Defenders of the Supreme Court’s decision overturning Roe v. Wade insist that Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health does not outlaw abortion but simply returns the decision about reproductive rights to the states. “It is time to heed the Constitution and return the issue of abortion to the people’s elected representatives,” Justice Samuel Alito wrote. He quoted the late Justice Antonin Scalia, who wrote: “The permissibility of abortion, and the limitations, upon it, are to be resolved like most important questions in our democracy: by citizens trying to persuade one another and then voting.” This, Alito wrote, “is what the Constitution and the rule of law demand.”
Here we are, back in an America "half slave and half free" and this time I cannot share Lincoln's expectation the Union would hold.
Last week on Tuesday, we saw the Establishment Clause of Article I attacked.
On Wednesday, the meaning of the Second Amendment was smashed.
On Thursday they assaulted the Fourth, Fifth, Sixth and Fourteenth Amendments and called the Warren Court criminal justice civil rights cases "prophylactic" law the court didn't have the right to create.
Friday they went after the "substantive due process justice" of the Fourteenth Amendment.
And next Thursday they go after the ability of the government to enforce the laws that are passed.
The marauding reactionaries of this illegitimate super-majority are now the Enemies of America.
Let’s talk about sex. And each of us better be very clear about what we think, what we accept as personal choice….or not.
Leigh McGowan, Politics Girl roared onto the scene yesterday with one of her kitchen rants. I look to her as a strong messaging personality for democracy.
Yesterday, I credit her with one of the best closing lines ever.
Here’s her link. Important listen. Under 2 minutes.
I have a good friend, smart lady, whose refrain is 'I am just one person, I can't make a difference.' Rather than find her a fainting couch, she is now my mission. I sent her this Politics Girl episode (thank you). Wish me luck. It's all about the ripple effect. Inform/support those around you and trust the message will multiply, right up to Election Day.
"I am only one, but still I am one. I cannot do everything, but still I can do something. And because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do the something I can do."
She alludes to what I have always found SO hypocritical. Republicans are all for "smaller government", but that is a lie. They want government to dictate to everybody how they should live their lives, AND the sex they can or can't have, ALL under the guise of their f***ed up version of Christianity. THAT is "smaller government"???
Exactly, Bruce! They’re living large (on us) in the *Nation’s Capital*, inflicting their hateful, narrow, back-a$$wards thinking on We the People, All of us?!?!
We should all be as outraged as Leigh McGowan. I want this to be capsulized, then crammed down the throats of Alito, Thomas, Gorsuch, Kavanaugh, Roberts and Barrett.
My goodness! Wouldn't they both be surprised to see themselves thus described. When I think about his lengthy cross-examination, with sworn witnesses, and her quick whisk through the pseudo-process..... same result in each case.
I can still see the chilling sneer on Kavanaugh's face when being questioned by Amy Klobuchar, and his sarcastic rejoinder regarding his drinking, asking her if she liked to drink. This was after Sen. Klobuchar shared that her father had suffered from alcoholism. We all saw his unbridled rage at being doubted, because his class standing at Yale was exemplary! I knew right then that he was temperamentally unfit for the bench, regardless of whether he had attacked Dr. Blasey Ford. As for Amy Coney Barrett, she'd display her deer-in-the-headlights frozen smile, no doubt the result of years of cult conditioning, especially when she was lying shamelessly.
She is, in my judgement....right on!!! Thank you Christine. Decided to do yoga, and walk instead of start my day with Heather and remain in awe and fear of our super backwards nation, ruled by a minority, felt by a majority....and it will hurt!!
Abortion is of course not a practical means of birth control, but shit happens and it is a teaching moment. As I have said before, planned parenthood will not do an abortion, without starting a person immediately on birth control of some sort and educate, educate, educate. There are so many variables, it is not black and white like the robes of the Supreme Court folks against their white faces (most of them). Medical concerns ONLY belong in the privacy and safety of a medical office. We are trained to care for these women and yes men, as they are the other half of the issue. Indeed they are, and there will be pain all around.
Maybe concentrate on the safety of kids in our schools who really wish to grow up, and not be dismembered by an assault rifle.
Above all, it seems to me that there are some huge pressing issues in our world to work on, to maintain life on this planet. Shouldn't that be the priority of the men in black?
While doing voter registration in 1998 , I found myself at a gay pride celebration - a treasured souvenir which I still have is a button - One Can Only Do So Much - there is a line drawn through the word Only. Each one teach one & good luck to all of this in the disunited states where the long shot is capable of pulling out the win in the final stretch.
She nailed it, thanks for the link. The idea of having a sexually repressed evangelical fanatic in my bedroom or on my porch for that matter, (yes you can have sex on the porch), is way beyond anything I would find acceptable. Let this decision be the bridge too far, and let it be the beginning of the end of the repugnican party, I want to see them go howling off into the darkness where their screams only fall on deaf ears.
I had been waiting to hear her reaction to the stench of the court last week. Her podcasts have been stellar lately. But when I saw this posted yesterday and listened, I sent it out immediately to my contact base and then I let Leigh McGowan know her rant is a grand slam.
It’s time to talk about sex. It doesn’t matter what adult age one is, what one does or does not practice. It is time to talk about in unfettered terms what we support in this time of 2022 and acknowledge that we hear the Gilead tone in their rulings and not hide from what they are saying they want to impose on us.
And let them know, well….let them know….you have lost your compass of justice. We hear but we will not abide. And by the way (optional comment of course….)We have removed the hands-free steering from the clown car and are derailing you. Go f*ck yourselves because you do not have my permission to do that to me and mine.
I am always so happy you post Politics Girl rants. She always seems to sum up the moment. “How do you feel about sex? Because the republicans are out to F*CK YOU” should be our new conversation opener.
Oh, so very true! Thank you for sharing this! If I were not campaigning as a Democrat for Treasurer of my Republican county in which I live.... I would share this on Facebook! However, I have been told by a Republican friend that if I want to win this upcoming election I need to stay off of Facebook! Duhhhhhh!
Thanks for link. Yes, great expression of outrage and punchy punch line. We are being forced to comply with some crazy dogma and better come up with a strategy that’s more effective than the one we’ve been using to counter the immoral moralists.
"The marauding reactionaries of this illegitimate super-majority are now the Enemies of America."
In other words: Supreme Court justices are now paid lackey's of corporations and the Federalist Society (also a paid lackey of corporations) to crawl on their knees and do the bidding of a few very wealthy, white folks who are tired of having to worry about government regulation or the American voter.
Or consider anything but their own wants.
I wonder when the Supreme Court will rule that private property owned in Maine is to be confiscated and provided to "loyal patriots"??
There must be a path to true justice somewhere within this farce of a judicial branch! In his speech, “Remaining Awake Through a Great Revolution,” — and the name of that speech is so significant — the noble and wise MLK articulated these exquisite words: “We shall overcome because the arc of the moral universe is long but it bends toward justice.” At this point in my life, TC, I simply have to believe in “remaining awake” and in keeping his pellucid vision at the forefront of my thoughts. After all, we are still a democratic nation … in spirit.
Thanks. Still on the first cup. I was unable to get the word right in my head in order to even sound it out (I was muttering "peelicud; what the heck could that be").
I’m also too old to give up, but I sure wish I still had the energy I had in my 20s. I get discouraged because I can’t get my children to understand where things are headed. They are from a generation that takes all these rights for granted because it’s all they’ve ever known, but I can remember how things were without them.
So true. I had a roommate back in 1971 who had to fly to New York to get an abortion. Dumb me, I mentioned this in a group of women whom at the time I didn't know were right to life proponents. Yikes, did I ever get a reaction.
I, too, had to fly to New York in 1972. My IUD was still in place, which I was told gave me a 50% chance of miscarrying,and I had been taking prescription meds for the first two months, which could affect fetal development and cause birth defects. I was married, but we’d recently gotten back together after a four month separation, and the marriage was still rocky. Do I regret having to make that choice? Yes. Do I regret the choice I made? No.
Rowshan, this is very well said! Also, this old Latin major thanks you for pellucid, a combination of per (through or thoroughly) and lux (light, hence, clear). ☺️
There is a casual cruelty to overturning Roe vs Wade while striking down gun regulations. Human life is not the value being protected. It’s all about power and putting women back in their place.
My state is run by a libertarian turned autocrat who routinely demands that “his” conservative majority legislature take even more extreme positions. Gilead is being constructed in front of our eyes.
Agree Diane Love. I choke on the laughable inconsistencies in the Republican talking points - and yet, they garner huge fan bases. Just like the true Republican platform has nothing to do with freedom, it’s supporters only value their own self-image, not humanity, and not justice. We need to stop engaging with their arguments as if they are meant to be logical or valid or to persuade. They are only meant as distractions and cudgels. We need to stop litigating and validating their inanities and pouring effort into winning arguments against ourselves, and start speaking clearly about the truths and likely outcomes Republicans will keep driving towards. PoliticsGirl (see above in this thread) is on the right track. When we say we need to “stop being nice,” it doesn’t mean we become them, and swerve into ad hominem attacks and try and bury the world in BS. It means we stop intellectualizing their fascism and start clearly articulating OUTCOMES that people struggle to imagine, but are in clear view if you follow “conservative” platforms. We need to become relentlessly clear about the dark, selfish, unjust place they are swiftly taking us, and what it says about us as human beings if we allow ourselves to be duped into paving the way.
Thanks for this link, Betsy. It really is that simple. Dems are too busy brainiac'ing. Now all that needs to be done is to cause our ideas to become their ideas. It's a concept that I learned for training horses. I tried it on my "opposition reflex" husband a few times and it worked!
"It means we stop intellectualizing their fascism and start clearly articulating OUTCOMES that people struggle to imagine, but are in clear view if you follow 'conservative' platforms."
This is what has bothered me all along, Craig. Hurray for intellectuals, but saying what the "clear OUTCOMES" are is what we need to do.
I noted this, too: kids:guns. As if women have to provide fodder for men's guns! And I wonder: if we don't get equal protection, do we need to pay equal taxes? I hear the coffee in prison's not great - but Hey! I'm 95, and I could stick it out! L&B&L
Hello Annie! My youngest daughter shares your name as did my mother and grandmother. I'm in CT not so far away. The rest of my life, I hope will be spent in this one room greenhouse w/eat in kitchen and two baths that I've made of a larger apartment, departing feet first if I'm lucky. They say the good die young so I guess I'm pretty baaaaaad!
My entertainment centers around my computer, from where I keep in touch with a few friends - not old ones: they're all dead - younger ones! And one of my six children is within yelling distance, two only a few minutes away, the others in Seattle, Manhattan, and on the Vineyard.
What ARE you going to do for the rest of your life? L&ı‡Ò
Thanks for your perspective about Demings. I had been donating to her campaign irregularly. With your hopeful message, I will add her to the list of my regulars.
Little hope of defeating DeSantis at this point. Our candidates aren’t strong enough and he throws just enough “favors” to the other side to keep us off balance. Overturning Roe v Wade could be an opening for Democrats if we can seize it.
Diane Love, I agree. Vulnerability. It’s essentially about “Who gets protection from being vulnerable.” The gun craziness, at its core, defines an abhorrence of vulnerability. Gun owners and ammo junkies are arming themselves because they feel VULNERABLE. Yet women must accept being vulnerable. Irrationally, in the self-righteous, conservative mind, it’s “God’s Plan”, even though there is a Commandment, I believe that says “Thou shalt not kill”. Somehow that supposedly does not apply to the killing of someone entering your home to steal your flat screen, or walk in your neighborhood while black, or knock on your door while being black. But a woman must be okay with nine months plus of being vulnerable in the most intimate and all consuming way, because of ….why?……the “Sanctity of Life”? Gun sales, gun ownership and ammo-hoarding prove the true value they place on Life’s preciousness and sanctity”. “Conservatives” want to “end abortion”? It will NEVER happen. The reality of choosing abortion goes so way beyond “oops! I’m pregnant!” It is needed and necessary healthcare. “Conservatives” only impose more vulnerability, and by extension, cruelty, on women, forcing them to carry, and birth an unwanted pregnancy. But dooming them to vulnerability, while fortifying their own obscene, protective fortress-arsenal, is the self-righteous, ongoing farce we are left to mind-numbingly fight against.
TC, this is an excellent summary. I will quote you today, since I spent most of the previous 2 hours arguing with people in my head. You have allowed me to gather all of my bullet point, and some of yours, and put them into a magazine to use effectively.
I will have to remember how you have put this, Ally. I let one person have it yesterday and he said I had left him speechless (obviously, I hadn't) and then told me to take a nap whereupon he got it again. Haven't looked at Facebook today, so don't know if he has to have the last word. Good thing he wasn't actually right in front of me because I would have certainly been tempted....
With the judicial coup orchestrated by Mitch McConnell and conservative Republicans, we are now living in the TRA: Theocratic Republic of America.
Just now, the Court issued a new proclamation: Prayer and religious indoctrination in public schools is fully supported by the government.
There is no end in sight unless we register more voters to increase the Democrat's Senate and House majorities so President Biden can expand the Court.
The two-faced, double tongued corpse of Puritanism has been re-animated and now populates the whackdoodle religious far right.
I am strongly against forced public prayer in school...for one thing, freedom to practice one's own religion was a basic right. That was one of the founding principles.
If a school wants to devote a few moments to silent prayer or meditation...that would be fine...but that is not, I fear, what the "marauding reactionaries have in mind"* (*thanks for the phrase, TCinLA)
I am now pretty conversant with the arguments the justices used - the Alito trunk of the tree, and the branches - the two concurrences, and the magnificent, if poignant, single dissent.
I have gained through the powerful analyses of numerous others in articles and in podcasts what I could not have on my own - an understanding of the shoddy cherry-picked historical references, the arrogant self-referencing of Thomas in his citations, and so forth. The great legal minds are picking this clean.
What I do understand is how shattered the Supreme Court. It is, of course, a court of men (generic sense), and we are all flawed. But any illusion I held that the Court operates in studied, scholarly neutrality is now gone. I will miss my naïveté- it was comforting.
Alito changed almost nothing of significance from the leaked document. He did not water it down, nor did he use the arguments shredding it in the interim between the leak and the final version to bolster his own case for the majority. To me that shows the deep arrogance that intelligent people often hold.
Thomas’ concurrence at least has the virtue of an honest warning. They are coming for most of the important jurisprudence that is neither originality nor deeply rooted in American tradition. So Roe is merely the first giant oak to tumble. Most of the other laws that deal with intimate human conduct are merely waiting for the axe. I say “most” because, in stunning but unsurprising self-interest, Thomas overlooked Loving v Virginia, the case that permitted interracial marriage. I guess Ginni might not have been chuffed had that completely similar law been teed up for the axe to fall.
It seems that Roberts’ “concurrence” was an act of personal pique showing that he knows this is not his Court any longer. “You didn’t need to this far”, he said, perhaps trying to play the long game of regaining (eventually) personal power through swing vote status. Judicially, this was a concurrence that seems to be personal rather than scholarly - and thus rather a waste of paper.
I save Kavanaugh’s concurrence for the last, for he seems to me to be the most contemptible and dishonest figure on the court. His is a “Don’t worry. Be happy. Everything else is going to be just fine” document. Kavanaugh has always struck me at bottom as a man of low self-esteem who more than anything else in life wants to be liked. He has about him a forced affability, but it is a strain to maintain it and he lashes out under pressure. He is the least qualified to be on the SC and I doubt whether he has much respect even amongst his allies in the Tribe of Six.
Finally the dissent. It was a cri de coeur, more personal I gather than most Supreme Court writings are and more biting as well. Thank God for it. This is a lonely call in the dark for justice, exquisitely suited to the mood of the nation. It must be a bitter moment though for Breyer who will exit the Court with the majority of the other justices seemingly calling out in derision, “Don’t let the door slam behind you.”
There will be a group photo of course with all the judges smiling. Some will even mean it.
And their work is not done. We have a tough week ahead with more unsurprising balls and strikes to be called.
What a struggle lies ahead for America to regain a legitimate claim on democracy and in the process, its standing in the world. As a Canadian, I am praying for a miracle. If your country crashes, ours might not be far behind.
Go read Alito's warning about "prophylactic rules" in Vega, issued on Thursday. "A violtion of Miranda is not a violation of the Fifth Amendment" and he wants to go after Gideon, Mapp, and the rest of the criminal justice rules.
What a nightmare. I’m not at all sure of this “prophylactic rules” and connection to criminal Justice. But with today’s ruling on prayer, the United States is being toppled from its constitutional foundation of prudent rules and common sense.
From article: "In using the power of the federal government to guarantee “the equal protection of the laws,” it made sure that a small pool of voters couldn’t strip rights from their neighbors. It is this effort today’s Supreme Court is gutting."
We already have a "small pool of voters" - a minority aka the Senate - stripping away our rights. Now we have a cabal of religious fanatics, six misogynists drunk on power and fueled by hatred and hubris, stripping away our rights. And as you have listed the laundry list of their planned assault, let us not forget that John Cornyn has tweeted an intent to go after Brown v Board of Education. There is no end to their assault on this democracy and the freedoms of our people. None.
The Cornyn tweet was at first shocking. Then I realized he did us a favor — once and for all he stripped off the facade to reveal the monsters besieging the nation. In other words, the shi*t got REAL.
In the 1800s and now, despite the lofty language, it's about nothing more than seizing raw power to make money and subjugate people. Are we in the midst of a coup masquerading as the highest court merely do its job?
Wondering how Rusty Bowers, Brad Raffensperger and Bill Barr can discuss tfg’s threats, stupid ideas, physical intimidation and such, and then say “Yeah, I’d vote for him again.”
Mind numbing and controlling religion. And the bogeyman of "abortion". They support TFG because of his politically motivated, opportunistic and newly found "pro-life" position. Devilishly clever he is.
They conveniently forget that until recently, TFG was a pro-choice Democrat who hung out with Hillary, Chuck and Nancy. A chameleon, a con man, a constant liar with nothing but power and money as goals. He was created by his father - a monster still trying to prove he can be as tough and ruthless as his dead dad. But "religious" people worship him. Go figure.
And what is so bizarre to me is how "pro-life" only seems to apply to a fetus. Apparently the life of the young woman who was raped or coerced into sex has no value. The lives of hundreds of thousands lost to Covid because TFG didn't want to count the number of cases and deaths ("If we don't test, the numbers won't be there!") - they seem to have no meaning, no value in their single minded twisted religion.
That "old time religion" is the American Taliban. For twenty years we fought them in Afghanistan. We could have saved a lot of money and lives - and improved America - if we had put the energy into fighting them here. Instead we ignored the Federalist Society and the Oligarchs who funded it. We let them sneak up on us and then steam roll right over our freedom, common sense and democracy.
The answer to your question is that superstitious Americans were weaponized by the uber rich to stay rich and the rest of us are just "mudsills".
I can imagine the angst that the Fat Man is kept awake at night by: oh those poor little babies suffering in their mom’s wombs. These men all are so full of shit!
In one sense, if you can imagine that the rumor that trump is connected to the russian mob is true, and knowing Putin’s greatest victory is to implode the USA, you could not pick a better controversial figure than trump. And you could not pick a better pair of arguments to split and weaken the American voting public. They are “scissor arguments” I heard them once described. They perfectly split people, cut them apart. The adherence to either side of the gun rights / abortion arguments hold boatloads of hypocrisy, such that friendships, and families are strained to the breaking point, sh*t loads of money can be dependably made off the möbius strip arguments on social media & MSM. The citizenry are distracted at best, and unable at worst, to attend to nuanced policy needs to strengthen our institutions. And trump keeps the tweets coming, the headlines embroiled, the supporters cha-chinging, and the gop genuflecting, while the Ship of Democracy weathers these roiling seas, leaking and taking on water each day. And Putin laughs, and flips us the nuclear weapons threat, knowing only we have gone that route before. Only we have used weapons of mass destruction. We are being masterfully played.
I am haunted by Bowers belief that the Constitution was divinely inspired. I was deeply troubled by the op-Ed NC Senator Burr wrote about the US being founded on Christian principles but divine inspiration? This religious fervor is frightening, and as a long time Sunday School teacher I don’t understand where these people get their ideas.
That's part and parcel of the work of promoting the Constitution as an object of worship, an inscribed table of stone, rather than a guide to the spirit of the country's laws.
Why worship? With the people's faces to the ground and their posteriors raised, they won't notice what's happening when said Constitution is gutted and the country's returned to a variation on that which existed under the Articles of Confederation.
I agree that hearing Bowers assign divine inspiration to the Constitution is unsettling! In fact, I was struck by the professions of faith of other witnesses too. Greg Jacob made a point of it. As did Brad Raffensburger, and Marc Short.
Jacob said he pulled out his bible when they were in the “secure area” (it was a loading dock), just how many people do you know that carry around a bible with them wherever they go? Those people inhabit a different world than the one I live in, and frankly I don’t want them anywhere near mine.
I live in the south. People do carry them around and even keep them on their desks at work. I’m fine with that as long as they also follow Jesus’s message to love one another, not when they use it as a tool of judgment and righteousness.
I wonder if the J6 Committee was happy to have those professions of faith in order to appeal to Rs or Independents or Evangelicals to take the witnesses seriously.
He’s a Mormon, plain and simple, I have known people of all manner of religious stripes, Buddhists,Hindus, Jews, all manner of Protestants, as well as Catholics, (I was raised a Catholic), the Mormons inhabit a unique space, they are not part of the above community, they are insular, only do business with each other if at all possible, and have a rigidity that was clearly evident in Rusty Bowers demeanor at the committee hearing and was manifest by his acknowledgement that he would vote for that insipid imbecile all over again in spite of what he personally had experienced, it was like he had a steel rod up his ass that made it impossible to bend in the slightest, you could see it in his pained answers. They are lunatics with power.
Mormonism is an American invention. It is a revealed faith tradition from writing found, literally, on American soil. They believe whatever their leadership tells them and leadership can change what they believe whenever they want. When Mormons were refused admission as a State due to polygamy, a divine revelation revealed polygamy was to be ended as a faith tradition. Blacks could be Mormons, but not Bishops or in leadership, which essentially declared Blacks to be lesser human beings than whites. Then another divine revelation came forth....
The Constitution being divinely inspired is a tenant of the Mormon faith tradition. And it is wholly ironic that Mormons ignore a piece of The Bill of Rights. The First Amendment the rest of us read states quite clearly that the State shall make no law abridging or forbidding one to practice their religion--or no religion. The Mormons don't agree with the "no religion" aspect of the First Amendment while loving the first part of that sentence.
The Constitution is definitely not "divinely inspired" if one reads the minutes of the Constitutional Convention, the Federalist Papers and letters/biographies of the men who wrote it.
Because they are really saying they will vote for the candidate put forward. And the plan is not Trump. Their plan has always been Pence. Who is the best bet to keep the evangelical base. They are scrambling and creating theater regarding DeSantis to figure out how he fits.
Pull back the lens to wide angle and you will see Putin embracing the Orthodox Patriarch and all around the frame murder in Ukraine and again, again!, Stalin-style, hate driven theft of their food as millions there starve to death. In a dark corner you see Trump and Putin huddling in a long private, unrecorded conversation.
I overheard 2 older ladies in the produce section say that DeSantis reminds them of Kennedy. Handsome and honest. All I can say is Kennedy was a good looking man. Other than that, I do think that is how they market DeSantis. Family man, nice smile and puts him in envious backdrops for photo ops. Let's face it, it was what the Democrats did with Kennedy. They fabricated Camelot.
Hi Linda, I keep returning to those earlier DeSantis ads trying to ride the Trump wave Any couple willing to exploit their infant child--( used the baby as a prop, really,--by covering the child with the tfg's name) is suspect in my mind. Their ambition blinds them both. He has grown fat and sweaty as he climbs the ladder of his hubris- not to mention more bizarre in his actions. Whatever shred of public service is left in politics is being suffocated by the need to win. "Image" (constructed along certain lines) has become a huge part of that in our society. Fabrication, indeed.
I hoping people will be more aware of what happens in the backrooms now. I thought it was interesting to hear that overturning Roe v Wade was a complete surprise to some people.
He’s really very inexperienced politics wise. Plus he keeps getting sweatier and more doughy. He is smart but gets irritated easily. Some dummy will think to have him as Pence’s running mate.
If things go the way of democracy in Nov 2022, then Cheney will be on the ticket somewhere in 2024. I think it would be very creative to see her run with a Dem or Independent.
If we do the work now correctly, focused, with correct intent, we stand a good chance of really mixing it up to get back on track in an inclusive fashion.
Salud my friend, Linda! Love chatting with you!!!!
Maybe I'm kidding myself, but unless DeSantis develops a softer broader appeal, he will be seen by independents as Trump 2.0.
Of course prognosticating in this charged environment is a fool's errand.
But this "polite" coup can be stopped — if women turn out like never before and the Democrats finally get across the message to everyone that Social Security, Medicare, and legally established rights (gay marriage and ubiquitous access to birth control, for example) are under dire threat.
Also, we can't underestimate what Republicans will do to disrupt voting in Blue metro strongholds. They will use intimidation and chaos.
I was also aghast at Bowers statement about the “wonderful things tfg had done for the country”. Does anyone know what he was talking about? I for one was traumatized daily by tfg - maybe bcuz I’m CDN and find the 24/7 political coverage overwhelming. ?
Wonderful for Bowers--he said he thought Trump had done a good job before the pandemic, and these are some of the items why he'll vote for him again. Responding to someone's comment asking what Trump "accomplished."
IMHO. While the Republicans testifying (and on the J6 Committee?) will act out of conscience and patriotism (don't cheat to win, don't do an obvious coup), they are not abandoning the Movement Conservative plan to return (or make up losses) in the states in this nation to a Christian nation under God's Dominion. Until the 1960s evangelical Christians really thought they were on the way to making the Bible, apple pie, fourth of July, lassiz faire capitalism, and the war between good and the lesser (read here poor, lazy, black) clearly controlled from their pulpits.
I for one will never vote for the insipid imbecilic insufferable slime bag asshole that once was our president, and who we voted out of office and lost the election big time.
They believe in white male supremacy and want to be in the party that tells others what they can and can't do (referencing the twitter thread by Ethan Grey)
2 are running for office. BB is just a bitter old slime ball like Trump. Desperate for relevance like Rudy. He stays firmly in the Republican camp or he will have no social standing and might actually have to confront his own decisions to help keep Trump in office for two more years was wrong. BB and Trump are never wrong.
Citizens of the United States of America the majority opinion of the justices on the Supreme Court responsible for abolishing a constitutional right repeatedly let us know their opinion of us. They wrote quote, “We cannot allow our decisions to be affected by any extraneous influences such as concern about the public’s reaction to our work.” We are 'extraneous'. They are taking our rights away because we are 'extraneous'. Can we change their minds about that?
Unfortunately, we can’t vote them out of the Supreme Court. But, like AOC is suggesting, the last three appointees should be impeached, as they lied under oath at their confirmation hearings.
"It is interesting to note that the Constitution does not specify the number of justices that there should be on the Supreme Court. The text also does not specify term limits or that the positions last until a person’s death or retirement. Instead, article 3 only says that the Supreme Court judges are required to hold their offices in “good behaviour,” which implies that a judge could be removed for unlawful activity. It is also important to note that while a key power of the Supreme Court is judicial review (assessing the constitutional validity of legislation), this was not granted in the Constitution. The Supreme Court was granted this power in 1803 after Marbury v. Madison."
Yes, but...Biden refuses to expand the number of Appellate Courts and put his judges on them, and refuses to expand the number of seats on the Supreme Court and put his judges on them (over the Senate's objections, if needed). That's where Biden's age and years in the Senate are hindering democracy--not just Democrats--he is handing the country over to the Republicans and SCOTUS with both hands.
How long would you anticipate that this process might take? And how many additional justices would need to be appointed to balance the SCOTUS? 3? 4? I suspect Biden refuses to tackle this path because it is impractical and would further entrench party divisions. If the coins were flipped (the Republicans had the SC minority but held the presidency and were proposing this type of change), I doubt any Democrat legislator would support it
At this point, Biden couldn't do anything prior to the election. The number of seats on the SCOTUS bench correlates to the Appellate Courts. These have been backlogged for years, and could have been expanded immediately and filled with Democratically-appointed, actually qualified judges immediately (12 months or less with prior planning). Biden did immediately start filling open judgeships, but did not do anything else the Progressives were pushing for.
Once the Appellate Courts were higher in number, Biden could have expanded the number of SCOTUS seats, one at a time--maybe getting 1 seated because the Senate would once again refuse to hold hearings and one can only hope Biden/Democrats learned to ride roughshod for a change.
Biden is a Senate institutionalist, and still thinks he's playing in pretty much the same pea patch he did for decades in the Senate. But he's totally immovable on any changes to the courts after his decades on the Judiciary Committee. His statement that he will make no changes now is pragmatic; the time to act is past.
The fascists spread lies, hide the facts, take our wealth and our rights away as they turn us against one another. Corrupting language -- the meaning of words is a facet of propaganda. Their corruption invades everything as it misleads the people. We are battling on all fronts and need to draft all the people we know to join the campaign for democracy. Making the appropriate demands of the free-press and contributing to its survival is part of our role as engaged citizens. Democracy must have a robust free-press because Americans need to know what is happening in our country, who is misleading them and who is working on our behalf.
I've lost my adult hometown paper to Gatehouse. My hometown paper growing up remains independent....for now. 66% of my local TV stations are owned by Sinclair. Almost all of the local radio stations are either Sinclair or Cumulus.
Ally, It helps to know the difference between media outlets and news organizations whose reporters and news departments employ journalistic standards. I am in a rush, but on another occasion I will provide links, which detail such information. The New York Times, WAPO, Atlantic Magazine, The New Yorker, Politico, Vox and others provide solid, journalistically based articles, series, etc. No newspaper, magazine, etc., is completely perfect or to everyone's taste but these are very worthwhile sources of news and investigative reports. The fact that many are corporate owned or owned by a single individual does not translate into being a 'corporate shill'.
Just basing that on my consumption of local journalism; I shell out money for NYT, WP, The Atlantic, The New Yorker, and some others to keep informed. It is local journalism that has been the backbone of journalism in this country. I mourn its demise.
If I may jump in here. The main stream media is nothing but Corporate shills. But like Dr. Richardson's fabulous LFAA I like to believe the real Free Press is alive and well in America. Unfortunately most Americans settle for their sound bites while getting ready or in the car.
I hope you will soon write about The influence of Opus Dei and The Federalist Society on our Supreme Court and USA Civil Rights law. Having lived in Italy from 1976 to 2002, I have witnessed the irrigue and power plays that Opus Dei wields. It’s about time the public knows what’s going on. BTW: they loathe Pope Francis and his progressive Christian tendencies.
Our very own remake of Mussolini's thought police, called OVRA... commonly known as La Piovra, the great Octopus with a tentacle in every household, in every office, on every street...
Thank you so much - I am deeply concerned about my friends who are wonderful Christians, generous, kind and faithful - who are believing lies and liars. I am also a Christian but I am willing to stand alone rather than accept a "mob" mentality,
I have the same problem. Some profess to faithfully follow the Bible; when asked how to justify the hatred and violence motivated by tfg, they spin their Bible interpretations to dizzying magnitudes. I am having a very hard time remaining friends with these CiNOs (Christians In Name Only)!!!
Yes. Scary. I am shocked since returning to the USA to realize Opus Day is more strategically coordinated here than in Europe. They got what they want and now we have to claw our way back out of a very deep and very slippery hole in the mud.
I looked up Opus Dei because I wasn't aware of it. So here is a Wikipedia overview for other people too:
"Opus Dei, formally known as the Prelature of the Holy Cross and Opus Dei (Latin: Praelatura Sanctae Crucis et Operis Dei), is an institution of the Catholic Church.
The majority of its membership are lay people; the remainder are secular priests under the governance of a prelate elected by specific members and appointed by the Pope. Opus Dei is Latin for "Work of God"; hence the organization is often referred to by members and supporters as the Work. As of 2018, there were 95,318 members of the Prelature: 93,203 lay persons and 2,115 priests. About 70% of Opus Dei members live in their private homes, leading family lives with secular careers, while the other 30% are celibate, of whom the majority live in Opus Dei centers. Aside from their personal charity and social work, Opus Dei members organize training in Catholic spirituality applied to daily life; members are involved in running universities, university residences, schools, publishing houses, hospitals, and technical and agricultural training centers."
The fundamental motivation of sanctifying work and the activities of daily life is surely unexceptionable. It has, after all, been a central aspect of Judaism since the destruction of the Temple. The problem perhaps lies in how it has all too often been put into practice as a political tool: politics informing the practice of religion rather than a spiritual motivation informing political life. Power is so easily deviated, especially at this very essential level. What should be medicine becomes poison. A passion for the Church itself ousts and replaces the deeper commitment which the institution exists to serve. Pride takes over and upstages all else…
I’ll admit to having been surprised by this accelerated canonization, even at the hands of a Pope deeply and painfully familiar with the techniques of infiltration, subversion and domination used by totalitarian regimes, both Hitler’s and Stalin’s; a Pope who so mass-produced saints as to make canonization into a well-nigh industrial phenomenon.
I, who am not a Catholic, reacted to this particular canonization by saying to myself, this man’s intellectual qualities are so much in evidence, one ruled by the head, an organization man—yet if the heart came into it, that was not much in evidence. So it was that I reacted at the time by saying to myself “I didn’t know that canonization was the Church’s Order of Lenin…”
It may be that my skeptical interpretation is, as Fern suggests, a mere projection, the product of a “wicked” mind. And it is certainly not for me to judge. Now, I don’t really care about people’s affiliations political, philosophical, religious, what concerns me is their quality as human beings and how this shines forth in their lives. (Meanwhile, most of my own life has exemplified how-not-to, much trial, more error…) Still… have we not all seen priests whose lives have been ravaged by their membership of the priesthood, no longer able to serve their fellow men, only to drown in their own wretchedness? And then I could only wonder, what did their hierarchy do TO them, what did prelates and fellow clergy do FOR them?
Likewise, if I look back on men guided by a plainly pure heart, I’m bound to remember one outstanding case; a young Communist, a Public Health Inspector; in other words, one close to life as it’s lived… How he developed subsequently, who knows?
*
The more “conservative” members of the Supreme Court do not come across as rounded human beings but rather as chess pieces at the service of a cause, a pawn, a bishop, perhaps even a knight. Whatever the cause may be, it is not Justice.
Perhaps, as in Poland, a psychotic leader’s notion of Law and Justice…
Thank You for such an intelligent and sensitive comment. I know that on the surface Opus Dei is a perfect life style for saintly behavior. I dare not scoff at those who strive to such heights. But I know that underneath there is something afoot that is not transparent. The coincidences of who is where , regarding this rather secret group, alarms me. By the way, I am a gay Catholic man. Ergo……. I question.
And Phillip Hanssen was a member. It has been said that he admitted that some of the priests knew about his espionage. I don't know how true that is. But it is no surprise to me that a traitor to the United States belonged to this organization.
Today. I attended a memorial for a dear friend who suddenly died at a restaurant. She was picking up dinner for she and her husband after returning from their trip to a beach. She paid for the meal and then fainted, hitting her head on the floor. She later passed away. My friend was about 5 years younger than me. She and I met in 1974 at Planned Parenthood where we were volunteers. We both stayed for years and in that time period, we developed a great relationship. She is the third of my girlfriends who I have lost in 2 years. All of them were strong advocates of women’s rights and the rights of all people. I tell you this story because my generation is now seeming to leave this earth and it’s my lifelong goal to make certain my daughters and your children, nieces and nephews, grandchildren, will be protected from these evil forces called white people with the exception of Clarence Thomas who thinks he’s white. As HRC so brilliantly pointed out, the 14th Amendment is being challenged by the illegitimate court. The only way we, the people, can make changes is to demand term limits for those in Congress and on the Supreme Court. In this day and age, there is no way that I want my tax dollars supporting white supremacists for a lifetime!
Marlene, Your loss of friends touched me and I believe many here The simpatico and spirit of friends bolster our ability to cope and contribute to others. Your firm commitment to your family, to ours and to compatriots around the U.S. is a model as for your pluck -- yes! Thank you, friend.
Dr. Richardson, I have noted a shift in the tone of your nightly epistles over the past few months. I found your letters hopeful and positive after Biden’s election.
But the realization that the stacking of a multigenerational extremist Supreme Court will open the door to the exact behaviors Lincoln warned us about. Tyranny of the minority is at hand, aided and abetted by rogue band of legislators and a complicit judiciary.
Lately your letters have become more urgent, a clarion call for decent and honest people to resist. You have gone from intellectual neutralist to an activist. I applaud this shift!
By framing our current political situation in historical context, you do a great service to all of us. You’re telling us , “Do not imagine that these times are the worst ever. We’ve been here before, and came through it a better nation.”
“The majority has overruled Roe and Casey for one and only one reason: because it has always despised them, and now it has the votes to discard them.”
“ When the majority says that we must read our foundational charter as viewed at the time of ratification (except that we may also check it against the Dark Ages), it consigns women to second-class citizenship.”
That's obligatory viewing. Every moment of it. This zinger right at the end: "Why should our rights be decided by the findings of a small unelected group of clearly dishonest political operatives"?
I have been going on for some time about the great French philosopher Condorcet who in fact translated and made a study of the US Constitution -- which I must read...
Apart from deep opposition to slavery and, like his distinguished predecessor Montesquieu, his ridiculing of racist notions of black inferiority, Condorcet came out clearly for the granting of equal rights to women : just one of his ideas that proved far too advanced for his contemporaries in America; and, alas, for many of our own benighted contemporaries.
The forces pushing the anti choice agenda aren't being led by people guided by the Constitution, they're religious zealots blinded by narrow-minded personal beliefs.
Ironically, these are the same people who constantly rail against the similarly minded narrow-minded zealots running the show in much of the Mideast.
I am not "new" to this group really as I have been reading all of your comments for probably a year now. I was afraid that should I begin commenting I will find myself here much more than I should, not that it's a bad thing but, the rabbit hole feels like it is widening every day. The events of the last week or so though (and the rage I feel) have prompted me to change that so, here we go. This feels like the most educated and thoughtful group of those I read (by far) though and I thank you all in advance for staying the course and helping me get through this difficult time with you. I have many thoughts built up but will try to stretch them out so as not to over-do it. I also apologize in advance for any ill remarks as I feel I have reached a breaking point as I am like many of you almost 70 and the idea that we would now be literally fighting to save our country (internally) from the very forces (externally) that our/my parents fought and gave their lives for is simply unthinkable.
After reading the good professor's post for today and the move of current GOP members to return to states rights as they have done many times over the years and in this case are now using it as cover for their long-laid wicked plan to extinguish a woman's control of her own reproductive rights, note how it is always selective and hypocritical as they want it only for some things but not others. Well, personally I am done with that. As HCR points out that Lincoln said, "It will become all one thing or all the other".
One cannot stand on the unilateral control of a woman's rights in a state (and many other similar issues as you wish) and then turn around and take billions of (our) federal dollars to support your own unsustainable habits all the while using those dollars as a cudgel to slash our throats and thumb your nose at us while taking it. Moscow Mitch has been doing it forever as just one state example. An article on states rights I have always thought so very pertinent is the one linked below that says it much better than I can. It is now 5 yrs old but, the underlying points seem more appropriate than ever. It's slow to start but bear with it and I am betting this group will like it.
I will stop here for now and try to ease into the flow. BTW I have no idea what name it signed me up as. It may even be the email address since I have been using it to read for so long and it didn't give me an option to provide a login name. Will try to correct it if it is. Thanks again for all your thoughts during this time. There are almost no outlets for such direct dialog as this in my community so I come here and read. HCR is a Godsend. I am hoping that mainstream begins picking up more on her so her work gets more and more exposure and out to those that need to hear / read this even more than we do.
Thanks for your thoughts, BK, and for the Kevin Baker essay... Funny how his thesis that we not split the red and blue states into two countries, but just stop Federal funding that overwhelming supports the red states, seems naive 5 years later... which shows the power that the openly fascist politicians, and the Supreme Court, have gained since ТЯцм₽ was in the White House.
Thanks for the post, BK. Today I re-subscribed today to HCR as a paid monthly subscriber after taking a few months off due in part to my personal over-commitment to reading every comment.
You wrote: "BTW I have no idea what name it signed me up as." You can change the name that appears on your posts by left-clicking the "hamburger" next to your user profile image in the right-hand corner of the web page. Then select the top-most button (which has your name, email, and image. Press the Edit button and you will be able to change your Name and Bio, and make a few other adjustments.
I like the idea of "pay the price for your abhorrent views." If the folks in Kentucky or Alabama decide to refuse a woman's right to the health care she needs or to supporting the 14th Amendment or believe tfg won, withhold that portion of federal support that comes from states that do not hold such whacky attitudes as determined by their voting? Why should New York pay for the disaster caused by Texas policies that avoid federal regulations on electric system or for the health care in Mississippi? You live in a state where liberal ideas are drubbed and you loose the share of federal dollars that come from our afflent liberal economies. Probably wouldn't be workable, but the idea of running these up the legal system to drive the stupidier-than-stupids who populate confederate statehouses might be worth it. The slogan: "You want me to send you my federal tax dollar to pay for the problem <entered here> your state created? Hah!"
It's also from this amendment that we derive "substantive due process," which has been the penumbra under which rights like the following have been held to exist by necessary implication: rights of parent and child, the rights of unrestricted travel among states, the right of privacy, the rights of consenting adults to have intimate relations outside marriage or with the same sex (or opposite, or both), the right of privacy between doctor, pharmacist and patient to obtain contraceptive medications and devices, the right of couples of different skin color to intermarry, the rights of same-sex couples to marry.
This is the substantive due process that Clarence Thomas - after nearly 160 years of precedent that he thinks is egregiously incorrect - now wants to reverse as a follow-up to Dobbs' reversal of the right to reproductive choice including abortion.
He's fully comfortable with the cabal referenced by Professor Cox leading and dictating to the rest of us what policy at every turn should be - will of the majority be damned.
Steve, how can CT possibly miss the point that his very marriage is protected by due process?????? Unless, unless, unless.....this is how he plans to jettison the problematic spouse???
...which has been the long game of the Rethugs for decades - sadly well-played and successful in many places, while Dems sat back and ... did what? Argued, voted for third party or hopeless candidates, refused to vote at all? 🤷🏻♀️
The real issue is why did the Republicans have a few wealthy and politically determined minds who gathered to create an aggressive strategy to win their desires, but the Democrats could not, still cannot, find the wealthy, and politically determined minds to mount a counterattack of the same caliber, even when the game is plain to see.
As I said to another attendee at a fundraiser for a Democratic female candidate for county commissioner yesterday when the issue of Repubs success and Dems losses came up, it's like herding cats vs a UNITED strong one-voice party.
Thank you Heather. Your writing gives me hope every day. Some days it is a little less uplifting than I would choose but that is the lesson of life - you don't get to have it your way all the time. Should I blame Burger King? Would Mr. Eastman take my case? Should I ask him? I love your insight and history "lessons" that apply to current events. I look back at the education I received in the public school system of Los Angeles in the 60's and 70's and realize so much of the information I was given was far more important than I could have ever dreamed of at the time. Thank you for helping me to be pulled back into a more useful orbit. My only dilemma is figuring out how I can make a difference. I am a voice which is loud at times. but pretty much insignificant on its own unless you are a person that loves me. However, if I join with likeminded voices, we can be excruciatingly loud. I just have to figure out how to do that. Thanks for waking me up. Dmitri
Every day, it seems, the divide between “North and South” is widening. Maybe or maybe not a civil war but red and blue and purple states. Lincoln: “I do not expect the Union to be dissolved—I do not expect the house to fall—but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing or all the other.” What would he say? That the Civil War didn’t end? What has it become? If women must travel thousands of miles for reproductive health care, abortion that is banned in their residential states, then how are we the “United” States? How are all people equal under the law?
Maybe not a civil war. War requires long marches, running, quick movement and and a lot of local natural resources that are also available.
In the last Civil War something like 80% of America remained ensconced in forest. Much of that forest was clear cut for wagon wheels, wagons, rifle stocks, etc. Now? There is essentially no forest to clear to make stuff.
Also, in the last Civil War ALL of the rifle manufacturing was in the north. Remington is now in the SOUTH (Georgia). Savage is all that remains in the north.
Also, to fight a Civil war we would need, today, a lot of fuel. Much of the refining capacity is in the south and their remains a fair bit of oil production in the south but nothing like it used to be or what it might be to support a "Civil War".
Lastly, look around at your fellow Americans?? They are not farm boys in the north and south who have spent their youth hunting, running, hauling hay and watermelons like in 1865.
They are fairly large Americans who have spent their days and evenings on youtube and watching the Kardashians.
There is a small minority of Americans who were on swim team or something in high school, or, very rarely today, are farm boys, that can still move quickly, etc., but the VAST, VAST majaority of Americans are 30 years old, 250 lbs and already have had one knee replacement.
So, don't look for a civil war.
INSTEAD: Look for someone to attempt to takover the US Army and apply their will through that channel.
He already tried that. Remember all the terrifying statements trump made; the tear gassing of American citizens while a US General walked along beside him. trump called them "his Generals". We are lucky to have General Milley at this time. But all that could turn quickly with another General.
In August 2020
America's most senior general, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley, told members of Congress that the military will not play a role in November's election and won't help settle any disputes if the results are contested.
"The Constitution and laws of the US and the states establish procedures for carrying out elections, and for resolving disputes over the outcome of elections ... I do not see the US military as part of this process," Milley said in a letter released on Friday responding to questions from two members of the House Armed Services Committee.
"In the event of a dispute over some aspect of the elections, by law U.S. courts and the U.S. Congress are required to resolve any disputes, not the U.S. Military," Milley added.
"I believe deeply in the principle of an apolitical U.S. military," Milley wrote.
July 2021 General Miley says: ""I want America to know that the United States military is an apolitical institution," he said. "It's really important to me that this department remain apolitical," Austin added. "And so we're going to do everything within our power to make sure that our troops, our leadership, both civilian and in military, remain focused on the task at hand and understand that they are not a part of the political apparatus there. "
November 2020
"Gen. Milley: 'We take an oath to the Constitution'
Barbara, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff is........
an appointed position as far as I know.
So, the next time a Republican wins the Presidency, look for a Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff to be selected by the Federalist Society for their willingness to do whatever the President tells them to do.
The chairman is nominated by the president for appointment from any of the regular components of the armed forces, and must be confirmed via majority vote by the Senate.
From the Auslander - this ruling has made the US a pariah State for much of the world. So much for "the light on the hill". On the positive note - it has made many countries go "whoops, we better enshrine woman's health in our constitutions". Sweden and a number of other countries seem to be doing this. Yes - it seems that the GOP/Christian right, want Gilead.
For icing on that cake, it also puts pressure on a lot of other governments in their battles with Christian fascists who want to outlaw abortion in their countries. Now said fascists can point at the 'world's oldest democracy' as an example
Stephen Douglas spoke of "personal liberty and personal freedom".
Maybe someone can explain to me the distinction between "freedom" and "liberty".
Meanwhile, I am left with the feeling that American politicians, the only people who, to my knowledge, use the two words in combination, are... drowning the fish... dissolving, weakening the force of the one concept.
It seems that, for Douglas and his ilk, every puddle, every pond must have a big, free fish like himself, while the small fry shall be free to be eaten.
*
Brecht --paradoxical poet if ever there was one -- wrote well of this.
His little piece is entitled "If Sharks were Men".
Plainly, Brecht's sharks were not ultra-right-libertarian American sharks who would certainly not "take care that the boxes always had fresh water, and in general they would make all kinds of sanitary arrangements. If, for example, a little fish were to injure a fin, it would immediately be bandaged, so that it would not die and be lost to the sharks before its time."
Another aspect to bear in mind:
"There would also be a religion, if sharks were men. It would preach that little fish only really begin to live properly in the sharks' stomachs."
*
One thing does emerge in my mind from this sad business: how, both in the perverse legal mind and, alas, in the general population, "virtual reality" has in the past three decades trumped the ordinary, everyday evidence of the senses -- what we always tended to perceive as life itself. So it is that a zygote -- a potential human life -- counts for far, far more than actual human lives.
They speak of LIFE, they fly the word as a banner, yet here is another of those great big words like GOD or LOVE that people bandy about without having a clue what they might really mean. Money and guns plainly matter so much more than lives... the flesh and blood of the living. As for black lives...
No. All too often, they speak of LIFE but value dust in shining whited sepulchers.
*
But I wonder now... will any readers understand what I have just written? Or what it implies...
I'm a rare bird, a kook, because I care about what we truly are, I care for the innate -- that great ocean within us, neglected, denied -- always in favor of all that we decidedly ARE NOT.
People are so fixated on fleeting appearances, seek truth in every direction save at home... The worst are those who claim to have found it...
I knew once you cranked it up, Peter, some little fishes could drown in your mind. It's wonderful to sail on your words. In the end. all the fish that entered you mind will safely swim away and, perhaps, think about what you have said. Thank you for 'If Sharks were Men" by Bertold Brecht. I hope subscribers will open the link or copy it. It's a splendid morning gift.
All are welcome, from Leviathan to plancton. And from albatross to penguin...
If only people could once again rise in a frenzy of applause and understanding as they did in that Roman theater when Terence's words were first pronounced:
"I am a man, I count nothing human foreign to me."
Peter, I can't take all this in right now - wondering where dolphins might fit in this analogy ... I hear they prevail over sharks - also, that dolphins, whales, and humans are the only creatures with no DNA determining they must die - does any of that resonate ...?
To ease our pain we cling to the "heaven" concept of some organized religions and stop attending to earth. When things and institutions get out of whack the center really does not hold!!
Ally, they certainly are entangled concepts, both historically and politically. I have found useful a distinction that David Hackett Fischer draws in his 2005 book, "Liberty and Freedom: A Visual History of America's Founding Ideas." He makes an extended analysis of the evolution of notions of liberty and freedom in colonial America and the early republic, but he starts with their linguistic and social origins. To oversimplify: "libertas" in Latin "meant unbounded, unrestricted, and released from restraint." Liberties were privileges acknowledged in Roman society; some people were "at liberty" more than others. Related to this were grants of special favors to particular individuals or groups, "privilegium" or "immunitas" [sound familiar?] Culturally it was assumed that such liberties brought with them obligations to act in wise and responsible ways, though as always such mores were often observed in the breach. Needless to say, one common set of liberties was being exempted from various taxes.
"Freedom" is derived from many similar root words in northern European languages, coalescing around rights of belonging to membership in a kinship or tribe of free people. "Rights" were specific "entitlements claimed as a matter of obligation . . . belonging to members of a particular folk." A member had sacred responsibilities to keep the customs of the folk and to respect the rights of others, on pain of banishment.
Fischer goes into much greater depth, but at their cores "freedom" centered on "a form of belonging and rights of connection to a community of free people," while "liberty" was an idea of separation and independence, entailing "an idea of hierarchy in the variable possession of privileges that might be given or taken away by a higher power."
I do not think there is any direct correspondence from these social-linguistic origins to contemporary usage--and indeed Fischer details developments and conflicts in early American political thought--but I do find suggestive hints about what might be behind whichever rhetorical flag various actors wave.
Here we are, back in an America "half slave and half free" and this time I cannot share Lincoln's expectation the Union would hold.
Last week on Tuesday, we saw the Establishment Clause of Article I attacked.
On Wednesday, the meaning of the Second Amendment was smashed.
On Thursday they assaulted the Fourth, Fifth, Sixth and Fourteenth Amendments and called the Warren Court criminal justice civil rights cases "prophylactic" law the court didn't have the right to create.
Friday they went after the "substantive due process justice" of the Fourteenth Amendment.
And next Thursday they go after the ability of the government to enforce the laws that are passed.
The marauding reactionaries of this illegitimate super-majority are now the Enemies of America.
Let’s talk about sex. And each of us better be very clear about what we think, what we accept as personal choice….or not.
Leigh McGowan, Politics Girl roared onto the scene yesterday with one of her kitchen rants. I look to her as a strong messaging personality for democracy.
Yesterday, I credit her with one of the best closing lines ever.
Here’s her link. Important listen. Under 2 minutes.
https://youtu.be/nZ5fZq2Rvw8
I have a good friend, smart lady, whose refrain is 'I am just one person, I can't make a difference.' Rather than find her a fainting couch, she is now my mission. I sent her this Politics Girl episode (thank you). Wish me luck. It's all about the ripple effect. Inform/support those around you and trust the message will multiply, right up to Election Day.
"I am only one, but still I am one. I cannot do everything, but still I can do something. And because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do the something I can do."
Edward Everett Hale
Than you for this; good medicine.
Thank you for this quote!!!
She alludes to what I have always found SO hypocritical. Republicans are all for "smaller government", but that is a lie. They want government to dictate to everybody how they should live their lives, AND the sex they can or can't have, ALL under the guise of their f***ed up version of Christianity. THAT is "smaller government"???
Religion is poison to civil society
Bruce: Yes x 1,000!!!
Bruce, it is intended for "small" minds.
Exactly, Bruce! They’re living large (on us) in the *Nation’s Capital*, inflicting their hateful, narrow, back-a$$wards thinking on We the People, All of us?!?!
Not small at all!
We should all be as outraged as Leigh McGowan. I want this to be capsulized, then crammed down the throats of Alito, Thomas, Gorsuch, Kavanaugh, Roberts and Barrett.
Particularly K and B.
The Handmaiden and the wannabe rapist, of course.
My goodness! Wouldn't they both be surprised to see themselves thus described. When I think about his lengthy cross-examination, with sworn witnesses, and her quick whisk through the pseudo-process..... same result in each case.
I can still see the chilling sneer on Kavanaugh's face when being questioned by Amy Klobuchar, and his sarcastic rejoinder regarding his drinking, asking her if she liked to drink. This was after Sen. Klobuchar shared that her father had suffered from alcoholism. We all saw his unbridled rage at being doubted, because his class standing at Yale was exemplary! I knew right then that he was temperamentally unfit for the bench, regardless of whether he had attacked Dr. Blasey Ford. As for Amy Coney Barrett, she'd display her deer-in-the-headlights frozen smile, no doubt the result of years of cult conditioning, especially when she was lying shamelessly.
Great closing line!!!!!! TY
She is, in my judgement....right on!!! Thank you Christine. Decided to do yoga, and walk instead of start my day with Heather and remain in awe and fear of our super backwards nation, ruled by a minority, felt by a majority....and it will hurt!!
Abortion is of course not a practical means of birth control, but shit happens and it is a teaching moment. As I have said before, planned parenthood will not do an abortion, without starting a person immediately on birth control of some sort and educate, educate, educate. There are so many variables, it is not black and white like the robes of the Supreme Court folks against their white faces (most of them). Medical concerns ONLY belong in the privacy and safety of a medical office. We are trained to care for these women and yes men, as they are the other half of the issue. Indeed they are, and there will be pain all around.
Maybe concentrate on the safety of kids in our schools who really wish to grow up, and not be dismembered by an assault rifle.
Above all, it seems to me that there are some huge pressing issues in our world to work on, to maintain life on this planet. Shouldn't that be the priority of the men in black?
Yes!
Yep. they do. Thanks for this link. They plan to do it in many ways and are at it already which is why I call them the party of death.
While doing voter registration in 1998 , I found myself at a gay pride celebration - a treasured souvenir which I still have is a button - One Can Only Do So Much - there is a line drawn through the word Only. Each one teach one & good luck to all of this in the disunited states where the long shot is capable of pulling out the win in the final stretch.
Thank you! Watched it and am now following her on twitter.
So should all Tweeters.
That is awesome. Thanks for posting it.
She nailed it, thanks for the link. The idea of having a sexually repressed evangelical fanatic in my bedroom or on my porch for that matter, (yes you can have sex on the porch), is way beyond anything I would find acceptable. Let this decision be the bridge too far, and let it be the beginning of the end of the repugnican party, I want to see them go howling off into the darkness where their screams only fall on deaf ears.
Yes.
Best. Message. Ever! Thanks so much, Christine.
I had been waiting to hear her reaction to the stench of the court last week. Her podcasts have been stellar lately. But when I saw this posted yesterday and listened, I sent it out immediately to my contact base and then I let Leigh McGowan know her rant is a grand slam.
It’s time to talk about sex. It doesn’t matter what adult age one is, what one does or does not practice. It is time to talk about in unfettered terms what we support in this time of 2022 and acknowledge that we hear the Gilead tone in their rulings and not hide from what they are saying they want to impose on us.
And let them know, well….let them know….you have lost your compass of justice. We hear but we will not abide. And by the way (optional comment of course….)We have removed the hands-free steering from the clown car and are derailing you. Go f*ck yourselves because you do not have my permission to do that to me and mine.
Salud, Lynell my sister!
Yes, yes, a thousand times yes!
Salute, Sister Christine!
(SA/HRUD is how you write "salud" in stenotype!)
I love PoliticsGirl!
This is a powerful 2 minutes!!! Thanks for the link!!!!!
I am always so happy you post Politics Girl rants. She always seems to sum up the moment. “How do you feel about sex? Because the republicans are out to F*CK YOU” should be our new conversation opener.
I agree, Michele. Depending on the recipient, we could substitute that word with "FUBAR"!
Oh, so very true! Thank you for sharing this! If I were not campaigning as a Democrat for Treasurer of my Republican county in which I live.... I would share this on Facebook! However, I have been told by a Republican friend that if I want to win this upcoming election I need to stay off of Facebook! Duhhhhhh!
Send it to NPA/Independent voters.
Salud!
Thanks for link. Yes, great expression of outrage and punchy punch line. We are being forced to comply with some crazy dogma and better come up with a strategy that’s more effective than the one we’ve been using to counter the immoral moralists.
"The marauding reactionaries of this illegitimate super-majority are now the Enemies of America."
In other words: Supreme Court justices are now paid lackey's of corporations and the Federalist Society (also a paid lackey of corporations) to crawl on their knees and do the bidding of a few very wealthy, white folks who are tired of having to worry about government regulation or the American voter.
Or consider anything but their own wants.
I wonder when the Supreme Court will rule that private property owned in Maine is to be confiscated and provided to "loyal patriots"??
Um...why Maine private property in particular...what have I missed?
Just a random northern state.
There must be a path to true justice somewhere within this farce of a judicial branch! In his speech, “Remaining Awake Through a Great Revolution,” — and the name of that speech is so significant — the noble and wise MLK articulated these exquisite words: “We shall overcome because the arc of the moral universe is long but it bends toward justice.” At this point in my life, TC, I simply have to believe in “remaining awake” and in keeping his pellucid vision at the forefront of my thoughts. After all, we are still a democratic nation … in spirit.
Ah, pellucid ~ translucently clear, a new word for me, Rowshan!! Thank you.
You’re most welcome! I discovered it during my dissertation and have loved it ever since.
Thanks. Still on the first cup. I was unable to get the word right in my head in order to even sound it out (I was muttering "peelicud; what the heck could that be").
Still on my first cup too and I had never even seen that word. I may have to use it. I always learn something here.
I am so glad I am here....I am sure I learn something new here every day that I sign in! That is a good thing!
time for that second cup!
😉
I don’t necessarily agree with the assertion about the arc bending toward justice, much though I admire the articulator. Just look at history.
Simply staying awake isn’t going to cut it in this country any more. It’s almost past time for action within “normal” channels, especially for women.
We can’t give up! I, for one, am too old to give up!
I’m also too old to give up, but I sure wish I still had the energy I had in my 20s. I get discouraged because I can’t get my children to understand where things are headed. They are from a generation that takes all these rights for granted because it’s all they’ve ever known, but I can remember how things were without them.
So true. I had a roommate back in 1971 who had to fly to New York to get an abortion. Dumb me, I mentioned this in a group of women whom at the time I didn't know were right to life proponents. Yikes, did I ever get a reaction.
I, too, had to fly to New York in 1972. My IUD was still in place, which I was told gave me a 50% chance of miscarrying,and I had been taking prescription meds for the first two months, which could affect fetal development and cause birth defects. I was married, but we’d recently gotten back together after a four month separation, and the marriage was still rocky. Do I regret having to make that choice? Yes. Do I regret the choice I made? No.
Rowshan, this is very well said! Also, this old Latin major thanks you for pellucid, a combination of per (through or thoroughly) and lux (light, hence, clear). ☺️
Thanks so much for the Latin roots, Camilla!
“Remaining Awake Through a Great Revolution” indeed! That is the most basic task we are called to right now. Thank you Rowshan for posting this.
these Justices think that only they know what is lawful, not any of the Justices before them. Such Hubris.
There is a casual cruelty to overturning Roe vs Wade while striking down gun regulations. Human life is not the value being protected. It’s all about power and putting women back in their place.
My state is run by a libertarian turned autocrat who routinely demands that “his” conservative majority legislature take even more extreme positions. Gilead is being constructed in front of our eyes.
Agree Diane Love. I choke on the laughable inconsistencies in the Republican talking points - and yet, they garner huge fan bases. Just like the true Republican platform has nothing to do with freedom, it’s supporters only value their own self-image, not humanity, and not justice. We need to stop engaging with their arguments as if they are meant to be logical or valid or to persuade. They are only meant as distractions and cudgels. We need to stop litigating and validating their inanities and pouring effort into winning arguments against ourselves, and start speaking clearly about the truths and likely outcomes Republicans will keep driving towards. PoliticsGirl (see above in this thread) is on the right track. When we say we need to “stop being nice,” it doesn’t mean we become them, and swerve into ad hominem attacks and try and bury the world in BS. It means we stop intellectualizing their fascism and start clearly articulating OUTCOMES that people struggle to imagine, but are in clear view if you follow “conservative” platforms. We need to become relentlessly clear about the dark, selfish, unjust place they are swiftly taking us, and what it says about us as human beings if we allow ourselves to be duped into paving the way.
I found this piece to be a wry & apt explanation of the GOP. It's a Twitter thread, but is retype as an essay at the bottom.
https://m.dailykos.com/stories/2022/6/13/2103841/-This-Ex-Republican-Just-Tweeted-The-Best-Thread-About-What-The-GOP-Is-About-Ever
Thanks, BetsyC! Excellent piece. Needs broadcasting!
Thanks for this link, Betsy. It really is that simple. Dems are too busy brainiac'ing. Now all that needs to be done is to cause our ideas to become their ideas. It's a concept that I learned for training horses. I tried it on my "opposition reflex" husband a few times and it worked!
Isn't reverse psychology great?! Wish the Democratic Party would try it.
"It means we stop intellectualizing their fascism and start clearly articulating OUTCOMES that people struggle to imagine, but are in clear view if you follow 'conservative' platforms."
This is what has bothered me all along, Craig. Hurray for intellectuals, but saying what the "clear OUTCOMES" are is what we need to do.
And this take........
Ron DeSantis and the Rise of Incoherent Folk Libertarianism
It’s not so much “Don’t Tread on Me” as it is “Only Tread on People and Things I Don’t Like.”
Read in The Daily Beast:
https://apple.news/AHynv0cw0QZC8j8OBfsjVZg
Good analysis though I’d prefer “fake” libertarian to
“Folk” libertarian. Freedom is a one way street to DeSantis. His way or no way.
I noted this, too: kids:guns. As if women have to provide fodder for men's guns! And I wonder: if we don't get equal protection, do we need to pay equal taxes? I hear the coffee in prison's not great - but Hey! I'm 95, and I could stick it out! L&B&L
I'm with you, Ida. I'm younger than you, but as I told my daughter this weekend, I know what I'm going to be doing for the rest of my life.
Hello Annie! My youngest daughter shares your name as did my mother and grandmother. I'm in CT not so far away. The rest of my life, I hope will be spent in this one room greenhouse w/eat in kitchen and two baths that I've made of a larger apartment, departing feet first if I'm lucky. They say the good die young so I guess I'm pretty baaaaaad!
My entertainment centers around my computer, from where I keep in touch with a few friends - not old ones: they're all dead - younger ones! And one of my six children is within yelling distance, two only a few minutes away, the others in Seattle, Manhattan, and on the Vineyard.
What ARE you going to do for the rest of your life? L&ı‡Ò
Diane, can Val Demmings win in FL? I am so hoping she does. 🙏🏼
There is a real chance and I’ve upped my monthly donations. Please support her if you can.
Thanks for your perspective about Demings. I had been donating to her campaign irregularly. With your hopeful message, I will add her to the list of my regulars.
And can someone defeat DeSantis?
Little hope of defeating DeSantis at this point. Our candidates aren’t strong enough and he throws just enough “favors” to the other side to keep us off balance. Overturning Roe v Wade could be an opening for Democrats if we can seize it.
You nailed it — who are the potential Democratic presidential candidates able to beat DeSantis in the present climate? I don't see them.
I see the Republican candidate, who if things go the way of democracy in Nov 2022, that can def beat DeSantis. Liz Cheney.
The goddamn heart button still doesn’t work, but I wanted to send you one❤️
His veto of the Everglades water discharge bill was a stroke of genius. Shaking my head.
He’s really good at this. Just when anger starts to boil over, be turns the heat down a bit. He’s truly dangerous.
Yes!
Diane Love, I agree. Vulnerability. It’s essentially about “Who gets protection from being vulnerable.” The gun craziness, at its core, defines an abhorrence of vulnerability. Gun owners and ammo junkies are arming themselves because they feel VULNERABLE. Yet women must accept being vulnerable. Irrationally, in the self-righteous, conservative mind, it’s “God’s Plan”, even though there is a Commandment, I believe that says “Thou shalt not kill”. Somehow that supposedly does not apply to the killing of someone entering your home to steal your flat screen, or walk in your neighborhood while black, or knock on your door while being black. But a woman must be okay with nine months plus of being vulnerable in the most intimate and all consuming way, because of ….why?……the “Sanctity of Life”? Gun sales, gun ownership and ammo-hoarding prove the true value they place on Life’s preciousness and sanctity”. “Conservatives” want to “end abortion”? It will NEVER happen. The reality of choosing abortion goes so way beyond “oops! I’m pregnant!” It is needed and necessary healthcare. “Conservatives” only impose more vulnerability, and by extension, cruelty, on women, forcing them to carry, and birth an unwanted pregnancy. But dooming them to vulnerability, while fortifying their own obscene, protective fortress-arsenal, is the self-righteous, ongoing farce we are left to mind-numbingly fight against.
". . . casual cruelty. . ." Exactly.
Carmen
just now
A super majority only in the court, installed by a radicalized minority
You have really tied it all together. Thank you.
TC, this is an excellent summary. I will quote you today, since I spent most of the previous 2 hours arguing with people in my head. You have allowed me to gather all of my bullet point, and some of yours, and put them into a magazine to use effectively.
Paul Krugman has a great title for his book of columns" "Arguing with Zombies."
I will have to remember how you have put this, Ally. I let one person have it yesterday and he said I had left him speechless (obviously, I hadn't) and then told me to take a nap whereupon he got it again. Haven't looked at Facebook today, so don't know if he has to have the last word. Good thing he wasn't actually right in front of me because I would have certainly been tempted....
I'm gonna start something on Facebook today, I think. I've not gone there...yet.
I'll be looking for it.
If you want what I said in greater detail, go check That's Another Fine Mess for the past weekend.
I will quote you today, too, TC!
With the judicial coup orchestrated by Mitch McConnell and conservative Republicans, we are now living in the TRA: Theocratic Republic of America.
Just now, the Court issued a new proclamation: Prayer and religious indoctrination in public schools is fully supported by the government.
There is no end in sight unless we register more voters to increase the Democrat's Senate and House majorities so President Biden can expand the Court.
The two-faced, double tongued corpse of Puritanism has been re-animated and now populates the whackdoodle religious far right.
I am strongly against forced public prayer in school...for one thing, freedom to practice one's own religion was a basic right. That was one of the founding principles.
If a school wants to devote a few moments to silent prayer or meditation...that would be fine...but that is not, I fear, what the "marauding reactionaries have in mind"* (*thanks for the phrase, TCinLA)
I am now pretty conversant with the arguments the justices used - the Alito trunk of the tree, and the branches - the two concurrences, and the magnificent, if poignant, single dissent.
I have gained through the powerful analyses of numerous others in articles and in podcasts what I could not have on my own - an understanding of the shoddy cherry-picked historical references, the arrogant self-referencing of Thomas in his citations, and so forth. The great legal minds are picking this clean.
What I do understand is how shattered the Supreme Court. It is, of course, a court of men (generic sense), and we are all flawed. But any illusion I held that the Court operates in studied, scholarly neutrality is now gone. I will miss my naïveté- it was comforting.
Alito changed almost nothing of significance from the leaked document. He did not water it down, nor did he use the arguments shredding it in the interim between the leak and the final version to bolster his own case for the majority. To me that shows the deep arrogance that intelligent people often hold.
Thomas’ concurrence at least has the virtue of an honest warning. They are coming for most of the important jurisprudence that is neither originality nor deeply rooted in American tradition. So Roe is merely the first giant oak to tumble. Most of the other laws that deal with intimate human conduct are merely waiting for the axe. I say “most” because, in stunning but unsurprising self-interest, Thomas overlooked Loving v Virginia, the case that permitted interracial marriage. I guess Ginni might not have been chuffed had that completely similar law been teed up for the axe to fall.
It seems that Roberts’ “concurrence” was an act of personal pique showing that he knows this is not his Court any longer. “You didn’t need to this far”, he said, perhaps trying to play the long game of regaining (eventually) personal power through swing vote status. Judicially, this was a concurrence that seems to be personal rather than scholarly - and thus rather a waste of paper.
I save Kavanaugh’s concurrence for the last, for he seems to me to be the most contemptible and dishonest figure on the court. His is a “Don’t worry. Be happy. Everything else is going to be just fine” document. Kavanaugh has always struck me at bottom as a man of low self-esteem who more than anything else in life wants to be liked. He has about him a forced affability, but it is a strain to maintain it and he lashes out under pressure. He is the least qualified to be on the SC and I doubt whether he has much respect even amongst his allies in the Tribe of Six.
Finally the dissent. It was a cri de coeur, more personal I gather than most Supreme Court writings are and more biting as well. Thank God for it. This is a lonely call in the dark for justice, exquisitely suited to the mood of the nation. It must be a bitter moment though for Breyer who will exit the Court with the majority of the other justices seemingly calling out in derision, “Don’t let the door slam behind you.”
There will be a group photo of course with all the judges smiling. Some will even mean it.
And their work is not done. We have a tough week ahead with more unsurprising balls and strikes to be called.
What a struggle lies ahead for America to regain a legitimate claim on democracy and in the process, its standing in the world. As a Canadian, I am praying for a miracle. If your country crashes, ours might not be far behind.
Go read Alito's warning about "prophylactic rules" in Vega, issued on Thursday. "A violtion of Miranda is not a violation of the Fifth Amendment" and he wants to go after Gideon, Mapp, and the rest of the criminal justice rules.
What a nightmare. I’m not at all sure of this “prophylactic rules” and connection to criminal Justice. But with today’s ruling on prayer, the United States is being toppled from its constitutional foundation of prudent rules and common sense.
It is a heartache.
Go here and find out about "prophylactic rules"
https://tcinla757.substack.com/p/its-been-a-helluva-week-and-there
Thanks TC.
From article: "In using the power of the federal government to guarantee “the equal protection of the laws,” it made sure that a small pool of voters couldn’t strip rights from their neighbors. It is this effort today’s Supreme Court is gutting."
We already have a "small pool of voters" - a minority aka the Senate - stripping away our rights. Now we have a cabal of religious fanatics, six misogynists drunk on power and fueled by hatred and hubris, stripping away our rights. And as you have listed the laundry list of their planned assault, let us not forget that John Cornyn has tweeted an intent to go after Brown v Board of Education. There is no end to their assault on this democracy and the freedoms of our people. None.
The Cornyn tweet was at first shocking. Then I realized he did us a favor — once and for all he stripped off the facade to reveal the monsters besieging the nation. In other words, the shi*t got REAL.
Thank you for this report, TC.
Eugene Robinson of the Washington Post calls it like it is:
"It's not a court. It's a junta."
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/27/supreme-court-roe-abortion-christians/?utm_campaign=wp_follow_eugene_robinson&utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter&wpisrc=nl_eugenerobinson&carta-url=https%3A%2F%2Fs2.washingtonpost.com%2Fcar-ln-tr%2F37381ee%2F62ba1db1cfe8a21601c5aa25%2F596d9b23ae7e8a1845f9cd5a%2F6%2F25%2F62ba1db1cfe8a21601c5aa25&wp_cu=171d4a332a93408e1a7465c77de06058%7C4754FCDDA9A921AAE0530100007FDAF4
And today they are narrowing the separation between church and state......using the high school football field.
Everybody knows the "jockstraps" need extra "moral edumacation." Most of them also need brains.
In the 1800s and now, despite the lofty language, it's about nothing more than seizing raw power to make money and subjugate people. Are we in the midst of a coup masquerading as the highest court merely do its job?
⌛️🤯
Wondering how Rusty Bowers, Brad Raffensperger and Bill Barr can discuss tfg’s threats, stupid ideas, physical intimidation and such, and then say “Yeah, I’d vote for him again.”
Mind numbing and controlling religion. And the bogeyman of "abortion". They support TFG because of his politically motivated, opportunistic and newly found "pro-life" position. Devilishly clever he is.
They conveniently forget that until recently, TFG was a pro-choice Democrat who hung out with Hillary, Chuck and Nancy. A chameleon, a con man, a constant liar with nothing but power and money as goals. He was created by his father - a monster still trying to prove he can be as tough and ruthless as his dead dad. But "religious" people worship him. Go figure.
And what is so bizarre to me is how "pro-life" only seems to apply to a fetus. Apparently the life of the young woman who was raped or coerced into sex has no value. The lives of hundreds of thousands lost to Covid because TFG didn't want to count the number of cases and deaths ("If we don't test, the numbers won't be there!") - they seem to have no meaning, no value in their single minded twisted religion.
That "old time religion" is the American Taliban. For twenty years we fought them in Afghanistan. We could have saved a lot of money and lives - and improved America - if we had put the energy into fighting them here. Instead we ignored the Federalist Society and the Oligarchs who funded it. We let them sneak up on us and then steam roll right over our freedom, common sense and democracy.
The answer to your question is that superstitious Americans were weaponized by the uber rich to stay rich and the rest of us are just "mudsills".
I can imagine the angst that the Fat Man is kept awake at night by: oh those poor little babies suffering in their mom’s wombs. These men all are so full of shit!
In one sense, if you can imagine that the rumor that trump is connected to the russian mob is true, and knowing Putin’s greatest victory is to implode the USA, you could not pick a better controversial figure than trump. And you could not pick a better pair of arguments to split and weaken the American voting public. They are “scissor arguments” I heard them once described. They perfectly split people, cut them apart. The adherence to either side of the gun rights / abortion arguments hold boatloads of hypocrisy, such that friendships, and families are strained to the breaking point, sh*t loads of money can be dependably made off the möbius strip arguments on social media & MSM. The citizenry are distracted at best, and unable at worst, to attend to nuanced policy needs to strengthen our institutions. And trump keeps the tweets coming, the headlines embroiled, the supporters cha-chinging, and the gop genuflecting, while the Ship of Democracy weathers these roiling seas, leaking and taking on water each day. And Putin laughs, and flips us the nuclear weapons threat, knowing only we have gone that route before. Only we have used weapons of mass destruction. We are being masterfully played.
👍👍👍👍
I am haunted by Bowers belief that the Constitution was divinely inspired. I was deeply troubled by the op-Ed NC Senator Burr wrote about the US being founded on Christian principles but divine inspiration? This religious fervor is frightening, and as a long time Sunday School teacher I don’t understand where these people get their ideas.
That's part and parcel of the work of promoting the Constitution as an object of worship, an inscribed table of stone, rather than a guide to the spirit of the country's laws.
Why worship? With the people's faces to the ground and their posteriors raised, they won't notice what's happening when said Constitution is gutted and the country's returned to a variation on that which existed under the Articles of Confederation.
Exactly! Worship the holy document, no need to read it with comprehension.
The Mormon Guide to the Scriptures states that the Constitution "was divinely inspired in order to prepare the way for the restoration of the gospel." https://ldsblogs.com/9547/what-do-mormons-believe-about-the-constitution
Whoa.
I agree that hearing Bowers assign divine inspiration to the Constitution is unsettling! In fact, I was struck by the professions of faith of other witnesses too. Greg Jacob made a point of it. As did Brad Raffensburger, and Marc Short.
Jacob said he pulled out his bible when they were in the “secure area” (it was a loading dock), just how many people do you know that carry around a bible with them wherever they go? Those people inhabit a different world than the one I live in, and frankly I don’t want them anywhere near mine.
I live in the south. People do carry them around and even keep them on their desks at work. I’m fine with that as long as they also follow Jesus’s message to love one another, not when they use it as a tool of judgment and righteousness.
I wonder if the J6 Committee was happy to have those professions of faith in order to appeal to Rs or Independents or Evangelicals to take the witnesses seriously.
This was done deliberately to reach the Evangelical base.
He’s a Mormon, plain and simple, I have known people of all manner of religious stripes, Buddhists,Hindus, Jews, all manner of Protestants, as well as Catholics, (I was raised a Catholic), the Mormons inhabit a unique space, they are not part of the above community, they are insular, only do business with each other if at all possible, and have a rigidity that was clearly evident in Rusty Bowers demeanor at the committee hearing and was manifest by his acknowledgement that he would vote for that insipid imbecile all over again in spite of what he personally had experienced, it was like he had a steel rod up his ass that made it impossible to bend in the slightest, you could see it in his pained answers. They are lunatics with power.
Mormonism is an American invention. It is a revealed faith tradition from writing found, literally, on American soil. They believe whatever their leadership tells them and leadership can change what they believe whenever they want. When Mormons were refused admission as a State due to polygamy, a divine revelation revealed polygamy was to be ended as a faith tradition. Blacks could be Mormons, but not Bishops or in leadership, which essentially declared Blacks to be lesser human beings than whites. Then another divine revelation came forth....
Kind of like where Qanon is heading: to become a religion.
Says the guy with insider information and profited from it…
The Constitution being divinely inspired is a tenant of the Mormon faith tradition. And it is wholly ironic that Mormons ignore a piece of The Bill of Rights. The First Amendment the rest of us read states quite clearly that the State shall make no law abridging or forbidding one to practice their religion--or no religion. The Mormons don't agree with the "no religion" aspect of the First Amendment while loving the first part of that sentence.
The Constitution is definitely not "divinely inspired" if one reads the minutes of the Constitutional Convention, the Federalist Papers and letters/biographies of the men who wrote it.
Simple.
Trump, or a sycophant, promises a future ruled by straight, white, male, Christians.
That’s his prime attraction.
Then, I am becoming a fan of lesbian black women.
Yep!
Sounds like Germany c 1930s
BINGO!
Because they are really saying they will vote for the candidate put forward. And the plan is not Trump. Their plan has always been Pence. Who is the best bet to keep the evangelical base. They are scrambling and creating theater regarding DeSantis to figure out how he fits.
Pull back the lens to wide angle and you will see Putin embracing the Orthodox Patriarch and all around the frame murder in Ukraine and again, again!, Stalin-style, hate driven theft of their food as millions there starve to death. In a dark corner you see Trump and Putin huddling in a long private, unrecorded conversation.
❤️
🤮 is all I can say to this, Christine. DeathSantis is just that....death. Pence, too.
Christine, good morning.
I agree, DeSantis is their hero of choice.
I overheard 2 older ladies in the produce section say that DeSantis reminds them of Kennedy. Handsome and honest. All I can say is Kennedy was a good looking man. Other than that, I do think that is how they market DeSantis. Family man, nice smile and puts him in envious backdrops for photo ops. Let's face it, it was what the Democrats did with Kennedy. They fabricated Camelot.
I am also seeing more DeSantis flags.
Hi Linda, I keep returning to those earlier DeSantis ads trying to ride the Trump wave Any couple willing to exploit their infant child--( used the baby as a prop, really,--by covering the child with the tfg's name) is suspect in my mind. Their ambition blinds them both. He has grown fat and sweaty as he climbs the ladder of his hubris- not to mention more bizarre in his actions. Whatever shred of public service is left in politics is being suffocated by the need to win. "Image" (constructed along certain lines) has become a huge part of that in our society. Fabrication, indeed.
Admirably expressed, Carol.
But DeSantis is a perfect product of the Big Bad Wolf party that ate Grandma then dressed up in her nightcap and gown.
Those big smiling teeth, All The Better To Eat You With, my dears...
Exactly... the wolf in sheep's clothing.
Carol, I completely agree.
I feel there is very little public service left in today's Political climate.
Yes. Let’s get it back.
I hoping people will be more aware of what happens in the backrooms now. I thought it was interesting to hear that overturning Roe v Wade was a complete surprise to some people.
I feel there is none!
My Democrat husband keeps telling me that DeSantis is far less dangerous than Trump. I disagree.
Tell your husband that your are right as rain.
He’s really very inexperienced politics wise. Plus he keeps getting sweatier and more doughy. He is smart but gets irritated easily. Some dummy will think to have him as Pence’s running mate.
If things go the way of democracy in Nov 2022, then Cheney will be on the ticket somewhere in 2024. I think it would be very creative to see her run with a Dem or Independent.
If we do the work now correctly, focused, with correct intent, we stand a good chance of really mixing it up to get back on track in an inclusive fashion.
Salud my friend, Linda! Love chatting with you!!!!
Where’s Daria? Did I miss her over weekend?
The hardcore Trump base would never accept Pence. Not long ago they were ready to hang him.
The core base of the Republican Party loves him. Make no mistake. And if the hard cores are told to love him, they will.
Good point.
They must know Pence will never win the presidency. Beware of Kristi Norm and Nikki Haley.
Michael
To the GOP, Pence is a traitor who "didn't do his job" to overturn the election.
And DeSantis. He is ruthless and sly.
Maybe I'm kidding myself, but unless DeSantis develops a softer broader appeal, he will be seen by independents as Trump 2.0.
Of course prognosticating in this charged environment is a fool's errand.
But this "polite" coup can be stopped — if women turn out like never before and the Democrats finally get across the message to everyone that Social Security, Medicare, and legally established rights (gay marriage and ubiquitous access to birth control, for example) are under dire threat.
Also, we can't underestimate what Republicans will do to disrupt voting in Blue metro strongholds. They will use intimidation and chaos.
I tend to agree with you about DeSantis and Independents. He also lacks charisma and has a short fuse.
It’s all out there now thanks bigly to SCOTUS. Scott’s Rescue( NOT!) Plan is the real deal. He who controls the $$$$ flow. A new t-shirt slogan..🤔
Trying to prognosticate positively in Florida. The struggle is real !!
DeSantis: Mussolini without charisma.
Like followers of Jim Jones. A cult. Hypocrisy. Fooling themselves.
Money.
That's where the money is.
I was also aghast at Bowers statement about the “wonderful things tfg had done for the country”. Does anyone know what he was talking about? I for one was traumatized daily by tfg - maybe bcuz I’m CDN and find the 24/7 political coverage overwhelming. ?
He was talking about the decisions handed down this past week - he likes them.
Giant tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations. Massive deregulation on industry. Extraction of oil and timber on federal/national park land.
I know! So crass! How is that wonderful? I was having nightmares for four years!
Wonderful for Bowers--he said he thought Trump had done a good job before the pandemic, and these are some of the items why he'll vote for him again. Responding to someone's comment asking what Trump "accomplished."
Because they agree with this shit. This is why they voted for him.
IMHO. While the Republicans testifying (and on the J6 Committee?) will act out of conscience and patriotism (don't cheat to win, don't do an obvious coup), they are not abandoning the Movement Conservative plan to return (or make up losses) in the states in this nation to a Christian nation under God's Dominion. Until the 1960s evangelical Christians really thought they were on the way to making the Bible, apple pie, fourth of July, lassiz faire capitalism, and the war between good and the lesser (read here poor, lazy, black) clearly controlled from their pulpits.
I believe they’re afraid to say they won’t vote for him, afraid for their lives! That’s the country we live in now.
I for one will never vote for the insipid imbecilic insufferable slime bag asshole that once was our president, and who we voted out of office and lost the election big time.
Bowers rescinded that comment, saying he is looking for alternatives (paraphrase). Guess we witnessed a conversion right there on t.v.
They believe in white male supremacy and want to be in the party that tells others what they can and can't do (referencing the twitter thread by Ethan Grey)
😳😱😳
🤑🤑🤑
2 are running for office. BB is just a bitter old slime ball like Trump. Desperate for relevance like Rudy. He stays firmly in the Republican camp or he will have no social standing and might actually have to confront his own decisions to help keep Trump in office for two more years was wrong. BB and Trump are never wrong.
Mussolini ha sempre ragione!
Fascist slogan:
Mussolini is always right!
And, as we have seen with Our Orangepeel Lord and with bossman in the Kremlin, the leader is never more right than when he's wrong.
I am thinking they are covering their butts on this one, trying to sideline the haters and in some cases keep their voters happy.
Citizens of the United States of America the majority opinion of the justices on the Supreme Court responsible for abolishing a constitutional right repeatedly let us know their opinion of us. They wrote quote, “We cannot allow our decisions to be affected by any extraneous influences such as concern about the public’s reaction to our work.” We are 'extraneous'. They are taking our rights away because we are 'extraneous'. Can we change their minds about that?
Unfortunately, we can’t vote them out of the Supreme Court. But, like AOC is suggesting, the last three appointees should be impeached, as they lied under oath at their confirmation hearings.
https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/aoc-impeach-supreme-court-justices-lied-under-oath-1374447/amp/
"It is interesting to note that the Constitution does not specify the number of justices that there should be on the Supreme Court. The text also does not specify term limits or that the positions last until a person’s death or retirement. Instead, article 3 only says that the Supreme Court judges are required to hold their offices in “good behaviour,” which implies that a judge could be removed for unlawful activity. It is also important to note that while a key power of the Supreme Court is judicial review (assessing the constitutional validity of legislation), this was not granted in the Constitution. The Supreme Court was granted this power in 1803 after Marbury v. Madison."
Judicial Learning Center
Barbara M -- "It is also important to note that while a key power of the Supreme Court is judicial review"
“𝘐𝘵 𝘪𝘴 𝘦𝘮𝘱𝘩𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘷𝘪𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘥𝘶𝘵𝘺 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘑𝘶𝘥𝘪𝘤𝘪𝘢𝘭 𝘋𝘦𝘱𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘵𝘰 𝘴𝘢𝘺 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘭𝘢𝘸 𝘪𝘴…𝘐𝘧 𝘵𝘸𝘰 𝘭𝘢𝘸𝘴 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘧𝘭𝘪𝘤𝘵 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘦𝘢𝘤𝘩 𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳, 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘊𝘰𝘶𝘳𝘵𝘴 𝘮𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘥𝘦𝘤𝘪𝘥𝘦 𝘰𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘰𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘰𝘧 𝘦𝘢𝘤𝘩. 𝘚𝘰, 𝘪𝘧 𝘢 𝘭𝘢𝘸 𝘣𝘦 𝘪𝘯 𝘰𝘱𝘱𝘰𝘴𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘊𝘰𝘯𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘵𝘶𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯… 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘊𝘰𝘶𝘳𝘵 𝘮𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘥𝘦𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘦 𝘸𝘩𝘪𝘤𝘩 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘴𝘦 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘧𝘭𝘪𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘳𝘶𝘭𝘦𝘴 𝘨𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘯𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘤𝘢𝘴𝘦. 𝘛𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘪𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺 𝘦𝘴𝘴𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘫𝘶𝘥𝘪𝘤𝘪𝘢𝘭 𝘥𝘶𝘵𝘺.” --Chief Justice Marshall, Marbury v. Madison, 1803
https://judiciallearningcenter.org/the-power-of-judicial-review/
I wasn't talking about that. I was responding to AOC's talking about impeachment. That is why I deliberately chose the section I did.
Still an important point however.
As it relates to impeachment of Supreme Court Justices I fail to see that it applies.
Yes, but...Biden refuses to expand the number of Appellate Courts and put his judges on them, and refuses to expand the number of seats on the Supreme Court and put his judges on them (over the Senate's objections, if needed). That's where Biden's age and years in the Senate are hindering democracy--not just Democrats--he is handing the country over to the Republicans and SCOTUS with both hands.
How long would you anticipate that this process might take? And how many additional justices would need to be appointed to balance the SCOTUS? 3? 4? I suspect Biden refuses to tackle this path because it is impractical and would further entrench party divisions. If the coins were flipped (the Republicans had the SC minority but held the presidency and were proposing this type of change), I doubt any Democrat legislator would support it
At this point, Biden couldn't do anything prior to the election. The number of seats on the SCOTUS bench correlates to the Appellate Courts. These have been backlogged for years, and could have been expanded immediately and filled with Democratically-appointed, actually qualified judges immediately (12 months or less with prior planning). Biden did immediately start filling open judgeships, but did not do anything else the Progressives were pushing for.
Once the Appellate Courts were higher in number, Biden could have expanded the number of SCOTUS seats, one at a time--maybe getting 1 seated because the Senate would once again refuse to hold hearings and one can only hope Biden/Democrats learned to ride roughshod for a change.
Biden is a Senate institutionalist, and still thinks he's playing in pretty much the same pea patch he did for decades in the Senate. But he's totally immovable on any changes to the courts after his decades on the Judiciary Committee. His statement that he will make no changes now is pragmatic; the time to act is past.
Makes even more sense than my suggestion.
100% agree Rose.
Thanks, Barbara!
👍🏼
Thanks for this elucidating excerpt, Barbara.
👍🏼
If only impeachment were still a matter of justice, rather than hostage to the openly fascist, dark money politicians.
The fascists spread lies, hide the facts, take our wealth and our rights away as they turn us against one another. Corrupting language -- the meaning of words is a facet of propaganda. Their corruption invades everything as it misleads the people. We are battling on all fronts and need to draft all the people we know to join the campaign for democracy. Making the appropriate demands of the free-press and contributing to its survival is part of our role as engaged citizens. Democracy must have a robust free-press because Americans need to know what is happening in our country, who is misleading them and who is working on our behalf.
Free press? Corporate shills.
I've lost my adult hometown paper to Gatehouse. My hometown paper growing up remains independent....for now. 66% of my local TV stations are owned by Sinclair. Almost all of the local radio stations are either Sinclair or Cumulus.
Ally, It helps to know the difference between media outlets and news organizations whose reporters and news departments employ journalistic standards. I am in a rush, but on another occasion I will provide links, which detail such information. The New York Times, WAPO, Atlantic Magazine, The New Yorker, Politico, Vox and others provide solid, journalistically based articles, series, etc. No newspaper, magazine, etc., is completely perfect or to everyone's taste but these are very worthwhile sources of news and investigative reports. The fact that many are corporate owned or owned by a single individual does not translate into being a 'corporate shill'.
Just basing that on my consumption of local journalism; I shell out money for NYT, WP, The Atlantic, The New Yorker, and some others to keep informed. It is local journalism that has been the backbone of journalism in this country. I mourn its demise.
England’s The Guardian does a good job too!
If I may jump in here. The main stream media is nothing but Corporate shills. But like Dr. Richardson's fabulous LFAA I like to believe the real Free Press is alive and well in America. Unfortunately most Americans settle for their sound bites while getting ready or in the car.
If you check Notes, at the end of HCR's Letters you will find how much she relies on the sources, which I have mentioned and others.
Saw it coming years ago, the propaganda ramps up
This is such a well said call to action Fern. Thanks for this.
Thank you, Barbara. You are always offer support as you call us to action. Salud.
Deport Rupert and jail Frank Luntz
They didn't lie, a lawyer pointed out to me.
All claimed Roe was settled law, affirmed/upheld more than once. They DID NOT state they would uphold Roe.
They all claimed to respect precedent--Gorsuch even bragged about writing a book about it!--they DID NOT state they would not overturn precedent.
They were very carefully coached to be sure they did not lie under oath.
I must agree with you. After my earlier posting, I heard an NPR segment that basically explained what you state.
Manchin et al will scupper that idea
Impeachment is a nice dream. We couldn't even rid ourselves of Trump that way.
Such extraneous may now cause some of "them" to become expendable, Eh!?
…what about disgraced expats trying to make the best of it in Hungary?
The must be impeached.
🙋🏽🙋🏼♀️🙋🏽♂️🙋🏽♀️
Yep. 🙋🏻🙋🏼🙋🏽🙋🏾🙋🏿
I hope you will soon write about The influence of Opus Dei and The Federalist Society on our Supreme Court and USA Civil Rights law. Having lived in Italy from 1976 to 2002, I have witnessed the irrigue and power plays that Opus Dei wields. It’s about time the public knows what’s going on. BTW: they loathe Pope Francis and his progressive Christian tendencies.
Of course they do, since they are Fascists. Opus Dei was founded to support Franco.
Never knew that
Octopus Dei.
(Apologies to higher molluscs.)
La Piovra by another name.
Our very own remake of Mussolini's thought police, called OVRA... commonly known as La Piovra, the great Octopus with a tentacle in every household, in every office, on every street...
Thank you so much - I am deeply concerned about my friends who are wonderful Christians, generous, kind and faithful - who are believing lies and liars. I am also a Christian but I am willing to stand alone rather than accept a "mob" mentality,
I distinguish between Christian’s and Pharisees, big diff
I have the same problem. Some profess to faithfully follow the Bible; when asked how to justify the hatred and violence motivated by tfg, they spin their Bible interpretations to dizzying magnitudes. I am having a very hard time remaining friends with these CiNOs (Christians In Name Only)!!!
Good lord, scary
Yes. Scary. I am shocked since returning to the USA to realize Opus Day is more strategically coordinated here than in Europe. They got what they want and now we have to claw our way back out of a very deep and very slippery hole in the mud.
Oops ….don’t you love spell check? Opus Dei
Excellent comparison.
🤣🤣🤣
The best Pope in years!
But he rejoices today, as we divide even more
I looked up Opus Dei because I wasn't aware of it. So here is a Wikipedia overview for other people too:
"Opus Dei, formally known as the Prelature of the Holy Cross and Opus Dei (Latin: Praelatura Sanctae Crucis et Operis Dei), is an institution of the Catholic Church.
The majority of its membership are lay people; the remainder are secular priests under the governance of a prelate elected by specific members and appointed by the Pope. Opus Dei is Latin for "Work of God"; hence the organization is often referred to by members and supporters as the Work. As of 2018, there were 95,318 members of the Prelature: 93,203 lay persons and 2,115 priests. About 70% of Opus Dei members live in their private homes, leading family lives with secular careers, while the other 30% are celibate, of whom the majority live in Opus Dei centers. Aside from their personal charity and social work, Opus Dei members organize training in Catholic spirituality applied to daily life; members are involved in running universities, university residences, schools, publishing houses, hospitals, and technical and agricultural training centers."
A note on Opus Dei
The fundamental motivation of sanctifying work and the activities of daily life is surely unexceptionable. It has, after all, been a central aspect of Judaism since the destruction of the Temple. The problem perhaps lies in how it has all too often been put into practice as a political tool: politics informing the practice of religion rather than a spiritual motivation informing political life. Power is so easily deviated, especially at this very essential level. What should be medicine becomes poison. A passion for the Church itself ousts and replaces the deeper commitment which the institution exists to serve. Pride takes over and upstages all else…
I’ll admit to having been surprised by this accelerated canonization, even at the hands of a Pope deeply and painfully familiar with the techniques of infiltration, subversion and domination used by totalitarian regimes, both Hitler’s and Stalin’s; a Pope who so mass-produced saints as to make canonization into a well-nigh industrial phenomenon.
I, who am not a Catholic, reacted to this particular canonization by saying to myself, this man’s intellectual qualities are so much in evidence, one ruled by the head, an organization man—yet if the heart came into it, that was not much in evidence. So it was that I reacted at the time by saying to myself “I didn’t know that canonization was the Church’s Order of Lenin…”
It may be that my skeptical interpretation is, as Fern suggests, a mere projection, the product of a “wicked” mind. And it is certainly not for me to judge. Now, I don’t really care about people’s affiliations political, philosophical, religious, what concerns me is their quality as human beings and how this shines forth in their lives. (Meanwhile, most of my own life has exemplified how-not-to, much trial, more error…) Still… have we not all seen priests whose lives have been ravaged by their membership of the priesthood, no longer able to serve their fellow men, only to drown in their own wretchedness? And then I could only wonder, what did their hierarchy do TO them, what did prelates and fellow clergy do FOR them?
Likewise, if I look back on men guided by a plainly pure heart, I’m bound to remember one outstanding case; a young Communist, a Public Health Inspector; in other words, one close to life as it’s lived… How he developed subsequently, who knows?
*
The more “conservative” members of the Supreme Court do not come across as rounded human beings but rather as chess pieces at the service of a cause, a pawn, a bishop, perhaps even a knight. Whatever the cause may be, it is not Justice.
Perhaps, as in Poland, a psychotic leader’s notion of Law and Justice…
Unfettered power in religious hands is to be feared by us all. History has enough proof
Order of Lenin. That's very apt in the longest-running totalitarian state in history - the Catholic Church.
Not sure it's the longest running -- Egypt? -- but it is the continuation of one important aspect of the Roman Empire...
And now, my mind keeps taking me back to a dreadful episode: the Nika riots...
Dear Peter,
Thank You for such an intelligent and sensitive comment. I know that on the surface Opus Dei is a perfect life style for saintly behavior. I dare not scoff at those who strive to such heights. But I know that underneath there is something afoot that is not transparent. The coincidences of who is where , regarding this rather secret group, alarms me. By the way, I am a gay Catholic man. Ergo……. I question.
It's also important to be aware of Justice Barrett's affiliation with People of Praise
https://apple.news/AfKx66V9ISOqF6cEI2ZUoqg
Whew! Why hasn't this been made more public?
Thank you for doing that. I was stumbling along (coffee was brewing) and trying to recall what I knew of Opus Dei.
p.s. I now have coffee
Shades of Dan Brown novels for sure. Enjoy the coffee.
And Phillip Hanssen was a member. It has been said that he admitted that some of the priests knew about his espionage. I don't know how true that is. But it is no surprise to me that a traitor to the United States belonged to this organization.
A quicker description is Christo-Fascist Stormtroopers.
Knew only vaguely, had no idea of the influence.
Today. I attended a memorial for a dear friend who suddenly died at a restaurant. She was picking up dinner for she and her husband after returning from their trip to a beach. She paid for the meal and then fainted, hitting her head on the floor. She later passed away. My friend was about 5 years younger than me. She and I met in 1974 at Planned Parenthood where we were volunteers. We both stayed for years and in that time period, we developed a great relationship. She is the third of my girlfriends who I have lost in 2 years. All of them were strong advocates of women’s rights and the rights of all people. I tell you this story because my generation is now seeming to leave this earth and it’s my lifelong goal to make certain my daughters and your children, nieces and nephews, grandchildren, will be protected from these evil forces called white people with the exception of Clarence Thomas who thinks he’s white. As HRC so brilliantly pointed out, the 14th Amendment is being challenged by the illegitimate court. The only way we, the people, can make changes is to demand term limits for those in Congress and on the Supreme Court. In this day and age, there is no way that I want my tax dollars supporting white supremacists for a lifetime!
Marlene, Your loss of friends touched me and I believe many here The simpatico and spirit of friends bolster our ability to cope and contribute to others. Your firm commitment to your family, to ours and to compatriots around the U.S. is a model as for your pluck -- yes! Thank you, friend.
Thank you so much, Fern. Your words mean a lot to me. 💞
You are a dear subscriber friend, Marlene. I always look for your light. Salud! F.
As I do, for yours.
One move closer, please accept my hug.
I'm so sorry you have lost so many of your compatriots in the past two years. Losing those lights in this world makes it dimmer for all of us.
Yes, Ally, I feel that way also. One friend was in her 50’s, the one who recently passed, 65, and my best friend, 70, my age. We feel young.
I’m 64…
A youngster
And tRump still breathes. Dick Cheney too, for that matter
Hopefully, Chump will be breathing only sewage soon.
Thanks so much, Spooky.
Dr. Richardson, I have noted a shift in the tone of your nightly epistles over the past few months. I found your letters hopeful and positive after Biden’s election.
But the realization that the stacking of a multigenerational extremist Supreme Court will open the door to the exact behaviors Lincoln warned us about. Tyranny of the minority is at hand, aided and abetted by rogue band of legislators and a complicit judiciary.
Lately your letters have become more urgent, a clarion call for decent and honest people to resist. You have gone from intellectual neutralist to an activist. I applaud this shift!
By framing our current political situation in historical context, you do a great service to all of us. You’re telling us , “Do not imagine that these times are the worst ever. We’ve been here before, and came through it a better nation.”
Thank you for doing this!
Definitely the case.
from the dissent...
“The majority has overruled Roe and Casey for one and only one reason: because it has always despised them, and now it has the votes to discard them.”
“ When the majority says that we must read our foundational charter as viewed at the time of ratification (except that we may also check it against the Dark Ages), it consigns women to second-class citizenship.”
Politics Girl has a powerful video about this.
Found it. 30 mins - my dinner is cooked - I'll be back after a short meal break.
That's obligatory viewing. Every moment of it. This zinger right at the end: "Why should our rights be decided by the findings of a small unelected group of clearly dishonest political operatives"?
Alexandra Petri's piece this week "We must protect life from the moment of conception until birth!" https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/24/supreme-court-protect-life-conception-birth-satire/
Thanks for this link! So good.
Thanks for the link! Can’t wait to read it!
Thank you for this. It is so wrenchingly true.
Darn firewall - I can't view it.
❤️
❤️
❤️
I have been going on for some time about the great French philosopher Condorcet who in fact translated and made a study of the US Constitution -- which I must read...
Apart from deep opposition to slavery and, like his distinguished predecessor Montesquieu, his ridiculing of racist notions of black inferiority, Condorcet came out clearly for the granting of equal rights to women : just one of his ideas that proved far too advanced for his contemporaries in America; and, alas, for many of our own benighted contemporaries.
Here's Condorcet "On the Admission of Women to the Rights of Citizenship," July 1790 -- https://revolution.chnm.org/d/292
And here's another item on his relations with Jefferson, Franklin and other leaders of the American revolution: https://ugapress.manifoldapp.org/read/the-french-enlightenment-in-america-essays-on-the-times-of-the-founding-fathers/section/d18e63db-06fc-4084-83e0-783d451cf0b2
The forces pushing the anti choice agenda aren't being led by people guided by the Constitution, they're religious zealots blinded by narrow-minded personal beliefs.
Ironically, these are the same people who constantly rail against the similarly minded narrow-minded zealots running the show in much of the Mideast.
As the dumbing down of America continues.
“Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.”
-- George Carlin
Wish I had appreciated George more…
Check out the recent documentary about George Carlin. So much of what he said still applies.
Loved him
Same
Ain’t that the truth??!!
duh?
Like, yeah, man.
I am not "new" to this group really as I have been reading all of your comments for probably a year now. I was afraid that should I begin commenting I will find myself here much more than I should, not that it's a bad thing but, the rabbit hole feels like it is widening every day. The events of the last week or so though (and the rage I feel) have prompted me to change that so, here we go. This feels like the most educated and thoughtful group of those I read (by far) though and I thank you all in advance for staying the course and helping me get through this difficult time with you. I have many thoughts built up but will try to stretch them out so as not to over-do it. I also apologize in advance for any ill remarks as I feel I have reached a breaking point as I am like many of you almost 70 and the idea that we would now be literally fighting to save our country (internally) from the very forces (externally) that our/my parents fought and gave their lives for is simply unthinkable.
After reading the good professor's post for today and the move of current GOP members to return to states rights as they have done many times over the years and in this case are now using it as cover for their long-laid wicked plan to extinguish a woman's control of her own reproductive rights, note how it is always selective and hypocritical as they want it only for some things but not others. Well, personally I am done with that. As HCR points out that Lincoln said, "It will become all one thing or all the other".
One cannot stand on the unilateral control of a woman's rights in a state (and many other similar issues as you wish) and then turn around and take billions of (our) federal dollars to support your own unsustainable habits all the while using those dollars as a cudgel to slash our throats and thumb your nose at us while taking it. Moscow Mitch has been doing it forever as just one state example. An article on states rights I have always thought so very pertinent is the one linked below that says it much better than I can. It is now 5 yrs old but, the underlying points seem more appropriate than ever. It's slow to start but bear with it and I am betting this group will like it.
https://newrepublic.com/article/140948/bluexit-blue-states-exit-trump-red-america
I will stop here for now and try to ease into the flow. BTW I have no idea what name it signed me up as. It may even be the email address since I have been using it to read for so long and it didn't give me an option to provide a login name. Will try to correct it if it is. Thanks again for all your thoughts during this time. There are almost no outlets for such direct dialog as this in my community so I come here and read. HCR is a Godsend. I am hoping that mainstream begins picking up more on her so her work gets more and more exposure and out to those that need to hear / read this even more than we do.
Thanks for your thoughts, BK, and for the Kevin Baker essay... Funny how his thesis that we not split the red and blue states into two countries, but just stop Federal funding that overwhelming supports the red states, seems naive 5 years later... which shows the power that the openly fascist politicians, and the Supreme Court, have gained since ТЯцм₽ was in the White House.
Thanks for the post, BK. Today I re-subscribed today to HCR as a paid monthly subscriber after taking a few months off due in part to my personal over-commitment to reading every comment.
You wrote: "BTW I have no idea what name it signed me up as." You can change the name that appears on your posts by left-clicking the "hamburger" next to your user profile image in the right-hand corner of the web page. Then select the top-most button (which has your name, email, and image. Press the Edit button and you will be able to change your Name and Bio, and make a few other adjustments.
I like the idea of "pay the price for your abhorrent views." If the folks in Kentucky or Alabama decide to refuse a woman's right to the health care she needs or to supporting the 14th Amendment or believe tfg won, withhold that portion of federal support that comes from states that do not hold such whacky attitudes as determined by their voting? Why should New York pay for the disaster caused by Texas policies that avoid federal regulations on electric system or for the health care in Mississippi? You live in a state where liberal ideas are drubbed and you loose the share of federal dollars that come from our afflent liberal economies. Probably wouldn't be workable, but the idea of running these up the legal system to drive the stupidier-than-stupids who populate confederate statehouses might be worth it. The slogan: "You want me to send you my federal tax dollar to pay for the problem <entered here> your state created? Hah!"
Welcome BK!
Thanks, BK. I like the link, and I welcome you to the commenting world (I'm a full year into this myself at this point).
It's also from this amendment that we derive "substantive due process," which has been the penumbra under which rights like the following have been held to exist by necessary implication: rights of parent and child, the rights of unrestricted travel among states, the right of privacy, the rights of consenting adults to have intimate relations outside marriage or with the same sex (or opposite, or both), the right of privacy between doctor, pharmacist and patient to obtain contraceptive medications and devices, the right of couples of different skin color to intermarry, the rights of same-sex couples to marry.
This is the substantive due process that Clarence Thomas - after nearly 160 years of precedent that he thinks is egregiously incorrect - now wants to reverse as a follow-up to Dobbs' reversal of the right to reproductive choice including abortion.
He's fully comfortable with the cabal referenced by Professor Cox leading and dictating to the rest of us what policy at every turn should be - will of the majority be damned.
Steve, how can CT possibly miss the point that his very marriage is protected by due process?????? Unless, unless, unless.....this is how he plans to jettison the problematic spouse???
Maybe instead of precedent he relies on the legal doctrine called hypocrisy [insert sarcasm emoji].
point well taken.
Wait for it: “But choosing your voters to make sure the results will be what you want is a different kettle of fish altogether.”
...which has been the long game of the Rethugs for decades - sadly well-played and successful in many places, while Dems sat back and ... did what? Argued, voted for third party or hopeless candidates, refused to vote at all? 🤷🏻♀️
The real issue is why did the Republicans have a few wealthy and politically determined minds who gathered to create an aggressive strategy to win their desires, but the Democrats could not, still cannot, find the wealthy, and politically determined minds to mount a counterattack of the same caliber, even when the game is plain to see.
As I said to another attendee at a fundraiser for a Democratic female candidate for county commissioner yesterday when the issue of Repubs success and Dems losses came up, it's like herding cats vs a UNITED strong one-voice party.
Some did, I can truthfully say, not all.
Accurate assessment since, I dunno, the mid 70's at least.
Yup
As a good friend of mine said the other day: “Once again, America, welcome to Mississippi.” This court is bent on restoring us to oligarchy.
Thank you Heather. Your writing gives me hope every day. Some days it is a little less uplifting than I would choose but that is the lesson of life - you don't get to have it your way all the time. Should I blame Burger King? Would Mr. Eastman take my case? Should I ask him? I love your insight and history "lessons" that apply to current events. I look back at the education I received in the public school system of Los Angeles in the 60's and 70's and realize so much of the information I was given was far more important than I could have ever dreamed of at the time. Thank you for helping me to be pulled back into a more useful orbit. My only dilemma is figuring out how I can make a difference. I am a voice which is loud at times. but pretty much insignificant on its own unless you are a person that loves me. However, if I join with likeminded voices, we can be excruciatingly loud. I just have to figure out how to do that. Thanks for waking me up. Dmitri
Being loud here in HCR's community is a good start, Dmitri!
Every day, it seems, the divide between “North and South” is widening. Maybe or maybe not a civil war but red and blue and purple states. Lincoln: “I do not expect the Union to be dissolved—I do not expect the house to fall—but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing or all the other.” What would he say? That the Civil War didn’t end? What has it become? If women must travel thousands of miles for reproductive health care, abortion that is banned in their residential states, then how are we the “United” States? How are all people equal under the law?
Irenie,
Maybe not a civil war. War requires long marches, running, quick movement and and a lot of local natural resources that are also available.
In the last Civil War something like 80% of America remained ensconced in forest. Much of that forest was clear cut for wagon wheels, wagons, rifle stocks, etc. Now? There is essentially no forest to clear to make stuff.
Also, in the last Civil War ALL of the rifle manufacturing was in the north. Remington is now in the SOUTH (Georgia). Savage is all that remains in the north.
Also, to fight a Civil war we would need, today, a lot of fuel. Much of the refining capacity is in the south and their remains a fair bit of oil production in the south but nothing like it used to be or what it might be to support a "Civil War".
Lastly, look around at your fellow Americans?? They are not farm boys in the north and south who have spent their youth hunting, running, hauling hay and watermelons like in 1865.
They are fairly large Americans who have spent their days and evenings on youtube and watching the Kardashians.
There is a small minority of Americans who were on swim team or something in high school, or, very rarely today, are farm boys, that can still move quickly, etc., but the VAST, VAST majaority of Americans are 30 years old, 250 lbs and already have had one knee replacement.
So, don't look for a civil war.
INSTEAD: Look for someone to attempt to takover the US Army and apply their will through that channel.
He already tried that. Remember all the terrifying statements trump made; the tear gassing of American citizens while a US General walked along beside him. trump called them "his Generals". We are lucky to have General Milley at this time. But all that could turn quickly with another General.
In August 2020
America's most senior general, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley, told members of Congress that the military will not play a role in November's election and won't help settle any disputes if the results are contested.
"The Constitution and laws of the US and the states establish procedures for carrying out elections, and for resolving disputes over the outcome of elections ... I do not see the US military as part of this process," Milley said in a letter released on Friday responding to questions from two members of the House Armed Services Committee.
"In the event of a dispute over some aspect of the elections, by law U.S. courts and the U.S. Congress are required to resolve any disputes, not the U.S. Military," Milley added.
"I believe deeply in the principle of an apolitical U.S. military," Milley wrote.
July 2021 General Miley says: ""I want America to know that the United States military is an apolitical institution," he said. "It's really important to me that this department remain apolitical," Austin added. "And so we're going to do everything within our power to make sure that our troops, our leadership, both civilian and in military, remain focused on the task at hand and understand that they are not a part of the political apparatus there. "
November 2020
"Gen. Milley: 'We take an oath to the Constitution'
Barbara, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff is........
an appointed position as far as I know.
So, the next time a Republican wins the Presidency, look for a Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff to be selected by the Federalist Society for their willingness to do whatever the President tells them to do.
The chairman is nominated by the president for appointment from any of the regular components of the armed forces, and must be confirmed via majority vote by the Senate.
Sigh.
TBH mthe general who walked with Rump in that odious display WAS Milley. Though he later mea culpa'd that lapse in judgement
I know who marched with trump.
Last night I read this insightful look into how the country is evolving into blue and red nation states. Fascinating. It's not where I want to live.
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2022/06/red-and-blue-state-divide-is-growing-michael-podhorzer-newsletter/661377/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=atlantic-weekly-newsletter&utm_content=20220626&silverid=%25%25RECIPIENT_ID%25%25&utm_term=This%20Week%20on%20TheAtlanticcom
From the Auslander - this ruling has made the US a pariah State for much of the world. So much for "the light on the hill". On the positive note - it has made many countries go "whoops, we better enshrine woman's health in our constitutions". Sweden and a number of other countries seem to be doing this. Yes - it seems that the GOP/Christian right, want Gilead.
White, male, cisgendered, heterosexual, Christian men in charge where they belong.
American exceptionalism, my left butt cheek.
As Reagan intended
For icing on that cake, it also puts pressure on a lot of other governments in their battles with Christian fascists who want to outlaw abortion in their countries. Now said fascists can point at the 'world's oldest democracy' as an example
A footnote:
Stephen Douglas spoke of "personal liberty and personal freedom".
Maybe someone can explain to me the distinction between "freedom" and "liberty".
Meanwhile, I am left with the feeling that American politicians, the only people who, to my knowledge, use the two words in combination, are... drowning the fish... dissolving, weakening the force of the one concept.
It seems that, for Douglas and his ilk, every puddle, every pond must have a big, free fish like himself, while the small fry shall be free to be eaten.
*
Brecht --paradoxical poet if ever there was one -- wrote well of this.
His little piece is entitled "If Sharks were Men".
A parable for our times...
Do you think, perhaps, Peter, that we the people have become like fish out of water?
Good question... for which sharks' digestive juices hold one conclusive answer.
"Originalism" is quite wondrously perverse...
An acid bath in which to dissolve that inconveniently massive body politic... and all the human rights in which it has clothed itself...
I hope SCOTUS doesn't hire you as a consultant. You have a wicked imagination, Peter.
Here's Brecht's piece:
http://www.pamolson.org/ArtSharksMen.htm
Plainly, Brecht's sharks were not ultra-right-libertarian American sharks who would certainly not "take care that the boxes always had fresh water, and in general they would make all kinds of sanitary arrangements. If, for example, a little fish were to injure a fin, it would immediately be bandaged, so that it would not die and be lost to the sharks before its time."
Another aspect to bear in mind:
"There would also be a religion, if sharks were men. It would preach that little fish only really begin to live properly in the sharks' stomachs."
*
One thing does emerge in my mind from this sad business: how, both in the perverse legal mind and, alas, in the general population, "virtual reality" has in the past three decades trumped the ordinary, everyday evidence of the senses -- what we always tended to perceive as life itself. So it is that a zygote -- a potential human life -- counts for far, far more than actual human lives.
They speak of LIFE, they fly the word as a banner, yet here is another of those great big words like GOD or LOVE that people bandy about without having a clue what they might really mean. Money and guns plainly matter so much more than lives... the flesh and blood of the living. As for black lives...
No. All too often, they speak of LIFE but value dust in shining whited sepulchers.
*
But I wonder now... will any readers understand what I have just written? Or what it implies...
I'm a rare bird, a kook, because I care about what we truly are, I care for the innate -- that great ocean within us, neglected, denied -- always in favor of all that we decidedly ARE NOT.
People are so fixated on fleeting appearances, seek truth in every direction save at home... The worst are those who claim to have found it...
I knew once you cranked it up, Peter, some little fishes could drown in your mind. It's wonderful to sail on your words. In the end. all the fish that entered you mind will safely swim away and, perhaps, think about what you have said. Thank you for 'If Sharks were Men" by Bertold Brecht. I hope subscribers will open the link or copy it. It's a splendid morning gift.
Thank you, Fern.
All are welcome, from Leviathan to plancton. And from albatross to penguin...
If only people could once again rise in a frenzy of applause and understanding as they did in that Roman theater when Terence's words were first pronounced:
"I am a man, I count nothing human foreign to me."
Better, of course, in the original...
“The worst are those who claim to have found it.” Describes zygote warriors to a tee, the most self-righteous are the most evil…
Pro- birth not pro-life.
Peter, I can't take all this in right now - wondering where dolphins might fit in this analogy ... I hear they prevail over sharks - also, that dolphins, whales, and humans are the only creatures with no DNA determining they must die - does any of that resonate ...?
Resonate?
As so often, what you wrote resonated but, apart from being fascinated by dolphins since I was a kid, I couldn't respond to it.
Someone just brought me back to this weird conversation, which I'd forgotten. Deadly serious, behind the banter.
Men can be so much worse than any other terrestrial creature. Can be unnatural. And worse still:
CONTRA NATURAM.
To ease our pain we cling to the "heaven" concept of some organized religions and stop attending to earth. When things and institutions get out of whack the center really does not hold!!
👍🏼
what you've written rings true to me.
Wicked, as in wicked smart or just wicked?
Yes
I think sometimes he's the former but, perhaps, mostly the latter.
Fortunately - or not - women sharks don't participate in this narrative. Is that by design?
Lynell, The shark lark is one that Peter took from Brecht. You'll have to consult them. I'm a plant trying to learn what I can. Please keep in touch.
Okay, Fern...morning!
Peter Burnett -- "Brecht --paradoxical poet if ever there was one -- wrote well of this."
Wow! "𝘐𝘧 𝘴𝘩𝘢𝘳𝘬𝘴 𝘸𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘮𝘦𝘯,” 𝘔𝘳. 𝘒𝘦𝘶𝘯𝘦𝘳 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘢𝘴𝘬𝘦𝘥 𝘣𝘺 𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘭𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘭𝘢𝘥𝘺’𝘴 𝘭𝘪𝘵𝘵𝘭𝘦 𝘨𝘪𝘳𝘭, '𝘸𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘣𝘦 𝘯𝘪𝘤𝘦𝘳 𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘭𝘪𝘵𝘵𝘭𝘦 𝘧𝘪𝘴𝘩𝘦𝘴?'"
Text and Youtube video: https://prruk.org/if-sharks-were-men/
Per Merriam-Webster:
Freedom: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/freedom
Liberty: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/liberty
Interestingly, the definition of Liberty is based upon the definitions established in the definition of Free: "the quality or state of being free."
Ally, they certainly are entangled concepts, both historically and politically. I have found useful a distinction that David Hackett Fischer draws in his 2005 book, "Liberty and Freedom: A Visual History of America's Founding Ideas." He makes an extended analysis of the evolution of notions of liberty and freedom in colonial America and the early republic, but he starts with their linguistic and social origins. To oversimplify: "libertas" in Latin "meant unbounded, unrestricted, and released from restraint." Liberties were privileges acknowledged in Roman society; some people were "at liberty" more than others. Related to this were grants of special favors to particular individuals or groups, "privilegium" or "immunitas" [sound familiar?] Culturally it was assumed that such liberties brought with them obligations to act in wise and responsible ways, though as always such mores were often observed in the breach. Needless to say, one common set of liberties was being exempted from various taxes.
"Freedom" is derived from many similar root words in northern European languages, coalescing around rights of belonging to membership in a kinship or tribe of free people. "Rights" were specific "entitlements claimed as a matter of obligation . . . belonging to members of a particular folk." A member had sacred responsibilities to keep the customs of the folk and to respect the rights of others, on pain of banishment.
Fischer goes into much greater depth, but at their cores "freedom" centered on "a form of belonging and rights of connection to a community of free people," while "liberty" was an idea of separation and independence, entailing "an idea of hierarchy in the variable possession of privileges that might be given or taken away by a higher power."
I do not think there is any direct correspondence from these social-linguistic origins to contemporary usage--and indeed Fischer details developments and conflicts in early American political thought--but I do find suggestive hints about what might be behind whichever rhetorical flag various actors wave.