Monday Morning

++With the soltisce and father's day behind us,we await the decisions of the Supreme Court. As we get further toward the end of the session,we have close decisions.

++The country keeps mourning the deaths at Mother Emmanuel and reactions still get confusing. Republicans are now admitting it was a racist attack. Within 24 hours, Lindsey Graham went from the confederate flag as part of us heritage to an emblem of racism.

++The shooter's manifesto shows influence of the CCC website. The CCC has numerous Republican politicians as members. Now true Guardian and the New York Times discover that the CCC and its leader Mr. Holt donated to presidential candidates such as Rand Paul, Ted Cruz and Senator Rob Portman. You will remember that CCC participation led to the removal of Trent Lott from the Senate.

++I was treated yesterday to conservative e-mails saying that the NRA was created by religious Republicans to protect blacks in the South. What a great distance they have come.

++The CCC took down their website once it was learned that the shooter was inspired by them. However,they soon returned to defend the shooter's point of view.

++Charles Blow this morning reminds us that racism is  like cockroaches after a nuclear explosion,they keep on living. Blow warns us that the shooter is a millennial and millennials are as susceptible to racism as the older generation.

++Timothy Egan says that the United States should apologize for slavery. Not that it would do anything but raise the issue to a greater awareness. He thinks there would be no better a spokesman than President Obama who has the skin but not the history in his life. 

++Sheriff Arpaio sent his posse to protect black churches in Phoenix whether they wanted it or not.

++Nell Painter wrote an op-ed in the New York Times that said the real issue is that whites don't know who they are. She linked the shooter and the NAACP head who wants to pass as Black. She argues that blacks have a clear culture and a shared history but whites are a melange of ethnic groups who often were;t even considered white until close to the mid-mark of the last century. 

++The shooter also turns out to be anti-semitic, something just being written about.  For some reason, my rightwing e-mailers say that Jews and liberal Democrats resent the fact that the Southern Democrats were the racists. I tend to remember Jews being killed during the civil rights movement.

++President Obama looked defeated unlike after the bi-elections, a man deflated by the lack of action both here and around the country after the mass killings. His skin has grown ashen and his voice weary as he said someday soon this country will have to deal with gun violence.

++My right-wingers attacked him for a "politicized" speech that ignored other mass murder in modern Europe. They even argued that the Austria knife killings were compatible.

++A sensible blogger suggested that just put handguns and AR-15s on the National Gun Registry, which actually is a type of gun control that works. Some one commented that recent Supreme Court cases made that impractical.

++Pope Francis was on a roll this weekend. He basted the major powers for fostering war and not doing enough to prevent the Holocaust and the Armenian genocide. He was particularly rich in condemning arms manufacturers who prolong wars for profit.

++Mike Huckabee who not only defended the Confederate Flag and said he would stick the pole in someone where the sun don't shine. He also said that climate change is not a settled science, in a shot at the Pope's encyclical.

++The Bernie Surge continued with massive crowds in Denver. CNN says that he could win in Iowa or New Hampshire. A leftwing blogger posted photos of the crowds Ron Paul used to draw as a warning not to get one's hopes up.

++The Catholic Church sent out spokespeople to calm the right who are hysterical that Pope Francis buys into the "hoax" of climate change. You know no other country pretends to ignore the science of climate change, if anything it is too conservative. We are boiling up faster than they acknowledge.

++Wikileaks released thousands of Saudi diplomatic cables that showed the Kingdom bribed and bought their way in favor.

++The Iranian nuclear talks continued and it appears yes that the Iranian negotiators agree to allow inspections at military sites. The majlis however in Tehran voted against allowing such inspections. It seems we have a war of two different sets of tea baggers.

++Nancy Letourneau at Washington Monthly skewered Dana Millbank about why liberals are getting more numerous. Millbank argued that it was a reaction against the tea baggers. CNN argued that the Democrats have gone far left unlike the republicans going Right. Nancy says that the days the Democrats have to pretend to play by the GOP rules is over. The reason, the largest jobs creation in our history and the Affordable Care Act and gay marriage validate the Democratic values and liberal positions. 

++Nancy also had pieces on racism in the South that were worth reading.

++Josh Marshall gave a shot at explaining Michael Oren's complaints about "Jewish" journalists. The former Israeli ambassador to the United States said that op-ed writers are predominantly Jewish but they are "too" critical of Israel. He noted his run-ins with Abe Rosenthal at the New York Times. Josh tries to fathom this strange position and finds out that Oren's account of the meeting is wrong. 

++Desmond Tutu called on the United Church of Christ to divest from Israel because of its policies. The divestment campaign is gathering momentum and facing blowback from right-wing donors like Adelson.

Things You Might Have Missed

++Mahmoud Abbas on Holocaust Day called the Holocaust the worst human rights violation of modern times and denounced it in strong terms for an Arab. That he commented at all was stunning.

++Abbas also announced that with the new Palestinian unity with Hamas that Palestine will recognize Israel. Palestinian elections will take place within two months.

++Bizarre AP headline: "Anti-semiticism on the rise,fewer attacks on Jews." The reference was to anti-semiticism on the rise in Europe.

++The New York Times editorial today summarizes the "meaningful progress" in the Iranian nuclear talks.  They are in fact ahead of schedule, despite the resistance in the U.S. Congress.

++Syria has transported over 85% of their chemical weapons out of the country.

++President Obama was the first President in 50 years to visit Malaysia. Previously,LBJ visited.

++President Obama signed a ten-year security agreement with the Philippines.

++33 Pacific states reached an agreement on how to monitor and de-fuse maritime disputes.

++President Obama reiterated American support for its security agreements with Japan.

++President Obama pledged further steps to isolate North Korea.

++Tomorrow the EU and the United States will toughen  sanctions on Russia for their actions against the Ukraine. The Primary target is Vladimir Putin's wealth.

++Domestically,it is likely that the House will only pass two bills this year. The First is a continuing resolution to keep the government funded beyond October 1. The second is iffier--replenish the Highway Trust Fund.

++There will be no raise in the minimum wage. There will be no extended unemployment insurance. There will be no immigration reform bill even though John Boehner said he was "hellbent" on passing one. 

++The most interesting factoid of the day is Elizabeth Warren telling George Stephanopolis that she was a Republican until the 1990s but left the party when he openly sided with Wall Street.