At the Saturday Night Café...

... you can talk all you want.

"It remains unclear whether South Sudan’s government in Juba has detained the men, or what their ultimate fate might be."

"The 13-year-old country is on the brink of a civil war; the State Department has warned against travel there because of the risk of 'crime, kidnapping and armed conflict.' In court on Friday, a Justice Department lawyer read from a diplomatic note that said South Sudan would give the men immigration status to allow them to remain there at least temporarily.... Before coming to the United States, the men came from Vietnam, Mexico, Laos, Cuba and Myanmar. Just one is from South Sudan, a violence-plagued country. All had been convicted of serious crimes in the United States, though many had either finished or were about to finish serving their sentences.... The migrants’ lawyers have contended that if they are sent to South Sudan, they will probably be subjected to torture. The U.S. government has said in its own filings that the South Sudanese government has given diplomatic assurances that this will not happen.... The eight migrants now heading to South Sudan are part of a class-action lawsuit... about the legality of deporting migrants to so-called third countries.... The lawsuit is still continuing...."

From "U.S. Turns Eight Migrants Over to South Sudan, Ending Weeks of Legal Limbo/Courts blocked the handover after lawyers raised concerns of torture. Then the Supreme Court intervened to allow the Trump administration’s plan to move forward" (NYT).

"This Fourth of July, I am taking a moment to reflect. Things are hard right now. They are probably going to get worse before they get better."

"But I love our country — and when you love something, you fight for it. Together, we will continue to fight for the ideals of our nation."

Tweeted Kamala Harris, quoted in "Critics slam Kamala Harris for gloomy July 4 post — with photo that crops out Biden" (NY Post). That reads as though somebody forced her. Come on, you have to write something for the 4th of July.

Speaking of Biden and The New York Post, there's also "Biden struggles to set up beach chair in Malibu during first Fourth of July weekend since leaving office." Malibu! Whatever happened to Delaware? Oh, I see Malibu is Hunter's home. As for the struggling with the chair, he has Stage 4 cancer, and he is no longer attempting to serve as President. 

French police "charged into the water with knives to slash a rigid inflatable boat (rib), which migrants were scrambling to board."

I'm reading "French police use knives to puncture migrant dinghies in the sea/The tactic, used for the first time, is a ‘precursor’ to a change of French maritime law that will allow officers greater powers to prevent Channel crossings" (London Times).

"It’s essential to normalize 'no' and understand that no one should be forced to justify something they simply don’t want to do."

"We live in a society where 'no' is often seen as rude or selfish, but this needs to change. Each person has their own reasons, preferences, and limits, and all of this must be respected without judgment."

Said Jeniffer Castro, who has filed a lawsuit, quoted in "Flyer who went viral after refusing to give seat to crying child sues airline, passenger who filmed her" (NY Post).

It's important to remember that you do not need to articulate your reasons or even understand that you have any reasons. You can say "no" and nothing more. 

"Mr. Guo, who obtained his pilot’s license at 17, was aiming to become the first person to fly solo in a small aircraft to all seven continents...."

"Antarctica was the only continent where he had yet to land, he said. On Saturday at about 5:30 a.m., he took off from Punta Arenas, a city near the southern tip of Chile, with a flight plan indicating that he was going to fly over the city and land again in Punta Arenas, prosecutors said. But without notifying aviation authorities, Mr. Guo flew his Cessna 182Q across the Southern Ocean and landed at a Chilean airstrip on King George Island at about 11:30 a.m., prosecutors said. Prosecutors said that Mr. Guo had submitted 'false flight plan data' and that when he deviated from that plan, aviation officials declared that his Cessna had been 'lost.'..."

From "Teenage Aviator Detained After Landing in Antarctica, Chile Says/Ethan Guo, 19, had been documenting his attempt to fly solo to all seven continents on social media. He is no longer in custody but has no easy way to leave an island off Antarctica’s coast" (NYT).

"Let the parents decide. My daughter was born August 31st. Had she been born September 1 , she could have started 1st grade a year later."

"Why should this bureaucrat date dictate my child’s education?"

So says the top-rated comment at "D.C. banned ‘redshirting’ years ago. Here’s why people are talking about it. The controversial practice of delaying kindergarten enrollment by a year has been allowed to happen at a small number of schools" (WaPo).

I think the answer to her question why is: It's part of the struggle against (what is perceived as) white privilege: "It is difficult to determine exactly how common it is to delay a child’s enrollment in school. Some national data suggest it’s rare — somewhere between 3.5 percent and 5.5 percent of eligible children do it. Most of those students are boys born in the summer months. Academic redshirting is also more common among White children at schools that serve large numbers of wealthy families, who can afford an extra year of preschool or day care, according to an article published by the American Educational Research Association."

ADDED: The Supreme Court's opinion in Mahmoud v. Taylor, which upheld the parents' right to exempt their own children from the school's gender-ideology indoctrination, relied heavily on Wisconsin v. Yoder, which upheld the parents' right to exempt their child a school requirement that had to do with the age of the child. In Yoder, Wisconsin wanted to compel school attendance up to the age of 16, and the parents, Amish parents, sincerely believed that schooling beyond 8th grade impairs religious salvation. They wanted their children to avoid the "worldly educational environment" and sought a different kind of wisdom and way of life, and the Supreme Court viewed their preference as a constitutional right. I'd thought of Yoder as a marginal case until I saw Mahmoud v. Taylor.

The WaPo commenter's slogan "Let the parents decide" resonates.

"Her opinions, sometimes joined by no other justice, have been the subject of scornful criticism from the right and have raised questions about her relationships with her fellow justices, including the other two members of its liberal wing."

Writes Adam Liptak, in The New York Times, about Ketanji Brown Jackson.

“We will not dwell on Justice Jackson’s argument, which is at odds with more than two centuries’ worth of precedent, not to mention the Constitution itself,” Justice Barrett wrote, in an opinion [in Trump v. CASA] signed by all five of the other Republican appointees.

“The principal dissent focuses on conventional legal terrain,” Justice Barrett went on, referring to Justice Sotomayor’s opinion. “Justice Jackson, however, chooses a startling line of attack that is tethered neither to these sources nor, frankly, to any doctrine whatsoever.”...

I think Liptak is trying to build Jackson's reputation. He writes things like: "Justice Jackson has appeared comfortable expressing herself from the start." He compares her to Justice Breyer and Justice Brandeis:

“I was frightened to death for the first three years,” Justice Breyer said in a 2006 interview. Even Justice Louis D. Brandeis, a giant of the law who sat on the court from 1916 to 1939, needed time to find his footing. “So extraordinary an intellect as Brandeis said it took him four or five years to feel that he understood the jurisprudential problems of the court,” Justice Felix Frankfurter wrote of his friend and mentor. 

That does not work as a compliment to Jackson.

ADDED: The Washington Post just published a similar article, "One of the Supreme Court’s sharpest critics sits on it/Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson emerges as a strong voice on an unusually fractious U.S. Supreme Court."

"'There’s nothing beneficial about them,” Ahn Yeon-sik said this week as he hosed down lovebugs from the front of his bar in Incheon...."

"Nearby, a man trying to sit on a bench swatted the bugs with a piece of cardboard. A pedestrian ducked swiftly to dodge a pair bearing down on her. 'I’m told they hate water, but it hasn’t worked,' Mr. Ahn said, pausing to bat one away from his neck. He added that he had also doused them with mosquito spray and soju, a popular spirit, to little effect...."

The NYT reports. 

We're told the bugs tend to look twice their actual size, because they are commonly seen stuck together, mating. 

"Even the fumigation didn’t help, said Nam In, who runs a coffee shop.... 'They’re just trying to appease us psychologically,' he said as lovebugs crawled on his cafe’s windows and tile floor. 'The number of bugs is beyond human control.'... One hiker scraped off lovebugs that were clinging to a railing along a trail and collected them in a small plastic bag. He brought them home and put them in his freezer, then made them into a burger patty that he cooked and ate in a YouTube video...."

"Happy 4th of July!"/"Ew. Wow. I didn't know you were a racist. That's crazy."

"I just wanted to celebrate Independence Day"/"Actually..."

"I think when somebody deserves praise, that praise should be given. And President Trump deserves all the praise..."

"... because without his leadership, without him being re-elected president of the United States, the 2 percent this year and the 5 percent in 2035 — we would never, ever, ever have been able to achieve agreement on this."

It's Mark Rutte, the head of NATO, in an interview at the NYT, with the stunning headline: "The Head of NATO Thinks President Trump 'Deserves All the Praise.'" 

Rutte is the one about whom Trump said: "I think he likes me. 'Daddy, you’re my daddy.' He did it very affectionately."

So, "without him being re-elected president," means: If we had Kamala Harris as president. If we didn't have "daddy," if we had "mommy." If we didn't have Daddy, we would never, ever, ever have been able to get to the 5% deal.

"[P]arents circulated photos of some of the missing girls, and exchanged hopeful stories that they were hearing about dramatic rescues: girls clinging to trees, or floating downriver to a boys camp five miles away."

"Camp Mystic aims 'to provide young girls with a wholesome Christian atmosphere in which they can develop outstanding personal qualities and self-esteem,' its website said. It draws from families around Texas and beyond, with the youngest campers entering third grade in the fall. The camp was established in 1926... and has been run by generations of the same family since the 1930s.... Camp activities include archery, cooking, cheerleading, fishing and a variety of sports. Videos posted to the camp’s Instagram account show large groups of girls participating in group dance performances this summer...."

From "Live Updates: Rescuers Search Through the Night After Texas Floods Kill at Least 24/Two dozen girls were missing from a camp along the Guadalupe River. Flooding continued in some areas on Saturday" (NYT).

At the Fireworks Café...

... you can talk all night.

Live: Trump signing the Big Beautiful Bill.

To celebrate July 4th, I asked Grok to rewrite the Declaration of Independence to fit the social media 280-character limit.

I got:

When a gov fails its ppl, they can break free. King George’s tyranny—taxing w/o consent, ignoring laws, waging war—forces us to declare independence. All men equal, w/ rights to life, liberty. We, free states, pledge to defend this. #USA1776

I said:

Nice. Do another one and make it more elegant, more Jefferson-y

I got:

When a Crown’s despotism denies sacred Rights—Life, Liberty, Consent—we, the People, justly dissolve such bonds. King George’s manifold usurpations compel our Independence. Equal all, we pledge our sacred Honor to free States. #Liberty1776

I said: 

Good. I like the inclusion of "sacred." Do another one and put in more of the rights coming from God

I got: 

When tyranny defies God-given Rights—Life, Liberty, Pursuit of Happiness—we, the People, reject such rule. King George’s oppressions force our sacred Independence. All equal by divine endowment, we vow our Honor to free States. #Freedom1776

"Don’t worry, it’s only fireworks. I hope. Famous last words. My famous last words: Trump said, 'Don’t worry, it’s only fireworks.' You always have to think positive. I didn't like that sound either."

Said Donald Trump, quoted in "5 takeaways from Donald Trump's speech at the Iowa State Fairgrounds in Des Moines" (Des Moines Register).

Here, I'll cue up the reaction to the sound. Great spontaneous dark comedy: "My famous last words: Trump said, 'Don’t worry, it’s only fireworks.'"