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.
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?