https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2021/1/14/2009228/-Evidence-mounts-that-the-Lynch-Mob-Capital-Insurrection-was-an-inside-job

Next week is shaping up potentially to be memorable. Pay attention!

The January 6th Select Committee is scheduled to hold eight live hearings beginning next Thursday. Some will be held during prime time. We can probably expect some major headlines to come from these hearings as the Committee will reveal how Republican members of government, including the former president, fomented an attack on our seat of government.

We can also expect wild countering lies from what now passes for the Republican Party plus a load of disinformation from sources like Qanon to try to take the spotlight off Committee findings. We can also expect much of the news media to do what it can to suppress news from the Committee and promote other stories to deflect the spotlight from the bad news that is coming for Republicans.

Supreme Court, Washington, D.C.

Next week has traditionally been the week during which the Supreme Court (SCOTUS) begins rolling out decisions it has made during the year. I can’t remember what the normal schedule is. I believe decisions are normally announced on Mondays and Thursdays. The best way to keep on top of SCOTUS is to simply check in to scotusblog.com @ 9AM. The analysis of the ramifications of SCOTUS decisions is deep and insightful.

We seem to already know that Roe v. Wade will be overruled in the case of Dobbs v. Jackson. Even though the outcome is not in doubt, there will be loud and acrimonious reaction. We do not know when the decision will be announced. Normally the most controversial are saved until the end, but there is no telling what this Court’s schedule may be. It could be the first case announced.

With all the emphasis on the abortion law case, little attention has been given to a a gun restriction case out of New York that is poised to have the SCOTUS change gun laws across the country. From the Brennan Center:  

The Supreme Court is poised to issue a ruling in a New York gun rights case that will likely expand the scope of protec­tions the Second Amend­ment affords indi­vidual gun owners who want to carry a gun outside of their resid­ences. The biggest ques­tion in New York State Rifle & Pistol Asso­ci­ation v. Bruen may not be whether a major­ity of justices strike down the state’s century-old hand­gun licens­ing require­ment but how far that major­ity goes in signal­ing that other licens­ing meas­ures created by govern­ment offi­cials are now consti­tu­tion­ally suspect.

Can offi­cials prohibit hand­guns in courtrooms and schools? What about college campuses or hospit­als? When the Court heard oral argu­ment in Novem­ber, the six-member conser­vat­ive major­ity seemed far more inter­ested in explor­ing the contours of an expan­ded Second Amend­ment than in whether it ought to be expan­ded. This approach to gun regu­la­tion is a sea change from the Court’s histor­ical approach to the amend­ment, but it should come as no surprise to anyone who has followed the arc of the Court’s juris­pru­dence in this area over the past 15 years.

The current Supreme Court is far more conser­vat­ive and far more friendly to gun rights than the one that first recog­nized a personal right to bear arms under the Second Amend­ment in District Columbia v. Heller in 2008. Or the Supreme Court that acknow­ledged two years later in McDon­ald v. Chicago that such protec­tions apply to state laws and regu­la­tions as well. Gone since then is Justice Ruth Bader Gins­burg, a foe of expan­ded gun rights. In her place is Justice Amy Coney Barrett, whose view of the Second Amend­ment is viewed by many as even more expans­ive than that of the late Justice Antonin Scalia, the author of Heller.

Pride Month gets into full swing this weekend. With the hate that the right has stirred up against certain groups especially including LGBT folks let us hope that pride month will be peaceful and go by almost unnoticed. 

Finally, primary season rolls along as does Donald Trump’s continuing attempt to turn what used to be the Republican Party into his cult of personality. Iowa will be joining the primary states Tuesday and Trump lovers Miller-Meeks, Ashley Hinson and Randy Feenstra run unopposed. Trump follower Chuck Grassley has only nominal opposition.

Over in Iowa’s 3rd district the Trumpinistas have been pitching a battle to show which one is the Trumpiest. It is sad.

For the Democrats the big race will be selecting who will oppose the faltering Chuck Grassley. This may be the year!

Keep those eyes and ears open next week. Life could get interesting.