the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act?

play in states that do not accept the results of legitimate elections?

By Anne Lamott

Many of us who believe in a reality beyond the visible realms, who believe in a soul that survives death, and who are hoping for seats in heaven near the dessert table, also recoil from the image of a high school football coach praying at the 50-yard line.
It offends me to see sanctimonious public prayer in any circumstance — but a coach holding his players hostage while an audience watches his piety makes my skin crawl.
We are fighting furiously for women’s rights and the planet, and we mean business. We believers march, rally and agitate, putting feet to our prayers. And in our private lives, we pray.

Isn’t praying a bit Teletubbies as we face off with the urgent darkness?
Nah.
Prayer means talking to God, or to the great universal spirit, a.k.a. Gus, or to Not Me. Prayer connects us umbilically to a spirit both outside and within us, who hears and answers. Is it like the comedian Flip Wilson saying, “I’m gonna pray now; anyone want anything?”

Kind of.

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/08/opinion/prayer-supreme-court-football.html?action=click&algo=bandit-all-surfaces-time-cutoff-30_impression_cut_3_filter_new_arm_5_1&alpha=0.05&block=more_in_recirc&fellback=false&imp_id=218822129&impression_id=c7700f80-fed2-11ec-8fee-692bd5cc8696&index=0&pgtype=Article&pool=more_in_pools%2Fopinion®ion=footer&req_id=845140123&surface=eos-more-in&variant=0_bandit-all-surfaces-time-cutoff-30_impression_cut_3_filter_new_arm_5_1

A long but worthwhile read.

“ Democrats don’t have the votes right now for major Supreme Court reform. But if they pick up seats, they could have many options.”
By Ian Millhiser Jul 2, 2022, 8:00am EDT

https://www.vox.com/23186373/supreme-court-packing-roe-wade-voting-rights-jurisdiction-stripping

If the next Supreme Court term begins in October could a decision in favor of the independent state legislature theory come soon enough to affect the 2022 midterm election outcomes?

Really?

"But coups can take months or years to plan and this was a multi-pronged attempt to overthrow our democracy. It's worth reviewing that he tried so many things simultaneously. He had General Michael Flynn trying to have martial law or military intervention and he tried the trickery that happened with the Georgia Secretary of State. And when none of that worked, he went nuclear and did what autocrats have done in the past and used violence, summoned the people there to right this monstrous wrong on his behalf," she said.

Ben-Ghiat, a professor of Italian and history at New York University, is an expert on the "strongman", a figure that's central to her latest book "Strongmen—Mussolini to the present", which explores how illiberal leaders "use corruption, violence, propaganda, and machismo to stay in power." Donald Trump is in it, together with Russia's Vladimir Putin, Chile's Augusto Pinochet, Libya's Muammar Gaddafi, and Italy's Silvio Berlusconi.

"It's interesting, what came out recently, is Trump was trying to get to the Capitol on Jan. 6. He couldn't get there," Ben-Ghiat explained, talking to CNN's Jim Acosta.

"This is consistent, if you're having a coup and summoned everybody and you expect to be anointed as the head of a new illegitimate government, you have to be there. There's a phase in coups. They're violent, quick, and then you have the pronouncement of the new order. That's why he was trying to get there."

https://www.newsweek.com/trump-behavior-jan-6-explained-expert-fascism-1714990

taking the spotlight away from the latest January 6th committee revelations and the existential threat to the rule of law and to government of the people, by the people and for the people that such treason unambiguously implies.

please vote in November.

Rachael Townsend spotted the handmade sign, stapled to a telephone pole, while on a walk with her mom near Scott Elementary School.

“Are you tired of Tinder?” it asked. “Want to meet a local? My boredom can benefit you! Let me interview you and potentially find you a perfect match!”

The sign made Townsend laugh.

“I just thought, ‘That’s hilarious – I’m going to give it a shot,’” the 37-year-old massage therapist recalled.

Townsend rarely used dating apps like Tinder, finding them “too anxiety-producing. I didn’t feel like this was the way I was going to meet somebody.”

So, following the sign’s instructions, she texted “Match” to the phone number listed.

A reply quickly arrived, assuring her, “This is no joke. I’m a real person.”

It was January 2021, and though Townsend didn’t know it, she was getting in on the ground floor of a unique Portland experiment.

Not long after that text exchange, she found herself bundled up and wearing a mask on a fold-out chair in a snow-clogged driveway. Opposite her was Autum Bird, a 33-year-old local barber. Bird, a laptop on her knees, peppered her with questions:

https://www.oregonlive.com/history/2022/06/having-trouble-finding-a-meaningful-relationship-in-portland-put-autum-bird-on-it.html