So the New York Times has an article today ‘splainin’ why Neil Gorsuch might find it easier than most new Supreme Court Justices to find his voice and “be heard” right way.

Two things: (1) his winkie, and (2) his crazy.

Crazy first.

“Conservatives interrupt liberals at significantly higher rates than liberals interrupt conservatives,” the study, to be published in The Virginia Law Review, found.

“Interruptions are generally considered an aspect of dominance, and the conservatives feel dominant over the liberals. With Gorsuch entering the court, that’s going to reinforce that tendency.”

Which, of course, falls into the No Shoot, Sherlock department of news.  Conservatives are rude people who need to display their dominance like some baboon in the zoo.

And now his winkie.

And male justices, perhaps not surprisingly, interrupt female justices far more often than the other way around. “Even though female justices speak less often and use fewer words than male justices,” the study found, “they are nonetheless interrupted during oral argument at a significantly higher rate.”

The study considered 7,239 interruptions in arguments from 2004 to 2015. Of those, 32 percent were of women, and just 4 percent were by women.

I think Ruth Bader Ginsberg ought to whack that sucker upside the head with her gavel a couple of times and let him know that there are women on the court who ain’t putting up with his Trump’s new golden boy status for one damn minute.

The guy who did the study offered this —

“I don’t think that a lot of men notice that they’re doing this,” Professor Jacobi said.

Oh yeah, right. Yeah, there you go. They just can’t help themselves.

An accidental shooting in a Walmart just north of Houston caught my attention last week and I made a note to check up on it because the original story didn’t have much information other than accidental shots were fired inside a Walmart.

So, I Googled it today to see if there’s more information about how the hell that happened.  I put “shooting Walmart” in the Google machine because I wasn’t sure which town it would be identified with – The Woodlands, Conroe, Halfway to Dallas, you know how we describe geographic locations in Texas.

Here’s what I discovered: the most dangerous place on earth is inside a Walmart.

There’s 299,000 results.

Do not go to Walmart.  Apparently, they hold target practice there.

So, I finally found what happened in the Texas Walmart —

MONTGOMERY COUNTY, Texas – Deputies are investigating after a man accidentally dropped his loaded gun inside a Woodlands-area Walmart store, firing a gunshot.

There were no injuries.

The Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office says the man is reportedly a retired Houston police officer who has a Concealed Handgun License.

Retired cop. Slippery hands. Just the facts, ma’am, just the facts.

Okay, if you’re not following Louise Mensch’s blog and twitter account, you are missing what is either the scoop of the century or the best James Bond thriller ever.  I don’t know which but its worth your time.

Sources with links to the intelligence community say it is believed that Carter Page went to Moscow in early July carrying with him a pre-recorded tape of Donald Trump offering to change American policy if he were to be elected, to make it more favorable to Putin. In exchange, Page was authorized directly by Trump to request the help of the Russian government in hacking the election.

If she’s right (more about her here), then this thing’s gonna blow like Miles Davis with a two ton trumpet.

Pete Souza has been called “King of Instagram Shade” by Politico.  He’s the former White House photographer.

For the past few months, Souza has used his personal Instagram account to post photos from the Obama administration that seem, or he admits are, deliberately timed to a make a point about whatever Trump story has overtaken the news cycle.

Enjoy!

Federal judges all over the country block Trump’s racist immigration orders.  A federal judge rules Texas racist voter ID law unconstitutional.  A federal judge confirms marriage equality rights.  This morning, a federal judge blocks Arkansas’ rush to kill 7 death row inmates before the expiration date of the sedative used in executions.  That’s right, some idiot in Arkansas thought it was a good idea to rush up 7 executions because the company that provides the sedative has discontinued selling them to states that use it to kill people.

Trump and his cronies have rapidly pulled the veil down over the WH.  His press secretary lies daily from the briefing room podium, the Secretary of State banned reporters from his trips.  The State Department has halted the daily briefing.  Yesterday, the WH announced that visitor logs are now secret.  And, of course, Cheeto Jesus will never release his tax returns.  Oh, and he’s making millions from those who seek to curry favor from him by their stays in his hotels and resorts.

To add insult to injury, the Congress, cowed by Trump’s twitter account, sit and do nothing, fearful that his drooling knuckle dragger base will unseat them.  They have virtually abdicated their duties of oversight and are just sitting there holding their collective breath hoping all this will go away.

The only thing standing between the American people and an incompetent fascist regime?  The federal courts.  If I’ve learned nothing else from this first several months of the most terrifying presidency in US history, I’ve learned the critical importance of the third branch of government, the judiciary.  Even with the stolen Supreme Court seat, the judiciary continues to fulfill its key role of being the referee, protecting the Constitution and our society which is governed by it.  Conservatives love to rant about the Constitution, touting Scalia’s false “originalist” approach, but ignore the other critical part of Constitutional law – over 200 years of legal precedence.  Those thousands of interpretations of the Constitution form the entire body of law that guards against the radical and illegal activities of a corrupt administration, Congress, and state legislatures.

Trump likes to talk about his “wall”, but the real wall we need is the system of courts throughout the country that is critical to protect Us from Him.

The United States Navy has announced they are building a new warship and naming it after President Donald Trump.

Thanks to Bryan for the heads up.