Yesterday, by a vote of 6 to 3, the Supreme Court struck down the Biden administration’s requirement that businesses with more than 100 employees address the coronavirus pandemic by making employees either get vaccines or, if they choose not to be vaccinated, to test weekly and wear a mask at work. Employees who work exclusively at home or mostly outside were exempted from the requirement, as were those with a religious exemption.
For over 30 years, I have been traveling the world delivering intercultural negotiation, conflict resolution programs and have often found myself in war zones. It always seems that authoritarianism, strong man rule requires chaos to either take or remain in control. This pandemic seems the perfect opportunity for those interested in killing our democracy. Am I missing something to say that all the rights leaders are vaccinated? What does it matter if they lose thousands of their foot soldiers to the cause by continuing to create mayhem with the virus so they can distract from their real intent which is oligarchy…..
The decisions coming out of the Supreme Court are frightening. In my 80 years, I have never felt so powerless. Being afraid of our Government is a new, eerie experience. We are in a time like no other, and I cling to the hope that people like you, Heather, can reach enough people to turn the tide. Thank you so much for sharing the facts as they play out day by day.
So, hospitals accept federal dollars and therefore the federal government, i.e. the administration, can lawfully mandate vaccination, by a 5/4 vote of the supreme court. What about other institutions, particularly public institutions that accept federal dollars? I'll bet that the NY city subway accepted federal dollars at some point in it's construction. How about airports? Not airplanes per-se, but the airports themselves? And bus systems, other forms of transportation? How about those institutions that have borrowed from federal programs? Isn't that a connection to the federal government? In my state, 3 in 10 adults have not been vaccinated. Omicron takes 3 days or more to produce symptoms. We are still in the up-swing on this particular surge in the pandemic. I'm pretty much guaranteed to come within shouting distance of an infected individual in any grocery store, mall, other public place where people congregate. I'm vaccinated and boosted, but also have a pre-existing condition putting me in a high-risk category for complications of a coronavirus infection. I would like to be protected by the law in any place that has accepted federal dollars in construction or operation. If a grocery store sells US stamps, that's enough for me. Any financial institution that invests some of its deposits in federal funds, borrows from the treasury, accepts federal deposit insurance is enough connection for me.
If I can't rely on local, regional, state or federal regulatory protection against a potentially deadly epidemic illness, perhaps I should simply carry a yellow flag and a wear a t-shirt with large letters, saying "if you're not vaccinated, please step away; I am at enhanced risk of your as-yet undiagnosed, asymptomatic COVID infection." Why are governments allowed to set the speed limit on any public street, but aren't allowed to protect me against potentially lethal exposure to potentially infectious people, who haven't taken the only effective steps themselves against the infection? I'm exercising all reasonable precautions to protect others and myself from contracting the virus, not the least of which is simply staying home unless it's absolutely necessary to be out in public, but like most of the country, I'm past "done" with it. Anywhere that vaccination is the ticket for entry, I'll be willing to patronize. Wouldn't it be something if large private companies might put safety before profits and post signs saying "if you're not vaccinated, please shop elsewhere"? What if commercial property owners would post similar requests at the parking garage entrance to their multi-tenant buildings? On the first floor elevator doors? Perhaps we should turn Dr. Suess on his head and become the "Sneeches with (vaccination) Stars"? What will it take to persuade people to do the right thing, if mandates are so deplorable?
"Meanwhile, Biden is deploying another 1000 military personnel to hospitals, which are overwhelmed with unvaccinated coronavirus patients."
It goes beyond comprehension that six individuals have the power to make decisions on such a massive life and death issue: first, they have no medical expertise, and second, two of them were forced onto the court willy-nilly by a non-president and his vindictive lackeys -- plus, both lied under oath. It is time for the judicial branch of government to look deep within and assess its oaths of office. The justices are not elected by the people, and yet, they are supposed to come to their positions with higher standards, unique knowledge, and a more elevated code of justice, integrity and conscience. Where are those standards? Where is that knowledge? And, the Force help us, but where are the signs of their elevated code of justice, integrity and conscience?
Now, one thousand military lives are put in jeopardy to assist in the fight of a lifetime -- a medical battle that has killed almost one million US citizens. In my eyes, this quasi-illigitimate, right-wing Supreme Court of the US has lost face, basic gravitas, and honor over the past two years!
Yesterday, I spent several hours at a local school vaccinating students, parents, and staff against COVID-19. The cost to the school district? $0.00. The cost to the state government? $0.00, as the federal government has picked up the tab. The school nurse told me that earlier that fall, fully 1/3 of the teachers and staff had been out at some point with COVID-19 or had to quarantine because someone in their household was COVID-19 positive. Those costs must have run into hundreds of thousands of dollars. I do not believe the costs to US businesses to vaccinate employees is greater than having large portions of their workforce out sick/quarantining for extended periods.
As for the non-delegation doctrine, it sounds like something straight out of a symposium on dysfunctional relationships. Have you ever worked with/for someone who refused/did not know how to delegate? What ensues is not pretty. Neither the judicial nor the legislative branches of government can enforce laws and regulations. That is the executive branch's function. The irony here is that the legislative branch used the judicial branch to thwart enforcement of a public health measure by the executive branch. Sounds a lot like de facto delegation to me. This cynical thwarting of public health measures in the guise of states rights is cart-before-the-horse wrong headed, BAD for the economy, and deadly.
I would say that Gorsuch, who endangered Justice Sotomayor's life by refusing to wear a mask while in court the other day, has abandoned the moral, ethical side of the argument and is purely a tool of the radical right.
I also read in Greg Olear's substack post that the execrable governor of Florida disappeared from public view, including social media, for quite a long time--and that no one has raised a peep about it. Apparently, when he did resurface he looked terrible and could barely speak from all the coughing he was doing. Hmmm. Maybe Karma is going to work. It would be nice to see him experience the stuff he is putting his state through quite directly. And long covid, like the lifetime after-effects of chemo, is unpleasant.
I am no longer surprised by the decisions made by the right wing of the USSC. For over 20 years I taught courses about Constitutional Law at a Community College. That was not my field of study for my. Ph.D. In History but as my father - a University Professor loved to say - college is where you go to learn how to learn. That plus a summer fellowship in Constitutional Law taught by a well known and well regarded professor of Constitutional Law at a major university. I write this only to note that I thought I had a first class education in Constitutional Law. Increasingly I feel that I have moved to another universe where legal reasoning has been replaced with an ideology based upon personal prejudice and bull shit. Throughout American History (and for that matter - the history of the modern world )those out for personal gain and hatred of those unlike themselves - males of females, whites of persons of color, landowners of those without land, educated of uneducated, tall people of short people - take your pick - you are not like me, I have more than you etc - have worked to hoard what they have and take away from those who have less. Having this play out in the world of modern communications is new and we have yet to stop the spread of lies, disinformation, prejudice etc. Watching the USSC majority destroy its reputation is beyond depressing. “It is a republic if you can keep it” - true and apparently the majority of the USSC is hell bent to destroy it. I have a hard time not wishing ill health and the demise of those unvaccinated. Our form of government is being destroyed by the majority in power in our government. I am old and am unlikely to see it crumble but my children and grandchildren will have to live with the result of the stupid thoughtless greedy of the majority of those on the USSC, in Congress, and in most states. That makes me as mad as hell - to the point that I am writing this incoherent note.
The depths to which the majority of the current Supreme Court has now fallen in representing a perspective that is contrary to the best interests of the public-- or indeed, to the good faith and good will of our Country-- is distressing, and to the lowest point in my lifetime. Two of the new right-wing majority justices are serving under questionable circumstances. Clarence Thomas-- with a shockingly poor record of performance over his thirty years as a justice-- has a wife (Ginni Thomas) who cheered-on the January 6 Insurrectionists in social media and also was among a network of Trump loyalists who provided constant input to him regarding lists of government officials who were not sufficiently supportive, and should be replaced by him. Brett Kavanaugh benefitted from a "fake" background investigation by the FBI intended to ignore several complaints of his sexual and other misconduct, in order that his appointment to the Supreme Court could be confirmed. Consideration should be made as to whether these justices are qualified to continue to serve in this capacity.
Is there another governmental system that can have 80 years of its operations overthrown by six unelected idiots who actually know nothing about what they're deciding?
Banks accept federal funds. So do the airlines. So does any corporation that uses tax incentives and loopholes to claw back cash from the federal government. Perhaps all of these businesses should be
treated the same as healthcare.
Also, I think it’s time to start saying that what the GOP is rapidly moving us toward is a switch from the United States to the Associated States. Or an American Union that mirrors the EU. Where each state becomes its own country. I think it’s time for historians, political scientists and economists to tell us what that will look like. Maybe even state by state. So Americans can know whether that’s a system they’d really like in practice rather than just in theory. In particular, residents in poorer states should know that if we become the American Union, they have to come up with all their own revenue for things like education, infrastructure, etc. They don’t get federal tax dollars as a member of the American Union.
Ah, the specious, usually-disingenuous, states' rights and preferred-level-of-authority argument. I love the largely-unexamined belief by most of these jamokes that a state is somehow the magically-imbued, perfectly-sized entity for each and every decision (probably, declared by God directly to Robert E. Lee). As Heather alluded to, it's largely because of repeated and utter failures by states that the federal government was created/assumed its powers--and it's clear as day this hasn't changed. Or, as James Carville once said nearly 30 years ago, "Anyone thinking the states are models of efficiency has never seen the Louisiana State Legislature in action." To a small town, THE STATE is the "tyrannical" power. Here's another one: even with all this "communist tyranny," the U.S. STILL devolves A LOT to its states. I live in Europe--trust me when I tell you, I don't know of a region, district, judetul, prefecture--hell, even Catalonia or Scotland--that has the levels of authority in so many things that our states still do (I can't comprehensively say it's that way--but my observations and anecdotal sampling says it's not even close). I repeatedly hear Europeans who've spent time in the states BEFUDDLED at how many laws, requirements and other standards are at state-level. I've had some ask me if were are 50 semi-autonomous countries.
This disingenuous diatribe about federal tyranny in an era with impossibly complex systems that no single human or even organization fully understands, in a country of 350 million people is unforgivably stupid. And it's disingenuous because, as we've seen, when Republicans control the government...it still grows. Funny how that works (to this point, when I was in the military--full of conservative-voting, small government-espousing people, esp. officers BTW--I never saw one leader who passed up the chance to create a new organization/unit (needed or not) or didn't fight to keep one slated for inactivation alive because it was "crucial and essential." Every. Single. Time.)
It's a disingenuous power grab driven by fear. That's all it ever was 160 years ago and all it's ever been since. They are trying to destroy our country, and we'd better do everything in our power to stop them, peacefully, or eventually that will not be possible either. I'm not kidding or exaggerating.
Morning, all!! Morning, Dr. R!! My prayers go out to those Americans tethered to their unvaccinated coworkers while they try to stay safe from a disease that knows no politics.
we must expand the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court is comprised of 6 Federalist Society Judges and 3 liberal judges, the 6 judges were hand picked by the Federalist society whose goal is to fundamentally change America into a white anglo-saxon fundamentalist Christian society with a patriarchy comprised of the wealthy white males , a severely deconstructed Federal Government with States rights being supreme. The conservative justices argue that States rights are more democratic while at the same time supporting voter suppression, extreme gerrymandering and election subversion, thus ensuring that only the elite white conservative minority can vote. Scotus has codified corruption in our political system with their Citizen's United decision and have guaranteed that women have no agency over their bodies. Conservative Judges around the country have repeatedly been extremely lenient with white male rapists indicating that this is not a real crime, while black male rapist are held to a different standard. I am not supporting black rapists but I am appalled at how many young white rapists are not held accountable by conservative, white, older judges.
The Supreme Court has lost all legitimacy. They're now controlled by sadists who care not one bit about the little people. They have come down on the side of monied interests. The attack on OSHA is a step in the dismantling of protections of workers and agencies meant to help ordinary people. What's next? Child labor laws? Public education? It's time for revolt.
For over 30 years, I have been traveling the world delivering intercultural negotiation, conflict resolution programs and have often found myself in war zones. It always seems that authoritarianism, strong man rule requires chaos to either take or remain in control. This pandemic seems the perfect opportunity for those interested in killing our democracy. Am I missing something to say that all the rights leaders are vaccinated? What does it matter if they lose thousands of their foot soldiers to the cause by continuing to create mayhem with the virus so they can distract from their real intent which is oligarchy…..
The decisions coming out of the Supreme Court are frightening. In my 80 years, I have never felt so powerless. Being afraid of our Government is a new, eerie experience. We are in a time like no other, and I cling to the hope that people like you, Heather, can reach enough people to turn the tide. Thank you so much for sharing the facts as they play out day by day.
Neither hail, nor gale nor dark of night can stay this historian from her appointed rounds.
So, hospitals accept federal dollars and therefore the federal government, i.e. the administration, can lawfully mandate vaccination, by a 5/4 vote of the supreme court. What about other institutions, particularly public institutions that accept federal dollars? I'll bet that the NY city subway accepted federal dollars at some point in it's construction. How about airports? Not airplanes per-se, but the airports themselves? And bus systems, other forms of transportation? How about those institutions that have borrowed from federal programs? Isn't that a connection to the federal government? In my state, 3 in 10 adults have not been vaccinated. Omicron takes 3 days or more to produce symptoms. We are still in the up-swing on this particular surge in the pandemic. I'm pretty much guaranteed to come within shouting distance of an infected individual in any grocery store, mall, other public place where people congregate. I'm vaccinated and boosted, but also have a pre-existing condition putting me in a high-risk category for complications of a coronavirus infection. I would like to be protected by the law in any place that has accepted federal dollars in construction or operation. If a grocery store sells US stamps, that's enough for me. Any financial institution that invests some of its deposits in federal funds, borrows from the treasury, accepts federal deposit insurance is enough connection for me.
If I can't rely on local, regional, state or federal regulatory protection against a potentially deadly epidemic illness, perhaps I should simply carry a yellow flag and a wear a t-shirt with large letters, saying "if you're not vaccinated, please step away; I am at enhanced risk of your as-yet undiagnosed, asymptomatic COVID infection." Why are governments allowed to set the speed limit on any public street, but aren't allowed to protect me against potentially lethal exposure to potentially infectious people, who haven't taken the only effective steps themselves against the infection? I'm exercising all reasonable precautions to protect others and myself from contracting the virus, not the least of which is simply staying home unless it's absolutely necessary to be out in public, but like most of the country, I'm past "done" with it. Anywhere that vaccination is the ticket for entry, I'll be willing to patronize. Wouldn't it be something if large private companies might put safety before profits and post signs saying "if you're not vaccinated, please shop elsewhere"? What if commercial property owners would post similar requests at the parking garage entrance to their multi-tenant buildings? On the first floor elevator doors? Perhaps we should turn Dr. Suess on his head and become the "Sneeches with (vaccination) Stars"? What will it take to persuade people to do the right thing, if mandates are so deplorable?
"Meanwhile, Biden is deploying another 1000 military personnel to hospitals, which are overwhelmed with unvaccinated coronavirus patients."
It goes beyond comprehension that six individuals have the power to make decisions on such a massive life and death issue: first, they have no medical expertise, and second, two of them were forced onto the court willy-nilly by a non-president and his vindictive lackeys -- plus, both lied under oath. It is time for the judicial branch of government to look deep within and assess its oaths of office. The justices are not elected by the people, and yet, they are supposed to come to their positions with higher standards, unique knowledge, and a more elevated code of justice, integrity and conscience. Where are those standards? Where is that knowledge? And, the Force help us, but where are the signs of their elevated code of justice, integrity and conscience?
Now, one thousand military lives are put in jeopardy to assist in the fight of a lifetime -- a medical battle that has killed almost one million US citizens. In my eyes, this quasi-illigitimate, right-wing Supreme Court of the US has lost face, basic gravitas, and honor over the past two years!
Yesterday, I spent several hours at a local school vaccinating students, parents, and staff against COVID-19. The cost to the school district? $0.00. The cost to the state government? $0.00, as the federal government has picked up the tab. The school nurse told me that earlier that fall, fully 1/3 of the teachers and staff had been out at some point with COVID-19 or had to quarantine because someone in their household was COVID-19 positive. Those costs must have run into hundreds of thousands of dollars. I do not believe the costs to US businesses to vaccinate employees is greater than having large portions of their workforce out sick/quarantining for extended periods.
As for the non-delegation doctrine, it sounds like something straight out of a symposium on dysfunctional relationships. Have you ever worked with/for someone who refused/did not know how to delegate? What ensues is not pretty. Neither the judicial nor the legislative branches of government can enforce laws and regulations. That is the executive branch's function. The irony here is that the legislative branch used the judicial branch to thwart enforcement of a public health measure by the executive branch. Sounds a lot like de facto delegation to me. This cynical thwarting of public health measures in the guise of states rights is cart-before-the-horse wrong headed, BAD for the economy, and deadly.
I would say that Gorsuch, who endangered Justice Sotomayor's life by refusing to wear a mask while in court the other day, has abandoned the moral, ethical side of the argument and is purely a tool of the radical right.
I also read in Greg Olear's substack post that the execrable governor of Florida disappeared from public view, including social media, for quite a long time--and that no one has raised a peep about it. Apparently, when he did resurface he looked terrible and could barely speak from all the coughing he was doing. Hmmm. Maybe Karma is going to work. It would be nice to see him experience the stuff he is putting his state through quite directly. And long covid, like the lifetime after-effects of chemo, is unpleasant.
I am no longer surprised by the decisions made by the right wing of the USSC. For over 20 years I taught courses about Constitutional Law at a Community College. That was not my field of study for my. Ph.D. In History but as my father - a University Professor loved to say - college is where you go to learn how to learn. That plus a summer fellowship in Constitutional Law taught by a well known and well regarded professor of Constitutional Law at a major university. I write this only to note that I thought I had a first class education in Constitutional Law. Increasingly I feel that I have moved to another universe where legal reasoning has been replaced with an ideology based upon personal prejudice and bull shit. Throughout American History (and for that matter - the history of the modern world )those out for personal gain and hatred of those unlike themselves - males of females, whites of persons of color, landowners of those without land, educated of uneducated, tall people of short people - take your pick - you are not like me, I have more than you etc - have worked to hoard what they have and take away from those who have less. Having this play out in the world of modern communications is new and we have yet to stop the spread of lies, disinformation, prejudice etc. Watching the USSC majority destroy its reputation is beyond depressing. “It is a republic if you can keep it” - true and apparently the majority of the USSC is hell bent to destroy it. I have a hard time not wishing ill health and the demise of those unvaccinated. Our form of government is being destroyed by the majority in power in our government. I am old and am unlikely to see it crumble but my children and grandchildren will have to live with the result of the stupid thoughtless greedy of the majority of those on the USSC, in Congress, and in most states. That makes me as mad as hell - to the point that I am writing this incoherent note.
The depths to which the majority of the current Supreme Court has now fallen in representing a perspective that is contrary to the best interests of the public-- or indeed, to the good faith and good will of our Country-- is distressing, and to the lowest point in my lifetime. Two of the new right-wing majority justices are serving under questionable circumstances. Clarence Thomas-- with a shockingly poor record of performance over his thirty years as a justice-- has a wife (Ginni Thomas) who cheered-on the January 6 Insurrectionists in social media and also was among a network of Trump loyalists who provided constant input to him regarding lists of government officials who were not sufficiently supportive, and should be replaced by him. Brett Kavanaugh benefitted from a "fake" background investigation by the FBI intended to ignore several complaints of his sexual and other misconduct, in order that his appointment to the Supreme Court could be confirmed. Consideration should be made as to whether these justices are qualified to continue to serve in this capacity.
Is there another governmental system that can have 80 years of its operations overthrown by six unelected idiots who actually know nothing about what they're deciding?
Banks accept federal funds. So do the airlines. So does any corporation that uses tax incentives and loopholes to claw back cash from the federal government. Perhaps all of these businesses should be
treated the same as healthcare.
Also, I think it’s time to start saying that what the GOP is rapidly moving us toward is a switch from the United States to the Associated States. Or an American Union that mirrors the EU. Where each state becomes its own country. I think it’s time for historians, political scientists and economists to tell us what that will look like. Maybe even state by state. So Americans can know whether that’s a system they’d really like in practice rather than just in theory. In particular, residents in poorer states should know that if we become the American Union, they have to come up with all their own revenue for things like education, infrastructure, etc. They don’t get federal tax dollars as a member of the American Union.
I would like each of those 6 Supreme Court justices to walk a shift in the shoes of an ICU Nurse, and another, and another, and another……..
Ah, the specious, usually-disingenuous, states' rights and preferred-level-of-authority argument. I love the largely-unexamined belief by most of these jamokes that a state is somehow the magically-imbued, perfectly-sized entity for each and every decision (probably, declared by God directly to Robert E. Lee). As Heather alluded to, it's largely because of repeated and utter failures by states that the federal government was created/assumed its powers--and it's clear as day this hasn't changed. Or, as James Carville once said nearly 30 years ago, "Anyone thinking the states are models of efficiency has never seen the Louisiana State Legislature in action." To a small town, THE STATE is the "tyrannical" power. Here's another one: even with all this "communist tyranny," the U.S. STILL devolves A LOT to its states. I live in Europe--trust me when I tell you, I don't know of a region, district, judetul, prefecture--hell, even Catalonia or Scotland--that has the levels of authority in so many things that our states still do (I can't comprehensively say it's that way--but my observations and anecdotal sampling says it's not even close). I repeatedly hear Europeans who've spent time in the states BEFUDDLED at how many laws, requirements and other standards are at state-level. I've had some ask me if were are 50 semi-autonomous countries.
This disingenuous diatribe about federal tyranny in an era with impossibly complex systems that no single human or even organization fully understands, in a country of 350 million people is unforgivably stupid. And it's disingenuous because, as we've seen, when Republicans control the government...it still grows. Funny how that works (to this point, when I was in the military--full of conservative-voting, small government-espousing people, esp. officers BTW--I never saw one leader who passed up the chance to create a new organization/unit (needed or not) or didn't fight to keep one slated for inactivation alive because it was "crucial and essential." Every. Single. Time.)
It's a disingenuous power grab driven by fear. That's all it ever was 160 years ago and all it's ever been since. They are trying to destroy our country, and we'd better do everything in our power to stop them, peacefully, or eventually that will not be possible either. I'm not kidding or exaggerating.
Morning, all!! Morning, Dr. R!! My prayers go out to those Americans tethered to their unvaccinated coworkers while they try to stay safe from a disease that knows no politics.
we must expand the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court is comprised of 6 Federalist Society Judges and 3 liberal judges, the 6 judges were hand picked by the Federalist society whose goal is to fundamentally change America into a white anglo-saxon fundamentalist Christian society with a patriarchy comprised of the wealthy white males , a severely deconstructed Federal Government with States rights being supreme. The conservative justices argue that States rights are more democratic while at the same time supporting voter suppression, extreme gerrymandering and election subversion, thus ensuring that only the elite white conservative minority can vote. Scotus has codified corruption in our political system with their Citizen's United decision and have guaranteed that women have no agency over their bodies. Conservative Judges around the country have repeatedly been extremely lenient with white male rapists indicating that this is not a real crime, while black male rapist are held to a different standard. I am not supporting black rapists but I am appalled at how many young white rapists are not held accountable by conservative, white, older judges.
The Supreme Court has lost all legitimacy. They're now controlled by sadists who care not one bit about the little people. They have come down on the side of monied interests. The attack on OSHA is a step in the dismantling of protections of workers and agencies meant to help ordinary people. What's next? Child labor laws? Public education? It's time for revolt.