I'm not saying Justice Stephen Breyer didn't want to retire, but he wanted to make an announcement first, at the very least. Announcing the retirement of a Supreme Court justice before he or she is ready is just poor form.
It's possible that the news simply leaked -- from clerks, from staff, from the White House, or from anyone who would have had an incentive to leak it, which is any liberal Democrat within shouting distance of Capitol Hill.
But it's also possible that someone close to the party leadership wanted to push Breyer out because Biden has little to show for a year in office, and is facing strong headwinds, and disastrous poll numbers. There was already a strong pressure campaign to force Breyer out, and someone in a position to pull the trigger may have done so. He's a good liberal soldier, so he's not complaining, but he knows that he had little choice.
We may learn more in the coming days, but for now it seems at least possible, perhaps likely, that Breyer was pushed.
This week's show will be slightly different from the norm: we'll focus on clips and topics, rather than guests -- and that, hopefully, will mean more input from the callers (unless you are all watching football on opening weekend).
Topics:
- The state of the economy
- The fight against crime
- The midterm election fight
- The struggle for peace between Russia and Ukraine
- The airstrike on the Venezuelan drug cartel
- The attempt to sink Kennedy
- The war in Gaza
- The case against Harvard
- The Trump presidency
Tune in: SiriusXM Patriot 125, 7-10 p.m. ET / 4-7 p.m. PT
Call: 866-957-2874
This week's Torah portion includes several laws about conduct in civic and personal life, the common theme of which is boundaries -- setting bounds to what one may do at home, at work, and even in the battlefield.
One noteworthy passage concerns Amalek, the evil nation that attacked the Children of Israel as they made their Exodus from slavery to freedom. Deuteronomy 25:17-19 commands Jews to obliterate Amalek's memory.
The South African government accused Israel of genocide on the basis of a story about Amalek in the Book of Samuel, in which King Saul was commanded to wipe out the entire evil Amalekite nation.
Because Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu quoted this week's portion -- "Remember what Amalek did to you" (25:17), the South African government claimed he was commanding soldiers to commit genocide.
It was an absurd and malevolent misreading of the Bible and of Jewish tradition. The commandment, as observed by Jews today, is to remember the evil of Amalek and fight ...
