We're all aware of the growing limits on LWOP sentencing.  A few years back juveniles were no longer subject to LWOP.

And we're all aware of the movement to elect more progressive, or at least humane, district attorneys in jurisdictions across the country.  
On of those was the currently-first-term DA in Suffolk County, Mass., the first black woman to hold the job.  

So now it gets interesting.

Her office is involved in an appellate proceeding in MA's highest court wherein a defendant (18 at the time of the crime) was sentenced to LWOP while his co-defendant (17 at the time of the crime) got life with parole eligibility after 15 years.  Not a light sentence, but still not LWOP.  The Suffolk DA's office seems amenable to allowing expansion of the record, or appellate consideration, of newer brain science about the immaturity of young adults between 18 and 22, in the case of the 18 y/o LWOP guy.

OK.

So now 4 District Attorneys from different counties have filed an unprecedented joint application to intervene in the Suffolk County case, even though it's entirely outside each of their jurisdictions.

The 4 DAs (so they call themselves in their papers) are all white men.

The papers are getting ugly.

"The big news at the Supreme Court today will be Trump's taxes," said Cherokee writer Rebecca Nagle. "But for Indians in Oklahoma, we'll be talking about today for decades."

Indigenous leaders on Thursday hailed the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in McGirt vs. Oklahoma as a victory for tribal sovereignty for affirming that the U.S. government's treaty with the Muscogee (Creek) Nation must still be recognized by Congress and that nearly half of what is known as the U.S. state of Oklahoma is actually Native American land.

Master Sgt. Andrew Christian Marckesano
A decorated Green Beret who served a dozen combat tours, including six in Afghanistan, committed suicide last week in front of his wife, becoming the 30th member of his elite battalion to kill himself, according to reports.

Master Sgt. Andrew Christian Marckesano, 34, was known as "Captain America" to his fellow soldiers in the 82nd Airborne Division. He earned a Silver Star for bravery and had recently moved to Washington, DC, to work at the Pentagon.

But on July 6, after having dinner with his former battalion commander, Marckesano returned home and committed suicide in front of his wife. He was still on active duty and leaves behind three small children.

On Monday, a federal district judge in Washington, D.C. put a temporary hold on Attorney General William Barr's upcoming executions of federal prisoners, ruling that the outstanding legal challenges must be litigated in court before they can move forward.

The first of these executions was scheduled to take place this week, of Wesley Ira Purkey, who had been convicted of raping, murdering, and dismembering a teenage girl. Another execution that had been scheduled for today, of convicted white supremacist murderer David Lewis Lee, had already been postponed.

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has been taken to the hospital and treated for a possible infection, CNN reports.

"Novel" means "new".  As in "no one has had this before" or, at least "we've never seen this before".  You don't go around adding that kind of descriptor - "novel" - unless it deserves to be there.

Under either "as in", it boils down to "sooner or later, everyone is going to get this and the best we can do is try to slow down the spread".  That will obtain until such time as there is an effective vaccine, assuming one can be developed and produced in mass quantities.  (And then the anti-vaxxers will raise their voices and are likely to get smashed flat.)

While the wild spread in recent days was probably predictable, I have to say I am more than a bit mystified why we in the US are getting that while other countries are not.  You, dear reader, may not be following the news from overseas but I do.  Every day in the German papers there are pictures or huge crowds in Germany or elsewhere in Europe.  No social distancing going on, few or no masks in evidence.  Lawn/riverbank/floatie parties in Berlin, mass crowds on beaches of the North and Baltic Seas, you name it.  Yet the only bad outbreak they had in the last couple weeks was one tied to the Toennies meatpacking company in Gutersloh, where it got loose among the workers (working in typical close-quarters slaughterhouse conditions).  And their public health people stomped pretty hard on it (and people were going after cars with Gutersloh license plates, etc.).

I really don't get it.

"Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts is not the revolutionary that conservative activists want him to be. He moves slower than they want, sides with liberals more than they want, and trims his sails in ways they find maddening. But he is still deeply and unmistakably conservative, pulling the law to the right -- at his own pace and in his own image."

"Roberts is not turning into a liberal. The law either stays put or moves to the right almost every time he is in the majority, even when it's a majority with the more liberal justices."

"But he has a lifetime appointment, a strong sense that it's his duty to preserve public trust in the court, and his own ideas about how to do that. Roberts' position as the court's only real potential swing vote gives him the power to dictate not just bottom-line outcomes, but also how the court gets there."

A federal judge in New York -- acting quickly on his own and without being asked by either side -- has ordered attorneys for President Trump and Manhattan D.A. Cy Vance to inform the court by next Wednesday morning how they expect to proceed with the subpoena for President Trump's tax documents, NBC News reports.

The judge had previously said the tax documents should be handed over to the grand jury, a ruling that prompted the Supreme Court fight.

I don't see how a public official could say -anything- except we need to listen to health care professionals and do what they say.

it was early Prestige TV.

170 episodes and unlike Star Trek or Twilight Zone, where I've seen every episode 20 times,  I have not seen a single episode I remember at all.

President Trump raised the possibility of selling hurricane-devastated Puerto Rico to his Secretary of Homeland Security in late 2017, the New York Times reports.

Byzantine Emperor Justinian I ordered the building's construction in 532 CE; for nearly 1,000 years, its 55.6 meter (180 ft) dome covered the largest indoor space in the world. Over a millennium and a half, the monumental structure has been an Eastern Orthodox cathedral, a Roman Catholic cathedral, an Eastern Orthodox cathedral again, and then a mosque.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan issued the order. The first Friday prayer service is scheduled for July 24.

Mark Meadows you are no Varys

"President Trump's chief of staff, Mark Meadows, has told several White House staffers he's fed specific nuggets of information to suspected leakers to see if they pass them on to reporters -- a trap that would confirm his suspicions," Axios reported Sunday.

Donald J. Trump Retweeted

Chuck Woolery
@chuckwoolery
·
11h
The most outrageous lies are the ones about Covid 19. Everyone is lying. The CDC, Media, Democrats, our Doctors, not all but most ,that we are told to trust. I think it's all about the election and keeping the economy from coming back, which is about the election. I'm sick of it.

They are are scrambling trying to find an excuse for him losing.

Like many I was disappointed if not surprised Trump was not removed from office after being impeached.

But know what, I think the way it's working out is going to be a lot better.

If he had been removed he would have lived forever as a martyr and hero. No matter what he was charged with after that half the country would not have believed it and Trumpism would have lived and thrived.

Now he, and just as importantly republicans, are going to be crushed.  Humiliated.  Driven from office covered in shame and disgrace.  And "Trumpism" will join McCarthyism and fascism in political lexicon.

And BTW everything the house democrats said is being proven and shown every day.  I think the whole impeachment experience will be seen in a completely different light than if he had been removed and martyred.

While a complicated question with concerns including students falling behind, student socialization, parents ability to work, nutritional benefits of school meals, the critical issue is the spreading of Covid-19---infecting students (probably a lower risk), more vulnerable teachers and other school personnel, bus drivers, parents, grandparents/family, and neighbors.

A dilemma. With arguments pro and con just as last spring about closing them.

However, from my perspective and on balance, schooling should be by remote learning or schools should be closed. Opening schools is akin to opening theaters during a spiraling pandemic. There may not be a one-size-fits-all solution, and there may be exceptions for certain areas, but  the policy should be to error on the side of safety.

At least for the next semester's time period so as to gain a better handle on infectious control and treatment.  Students can catch-up in the future, but only if they and their parents and teachers are not seriously debilitated or dead.

Once again, polls are showing a close race in Texas and other red states.

Biden wades into Texas with first general election TV ad in state

Will the virus make a difference? Turn red states blue? Or will the Democratic Party repeat the mistakes of 2016 and neglect their base and normal allies to pursue elusive Republican voters?

Just curious if anyone has tried this route before?   I've already tried the obvious things like changing food.

Sessions crashes into Tuberville, Trump in Alabama runoff
The former football coach has played it safe and relied on Trump's endorsement in the prolonged, 19-week runoff.

Why HBO Max, Peacock Are Deadlocked in Talks With Roku and Amazon

I recently related my own weird story.  As an update, I am still currently getting HBO for free.  I will, a new notice says, until July 31 when the old HBO NOW app stops working.

I was a bit concerned but someone, Chuck?, mentioned HULU so investigating I learned I can get HBO MAX, as an add on to HULU.  I already have HULU so I will do that Aug 1.

The Trump administration has ordered hospitals to bypass the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and, beginning on Wednesday, send all coronavirus patient information to a central database in Washington -- a move that has alarmed public health experts who fear the data will be distorted for political gain.

The new instructions are contained in a little-noticed document posted this week on the Department of Health and Human Services' website, Sheryl Gay Stolberg reports. From now on, H.H.S., and not the C.D.C., will collect daily reports about the patients that each hospital is treating, how many beds and ventilators are available, and other information vital to tracking the pandemic.

--NYT

Medal of Freedom recipient Rush Limbaugh: Americans should "adapt" to coronavirus, like pioneers who "had to turn to cannibalism"

Democrats have spent six times as much money on television ads in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin so far in 2020 than they did at the same point four years ago, McClatchy reports.

link

This is also good

A new Monmouth poll in Pennsylvania shows Joe Biden leading Donald Trump by 13 points among registered voters, 53% to 40%.

Key takeaway: "Biden is doing especially well in ten counties where the vote margins were closest in the 2016 presidential election. The Democrat currently holds a 54% to 35% lead among registered voters in these swing counties."

Said pollster Patrick Murray: "Even taking into account any polling error from four years ago, Biden is clearly doing well in swing areas. The Democrat has roots in this region which may be helping him, but there seems to be an overall erosion of support for Trump compared to 2016."