Here’s everything you need to know about what happened this week:
Putin Meets Biden:
President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin met this week for the first summit of the U.S. executive’s presidency.
CNN reports:
President Joe Biden said he had raised human rights and cyberattacks during a summit with Russia’s Vladimir Putin on Wednesday that provided an early and critical test of his diplomatic skills in the highest-stakes talks of his long career.
Both Biden and Putin afterward described the three-hour-long summit as generally positive but without any major breakthroughs. Biden suggested the face-to-face was compulsory in a time of deeply strained ties between the United States and Russia. And he said proof of progress would come later, when the results of his diplomacy bear out.
Biden began a post-summit news conference emphasizing his focus on human rights during the meeting, including raising the case of jailed opposition leader Alexey Navalny. Earlier, Putin said he had not detected any hostility between Biden and himself.
Of note, not a single reporter asked Biden about Russia’s expansion into Crimea. The country did not come up even once throughout the entire summit.
The Supreme Court rules in favor of ‘Obamacare.’ Again.
Democratic Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island claimed during the confirmation of Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett that she would obviously rule in favor of killing the Affordable Care Act. As always, Whitehouse was talking out of his ass.
NBC News reports:
The Supreme Court ruled Thursday that the Affordable Care Act, better known as Obamacare, remains valid, rejecting a claim by a group of conservative states that a recent change in the law made it unconstitutional.
By a 7-2 vote, the court said the challengers did not have legal standing to sue because they did not make a strong enough showing that the law harmed them. The decision also suggested that it would be difficult for any challengers to try again using the same legal theory.
Two of President Donald Trump’s three appointees to the court, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett, joined the majority opinion; the third, Neil Gorsuch, dissented.
Asked this week to revisit the comments he made during Barrett’s confirmation hearings, Whitehouse told CNN he did not regret “for a minute” what he said.
“If we hadn’t done that, maybe they would have” killed the law, the senator said. “It may be (saved) because we did so many warnings.”
These people will lie to you as easily as breathing.
Trump To Mexico:
Former President Donald Trump will pay a visit to the U.S.-Mexico border soon, which, if he does it quickly enough, means he’ll personally survey the crisis at the border before Vice President Kamala Harris, who is supposed to be heading the White House’s official response.
The New York Post reports:
Former President Donald Trump announced Tuesday he will visit the US-Mexico border region with Texas Gov. Greg Abbott at the end of this month to draw attention to what he called “grave and willful dereliction of duty” by his successor, President Biden.
“The Biden Administration inherited from me the strongest, safest, and most secure border in US history and in mere weeks they turned it into the single worst border crisis in US history,” Trump said in a lengthy statement. “It’s an unmitigated disaster zone.”
The announcement comes days after US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) released statistics showing that more than 180,000 illegal immigrants were stopped at the border in May, the first time that number had been exceeded in a single month since April 2000.
“Juneteenth” Now a Federal Holiday:
An emancipation-related anniversary that started first in Texas is now a national holiday, thanks to overwhelmingly support in Congress.
Yahoo! News reports:
President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris signed into law a bill establishing Juneteenth National Independence Day, a celebration designating the end of slavery in the United States, as a federal holiday.
The law takes effect immediately, and will be celebrated on Friday, June 18, since it is the closest weekday.
The bill faced only slight opposition in the House of Representatives earlier this week from some Republicans who cast the measure as racially divisive. Despite protests, only 14 members of the House GOP caucus voted against the legislation. The bill passed unanimously in the Senate.
Texas Governor Signs Gun Rights Bill:
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott signed a bill this week making it legal for state residents to carry firearms without permits.
Reuters reports:
The governor of Texas has signed into law a bill allowing people to carry concealed handguns without any permit, joining 20 other states that already have such measures.
Governor Greg Abbott touted the law as part of a package that he said turns Texas into a “Second Amendment sanctuary” where any new federal gun restrictions will not be enforced.
Abbott was holding a ceremonial signing of the bill on Thursday, but had already signed the bill into law on Wednesday, according to the Texas legislature website, as first reported by the Texas Tribune.
Catholic Leadership, Communion, and Politics:
Catholic leaders are grappling with the question of whether Catholic politicians who openly support and promote abortion should be allowed to receive Communion (the obvious answer is: no. But Church leadership see the issue as something far more complicated than what they normally teach the laity regarding Communion and mortal sin).
The Associated Press reports:
In impassioned debate Thursday, U.S. Catholic bishops clashed over how to address concerns about Catholic politicians, including President Joe Biden, who continue to receive Communion despite supporting abortion …
Some bishops said a strong rebuke of Biden is needed because of his recent actions protecting and expanding abortion access. Others warned that such action would portray the bishops as a partisan force during a time of bitter political divisions across the country.
The issue is by far the most contentious agenda item at the national meeting of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, which is being held virtually. It will conclude Friday soon after an announcement of how the bishops cast their secret ballots on the Communion dispute.
If a majority of bishops approve, the USCCB’s doctrine committee will draft a statement on the meaning of Communion in the life of the church that would be submitted for a vote at a future meeting, probably an in-person gathering in November. One section of the document is expected to include a specific admonition to Catholic politicians and other public figures who disobey church teaching on abortion and other core doctrinal issues.
This Week’s Losers:
- Colorado: It is determined to make an example of a Christian baker who refuses to bake cakes with messages that conflict directly with his religious convictions.
- MSNBC host Nicolle Wallace: She has suffered an 80% loss in viewership since Trump left office. Guess modeling herself as a “resistance” cheerleader has its downsides.
- Joe Biden: He appeared slow and tired in his first summit with Putin. Talking trash about the GOP on foreign soil and snapping at reporters also did little to inspire confidence in the U.S. president’s abilities.
- Nancy Pelosi: She’s a Roman Catholic and a mother of five and she can’t even bring herself to say whether a 15-week-old unborn child is a “human being,” that’s how dedicated to party politics she is.
- Anthony Fauci: He claimed this week he has always been open to the COVID-19 lab leak theory. This is obviously a lie.
- Media: Accusing parents of racism simply for noting a school messed up when it awarded the wrong students salutatorian and valedictorian is a new low, even for the press.
This Week’s Winners:
- Congress: It passed a bill this week declaring “Juneteenth” a federal holiday. Making a liberty-themed anniversary originating in Texas a nationwide holiday? And right before the Fourth of July? Yes, please.
- The Babylon Bee: The conservative satire site scored a win this week when the New York Times agreed to remove language from an article characterizing the group as a “far-right misinformation site” that “sometimes trafficked in misinformation under the guise of satire.”
- Texas: The Second Amendment is the one that makes the First Amendment possible.
And another thing Subscribe
The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official position of Citizens Journal
Get Citizensjournal.us Headlines free SUBSCRIPTION. Keep us publishing – DONATE
