Nor ought it be saved.

Liz Cheney also chimed in with a gem, but we're going to save that one for the talking points.

Over in the House of Representatives, Kevin McCarthy earned Trump's wrath earlier this week, for saying something that was actually connected to reality: "Can [Donald Trump] win that election [Trump versus Biden general election]? Yeah, he can win that election. The question is: 'Is he the strongest to win the election?' I don't know that answer." Team Trump was reportedly not happy with this, and McCarthy spent the next few days abasing himself before a golden idol of Trump (well, ok, not really, but it's pretty easy to picture, isn't it?) and swearing up and down that Trump is the strongest politician of all time, period.

Other Republicans in the House are busily working to somehow "expunge" the two impeachments of Donald Trump, in their continuing efforts to rewrite history. We wish we were joking about that one, but sadly, we are not.

And in a final Trumpian skeeziness note, a new book is coming out with a rather shocking (and yet totally believable) accusation against Trump, while he was president:

"Aides said he talked about Ivanka Trump's breasts, her backside, and what it might be like to have sex with her, remarks that once led John Kelly to remind the president that Ivanka was his daughter," Taylor wrote, recalling an alleged exchange with Kelly, who served as Trump's chief of staff between 2017 and 2019.

"Afterward, Kelly retold that story to me in visible disgust. Trump, he said, was 'a very, very evil man.'"

But, you know, not so evil that Kelly didn't continue to work for him.

In international news, Vladimir Putin faced a possible military coup attempt last weekend, but it was defused within a day or so, leaving the rest of the world to wonder what precisely had just happened. Which seems like a perfect place to end this week's wrap-up, actually.

The political week was mostly centered around the Supreme Court's final decisions of their term, but one Democrat did manage to stand out.

President Joe Biden launched a major push this week to tell his story on the economy and what he and his party have managed to get done. This is all to the good, since (once again) up until now, both Biden and the Democrats have done a fairly lousy job of touting their economic achievements even though they have managed to get a lot of very impressive things done.

Monday, Biden rolled out $42 billion in federal spending on high-speed internet access. This was all from previous legislation, but the release of funding was news indeed (we wrote about the rollout when it happened, if anyone's interested). It all fits in with a continuing theme with Biden: Donald Trump talked a big game on infrastructure, but never could manage to get anything done, while Biden is making it happen in a very big way.

Then on Wednesday, Biden used the occasion of a speech to a Union crowd in Chicago to rebrand and completely own the term "Bidenomics." Originally used derogatorily, Biden admirably made the case that Bidenomics is working, and that even though the news media only like to tell bad stories about the economy, there is actually all kinds of good news out there.

Biden's got a long way to go on this. He is right -- the American people don't give him the credit he deserves for getting all kinds of impressive things done and for overseeing the fastest recovery from a recession on record. Biden inherited an economy decimated by the COVID-19 pandemic and he has overseen record-breaking progress in putting things back to rights once again. But the news media's not going to help get these facts out there, so it is good to see Biden taking ownership of the issue and tooting his own horn.

Biden was also impressive this week in condemning the Supreme Court's excesses. When asked if the Supreme Court has gone "rogue," Biden responded with: "This is not a normal court." Biden addressed one of today's decisions in a short address from the White House this afternoon, on the student loan case. Biden disagreed with the court's opinion, but squarely placed the blame where it belongs: on the Republicans who are so adamantly against helping out college students. Republicans were the ones who brought the cases, and Republicans are the ones who unanimously refuse to pass any such legislation through Congress.

In his speech, Biden rolled out some immediate responses to the court's decision on student loans. This stands in stark contrast to how flat-footed the White House was when the decision overturning Roe v. Wade was handed down last year, it is worth noting. Biden announced he was going to use the Higher Education Act to reduce the amount some students have to pay on their loans each month from 10 percent of disposable income to only five percent. He also announced what he called an "on-ramp repayment program" which will go into effect when all students have to start making monthly payments once again (as the pandemic freeze on payments is lifted). For the first full year, if people can't make their payments, it will not affect their credit rating and they will not be forced into default.

Both of these are not as strong as what Biden wanted -- but the decision of starting up the payments was out of his hands and the court just killed off his student debt forgiveness plan, so Biden is doing what he can. He is using executive power to institute what changes he can without the input of Congress. Having an answer ready for an adverse court ruling -- and rolling it out on the same day the decision was announced -- was indeed pretty impressive. Biden didn't delay or take too long to ponder his options; this time he was ready.

So Biden really deserves this week's Most Impressive Democrat Of The Week award for both playing offense and defense. He rolled out a major part of the platform he'll be running on, and he was ready to answer the court back if their decision didn't go his way. For both of these achievements, Joe Biden was indeed the Most Impressive Democrat Of The Week this week.

[Congratulate President Joe Biden on his official contact page, to let him know you appreciate his efforts.]

File this in the "probably should have walked it back" file, we suppose.

New York City Mayor Eric Adams held a town hall earlier this week. During it, he was interrupted by a tenant activist. Here's the story:

The woman, Jeanie Dubnau, attended a Wednesday mayoral town hall in Washington Heights. As the mayor was answering a question about housing, she yelled that he raised the rent. [Mayor Eric] Adams asked her to stand up, and the two got into an exchange that included Dubnau accusing Adams of being controlled by the real estate industry.

Dubnau, who chairs the Riverside Edgecombe Neighborhood Association, is a longtime tenant rights activist. In 2015, she also harangued former Mayor Bill de Blasio during one of his town halls -- which were far less choreographed than those held by Adams and allowed more organic interactions with voters.

Adams' reaction went much further.

"If you're going to ask a question, don't point at me and don't be disrespectful to me. I'm the mayor of this city, and treat me with the respect I deserve to be treated," Adams said. "I'm speaking to you as an adult, don't stand in front like you treating someone that's on the plantation that you own. Give me the respect I deserve and engage in the conversation."

Um... the plantation that you own? Seriously? It is worth pointing out that Adams is Black and Dubnau is White. She is also 84 years old and was born to parents who fled Nazi Germany in the 1930s. Now, things can get said in the heat of the moment and even politicians can occasionally lose their cool, right? So you'd expect the mayor's office to walk back this offensive statement in some way or the mayor himself to apologize. You would be wrong about that, though:

The mayor, speaking during an interview on 1010 WINS Friday morning, justified his rhetoric by saying the woman, a tenant activist, was disrespectful when she stood up at a town hall and pointedly asked the mayor about the Rent Guidelines Board, a body entirely composed of mayoral appointees that recently voted for another rent increase for regulated apartments.

"My mom made it clear, never allow someone to be disrespectful to you. That woman disrupted a meeting where all the participants were acting respectfully and cordially to get their issues heard," Adams said during the interview. "She disrupted that, and then she was degrading on how she communicated with me. I'm not going to allow civil service to be disrespected, and I'm not going to be disrespected as the mayor of this city."

OK, sure -- you don't want to be disrespected. But to be respected, you have to respect others, too. And respecting others means not offensively calling them plantation owners, Mister Mayor.

So for both his initial insult as well as for doubling down on it and refusing to apologize, Eric Adams is our Most Disappointing Democrat Of The Week this week.

[Contact New York City Mayor Eric Adams on his official contact page, to let him know what you think of his actions.]

Volume 713 (6/30/23)

This week's talking points deal with some of the Supreme Court decisions, some of what Biden's been up to, and (as promised) one zinger at the end from Dick Cheney's daughter. Enjoy!

   Judicial activism

A tried-and-true message already....

"Republicans used to complain about exactly what is going on right now with the Supreme Court -- they are not 'calling balls and strikes' anymore, they have instead entered into the realm of judicial activism. It doesn't matter what the laws Congress passes actually say, they see everything through their partisan filter instead. They pick and choose which laws they believe word-for-word as they are written, and which laws they just make up nonsense reasons for flat-out ignoring. President Biden is right, this court is not normal. It is nothing less than an activist court, legislating from the bench on any subject they disapprove of, no matter what the laws, the Constitution, or decades of precedence have to say about any of it. This court is the guilty of the worst judicial activism imaginable -- again, something Republicans used to complain loudly about."

   The hypocrisy is stunning

Biden is right about another thing, too.

"Today President Biden addressed the fact that Republicans were all too happy to take P.P.P. loans during the pandemic and then had no problem when all those loans were forgiven -- to the tune of $70,000 each, on average -- but now they refuse to lift a finger to spread relief to college students. Many Republican members of Congress saw a personal benefit from this, to the tune of hundreds of thousands or in some cases even millions of dollars from the government that did not have to be repaid. And now they are up in arms because Biden tried to relieve college kids of $10,000 to $20,000 in student loan debt. As Biden put it, 'the hypocrisy is stunning.' He's right. How can Republicans be for businesses getting a gigantic pile of free government money but be adamantly against extending this in a smaller way to college kids?"

   The GOP doesn't care about college kids

A great wedge issue to split the Republican base, really.

"You know, in the past few elections there has been a noticeable shift of suburban women from voting Republican to voting Democratic. You'd think the party would try to do something about this, but they keep shooting themselves in the foot. The Republican Party simply does not care about college students, as they continue to keep proving. You know where a lot of those college kids come from? The suburbs. You know all those women who are running away from the Republican Party? A lot of them are moms of college students or future college students. And this is precisely why the Republican Party could lose those voters for at least a generation -- because the Republicans keep showing how much they do not care for college students. To them I say: college students have moms -- and they vote."

   Bidenomics is working

This could be a very large part of Biden's campaign, and he's got a lot of ground to make up in the messaging department (Note: this is merely a rewording of an excerpt from a Washington Post article, to give credit where it is due.)

"This week President Biden rebranded a term that had previously been used against him, by embracing 'Bidenomics.' The news media love to hype stories about how bad the economy is, but they never seem to get around to pointing out the good parts. Under President Biden, the economy has added 13 million jobs -- a record, by far, for any president. Inflation has been falling all year long and has now been cut in half -- the most recent number came in at under four percent. The very first drug price controls are going into effect. The biggest corporations will finally be forced to pay something in federal taxes. Huge investments are being made in green energy, high-speed internet -- to the tune of $42 billion! -- as well as all kinds of other infrastructure. Wages are going up and are now rising faster than inflation again. Unemployment is at or near all-time lows. That is Bidenomics, and it is working."

   Hypocrites claim credit

Because of course they do!

"Joe Biden pointed something else out, too. He singled out Senator Tommy Tuberville, but he isn't the only Republican in Congress who has attempted the same con job. When Biden announced the $42 billion in broadband investments, Tuberville tweeted out how much of it was going to be coming to his own state. Which, as many people pointed out, Tuberville voted against. It takes a lot of hypocrisy to claim political credit for something you opposed, don't you think? Biden has called out Tuberville for his hypocrisy, tweeting to him at one point: 'See you at the groundbreaking.' When you see Republicans claiming credit for things Democrats have passed, it is worth pointing out what gigantic hypocrites they are for attempting such a shameless feat."

   The world respects us again

Some interesting data from Pew....

"Joe Biden promised when he ran for president to restore America's standing in the world. And poll after poll shows he has turned this around to an extraordinary degree. When people in various countries are asked if they have confidence in the American president to do the right thing in world affairs, Trump's numbers fell off a cliff. Biden's are back up to where they should be. In Germany, Trump's numbers were as low as 10 or 13 percent. Biden has scored 64-to-78 percent in his term. That's quite a turnaround! In Spain, Trump went as low as seven percent, while Biden's numbers are as high as 73 percent. Under Donald Trump, we were the laughingstock of the world. Under Joe Biden, America is respected once again. So this is one campaign promise Biden has kept in a big way. The world no longer laughs at America's president."

   Can't say that I disagree, Liz...

And, as promised, Liz Cheney put her finger on a big problem (for her party).

"In a recent interview, former Congresswoman Liz Cheney had a very blunt way of expressing what is wrong in our politics today, when asked a general question about the success of Donald Trump's candidacy so far. As Cheney put it: 'Look, I think that the country right now faces hugely challenging and fundamentally important issues, and what we've done in our politics is create a situation where we're electing idiots.' Well said. In fact, I can't think of a better way to put the state of the Republican Party today."

-- Chris Weigant

Follow Chris on Twitter: @ChrisWeigant

Cross-posted at: Democratic Underground