Isn’t this rogue court engaged in a quasi coup? It’s stripping down the country, reducing it to a vague semblance of what it once was. And very soon, the anything-but-conservative six wrecking-ball justices will make federal elections a farce of democracy.
They’re endangering the planet and every life by ignoring existential climate change, giving government control over women’s bodies, and carving up democracy so it slowly bleeds out.
".... the anything-but-conservative six wrecking- ball justices...." Exactly. Then why still headlines like this in the Washington Post: "Voting patterns in major rulings of 2022 reflect conservative ascendance"? Why are they STILL calling these anti-democratic radicals "conservatives"?
“Conservative ascendancy”?????? They are steamrolling our democracy! Right wing zealots. This is where the “mainstream” press has failed all of us. Do you listen to Amy Goodman and Democracy Now? Only one of the very few credible news sources….
Amy Goodman was just given an Honorary Doctorate of Letters from Ithaca College, along with my son, Jeffrey White who is Creative Director for Industrial Light and Magic. She was to sit next to my hubby at the trustee dinner and he was so excited. But as it turned out she couldn't make the ceremony. However she did send a wonderful video of who she is and what she does. I felt very honored, as did my son, that he and she were picked this year for this special honor, and for them both to speak at the Commencement. I do listen to "Democracy Now," and it is very factual and straightforward as opposed to the many opinionated "entertainment" news shows of today.
Hope it's ok to give our son, and Amy a plug in this venue.
Good things do happen in the midst of all the craziness. :)
Also, I feel that so many in the generations to come will bring this country to their senses and turn things back to making America thoughtful, decent and safe again. But its our responsibility to help that happen. All those who read Heather, our guiding light, are on the same path, and that is powerful!!
SO true, Barb, I have hope for the future generations if some of this generation don’t ruin it to oblivion. Many are very intelligent, and ready and rarin’ to go. Congratulations to Amy and Jeff! Well earned. There HAS to be hope.
Democracy Now rarely if ever acknowledges good work being done by good Democrats, thus contributing to the false narrative that both sides suck and voting doesn't matter. If you ever try to register voters, you'll hear those excuses a lot.
Not mutually exclusive: the truth that both sides suck AND the truth that currently, the Democratic party does less trampling in individual rights.
I’ve been doing a lot of voter registration as I tried to get on the ballot for Congress in the newly-gerrymandered CD 10 in NY (machine Democrats and Republicans are equally guilty of anti-democratic gerrymandering btw; look at NY CD 7 in 2010 and 2021 if you want an egregious example).
The canard that we can not be critical of what legitimately deserves critique because of the “worse than” option is strangling meaningful dissent. It takes time yo have these conversations and urge people to register, but I gave away 1 Bengali, 30 Chinese, 20 Spanish, 4 Korean, and 50 English voter reg forms in Tompkins Square Park the past few weeks, and a couple neighbors stopped me later and said they’d mailed them in!
Laura, it's hard right now to remember that meaningful dissent -- on the left -- is still vital to a democracy. But you are correct and I appreciate the reminder.
It’s time to stop talking about “progressive” Democrats and “moderate” Democrats. From now to November there are only Democrats and Republicans, those who love democracy and those who disdain it. All other divisions only play into the hands of the anti-democrats.
Do Joe Manchin and Kristen Sinema love democracy? I don’t see any evidence of that when they cling to the very undemocratic filibuster rule that has in fact hobbled the more honorable intentions of this president.
Agree and I am so tired of this. I hear about "establishment" Democrats as if they are some kind of pariahs. I sense that a few of the far left progressives here in Salem may be getting it, but there are still those who brag about their disdain of most Ds.
We are teetering on the edge of a completed coup d'etat against the United States. Playing the Progressives versus Moderates card is a fatal play for Democracy. Wake up.
More than ten years ago, Amy Goodman came to Skidmore College to deliver the keynote speech at the International Women's Writing Guild Summer Conference. She arrived with a couple of assistants, and spent the afternoon speaking with several of the attendees. That night, at the evening's symposium, Amy stood before us and for nearly an hour, delivered a riveting, impassioned speech about the necessity for and the role of a free press, colloquially known as a "fourth estate" in the USA. Among the many remarkable things she said that night, one really resonated with me. It was this:
"What the nation needs is a Fourth Estate, not a "For-the-State."
Amen to that. When her speech ended, everyone rose in applause and cheers. Goodman's a national treasure.
They should be called the American Taliban! And, the laser focus on getting them out of government should be priority #1 . . . . starting with the DOJ stepping up and indicting, trying, and convicting these criminals. We need someone at the helm who can play hardball. Honest to God, when are the democrats actually going to stand up to this horror show. This is not the time to be timid or hand wringing - use whatever tools are available; or like the repugs create new tools! The rule of law is a powerful, legal weapon, use it!!!
Yesterday I saw a tweet, (along with HCR’s tweet about the Supreme Court going Rogue) that pretty much said that:
Breaking: U.S. Supreme Court Justices, Thomas, Roberts, Barrett, Kavanaugh, Gosuch and Alito have demanded that we no longer refer to them as “Judges.” They have officially changed their title to “Ayatollah.”
And Mitch McConnell should be included in the indicting! He has continued to create this state we are currently in! He is clever to continue to avoid being jailed for the rest of his life!
And, his wife . . . Elaine Chao, a Chinese immigrant, who benefitted from everything this country has to offer including a top shelf education and government positions of power and who ultimately sold her soul. To remain married to the evil that is McConnell says it all. There is no rationale except power and a total lack of ethics and a moral compass. Hillary Clinton might have had an easier political life had she divorced Bill; particularly before her own presidential run. As we have done time and time again, we have overlooked the abysmal behavior of men in power which has been no more apparent than those on the insanity train of trump and the radical right. I'm going out on a limb but, I'm hoping at some point, the surname of "trump" is retired and fades from genealogy and becomes a pariah of future generations. They have had a propensity to reproduce so it may not happen for awhile!
The problem is that the dems are using every tool available. They probably should have used them a long time ago, but it wouldn’t have been any easier even then.
It is frustrating that crazy, crafty, and evil people eventually win. They don't play by the rules and we certainly see this with brutal dictators. We can't continue to use "knives at a gunfight". At the very least we need to stop "requesting" people testify and jail those who refuse to respond to subpoenas and start moving ASAP with indictments, trials, and sentences of trump and his criminal cabal. There is an overwhelming amount of evidence and the tool of rule of law must be invoked now. Otherwise, law abiding people are continuously flinging themselves against the proverbial wall and they will give up (the other side also has the guns which is a powerful deterrent).
Yes, that is true but as Heather has said that would be really hard to prove. They can and will say they didn’t lie at the time but that they they changed their minds!
I don’t disagree with you, but . . . I really think that if we took a “take no prisoners” approach, we would be encouraging a real shooting war. These guys have been itching to re-visit the Civil War on behalf of the Old South forever. You could start with “Birth of a Ntaion” if nothing else . . . And there is more than that as a marker.
If we shy away from following the rule of law and indicting people because we're afraid that a "shooting war" will begin, then we truly are lost and they accomplish (with or without guns) a totalitarian government. It is a dark time to be living in the U.S. but that is exactly the time that people need to stand up and "make good trouble". A democracy does not just "happen" . . . . it takes good, brave, conscientious people to move this country forward. While I'm personally pessimistic and mad as hell right now, I cannot allow myself to think this is the end. My adult kids, on the other hand, have been saying we're doomed for the rest of their lives. Even if we can wiggle out this political madness, climate change isn't stopping!
For the first time, I am truly feeling hopeless and unnerved! Worse than my lowest point under tfg. Yes, Michael, they MUST be stopped, but how?
To my mind, the Supreme Court was an almost hallowed institution. It has now become a dishonorable, polluted morass subjugated by five of the most depraved and dishonest white men and one unscrupulous, white woman. How much lower can justices of this court system go towards the complete destruction of our democracy as we know it?
“And yet,” as Heather has so poignantly concluded, “here we are.”
"Although the grant of review in the North Carolina case is concerning, I do not share the dire views of many commentators. Why? Because even if the Supreme Court rules that state courts can no longer review the constitutionality of state legislative actions in federal elections, federal courts can still review those actions. I will write on this subject in future editions, but at the moment, I don’t believe the predictions of doom are warranted—and I think everyone should take a deep breath and compose themselves."
My life lesson in resisting being too tired to do something... I was invited to play string quartets one Friday evening at the end of two weeks of flat-out schedules. I was so tired but my friend said come you'll enjoy it. I said yes. That evening my friend had his Stradivarius violin at home. It was usually with a up and coming concert artist. So I had the incredible opportunity to play on this incredible instrument for the entire evening. I would have missed this rare and exquisite opportunity if I had decided I was too tired. I vowed never to be too tired!
Never "too tired" for making music. When I was working, I had a particularly awful call (primary officer on scene of a law enforcement suicide whose wife was also a cop; both were friends of mine from another agency). I was working overnights, got up at about 4:00 p.m. and had a phone message that a college friend had died (later also determined to be an intentional suicide).
I had marching band rehearsal that night, and was exhausted. I went anyway, and really felt so much better at the end of it.
I just think of those exhausted soldiers under George Washington and the unnamed or remembered women who dared to fight against British tyranny. Also a few double espressos doesn't hurt. They want to wear us down. I will not be intimated by any one of the traitors or their hench (wo)men.
II don't know about British tyranny as much as businessman frustrated for paying taxes without any representation in British Parliament. As colonists, they wanted to be treated on equal footing as their counterparts in Great Britain
Enlist and support our youth (who are full of energy) to make positive changes in response to heinous rulings that will affect them the most, too many to mention, but most existentially, climate action and guns. Then there is the assault on bodily autonomy and the mind ("re-education" in the name of anti-CRT and anti-LGBTi is already underway in many states). The time is now to support and join with our youth to ensure a better future for them and the world. We must persist!
A friend of mine here grew up in Texas. Her mother, a lifelong Texan, recently moved to California, then made the trip to visit my friend here in Europe. She declared "when people ask where I'm from I just say California." Which made me think of that song.
Thank you, Hope. I have been an election worker since TFG. Now I am running for Treasurer of my County in Indiana. I would have never dreamed that I would be doing this. I am so determined to win in this Republican County!
I just checked and I don't qualify I am much too old. I was born in 1943 but still have a lot to give to the party and my service! Just not enough years left apparently. I have a daughter 60 and one 45 and neither one of them would qualify!
No I haven't. Ellie, I have never done this before. I have no idea what I should do. I am working fundraisers and attending public gatherings wearing my campaign shirt. I have purchased signs and my big expense besides door to door will be a couple of expensive billboards. It appears that I am really going to need this job as Treasurer because of the increase in the cost of utilities in my area.
Right and that also depends on the ethics and morality of each of the circuit courts. Some have already proven themselves in some cases, but many with Moscow Mitch appointees can still upend things.
Ellie, I write in response to the foregoing excerpt from Robert’s Newsletter, wherein he states, “…federal courts can still review those actions.” Were that to happen, the dispute ultimately would reach the Supreme Court that already had ruled.
Considering the North Carolina case lays the groundwork for precisely the kind of power grab that Trump and his cronies were trying to pull off in 2020, I see no recourse but for the President to act while our party still controls both Houses. This would involve exerting unprecedented pressure to exempt the filibuster and call for an up or down majority vote to add 4 justices to the High Court. I say 4 because in 1789 there were 6 federal circuit courts and 6 justices, one assigned to each. Today there are 13 federal circuit courts but only 9 justices, an imbalance, several have argued, that has reduced the number of cases the High Court can hear.
You forgot the one heinous black man. No doubt Joe B regrets his yes vote for Clarence. As Joy Reid reported yesterday. Clarence was quoted as saying that liberals had made his life hell for 43 years and he was going to make their life hell for 43 more. He is the useful tool that will do just that, with Ginni’s help
A former boss of mine--an abusive supervisor and truly dreadful human being, used to brag about her husband, an old college friend of Thomas' testifying that Anita Hill harbored a secret crush on Clarence and was just a woman scorned. It was the bro code in action and clear indication that some better-off black people are perfectly happy to throw other, less-powerful black people under the bus. Look at the "Jack and Jill Club," of wealthy black people, which for years rejected membership applicants who couldn't pass the infamous 'paper bag test' of skin tone. Clarence, who majored in dormitory pot smoking at Assumption College, clearly doesn't give a damn how many black people he hurts to get his revenge on liberals.
Perhaps if Thomas were not so "emotionally challenged" he would not have sexually harassed Anita Hill, thereby attracting to himself so much negative opinion during his confirmation hearings. And perhaps he would have seen that liberals are people who are in large part compassionate towards their fellow human beings, wanting to do what is right for the majority of citizens and to "lift all boats" with the tide of history. Clarence, it's not "liberals" who made your life hell, it's YOU. And by the way, the carnage you are doing with your radical, anti-democracy, antediluvian rulings will damage the entire country and world, which, last time we checked, contained quite a few non-liberals...as well as the children and grandchildren of radical Republicans. At this point, no amount of money or power or revenge enjoyed by petty, emotionally damaged, selfish Republicans like you, Clarence, (and Moscow Mitch,) will save or protect the younger generation of children and grandchildren of Republicans being raised in this world you disrespect and destroy with such juvenile satisfaction. You need professional help from a good therapist, Clarence, not revenge.
Thank you, Pensa! If they cared about and could see anything beyond the tip of their prejudice against everyone who doesn't believe as they do, they might worry or respond to criticism about how they're damaging so many things. But they don't care. Even so, I like your idea and it can't hurt to show them how many people think they're in a narrow, dangerous, hateful world of their own. Amazing that all of the Republicans on this frankly evil, far, far right Supreme Court know they are writing irrational, legally stupid and often conflicting opinions just to destroy all the laws they've been dying to change. That means they do not respect the Supreme Court at all. They only care about inhaling every Supreme Court opinion, no matter how settled, that offends their "off the charts" fascist beliefs. Never thought of this before now. But I wonder how much they are being paid individually to destroy democracy? Or do they do it for just a pat on the head from the Koch Brothers, the Mercers, the DeVos Family, Moscow Mitch, Kevin McCarthy and Vladimir Putin?
Sounds like he is as revengeful as TFG. Nice... we might need a revolution to clean out the swamp. Let's see what our justice system does about terrorists in our government.
He is a small, weak and vindictive man who enjoys his position of black mascot for the political right. Consider how he was nominated. Thurgood Marshall had died and Poppy Bush went looking around for a black jurist who was also a conservative Republican. That narrowed the field considerably, so creepy mediocrity Clarence got the nomination.
Don't know much about the 2022 version of Newsweek, but this is a whitewash. No, then-Sen Biden didn't VOTE FOR Thomas, but he had control of the Judiciary Comm hearings on his nomination and refused to pursue OR ALLOW testimony of other women who could have corroborated Prof Hill's testimony re his abusive and sexist behavior, and Biden let him get away with his "legal lynching" "outburst" (the model for BeerBoy's grossly disrespectful faux-emotional response to (a woman's) testimony re HIS past drunken and assaultive behavior). Newsweek's "mostly false" simply ignores everything but Biden's VOTE against Thomas; Biden IS responsible for having ENABLED Thomas's confirmation. And he knows it.
Here we are about to celebrate July 4th our Declaration of Independence and it feels like we have a Supreme Court destroying any semblance of democracy. With all of the problems Biden and his team have been facing and tackling— I can’t imagine how hard this court will make it to have a fair election ever and to help the world respond to climate change. Surely I’m not the only one despondent.
A woman in California proposed women boycotting the 4th celebrations in response to the Roe ruling. Many on social media told her to go back where she came from. Others voiced support. I have been pounding the computer keys with letters to my state and federal reps about the implications of Roe's demise. If I wrote today I wouldn't know where to begin. But I did imagine the optics of the National Mall on the 4th with no women present. Frederick Douglas stated the 4th was nothing for his people to celebrate.
If you look at my photo, it is a distressed flag broach made out of safety pins and beads. The safety pins are "I have your back". There are rows of black beads on either side of the flag and at the bottom there is several rows of beads that can be pink pussy hats for women rights, or black, brown, white, red yellow beads to mean all races and people. I made these and have a sheet of instructions on how to make them.
I guess if the rich can’t get richer and richer, they won’t be able to afford setting up a new home on Mars, and they will have to suffer here on the ruined Earth like every one else.
The filibuster can be done away with IF the Democrats win at least two more Senate seats in November. Then the Supreme Court can be expanded to 13 justices, assuming Biden doesn't cave.
In the meantime, a dynamic leader of the Democratic Party needs to emerge, someone the masses can rally around leading up to the presidential election. A candidate who appeals broadly to the party's wings, independents, and minorities. This is a very tall order.
When you ask how much lower can justices of this court go I am reminded of this refrain. In deep despair I was advised “cheer up things could be worse“ Sure enough I cheered up and things got worse.
Important to listen to Professor Richardson on her Facebook chat today. Her conclusive 2 minutes sets an imperative course for the next two years on a very dark day in this country. To think the Supreme Court would present their rogue and arrogant majority stance in yet another destructive opinion before the people’s Independence Day celebration weekend. Has the conscience of this majority gone temporarily (one hopes) mad and missing? Very tiny and acerbically minded of them.
Give an hour of your day to listen to this important conversation. I will keep it in mind as my first and only sparkler for the weekend.
I started listening to the history chat, and I had to pause it. HCR said the court had gone rogue. These people are NOT conservative by any definition of that word. They are radical right wing extremists. TCinLA had the right idea when he posted a picture of the radicals on the court in “Taliban” garb in his Substack newsletter, That’s Another Fine Mess. This horrible EPA opinion will have terrible consequences. As a disaster survivor in coastal NC, I cringe thinking about the future. I bet people on West Coast who have survived wildfires feel worried too. This court is creating rules out of whole cloth!
I heard the EPA Adminstrator on PBS Newshour last night. If I heard "tools in our toolbox" 1 more time I was going to fast forward. He needs to have short easy to understand points to make about what those tools are, be crisp and cogent.
Thank's for the link! Only one thing I would add: This development of the US has been furthered by your enemies. The step barbarians of Russia are cooperating with the barbarian capitalists of the US. Putins Russia would love to see chaos in the US, and in particular the end of US dollar dominance, that would fall out as a overripe fruit from a second civil war.
I cannot access my very old facebook personal and business site due to old emails.
I only used the the business site to announce workshops. However, there are times I can access and the link above allowed me to access. Try it Anne-Louise! It is a lovely, sneaky way to access FB for political reasons.
This Sunday, we have a Putney Gathering on the Green for Roe vs Wade that includes some of our Vermont legislators and other speakers. This protest/meeting will now take on a much greater docket. Please check your local areas for gatherings and attend!
I did listen to Heather's Thursday "chat" after a round of golf and while I weeded the garden . . . those weeds didn't stand a chance! She did say if anyone thought it would be a reassuring talk, they might not want to listen. I listened and read today's letter as well. We saw the train wreck coming and it really is horrifying.
"Quasi" is too weak. It's a coup by pronouncements, cloaked in devious, illogical legalese.
Bottom line: our constitutional system has been hacked. It's just like the founders never anticipated a political party not participating in governing. Or the inherent anti-democratic evolution of the electoral college via the addition of so many low-population states. Or the adoption of a Senate rule that gives the party now in power the power to block widely supported legislation.
The founders never anticipated political parties at all. They only developed at the end of Washington's second administration. This is one reason I can't stomach this "originalism" crap.
Great minds must think alike, Michael. I had that exact thought this morning while reading Heather’s Letter. These six bastards are ramming so much bad law and evil decisions down the Majoritys’ throats, yes We, the People. Our throats. I am ready to puke!
A Buddhist monk said: Before enlightenment, carry water, chop wood. After enlightenment, carry water, chop wood. My axe is sharpened and my bucket full….
I totally agree . They must be stopped. But how? This current 6 SCROTUS judges are taking a lightening fast wrecking ball to our time worn legislative rulings and laws and are not looking back. Each day with them is like each day with Trump, another new horror, another freak show. I am wracking my brain out to try to see what we, the people can do. Suggestions welcome here. Drastic times require drastic actions.
I don’t see how they can be stopped, without a time machine. Forget Obama, Dubyah, even Reagan. The most consequential politician of the last 40 years is Mitch McConnell. McConnell’s evil plan to control the courts, hatched 30+ years ago, has succeeded.
What I have been yelling about these last few years. HE is the power behind this despicable group of traitors to American commonweal. Truly, what do we do now besides get out the vote to change the Senate? Is there hope that Thomas will go down with his wife due to current investigation? Can Kavanaugh and that tool Catholic school girl (not maligning all Catholic school girls as I graduated from Marymount College, now Loyola Marymount University, and the majority of us are not her) be impeached? What actually can be done? Are there enough truly American judges out there to stop some of the atrocities? In my 80’s now and have seen my whole life’s worth of laws that helped Americans be erased. I have always joyfully celebrated the 4th, but now decorating outside the house seems MAGA-like and possibly misunderstood. Bush II ruined all the freedom slogans , and now McConnell using Trump has ruined everything else. I need a strong dose of hope!
“Drastic times require drastic action” is starting to sound more and more like the corner that we have been boxed into. Perhaps instead of sitting by and helplessly watching them dismantle the evolved world we live in, we should dismantle the SC. We could impeach at least 3 of them for lying to us, we can help them with their legacy, impeached for lying to the people of the United States, would fit just fine. My next thought is crazy, I will be the first to admit, and I know that almost all of you will disagree with it; maybe the military should arrest them, no need for trials since they would have been at the pinnacle of a legal system had they not been taking it apart, give them a choice resign or be hung for treason. Like I said it’s drastic but it would solve our problem.” It would open up a thousand cans of worms 🪱 that we would never want to open”, will probably be a dispassionate answer to other than “that’s insane”, however if we are going to loose our country just by playing out the hand we have now got, maybe we should consider it. Otherwise you can look at it like a game of chess that while nominally still playing, we have already lost. If our democracy is already lost what do we have to loose. These are dark days indeed and they give rise to dark thoughts. Sorry to have given them voice but you know that if I, who love this country, have them, others must as well.
Adding 3 new members to the Court is the most accessible and also the one most likely to lead to the kind of results we need for democracy to survive. Talk of a violent and illegal solution would not only escalate the schism we are trying to work around and almost certainly would lead to all kinds of even more violent reactions. Think things through, please.
I was just thinking out loud Annie, if the game is now stacked so that we will inevitably loose our beloved democracy, what will we do to prevent that from happening? I think impeaching them is the best option regardless of wether they would be convicted in the senate. The clown was impeached twice, he will forever carry those impeachments with him, I don't think he's smart enough to know what that means, but the 3 sitting on the SC do for sure. I also wonder if they would make those choices if their lives were on the line, is it unfair to ask them that question, a lot of women are going to be facing that very same question because of the SC choices.
Sometimes "thinking out loud" means that things aren't thought through well enough to understand the ramifications. We have a responsibility for what we say and write (think Trump and his off the top of his head methodology).
I don't disagree with you about impeachment being the ideal, but then reality gets in the way. Process is same as for President. If we couldn't impeach Trump with the evidence we had, how in the world are we going to impeach three justices? Yeah, they are coo-coo and shouldn't be in a position to make any kind of legal decisions. But there they are. We can wonder all we want, but what we do has to be possible and doable.
What we've got that we can probably pull off is adding to the court. That's been done before so there is precedent. And it would work to hold our government in place while we work on the overall process of governance that's gotten too far away from the needs and desires of the people (not the states: the people).
Someone else (prob Heather, but I read so much that sometimes if I don't have notes in front of me, I lose track) the other day suggested another tactic. The Constitution doesn't say beans about what the duties of the Supreme Court should be, nor the writing of the founders. For all we know, they just thought of the SC as the final arbiter of case appeals and other misc legal matters at federal level. At any rate, it could be as simple as Congress passing a law that says that the SC is not to review passed laws in terms of their constitutionality, which should be assumed since the law was passed by Congress.
I think there is merit in considering this approach. Laws could still be challenged, as they are all the time, both in court and by reconsideration by Congress. Yep, there are some potential dangers here but I don't think this approach has nearly the pitfalls as what we have now.
I completely agree that the Supreme Court as it currently exists is a rogue court, and itself unconstitutional. It'd be good to be able to impeach the questionable justices, but try getting that through the Senate. Exercise in futility, and dangerous in itself.
“We could impeach…”? How? It takes a 2/3s vote in the Senate to convict an impeached justice. That will never happen. Impeachment, while maybe justified, is a pipe dream.
The house would probably have the votes to impeach and that would be a large stain they will never be able to wash off, and who knows with the senate, most of them have children and grandchildren.
It is so visceral...I feel like my insides are gripped so tight and I can't let go. I can'y even process the specifics every single day this week! It is overwhelming me...so I read and I read and listen...all I can say is thank God we have this place to come here and talk from our gut...
How? Dark money has funded The Federalist Society since Citizens United, and clearly have an agenda. With Moscow Mitch’s help, they finally get to realize it. They’re not done yet. So hard to watch
messaging! So many whom I have talked to all say the same thing - I voted last time and got nothing for it. And just voting isn't enough! To which I say - you helped prevent Trump from winning, and the Senate from going red. That is huge. AND - the system is stacked against the slim majority. It wants a huge majority to be there in order to really act. And that is why this November is so so important. That message has to ring loud and clear and constant. Otherwise what will happen is exactly what Republicans expect, and that is for too many people to just stay home.
Excellent points. Just shows that many voters don't know what's been delivered: huge growth in employment, efficient distribution of Covid vaccines, stimulus checks, massive infrastructure spending, and more.
Even though the turnout in 2020 for the presidential election was the highest in 120 years, 80 million people didn't vote. A bigger turnout is needed in 2024 to compensate for rampant voter suppression.
MB: "Isn’t this rogue court engaged in a quasi coup? " Yes.
This action is allied with Grover Norquist's dream (since he was in high school, no less), to 'stamp out big government', and his words, (2001) "I'm not in favor of abolishing the government. I just want to shrink it down to the size where we can drown it in the bathtub."
Let's nominate that Grover deserves a "Leonard Leo Crusade Honorable Mention" trophy.
THAT, friends, is another paving stone on the path of the (current-era) 'Tea Party,' wrecking ball: Newt Gingrich, the Reagan 'revolution' (for which, I suspect, RR was more just a 'useful player' spokes-model rather than deep-thinking government-affairs policy wonk. The attack points on government vary. Taxes (Grover's pet peeve). "Regulation" (hello big oil and coal, any polluting industry, or any labor-intensive industry trying to bust unions). How about privatizing the Social Security trust fund (hello banking-finance). And in last week's SCOTUS ruling, reproductive choice and bodily autonomy for child-bearing persons.
And, issues to come will be tagged "morality," how's that for a squishy subject of Orwellian dimensions. How about the desire to establish the nation as a "Christian nation," hello Colorado Rep. Boebert: "The church is supposed to direct the government. The government is not supposed to direct the church. That is not how our founding fathers intended it. And I am tired of this separation of church and state junk. It's not in the Constitution."
You could say Koch is the center-pin. Or Heritage Society. Or certain church organizations (who should have their religious tax-exempt status stripped if they are going to bring guns+theocracy to the public table.)
These single-issue attacks are working effectively towards a goal. Recognize the direction we are headed, as HCR is so, so clear to point out; I just listened to the 6/30 youtube posting (link elsewhere in comments for today). Hello 1854 era. Hello patriarchy. Hello land-owner / ruling class / white is the voting class. And the ugly, ignorant, 'go back to some other country you came from-ism.'
Some of my Irish / English ancestors crossed an ocean, the ostensible goal (after all the shoving native aside and warring and asserting bold claims and manifest destiny) was to escape a certain tyranny of kings and lords. Or maybe it was to escape a prison sentence, I'm not sure which, or both, or the Protestant vs. Catholic schism. With our industrial and now information revolutions, the new tyrant is... something unique and not present at the nation's founding, I fear, something entirely and just as hideous as an evil monarch or fascist tyrant, yet not embodied (necessarily) in one individual: a new kind of tyrant.
Living where I do now, I can tell you, media saturation is key, as in, Kansas is "midwest nice," and has little to no independent media penetration into the thick skulls of the folks that are born and raised here. The repetition of lies, quashing of independent thought, "fear of the other"-ism, theocratic ambitions, and bad education is key to the failure of the American experiment.
It's us and by whatever lawful means we have at our disposal - voting, protesting, showing up at the boring local, municipal and school board meetings, keeping each other encouraged here and on other social media.
I think that’s why I had no words. We have essentially gone back 100, Maybe 200 years. Women’s rights are being stripped away, gun’s rights are enhanced, and our environment can now be polluted to oblivion. This Supreme Court is criminal.
The belief in White Supremacy, that white people constitute a superior race and should therefore dominate society; White Nationalists; autocrats, absolute power by a few over the populace; greed, grievance addition, misogynists; majority rule of religiously oriented Christian, right-wing justices on the Supreme Court; while shrinking in size, fundamentalist Christianity, nevertheless, exerts undue influence; disinformation and conspiracy theories spread by social media and Fox News disorient many of the country's citizens and a large gang of ghoulishly dangerous traitors, many of whom working within the government -- are all crawling around as termites, rodents, skunks, and snakes devouring the very structure of the peoples' house.
Oh, thanks for your translation...I should have known that, I studied German years ago...and Nazis, obsessively! Looking for the Foolproof Kind with my neighbors and legislators this Sunday afternoon!!
"We have essentially gone back 100, maybe 200 years."
More than that, more than that.
To the time of the Articles of Confederation, that limbo from which the Constitution was supposed to raise the country.
Lex asinus est.
Let us not insult donkeys with words like "asinine".
Here we have what may prove to be the greatest example in the millennium of George Bernard Shaw's condemnation of learned professions as "a conspiracy against the laity".
A CONSPIRACY AGAINST THE PUBLIC.
Cfr. GBS Preface to The Doctor's Dilemma and Adam Smith's remark in The Wealth of Nations about how, when people of the same trade meet together the conversation tends to become a conspiracy against the public or "some contrivance to raise prices".
Peter! Quick, get a big trash can lid from that wrong road, start banging on it and get the attention of people to the correct path!!! See me? I’m already there with my band getting loud. https://youtu.be/Q91hydQRGyM
Oh yes, I see a lot of people moving on the road to our freedoms! See me? I’m that little white girl with the pigtails drawing flags and peace signs on the sidewalk! https://youtu.be/3YHVC1DcHmo
I think this is worse than tribal intolerance, Sandy. This is war and began a long time ago but was initiated in full when the beast came down the escalator with his red sparrow wife.
I don't know if logic counts for anything, but these good Foes of the Earth are indeed hoist of their own petard -- they've provided a perfect reductio ad absurdum of their Originalist doctrine.
Since, however, the more radical among them do appear to be bent on dissolving the Constitution in an acid bath, along with the body politic, perhaps to establish a billionaire variation on the divers squirearchies that adorned the 13 Colonies, it may be that this apparent self-destruction will count for them as a success.
Or could they envy Russia's current limelight as "the universal enemy"?
It would be a remarkable achievement: universal scorn and hatred both in space and in such time as remains to the posterity of homo sapiens.
Don’t forget, Karen, they will all choke from the pollution….many women in their lives, including their daughters, will have to seek abortions somewhere and they may be killed by guns they were happy to protect. It all comes back in the end. People all over the world are coping with this, and much worse, cruelty.
Because the US Government is not working (except to print money from the Fed to feed to corporations, $5 Trillion in the last two years).
Republicans have showstopped all legislation for a decade.
So, the court justices are legislating through the judical branch because they can.
Republicans have stacked the court with their paid mercenaries and now they will roll down the street pushing their will on everyone.
It is brilliant because: The Justices are appointed for life and doing legislative dirty work saves legislators on the Republican side from blowback if they wrote laws like this.
That is the nail slammed on its head. My husband also represents too many. He reads about it, but doesn't want to talk about it or get involved with standing against the Dark Side. He is so frustrating. He will vote blue, but won't do much more. Many people I know are the same.
Feeling hopeless and helpless? Heather's suggestion: One essential job we all have now is to learn about the real mechanics of persuasive language. She estimates we have maybe 2 yrs.
Studying how to be as effective as those who are already masters at 'framing the conversation' have been so far... is ON THE BALLOT!
We have a lot of catching up to do since we're way behind! 😊
Get a copy of George Lakoff's tiny book with BIG ideas, "Don't Think of an Elephant!" Simple, enlightening and empowering. Maybe $2 -$4 on alibris.com? We have work to do.
Yup, we are seeing it with our own eyes! After my tears this morning, I am mad as hell! Will go into the fray next week to help my local Democrat club register new voters in this red county.
Lynn, it’s a good thing we humans are so complicated. I just finished 200 postcards to Arizona voters. I won’t give up. Ever. But hard not to be discouraged. Have to work on that.
These recent abrogations of precedent and reversals of stare decisis form the core principles on which the Federalist Society was created by, among others, Antonin Scalia.
The Federalist Society's primary purpose has been to cloak those principles - hamstringing government regulation of business, minimization of civil liberties, empowering oligarchs and autocrats - in academic and intellectual legitimacy.
A great example of that cloaking takes the form of Justice Alito's shabby quotation of Sir Matthew Hale, a discredited 18th century English jurist largely responsible for the abhorrent common law doctrine that a husband, no matter how violent or non-consensual, could never be guilty of raping his wife. Alito relied on Hale for the common-law understanding of "when life begins," and even then, in a disingenuous sleight of hand, Alito appears to have substituted conception for quickening.
What amazes me is how many women I know who quietly or willingly supported Trump who now bemoan this loss of a fundamental human right.
Without Trump's appointments of Gorsuch, Kavanaugh and Coney-Barrett, all Federalist Society members, these reversals could never have occurred.
But what scares me, the women that support this move! Literally posting god is good, the babies that will be saved, god’s will is being done. I’m so sickened!
Should I start a list of women that would turn me in for supporting rights? Maybe our new school shirts this year should be brown.
If we can prove, or the J6 Committee can prove that TFG was "installed by putinand the rethuglicans and fiddled with our country's election...can he and all his thugs and policies become null and void as the coup against our republic?
‘…academic and intellectual legitimacy..’ while I appreciate the research into Sammie Alito’s basis for making his own laws, I find that his and the majority’s reasoning is pseudo intellectual at best!
Legitimate!? Consider, in 1980 Reagan started the false narrative that government is the problem. Since then the gop has dedicated itself to doing nothing for the common folk, the party of NO! Now, they proudly proclaim, see we told you government is the problem!
The oligarchs provide dark money for looney right wing egg heads to come up with outrageous theories. Doubt that any of their papers are peer reviewed by an independent academic group! Other right wing egg heads repeat or expand on the written drivel , voila it must be true!
I don’t know the Latin term for the logical fallacy which is perpetuated by the gop, perhaps it falls under the category of circular reasoning!
A case in point, since 2010 the right wing controlled the state legislature in North Carolina has underfunded public education.
Parents ( possibly funded or urged by right easing groups) complained that the public school was not meeting the needs of their child.
Right wing Solution, vouchers with an income test for private school tuition. The right wing controlled state Supreme Court allowed the voucher program based on their reasoning, not law, that the money was going to public children!!!??
Since the onset of the voucher program, the funding has increased with every budget and the income limit is now well above double the poverty level!
The gop created the problem then implemented their desired outcome.
Public education in Wisconsin is under the same attack. Starve the public schools and send tax money to private voucher schools. Even starving our great public universities.
But the dems gave the defense department even MORE money then they requested. So, oh dear, no money left for schools, for healthcare, for building affordable housing….
So Heather indicates in her FB discourse that we have two years to act to salvage democracy. She suggests the actual powers of the justices are vaguely defined and that we should demand that Congress tighten the job description to curtail this drastic overreach. Anyone have the legal expertise to tackle what the revised duties of the Supreme Court justices should look like?
Looking on from Europe, I don’t understand why the Democratic Party doesn’t live up to its name and fight back - not only individuals like Newsom and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, but the Democratic Party as an institution. It should be on a war footing (political, legislative, judicial, institutional), but instead, it’s business and internecine squabbling as usual.
I read this morning that Joe Biden signed more oil drill permits than Donald Trump. If that’s true, it’s clear that the Democratic Party is no more interested in slowing down global heating than are the Republicans. In those circumstances, its protests over the EPA case sound hollow.
The Democratic Party wasted years in neglecting state legislatures, with the result that even in swing states where they might command majorities, they have been trounced by the GOP.
On the question of abortion, I note that unlike every other country where women have had that right enshrined in law, the US never bothered to do so - or rather, the Democratic Party never bothered. It assumed that Roe v Wade - a decision taken on the basis of privacy, not equality - would suffice and would stand, even though it was the stated intention of Republicans to overturn it.
Such hubris in the Democratic Party reminds me of that other hubris, in 1933, which led the Nazi Party to power because the opposition parties could not agree to cooperate in opposing it, and had spent 15 years fighting each other.
Here’s a lesson from history: when freedom is lost, it’s exceedingly hard to regain it. It often takes generations, or a long fratricidal war, to do so, if it can be done at all.
Excellent post indeed. Thank you. "It (the Democratic Party) should be on a war footing (political, legislative, judicial, institutional), but instead, it’s business and internecine squabbling as usual."
Yes, the Republicans do seem to be much better at organizing and executing. I think this is because the legislators themselves are NOT doing that action. Rather, big corporations, large donors and religious organizations are doing the on the ground work.
Republican legislators have not done anything, except fruther cut taxes in 2017, since Bush declared war on Iraq based on lies.
However, rich Republicans with time on their hands have been organizing and acting.
The Heritage foundation, by paying off Presidents and Justices alike, has gained control of the Supreme Court.
One area where the Republicans do seem to have been more legislatively aggressive was in 2010, while Obama and the Democrats slept, through the very aggressive Gerrymandering that was done in Republican states. Not a peep of opposition from the Dems.
Indeed, it's as if there had been a secret understanding reached that the Democrats would let the Republicans proceed with this dismantling of democracy... an agreement that would, could, only have been made by those so wealthy that they're living in a bubble.
It’s possible… though I tend to believe in the “cock ups and cowards” version of history. True conspiracies (successful ones) are rare. Or so successful in their myth making that they succeed in hiding their conspiracist beginnings for a long time (e.g. the Bolshevik coup that displaced the original 1917 Russian Revolution).
As I mentioned in another post, when I was texting to GOTV in a swing state primary a few days ago, a voter responded with.....Republicans take away our rights and Democrats are doing nothing about, so why should I vote - just organize.
“ In the one term Trump’s three justices have been on the court, they have decimated the legal landscape under which we have lived for generations, slashing power from the federal government, where Congress represents the majority, and returning it to states, where a Republican minority can impose its will. Thanks to the skewing of our electoral system, those states are now poised to take control of our federal government permanently.”
I would imagine that were you writing this with a pen, the script would be varied and shaky so angry you must be as am I, given the devastating decisions brought by this illegitimate court
"...It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they here gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."
Two weeks and they destroyed the country. The 50 year campaign paid off.
As Richard Hofstadter pointed out back in 1954:
It can most accurately be called pseudo-conservative — I borrow the term from the study of The Authoritarian Personality published five years ago by Theodore W. Adorno and his associates — because its exponents, although they believe themselves to be conservatives and usually employ the rhetoric of conservatism, show signs of a serious and restless dissatisfaction with American life, traditions and institutions. They have little in common with the temperate and compromising spirit of true conservatism in the classical sense of the word... Their political reactions express rather a profound if largely unconscious hatred of our society and its ways — a hatred which one would hesitate to impute to them if one did not have suggestive clinical evidence.
Adorno and his co-workers found that their pseudo-conservative subjects, although given to a form of political expression that combines a curious mixture of largely conservative with occasional radical notions, succeed in concealing from themselves impulsive tendencies that, if released in action, would be very far from conservative. The pseudo-conservative, Adorno writes, shows “conventionality and authoritarian submissiveness” in his conscious thinking and “violence, anarchic impulses, and chaotic destructiveness in the unconscious sphere. . . . The pseudo conservative is a man who, in the name of upholding traditional American values and institutions and defending them against more or less fictitious dangers, consciously or unconsciously aims at their abolition.”
"The pseudo conservative is a man who, in the name of upholding traditional American values and institutions and defending them against more or less fictitious dangers, consciously or unconsciously aims at their abolition"
We saw on Jan 6 all of the “authoritarian submissiveness”, “violence, anarchic impulses, and chaotic destructiveness.” Now the past two weeks of chaotic destructiveness from six on the Court.
Thanks, TC, for bringing in Hofstadter and Adorno. Everybody read this if you haven’t already.
TCinLA, Once again, a super description of long time plans of the “conservative” religious-based Republicans. I don’t often agree with Barry Goldwater, but he was right when he said “Mark my words. If and when the preachers get control of the (Republican) party, and they’re sure trying to do so, it’s going to be a terrible damn problem. Frankly, these people frighten me. Politics and governing demand compromise. But these Christians believe they are acting in the name of God, so they can’t and won’t compromise. I know; I’ve tried to deal with them.”
Voting can fix it. Congress could pass a law, mandatory retirement after 20 years of service for Justices, effective immediately. Thomas retirees immediately. Roberts and Alito gone in 4 years.
Voting only fixes it if scotus doesn't destroy the vote before November. Once that's done it's over. So yeah it's over. Unless they lose their majority...J6 justice dept action is our only hope as far as I can see. I think it's time democrats start playing dirty. I'm done with diplomacy. There's a time and place for that and it isn't here and now. We're dangling by a thread.
It ain't over just because they say it is over. They do not abide by any rules so WTF. We can do whatever we want-- we have power in numbers-- we just need to organize and we need to use our laws for those who subvert them towards autocracy. I believe J6 has Russia in its' sights. That is the final pulling back of this red curtain. We saw reputhuglican's fricking meeting in Moscow on the 4th of July. And look where we are this 4th of July weekend. Seems like a total coup they planned with the trump-putin axis. Be careful in crowds and at parades.... I do not trust any of them.
From "Justice" Roberts upcoming opinion: "...while under the 'Democratic party appointees and hires are inherently illegitimate' doctrine as codified by the Founders..."
Sarah, I am using the word "socialized democracy in place of socialist since the brainwashed have had that word sinisterized. And then I list about 30 things that the brainwashed untilized because many of us want ALL of us to have a certain quality of life. Golden Rule philosophy instead of golden idol worshipping at the crooked one's crooked feet.
Sure there has! "We need a strong Republican party" from Pelosi, and "We should not expand the Supreme Court " from Biden was ENORMOUSLY effective. And now that they're saying, "Vote for Republicans, just not MAGA Republicans " the messaging couldn't be clearer or more differentiated. /s
Absolutely not discouraged. I think vital to watch it as she explains everything that is going on, in context, with historical perspective and with possible outcomes. She was describing the emergency we are in and what we can do to about it. "We have two years". She is a force of nature. A brilliant guide for us.
Overwhelm the GQP dirty tricks voter suppression with vast voter turn out is a solution. “Approximately 240 million people were eligible to vote in the 2020 presidential election and roughly 66.1% of them submitted ballots, totaling about 158 million.”
If only. . .and if also traitor Trump’s three appointments would be rescinded. But first, more Democrats in the House and Senate. Then Thomas could be impeached and convicted related to the insurrection. Retirement would be too good for him.
I see all the signs of a fascist regime erecting their platform. I hope I am overreacting but everything that has been happening in certain states and with the SCOTUS fits the description. Back to the 1930s and Charles Lindbergh ....... There are so many signs. Chaos is in the playbook of Putin and other fascist leaders, so the authoritarian leader will arrive to offer stability. I also understand why Manchin was so Republican acting; now coal fired furnaces will belch anew.
Coal was already on its way out in this country, economic reasons. The rule being challenged was never in effect in the first place. I think the idea was to strip power from the regulators across the entire federal government, on the flimsiest excuse.
You are right, Kathy, and not overreacting. It is not just confederacy white male stuff, it is Nazi level control of our people Shist. We need may need to see who in our military are with us or against us.
As I have said before, their holocaust was our pandemic...the war has been our cyberwar of propaganda and 45 rallies. Same Nazi tactics Hitler used. Many of us saw it and tried to signal... Jordan Kleeper interviewed two young women who look as they spend enormous amounts of time on their hair, makeup and clothing and cute sunglasses. They know nothing about the J6 Hearings and never heard of January 6th and what happened to our country. That is exactly how Nazi, white supremacist men like their women. Sorry guys, it is now 2022 and the majority of us ain't going back.
If only the principal Founding Fathers: George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Alexander Hamilton, John Jay and James Madison could see the country now and speak to us.
‘What would Madison make of American democracy today, an era in which (Andrew) Jacksonian populism looks restrained by comparison? Madison’s worst fears of mob rule have been realized—and the cooling mechanisms he designed to slow down the formation of impetuous majorities have broken.’
‘The polarization of Congress, reflecting an electorate that has not been this divided since about the time of the Civil War, has led to ideological warfare between parties that directly channels the passions of their most extreme constituents and donors—precisely the type of factionalism the Founders abhorred.’ (AtlanticMagazine) See the link below.
'James Madison's Mob-Rule Fears Have Been Realized'
Yeah, well, maybe Madison might have helped think through the whole "two senators from every state" nonsense. There's a reason that zero newer democracies have adopted our structure of government.
The Founders might say; it’s your country now. We did our job. Now it’s time for all good people to come to the aid of their country. We’ve overcome the most powerful force in the world to create this Nation….don’t give up.
Keith, I don't know why you began by impersonating The Founders, but 'don't give up' sounded more like it. Washington, Adams, Madison, Jefferson and the rest wouldn't remain in their graves if they knew was going on.
Thank you Fern, for adding clarity to clarity, and to that I add my personal thanks for something thankless... trying to survey today's pseudo-legal catastrophe through the eyes of those who drafted the Constitution.
It does, however, seem to me that today's action by the Supreme Court takes America back to a time before the Federalist letters were written.
*
Putin's black shamans seem to be having a field day...
One gets the (perhaps false) impression that as the noose tightens on the conspiracy, the mercenaries parachuted into the Supreme Court are moving to take preemptive action.
Removing the ground from under the feet of the American people?
Citizen60, Unless you were making a joke, until 1913, with the passage the Seventeen Amendment, senators were elected by their state legislatures, a measure that was intended to “keep down the turbulence of democracy.' Madison didn't have the opportunity to assess what mischief could be made under the current system. ” (AtlanticMag) See link to article, 'This is Not the Senate the Framers Imagined.'
Am Atlantic subscriber. No, it isn’t the Senate Madison imagined. Neither is the Electoral College—designed to prevent mob rule AND to prevent unqualified individuals from becoming President.
The Framers devised a wholly-new, power-sharing form of government they hoped had sufficient checks and balances to maintain it. So, doesn’t matter how Senators were elected on Madison’s day versus ours. He couldn’t imagine his feared “mob rule” President would/could be aided and abetted by the duly-elected Senate. He thought, as several did, that the Congress and Senate would jealousy guard their powers—not create an imperial presidency, which they have by ceding many of their apportioned powers to the President, so he’ll be responsible for so much more than intended. Nor that the “educated” Senators—leaders in their own States—would refuse to act once in DC.
Citizen60, If you have the time, I would appreciate knowing your thoughts about how the system could be more democratic in terms of the distribution of wealth as well as being more difficult to be manipulate by special interests. L. Warren did a lot of work on this, but I do not know how on target and doable it was. I also don't know how effective safeguards could be concerning guidelines for presidential candidates. The character of candidates appears to be an outstanding factor, which has been impossible to control. Thank you.
To those Democrats and liberal independents who just couldn’t bring yourselves to vote for Hillary Clinton in 2016, the current Supreme Court is your gift to us all.
If that isn’t spot on, not sure what is, Ralph. And pretty soon, it appears that elections will not matter as that one did.
I’ll just not ever forget Trump lurking, walking, and stalking her on the debate stage. It was unnerving. I thought then, there is no woman that will vote for him after seeing that. Being me, I decided later that not many women could have watched that part.
Here’s faith that this next election will not be our last real one.
This SC sh*t duckery is breath taking. I’m trying to see into the minds of the radicals, trying to get a handle on their thinking. Given the potential outcomes for their rulings, one can only deduce that their deliberate intention is the obliteration of the United States. ( the world). Do they believe they are God’s good little children by fomenting the Apocalypse? Are they brain damaged by the religious stew they are boiling in? Or are they just a puny clique of narcissistic sociopaths unexpectedly positioned by tyrants to do their willl?
Money. Power. Global domination with Putin and Jong Un. The former guy's highest level narcissism played right into the goals of the extremist rethugs in that their monkey really wants to play with the big boys with global POWER and MONEY. He was the right monkey for this job and they INSTALLED him. When he said if he did "not win the 2016 election it was because it was rigged," was our cue that "they" were doing exactly what he accuses others of doing. He is such a egoic wild card that he could not help revealing what was happening behind the scenes and with all the putinesque propaganda machines helping. At least that has been my take since 2016.
As one pundit observed, why is the conservative block of SCOTUS in such a rush to roll back settled law? Each Justice has a lifetime appointment. What don’t we know about why they’re pushing these decisions so quickly? There’s a strategy here. I’m thinking about what it might be but I can’t put my finger on it.
Could it be that the court needs to rush things through before more revelations are brought for from j6 that perhaps could be fraudulent enough to allow the country to remove T's appointees from their appointments to the Supreme Court?
Dr Heather Cox Richardson's clearest, most damning summation yet.
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world...
Yes. Read again Yeats' great prophetic poem, The Second Coming.
For my part, I woke up one night in early 2016 and started to write down some crappy lines I had just dreamed. After the November presidential election, I realized I'd written these exactly 9 months before... Here...
Peter, Thank you for sharing your poem, and the shout out to Yeats. A friend recently shared a series of metal sculptures he was making inspired by Second Coming, a poem I was unaware of until he mentioned it.
Now, here it is again.
How much longer will we have the ability to share our art publicly?
Yeats means much to me. The man's spirit, not just the poems. These days I'm very taken with The Circus Animals' Desertion...
Strangely, the first (or perhaps the second) poem I ever wrote has an image in common with Yeats’ Wanderings of Oisin, a horseman riding westward from Ireland, over the waves. Otherwise, nothing in common.
On June 30th I wrote:
“Fundamentally, there is only one road. One road, two directions. We have allowed ourselves to be led down the wrong one. Time to turn. NOW.”
That may express my feeling about free will. A single root choice: to move away from or towards what we truly are—innate freedom.
For centuries, we’ve been exploring (and exploiting) in every direction except one: within ourselves. And never more than now.
I’m old. My concern in these last years of life is to yell “STOP!”—not in the sense of leaving off living, but PAUSE, take a breather, take a coffee break… Then ask: Who’s searching? Who is asking the questions? Who’s for speeding, accelerating, accelerating—Look No Hands! Look No Steering! Look No Brakes!—down that AI Superhighway?
Set all that aside one moment. So, what is possible? What’s impossible? Is anything impossible for the human mind? I’ve no idea—but just as I’ve always been a doubter, this I doubt, too. And no, I’m not thinking at all of the grotesque hitech junkie’s credo that if-it-can-be-done-it-must-be-done, however absurd “it” may be, I’m thinking of our unaided potential.
Plenty of Tories left for England during our Revolution; their fear of what might happen overwhelmed them. Washington stayed … so did thousands and thousands of other Americans who faced a very uncertain outcome for their efforts …which we are about to celebrate in a few days. Liberty is ours because we earned it. It’s our country if we can keep it …vote and keep pushing.
I’ve got friends that started making plans to move away. Getting their citizenship in EU so they can get out. Someone I’m related to asked if I’d move with them is they could get their citizenship. People are preparing for an exodus.
Where are you going to move? You can't escape the Climate Crisis, and what the Supreme Court has just done means that our planet is going to become a battlefield due to famine and refugees from uninhabitable environments. It's started in some places, and it's going to become a widespread problem by the time you could get settled in your new country.
Monroe Doctrine: 'a principle of US policy, originated by President James Monroe in 1823, that any intervention by external powers in the politics of the Americas is a potentially hostile act against the US'. Peter how would the Doctrine limit people taking up residence in another country?
Monroe proclaimed a priority interest in the USA's backyard (just as the Russian dictator has declared that Russia's near abroad -- and wherever Russian is spoken -- is not abroad at all; an emphatic restatement of Brezhnev's doctrine of "limited sovereignty" underpinning the Warsaw Pact's August 1968 occupation of Czechoslovakia...).
The problem, as we have all seen during the course of past decades is that the Monroe Doctrine has now spread across the terrestrial globe and will brook no limits.
Meanwhile, those who irritate the Powers-that-Be down by the Potomac or who are careless enough to let themselves be found in the wrong place at the wrong time can (like Assange) expect to be delivered up pig-in-a-poke-style to US "justice", which will then decide which cruel and usual punishment best suits the crime of lese-majeste against the Imperium.
Isn’t this rogue court engaged in a quasi coup? It’s stripping down the country, reducing it to a vague semblance of what it once was. And very soon, the anything-but-conservative six wrecking-ball justices will make federal elections a farce of democracy.
They’re endangering the planet and every life by ignoring existential climate change, giving government control over women’s bodies, and carving up democracy so it slowly bleeds out.
They must be stopped.
".... the anything-but-conservative six wrecking- ball justices...." Exactly. Then why still headlines like this in the Washington Post: "Voting patterns in major rulings of 2022 reflect conservative ascendance"? Why are they STILL calling these anti-democratic radicals "conservatives"?
“Conservative ascendancy”?????? They are steamrolling our democracy! Right wing zealots. This is where the “mainstream” press has failed all of us. Do you listen to Amy Goodman and Democracy Now? Only one of the very few credible news sources….
Amy Goodman was just given an Honorary Doctorate of Letters from Ithaca College, along with my son, Jeffrey White who is Creative Director for Industrial Light and Magic. She was to sit next to my hubby at the trustee dinner and he was so excited. But as it turned out she couldn't make the ceremony. However she did send a wonderful video of who she is and what she does. I felt very honored, as did my son, that he and she were picked this year for this special honor, and for them both to speak at the Commencement. I do listen to "Democracy Now," and it is very factual and straightforward as opposed to the many opinionated "entertainment" news shows of today.
Hope it's ok to give our son, and Amy a plug in this venue.
Good things do happen in the midst of all the craziness. :)
Also, I feel that so many in the generations to come will bring this country to their senses and turn things back to making America thoughtful, decent and safe again. But its our responsibility to help that happen. All those who read Heather, our guiding light, are on the same path, and that is powerful!!
SO true, Barb, I have hope for the future generations if some of this generation don’t ruin it to oblivion. Many are very intelligent, and ready and rarin’ to go. Congratulations to Amy and Jeff! Well earned. There HAS to be hope.
Always!! :)
Congratulations to your son! What a cool job! 😎
Oh, thank you!!
Congratulations. How honoring ... and, that you remain hopeful because there are active folk like your son and Ms Goodman is an important reminder.
Yes, I wish he had more time to read HCR daily. But I have her letters all saved. :) The comments from the peanut gallery are also so insightful.
Some days I am not sure whether we are peanuts or peanut butter or cookie butter. Crunchy not rancid. 😀
All power to us...
ILM 👍👍👍...
Democracy Now rarely if ever acknowledges good work being done by good Democrats, thus contributing to the false narrative that both sides suck and voting doesn't matter. If you ever try to register voters, you'll hear those excuses a lot.
Not mutually exclusive: the truth that both sides suck AND the truth that currently, the Democratic party does less trampling in individual rights.
I’ve been doing a lot of voter registration as I tried to get on the ballot for Congress in the newly-gerrymandered CD 10 in NY (machine Democrats and Republicans are equally guilty of anti-democratic gerrymandering btw; look at NY CD 7 in 2010 and 2021 if you want an egregious example).
The canard that we can not be critical of what legitimately deserves critique because of the “worse than” option is strangling meaningful dissent. It takes time yo have these conversations and urge people to register, but I gave away 1 Bengali, 30 Chinese, 20 Spanish, 4 Korean, and 50 English voter reg forms in Tompkins Square Park the past few weeks, and a couple neighbors stopped me later and said they’d mailed them in!
Laura, it's hard right now to remember that meaningful dissent -- on the left -- is still vital to a democracy. But you are correct and I appreciate the reminder.
Very fair. I'd add, however, that the "dissent from the left" needs to be prioritized so it doesn't become a distraction that enables the far right.
Too often, it does.
I’ve heard many positive reports about the progressive democrats in congress.
It’s time to stop talking about “progressive” Democrats and “moderate” Democrats. From now to November there are only Democrats and Republicans, those who love democracy and those who disdain it. All other divisions only play into the hands of the anti-democrats.
Like Manchin and AOC? Both are “Democrats” but Manchin is only a tool of the ruling class.
Thank you. Perfection is the enemy of the good.
Do Joe Manchin and Kristen Sinema love democracy? I don’t see any evidence of that when they cling to the very undemocratic filibuster rule that has in fact hobbled the more honorable intentions of this president.
Agree and I am so tired of this. I hear about "establishment" Democrats as if they are some kind of pariahs. I sense that a few of the far left progressives here in Salem may be getting it, but there are still those who brag about their disdain of most Ds.
Amen!
We are teetering on the edge of a completed coup d'etat against the United States. Playing the Progressives versus Moderates card is a fatal play for Democracy. Wake up.
Well just imagine things if we a voted for Progressives. What harm would that do?
Trump had his illegal Polish construction crew build Trump Tower. Now his "kangeroo" court 6- justices are laying a wrecking- ball to our republic.
More than ten years ago, Amy Goodman came to Skidmore College to deliver the keynote speech at the International Women's Writing Guild Summer Conference. She arrived with a couple of assistants, and spent the afternoon speaking with several of the attendees. That night, at the evening's symposium, Amy stood before us and for nearly an hour, delivered a riveting, impassioned speech about the necessity for and the role of a free press, colloquially known as a "fourth estate" in the USA. Among the many remarkable things she said that night, one really resonated with me. It was this:
"What the nation needs is a Fourth Estate, not a "For-the-State."
Amen to that. When her speech ended, everyone rose in applause and cheers. Goodman's a national treasure.
I agree 100%. wish we could clone her….
They should be called the American Taliban! And, the laser focus on getting them out of government should be priority #1 . . . . starting with the DOJ stepping up and indicting, trying, and convicting these criminals. We need someone at the helm who can play hardball. Honest to God, when are the democrats actually going to stand up to this horror show. This is not the time to be timid or hand wringing - use whatever tools are available; or like the repugs create new tools! The rule of law is a powerful, legal weapon, use it!!!
Yesterday I saw a tweet, (along with HCR’s tweet about the Supreme Court going Rogue) that pretty much said that:
Breaking: U.S. Supreme Court Justices, Thomas, Roberts, Barrett, Kavanaugh, Gosuch and Alito have demanded that we no longer refer to them as “Judges.” They have officially changed their title to “Ayatollah.”
And Mitch McConnell should be included in the indicting! He has continued to create this state we are currently in! He is clever to continue to avoid being jailed for the rest of his life!
And, his wife . . . Elaine Chao, a Chinese immigrant, who benefitted from everything this country has to offer including a top shelf education and government positions of power and who ultimately sold her soul. To remain married to the evil that is McConnell says it all. There is no rationale except power and a total lack of ethics and a moral compass. Hillary Clinton might have had an easier political life had she divorced Bill; particularly before her own presidential run. As we have done time and time again, we have overlooked the abysmal behavior of men in power which has been no more apparent than those on the insanity train of trump and the radical right. I'm going out on a limb but, I'm hoping at some point, the surname of "trump" is retired and fades from genealogy and becomes a pariah of future generations. They have had a propensity to reproduce so it may not happen for awhile!
Chao was born in Taiwan, not China. She became a U. S. citizen in 1972.
Yes, thank you . . . I did know that and I meant to correct but got distracted :)
The problem is that the dems are using every tool available. They probably should have used them a long time ago, but it wouldn’t have been any easier even then.
Need to get rid of the filibuster for one thing. Second, Pres Biden needs to get rid of his "institutionalist" thinking and start playing hard ball.
Absolutely…..
It is frustrating that crazy, crafty, and evil people eventually win. They don't play by the rules and we certainly see this with brutal dictators. We can't continue to use "knives at a gunfight". At the very least we need to stop "requesting" people testify and jail those who refuse to respond to subpoenas and start moving ASAP with indictments, trials, and sentences of trump and his criminal cabal. There is an overwhelming amount of evidence and the tool of rule of law must be invoked now. Otherwise, law abiding people are continuously flinging themselves against the proverbial wall and they will give up (the other side also has the guns which is a powerful deterrent).
Thomas, Gorsuch, Kavanaugh, ACB, should all be impeached by Congress. They've all committed an impeachable offense by lying to Congress.
Yes, that is true but as Heather has said that would be really hard to prove. They can and will say they didn’t lie at the time but that they they changed their minds!
I don’t disagree with you, but . . . I really think that if we took a “take no prisoners” approach, we would be encouraging a real shooting war. These guys have been itching to re-visit the Civil War on behalf of the Old South forever. You could start with “Birth of a Ntaion” if nothing else . . . And there is more than that as a marker.
If we shy away from following the rule of law and indicting people because we're afraid that a "shooting war" will begin, then we truly are lost and they accomplish (with or without guns) a totalitarian government. It is a dark time to be living in the U.S. but that is exactly the time that people need to stand up and "make good trouble". A democracy does not just "happen" . . . . it takes good, brave, conscientious people to move this country forward. While I'm personally pessimistic and mad as hell right now, I cannot allow myself to think this is the end. My adult kids, on the other hand, have been saying we're doomed for the rest of their lives. Even if we can wiggle out this political madness, climate change isn't stopping!
ANIMAL FARM.
George Orwell
Exactly.
It's baffling. Shackling the media is no doubt on this court's to-do list.
Tradition, I think. Force of habit.
For the first time, I am truly feeling hopeless and unnerved! Worse than my lowest point under tfg. Yes, Michael, they MUST be stopped, but how?
To my mind, the Supreme Court was an almost hallowed institution. It has now become a dishonorable, polluted morass subjugated by five of the most depraved and dishonest white men and one unscrupulous, white woman. How much lower can justices of this court system go towards the complete destruction of our democracy as we know it?
“And yet,” as Heather has so poignantly concluded, “here we are.”
Acknowledge feeling hopeless and frustrated, then turn hope into an action verb: Don't agonize--organize!
https://chopwoodcarrywaterdailyactions.substack.com/
Heather reminded us in her Facebook Chat of 6/28/2022 to Push Back!
#wearethemajority
Write, talk, reach out to longstanding, effective organizations, such as Planned Parenthood, Red Wine & Blue, League of Women Voters, to name a few.
https://fb.watch/d_rkfNKzRj/
Writes Robert Hubbell:
"Although the grant of review in the North Carolina case is concerning, I do not share the dire views of many commentators. Why? Because even if the Supreme Court rules that state courts can no longer review the constitutionality of state legislative actions in federal elections, federal courts can still review those actions. I will write on this subject in future editions, but at the moment, I don’t believe the predictions of doom are warranted—and I think everyone should take a deep breath and compose themselves."
(Stay tuned--he's recovering from an illness.)
https://roberthubbell.substack.com/p/we-have-made-it-through-the-worst-e42
I have been acting, Ellie — I am just tired! I read Robert Hubbell, too, but I’ve missed a few.
Thank you for your encouragement!
Yes, we get tired, and the value of groups is being able to step back, take a break. We have a long road ahead!
My life lesson in resisting being too tired to do something... I was invited to play string quartets one Friday evening at the end of two weeks of flat-out schedules. I was so tired but my friend said come you'll enjoy it. I said yes. That evening my friend had his Stradivarius violin at home. It was usually with a up and coming concert artist. So I had the incredible opportunity to play on this incredible instrument for the entire evening. I would have missed this rare and exquisite opportunity if I had decided I was too tired. I vowed never to be too tired!
What an amazing experience!! A Strad!!
Never "too tired" for making music. When I was working, I had a particularly awful call (primary officer on scene of a law enforcement suicide whose wife was also a cop; both were friends of mine from another agency). I was working overnights, got up at about 4:00 p.m. and had a phone message that a college friend had died (later also determined to be an intentional suicide).
I had marching band rehearsal that night, and was exhausted. I went anyway, and really felt so much better at the end of it.
Yep, too tired, too hungry, or too angry.
I just think of those exhausted soldiers under George Washington and the unnamed or remembered women who dared to fight against British tyranny. Also a few double espressos doesn't hurt. They want to wear us down. I will not be intimated by any one of the traitors or their hench (wo)men.
You remind me of suffragettes who endured force feedings repeatedly so that our generations of women could be treated like full human beings.
And we're still fighting the fight.
II don't know about British tyranny as much as businessman frustrated for paying taxes without any representation in British Parliament. As colonists, they wanted to be treated on equal footing as their counterparts in Great Britain
Tyranny: cruel, unreasonable, or arbitrary use of power or control.
Enlist and support our youth (who are full of energy) to make positive changes in response to heinous rulings that will affect them the most, too many to mention, but most existentially, climate action and guns. Then there is the assault on bodily autonomy and the mind ("re-education" in the name of anti-CRT and anti-LGBTi is already underway in many states). The time is now to support and join with our youth to ensure a better future for them and the world. We must persist!
How often I have told myself just that…it’s not as bad as it seems. Well, it is. Still one must plow on
They’ve plowed and fenced my cattle range and the people there are all so strange.
A friend of mine here grew up in Texas. Her mother, a lifelong Texan, recently moved to California, then made the trip to visit my friend here in Europe. She declared "when people ask where I'm from I just say California." Which made me think of that song.
We sang Ole Texas in my Detroit elementary school. Today, a new meaning.
Thank you, Robert Hubbell & spot on Ellie.
I just applied to be an Elections Worker. I dare any of the folks set on intimidating workers and voters to mess with my shift!!
Thank you, Hope. I have been an election worker since TFG. Now I am running for Treasurer of my County in Indiana. I would have never dreamed that I would be doing this. I am so determined to win in this Republican County!
You go! Good luck!
Best wishes and many blessings, Sharon!
Thank you, Hope!
Brava, Sharon! Have you connected with Run For Something for support? How can we support you?
🇺🇸
I just checked and I don't qualify I am much too old. I was born in 1943 but still have a lot to give to the party and my service! Just not enough years left apparently. I have a daughter 60 and one 45 and neither one of them would qualify!
No I haven't. Ellie, I have never done this before. I have no idea what I should do. I am working fundraisers and attending public gatherings wearing my campaign shirt. I have purchased signs and my big expense besides door to door will be a couple of expensive billboards. It appears that I am really going to need this job as Treasurer because of the increase in the cost of utilities in my area.
Right and that also depends on the ethics and morality of each of the circuit courts. Some have already proven themselves in some cases, but many with Moscow Mitch appointees can still upend things.
Thank you for sharing this... I was feeling quite hopeless before I read it. 🙏🏻
Mr Hubbell somehow forgets that the federal court of last resort is the rogue stench court!
Louis, Mr. Hubbell is sharply aware of 8 reactionary SCOTUS opinions this term alone. Hubble's proposed remedies are in Today's Substack essay.
Thanks Ellie. I needed that.
Ellie, I write in response to the foregoing excerpt from Robert’s Newsletter, wherein he states, “…federal courts can still review those actions.” Were that to happen, the dispute ultimately would reach the Supreme Court that already had ruled.
Considering the North Carolina case lays the groundwork for precisely the kind of power grab that Trump and his cronies were trying to pull off in 2020, I see no recourse but for the President to act while our party still controls both Houses. This would involve exerting unprecedented pressure to exempt the filibuster and call for an up or down majority vote to add 4 justices to the High Court. I say 4 because in 1789 there were 6 federal circuit courts and 6 justices, one assigned to each. Today there are 13 federal circuit courts but only 9 justices, an imbalance, several have argued, that has reduced the number of cases the High Court can hear.
I hope you are right!
You forgot the one heinous black man. No doubt Joe B regrets his yes vote for Clarence. As Joy Reid reported yesterday. Clarence was quoted as saying that liberals had made his life hell for 43 years and he was going to make their life hell for 43 more. He is the useful tool that will do just that, with Ginni’s help
A former boss of mine--an abusive supervisor and truly dreadful human being, used to brag about her husband, an old college friend of Thomas' testifying that Anita Hill harbored a secret crush on Clarence and was just a woman scorned. It was the bro code in action and clear indication that some better-off black people are perfectly happy to throw other, less-powerful black people under the bus. Look at the "Jack and Jill Club," of wealthy black people, which for years rejected membership applicants who couldn't pass the infamous 'paper bag test' of skin tone. Clarence, who majored in dormitory pot smoking at Assumption College, clearly doesn't give a damn how many black people he hurts to get his revenge on liberals.
He said as much, as vile a cretin as any light skinned vermin…including Ginni
Perhaps if Thomas were not so "emotionally challenged" he would not have sexually harassed Anita Hill, thereby attracting to himself so much negative opinion during his confirmation hearings. And perhaps he would have seen that liberals are people who are in large part compassionate towards their fellow human beings, wanting to do what is right for the majority of citizens and to "lift all boats" with the tide of history. Clarence, it's not "liberals" who made your life hell, it's YOU. And by the way, the carnage you are doing with your radical, anti-democracy, antediluvian rulings will damage the entire country and world, which, last time we checked, contained quite a few non-liberals...as well as the children and grandchildren of radical Republicans. At this point, no amount of money or power or revenge enjoyed by petty, emotionally damaged, selfish Republicans like you, Clarence, (and Moscow Mitch,) will save or protect the younger generation of children and grandchildren of Republicans being raised in this world you disrespect and destroy with such juvenile satisfaction. You need professional help from a good therapist, Clarence, not revenge.
That is a keeper, CC. Love it. We should all write letters to the entire SCOTUS with that message. And letters to the editor as well.
Thank you, Pensa! If they cared about and could see anything beyond the tip of their prejudice against everyone who doesn't believe as they do, they might worry or respond to criticism about how they're damaging so many things. But they don't care. Even so, I like your idea and it can't hurt to show them how many people think they're in a narrow, dangerous, hateful world of their own. Amazing that all of the Republicans on this frankly evil, far, far right Supreme Court know they are writing irrational, legally stupid and often conflicting opinions just to destroy all the laws they've been dying to change. That means they do not respect the Supreme Court at all. They only care about inhaling every Supreme Court opinion, no matter how settled, that offends their "off the charts" fascist beliefs. Never thought of this before now. But I wonder how much they are being paid individually to destroy democracy? Or do they do it for just a pat on the head from the Koch Brothers, the Mercers, the DeVos Family, Moscow Mitch, Kevin McCarthy and Vladimir Putin?
I think there are kickbacks for all of them in some form or another. Can't wait to see who will crack...
Sounds like he is as revengeful as TFG. Nice... we might need a revolution to clean out the swamp. Let's see what our justice system does about terrorists in our government.
But Clarence is white in his thinking and persona.
He is a traitor to his race, his way of being "special," likely a toadie to his Pharisee wife.
He is a small, weak and vindictive man who enjoys his position of black mascot for the political right. Consider how he was nominated. Thurgood Marshall had died and Poppy Bush went looking around for a black jurist who was also a conservative Republican. That narrowed the field considerably, so creepy mediocrity Clarence got the nomination.
I think Poppy Bush would be horrified by what his choice for the SC is doing to his, and our, country.
He has been brainwashed by Ginni-- he thinks he is white.
As an originalist, he’s only 3/5ths a man to begin with, and Ginni’s property.
Well, not really, because women can't own property...
So is the cavalier racism against blacks that no one is noticing.
Oreo
Oh, there you have it!! Clarence Oreo Thomas.
Actually Biden did not vote for Thomas. Many people don’t know that but it is true.
https://www.newsweek.com/fact-check-did-joe-biden-ensure-clarence-thomas-joined-supreme-court-1720275
Don't know much about the 2022 version of Newsweek, but this is a whitewash. No, then-Sen Biden didn't VOTE FOR Thomas, but he had control of the Judiciary Comm hearings on his nomination and refused to pursue OR ALLOW testimony of other women who could have corroborated Prof Hill's testimony re his abusive and sexist behavior, and Biden let him get away with his "legal lynching" "outburst" (the model for BeerBoy's grossly disrespectful faux-emotional response to (a woman's) testimony re HIS past drunken and assaultive behavior). Newsweek's "mostly false" simply ignores everything but Biden's VOTE against Thomas; Biden IS responsible for having ENABLED Thomas's confirmation. And he knows it.
As written in this fact check Biden voted against Thomas’s confirmation.
Here we are about to celebrate July 4th our Declaration of Independence and it feels like we have a Supreme Court destroying any semblance of democracy. With all of the problems Biden and his team have been facing and tackling— I can’t imagine how hard this court will make it to have a fair election ever and to help the world respond to climate change. Surely I’m not the only one despondent.
I think we should all wear black armbands of mourning our democracy this 4th of July weekend!
A woman in California proposed women boycotting the 4th celebrations in response to the Roe ruling. Many on social media told her to go back where she came from. Others voiced support. I have been pounding the computer keys with letters to my state and federal reps about the implications of Roe's demise. If I wrote today I wouldn't know where to begin. But I did imagine the optics of the National Mall on the 4th with no women present. Frederick Douglas stated the 4th was nothing for his people to celebrate.
This year I agree with Frederick.
Something like that but my mood is black enough.
I agree with making this a national weekend of mourning.
Who’s celebrating?
I am tempted to fly the flag upside down.
If you look at my photo, it is a distressed flag broach made out of safety pins and beads. The safety pins are "I have your back". There are rows of black beads on either side of the flag and at the bottom there is several rows of beads that can be pink pussy hats for women rights, or black, brown, white, red yellow beads to mean all races and people. I made these and have a sheet of instructions on how to make them.
Great idea! I made safety pin flags years ago and still have the pins and beads. Thanks!
It has been sent. Enjoy!
4 white men and 1 Black man, the latter who disavowed Affirmative Action while sucking up to the white establishment who put him on the court!
So it seems their only concerns revolve around deregulation and corporate profits. Such limited vision.
I guess if the rich can’t get richer and richer, they won’t be able to afford setting up a new home on Mars, and they will have to suffer here on the ruined Earth like every one else.
The filibuster can be done away with IF the Democrats win at least two more Senate seats in November. Then the Supreme Court can be expanded to 13 justices, assuming Biden doesn't cave.
In the meantime, a dynamic leader of the Democratic Party needs to emerge, someone the masses can rally around leading up to the presidential election. A candidate who appeals broadly to the party's wings, independents, and minorities. This is a very tall order.
I’m voting for Katie! I’d love to see her take the white board to NATO and G-8 meetings.
Gavin Newsom has the look. I have no idea how he is as a political force.
It’s all a tall order— the hard right want to go fascist and I think they’ll get their way.
Liz, I think you are correct.
Four white guys and one non-Black black man.
When you ask how much lower can justices of this court go I am reminded of this refrain. In deep despair I was advised “cheer up things could be worse“ Sure enough I cheered up and things got worse.
Yes and frankly I’m expecting things to just keep getting worse. I’ve always been an optimist too.
It is what Steve Bannon wanted. Why, I always wondered? For the temporary benefit of the wealthiest nutcases?
I guess the wealthiest nutcases will be celebrating.
I agree. Reality is firmly setting in.
NOT THE FIRST TIME.
Important to listen to Professor Richardson on her Facebook chat today. Her conclusive 2 minutes sets an imperative course for the next two years on a very dark day in this country. To think the Supreme Court would present their rogue and arrogant majority stance in yet another destructive opinion before the people’s Independence Day celebration weekend. Has the conscience of this majority gone temporarily (one hopes) mad and missing? Very tiny and acerbically minded of them.
Give an hour of your day to listen to this important conversation. I will keep it in mind as my first and only sparkler for the weekend.
https://www.facebook.com/heathercoxrichardson/videos/history-chat-mostly-politics-today-im-afraid/1129851077608040/
Salud and may we stay United! 🗽
I started listening to the history chat, and I had to pause it. HCR said the court had gone rogue. These people are NOT conservative by any definition of that word. They are radical right wing extremists. TCinLA had the right idea when he posted a picture of the radicals on the court in “Taliban” garb in his Substack newsletter, That’s Another Fine Mess. This horrible EPA opinion will have terrible consequences. As a disaster survivor in coastal NC, I cringe thinking about the future. I bet people on West Coast who have survived wildfires feel worried too. This court is creating rules out of whole cloth!
I heard the EPA Adminstrator on PBS Newshour last night. If I heard "tools in our toolbox" 1 more time I was going to fast forward. He needs to have short easy to understand points to make about what those tools are, be crisp and cogent.
Thank's for the link! Only one thing I would add: This development of the US has been furthered by your enemies. The step barbarians of Russia are cooperating with the barbarian capitalists of the US. Putins Russia would love to see chaos in the US, and in particular the end of US dollar dominance, that would fall out as a overripe fruit from a second civil war.
And THAT, I believe, Olof, will be subject of the J6 Committee... I just feel sure of it. We are at war and have been for 6.5 years.
The very same war and enemies as Ukraine, right now.
Thanks, Christine, but I left Facebook a year after tfg took over, and won't go back. Is there a way for me to trick it and access Heather?
I cannot access my very old facebook personal and business site due to old emails.
I only used the the business site to announce workshops. However, there are times I can access and the link above allowed me to access. Try it Anne-Louise! It is a lovely, sneaky way to access FB for political reasons.
This Sunday, we have a Putney Gathering on the Green for Roe vs Wade that includes some of our Vermont legislators and other speakers. This protest/meeting will now take on a much greater docket. Please check your local areas for gatherings and attend!
I have a band chum that taught History and Green Mountain College.
Oregon and VT have a lot in common, except fire. That is in my belly right now here in VT.
I look forward to connecting with others ready to stand up for our country fully in these next two years.
I did too. So this link is perfect.
Yes. That link will take you to the post.
Thanks, got it!!
It has been posted on her YouTube channel.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wcmBN-9G8q4&t=18s
Anne-Louise hi, Heather posts her videos on Youtube with a couple of days delay. Here's the link to her account: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnbKOlm6H9njgmN-Yil90Rg/videos
They are available on YouTube. Here's the link for the one done yesterday. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wcmBN-9G8q4. Please share.
Me, too, Anne-Louise, me, too.
You Tube?
Everything Heather records is on You Tube. I just checked. You do not have to be on Facebook. YAY!
I did listen to Heather's Thursday "chat" after a round of golf and while I weeded the garden . . . those weeds didn't stand a chance! She did say if anyone thought it would be a reassuring talk, they might not want to listen. I listened and read today's letter as well. We saw the train wreck coming and it really is horrifying.
Thank you, Christine!
It was a great history lesson. I feel she is a top notch professor in every way. I learn every time I listen to her….thanks for the tip, Christine!
Every American is so fortunate to have her. If only all would listen.
Thank you Christine. 💕
Nothing "quasi" about it. It's the real thing.
"Quasi" is too weak. It's a coup by pronouncements, cloaked in devious, illogical legalese.
Bottom line: our constitutional system has been hacked. It's just like the founders never anticipated a political party not participating in governing. Or the inherent anti-democratic evolution of the electoral college via the addition of so many low-population states. Or the adoption of a Senate rule that gives the party now in power the power to block widely supported legislation.
The founders never anticipated political parties at all. They only developed at the end of Washington's second administration. This is one reason I can't stomach this "originalism" crap.
Great minds must think alike, Michael. I had that exact thought this morning while reading Heather’s Letter. These six bastards are ramming so much bad law and evil decisions down the Majoritys’ throats, yes We, the People. Our throats. I am ready to puke!
After Puking, Carry Water, Chop wood for our country....
A Buddhist monk said: Before enlightenment, carry water, chop wood. After enlightenment, carry water, chop wood. My axe is sharpened and my bucket full….
Have they jumped the shark this time, my perpetual question during the four years of tfg
I totally agree . They must be stopped. But how? This current 6 SCROTUS judges are taking a lightening fast wrecking ball to our time worn legislative rulings and laws and are not looking back. Each day with them is like each day with Trump, another new horror, another freak show. I am wracking my brain out to try to see what we, the people can do. Suggestions welcome here. Drastic times require drastic actions.
I don’t see how they can be stopped, without a time machine. Forget Obama, Dubyah, even Reagan. The most consequential politician of the last 40 years is Mitch McConnell. McConnell’s evil plan to control the courts, hatched 30+ years ago, has succeeded.
What I have been yelling about these last few years. HE is the power behind this despicable group of traitors to American commonweal. Truly, what do we do now besides get out the vote to change the Senate? Is there hope that Thomas will go down with his wife due to current investigation? Can Kavanaugh and that tool Catholic school girl (not maligning all Catholic school girls as I graduated from Marymount College, now Loyola Marymount University, and the majority of us are not her) be impeached? What actually can be done? Are there enough truly American judges out there to stop some of the atrocities? In my 80’s now and have seen my whole life’s worth of laws that helped Americans be erased. I have always joyfully celebrated the 4th, but now decorating outside the house seems MAGA-like and possibly misunderstood. Bush II ruined all the freedom slogans , and now McConnell using Trump has ruined everything else. I need a strong dose of hope!
“Drastic times require drastic action” is starting to sound more and more like the corner that we have been boxed into. Perhaps instead of sitting by and helplessly watching them dismantle the evolved world we live in, we should dismantle the SC. We could impeach at least 3 of them for lying to us, we can help them with their legacy, impeached for lying to the people of the United States, would fit just fine. My next thought is crazy, I will be the first to admit, and I know that almost all of you will disagree with it; maybe the military should arrest them, no need for trials since they would have been at the pinnacle of a legal system had they not been taking it apart, give them a choice resign or be hung for treason. Like I said it’s drastic but it would solve our problem.” It would open up a thousand cans of worms 🪱 that we would never want to open”, will probably be a dispassionate answer to other than “that’s insane”, however if we are going to loose our country just by playing out the hand we have now got, maybe we should consider it. Otherwise you can look at it like a game of chess that while nominally still playing, we have already lost. If our democracy is already lost what do we have to loose. These are dark days indeed and they give rise to dark thoughts. Sorry to have given them voice but you know that if I, who love this country, have them, others must as well.
Adding 3 new members to the Court is the most accessible and also the one most likely to lead to the kind of results we need for democracy to survive. Talk of a violent and illegal solution would not only escalate the schism we are trying to work around and almost certainly would lead to all kinds of even more violent reactions. Think things through, please.
I was just thinking out loud Annie, if the game is now stacked so that we will inevitably loose our beloved democracy, what will we do to prevent that from happening? I think impeaching them is the best option regardless of wether they would be convicted in the senate. The clown was impeached twice, he will forever carry those impeachments with him, I don't think he's smart enough to know what that means, but the 3 sitting on the SC do for sure. I also wonder if they would make those choices if their lives were on the line, is it unfair to ask them that question, a lot of women are going to be facing that very same question because of the SC choices.
Sometimes "thinking out loud" means that things aren't thought through well enough to understand the ramifications. We have a responsibility for what we say and write (think Trump and his off the top of his head methodology).
I don't disagree with you about impeachment being the ideal, but then reality gets in the way. Process is same as for President. If we couldn't impeach Trump with the evidence we had, how in the world are we going to impeach three justices? Yeah, they are coo-coo and shouldn't be in a position to make any kind of legal decisions. But there they are. We can wonder all we want, but what we do has to be possible and doable.
What we've got that we can probably pull off is adding to the court. That's been done before so there is precedent. And it would work to hold our government in place while we work on the overall process of governance that's gotten too far away from the needs and desires of the people (not the states: the people).
Someone else (prob Heather, but I read so much that sometimes if I don't have notes in front of me, I lose track) the other day suggested another tactic. The Constitution doesn't say beans about what the duties of the Supreme Court should be, nor the writing of the founders. For all we know, they just thought of the SC as the final arbiter of case appeals and other misc legal matters at federal level. At any rate, it could be as simple as Congress passing a law that says that the SC is not to review passed laws in terms of their constitutionality, which should be assumed since the law was passed by Congress.
I think there is merit in considering this approach. Laws could still be challenged, as they are all the time, both in court and by reconsideration by Congress. Yep, there are some potential dangers here but I don't think this approach has nearly the pitfalls as what we have now.
I completely agree that the Supreme Court as it currently exists is a rogue court, and itself unconstitutional. It'd be good to be able to impeach the questionable justices, but try getting that through the Senate. Exercise in futility, and dangerous in itself.
“We could impeach…”? How? It takes a 2/3s vote in the Senate to convict an impeached justice. That will never happen. Impeachment, while maybe justified, is a pipe dream.
The house would probably have the votes to impeach and that would be a large stain they will never be able to wash off, and who knows with the senate, most of them have children and grandchildren.
This Senate? They couldn’t vote to impeach Trump.
It is so visceral...I feel like my insides are gripped so tight and I can't let go. I can'y even process the specifics every single day this week! It is overwhelming me...so I read and I read and listen...all I can say is thank God we have this place to come here and talk from our gut...
How? Dark money has funded The Federalist Society since Citizens United, and clearly have an agenda. With Moscow Mitch’s help, they finally get to realize it. They’re not done yet. So hard to watch
Indeed. VOTE.
Nothing “quasi” about this coup. The court is following Trump’s doctrine. So he won.
How can they be stopped??? There must be a way the decent people of our country can DO SOMETHING? But what?
How Mike? How? They've got us.
It's not check-mate yet. How? The main answer (and I certainly don't have them all) is to mobilize the vote as if we're in a war to save the nation.
messaging! So many whom I have talked to all say the same thing - I voted last time and got nothing for it. And just voting isn't enough! To which I say - you helped prevent Trump from winning, and the Senate from going red. That is huge. AND - the system is stacked against the slim majority. It wants a huge majority to be there in order to really act. And that is why this November is so so important. That message has to ring loud and clear and constant. Otherwise what will happen is exactly what Republicans expect, and that is for too many people to just stay home.
Excellent points. Just shows that many voters don't know what's been delivered: huge growth in employment, efficient distribution of Covid vaccines, stimulus checks, massive infrastructure spending, and more.
Even though the turnout in 2020 for the presidential election was the highest in 120 years, 80 million people didn't vote. A bigger turnout is needed in 2024 to compensate for rampant voter suppression.
https://www.npr.org/2020/12/15/945031391/poll-despite-record-turnout-80-million-americans-didnt-vote-heres-why
MB: "Isn’t this rogue court engaged in a quasi coup? " Yes.
This action is allied with Grover Norquist's dream (since he was in high school, no less), to 'stamp out big government', and his words, (2001) "I'm not in favor of abolishing the government. I just want to shrink it down to the size where we can drown it in the bathtub."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grover_Norquist#Views_on_government
Let's nominate that Grover deserves a "Leonard Leo Crusade Honorable Mention" trophy.
THAT, friends, is another paving stone on the path of the (current-era) 'Tea Party,' wrecking ball: Newt Gingrich, the Reagan 'revolution' (for which, I suspect, RR was more just a 'useful player' spokes-model rather than deep-thinking government-affairs policy wonk. The attack points on government vary. Taxes (Grover's pet peeve). "Regulation" (hello big oil and coal, any polluting industry, or any labor-intensive industry trying to bust unions). How about privatizing the Social Security trust fund (hello banking-finance). And in last week's SCOTUS ruling, reproductive choice and bodily autonomy for child-bearing persons.
And, issues to come will be tagged "morality," how's that for a squishy subject of Orwellian dimensions. How about the desire to establish the nation as a "Christian nation," hello Colorado Rep. Boebert: "The church is supposed to direct the government. The government is not supposed to direct the church. That is not how our founding fathers intended it. And I am tired of this separation of church and state junk. It's not in the Constitution."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lauren_Boebert#Separation_of_church_and_state
You could say Koch is the center-pin. Or Heritage Society. Or certain church organizations (who should have their religious tax-exempt status stripped if they are going to bring guns+theocracy to the public table.)
These single-issue attacks are working effectively towards a goal. Recognize the direction we are headed, as HCR is so, so clear to point out; I just listened to the 6/30 youtube posting (link elsewhere in comments for today). Hello 1854 era. Hello patriarchy. Hello land-owner / ruling class / white is the voting class. And the ugly, ignorant, 'go back to some other country you came from-ism.'
Some of my Irish / English ancestors crossed an ocean, the ostensible goal (after all the shoving native aside and warring and asserting bold claims and manifest destiny) was to escape a certain tyranny of kings and lords. Or maybe it was to escape a prison sentence, I'm not sure which, or both, or the Protestant vs. Catholic schism. With our industrial and now information revolutions, the new tyrant is... something unique and not present at the nation's founding, I fear, something entirely and just as hideous as an evil monarch or fascist tyrant, yet not embodied (necessarily) in one individual: a new kind of tyrant.
Living where I do now, I can tell you, media saturation is key, as in, Kansas is "midwest nice," and has little to no independent media penetration into the thick skulls of the folks that are born and raised here. The repetition of lies, quashing of independent thought, "fear of the other"-ism, theocratic ambitions, and bad education is key to the failure of the American experiment.
It's all breathtaking. The scope, the relentlessness, the audacity, the cruelty, the lying...the list is endless.
Indeed.
There’s nothing “quasi” about it.
“They must be stopped.”
Yes, but by whom and how?
It's us and by whatever lawful means we have at our disposal - voting, protesting, showing up at the boring local, municipal and school board meetings, keeping each other encouraged here and on other social media.
Yes.
Yes. But how??
How is it that the Supreme Court is now running the United States government?
I think that’s why I had no words. We have essentially gone back 100, Maybe 200 years. Women’s rights are being stripped away, gun’s rights are enhanced, and our environment can now be polluted to oblivion. This Supreme Court is criminal.
The belief in White Supremacy, that white people constitute a superior race and should therefore dominate society; White Nationalists; autocrats, absolute power by a few over the populace; greed, grievance addition, misogynists; majority rule of religiously oriented Christian, right-wing justices on the Supreme Court; while shrinking in size, fundamentalist Christianity, nevertheless, exerts undue influence; disinformation and conspiracy theories spread by social media and Fox News disorient many of the country's citizens and a large gang of ghoulishly dangerous traitors, many of whom working within the government -- are all crawling around as termites, rodents, skunks, and snakes devouring the very structure of the peoples' house.
Just got both cans of Raid out from the back of my kitchen cabinet.
Unita, fab Fern! 🗽
Just what we need at this time: Christine -- fast, fierce and armed with insecticide.
Do you have any Nazis spray, Christine? I need to get some.
Oh yes. It’s called roach spray in English.
Make sure you get the foolproof kind.
Oh, thanks for your translation...I should have known that, I studied German years ago...and Nazis, obsessively! Looking for the Foolproof Kind with my neighbors and legislators this Sunday afternoon!!
It’s called “Vote the Bastards Out” spray…..
Love your adjectives
Disgustingly and perfectly poetic for these continuing times, Fern.
Heart to heart, Pensa. We are together.
The GD heart button won’t work so here’s a ❤️
"We have essentially gone back 100, maybe 200 years."
More than that, more than that.
To the time of the Articles of Confederation, that limbo from which the Constitution was supposed to raise the country.
Lex asinus est.
Let us not insult donkeys with words like "asinine".
Here we have what may prove to be the greatest example in the millennium of George Bernard Shaw's condemnation of learned professions as "a conspiracy against the laity".
A CONSPIRACY AGAINST THE PUBLIC.
Cfr. GBS Preface to The Doctor's Dilemma and Adam Smith's remark in The Wealth of Nations about how, when people of the same trade meet together the conversation tends to become a conspiracy against the public or "some contrivance to raise prices".
Peter, at its core, it’s prejudice. Pure and simple. Tribal intolerance.
You have said it, and unfortunately you are quite right.
"White man's juju", regardless of the learned legal trumpery in which it is dolled up.
Thought-free.
Fundamentally, there is only one road. One road, two directions. We have allowed ourselves to be led down the wrong one.
Time to turn.
NOW.
Peter! Quick, get a big trash can lid from that wrong road, start banging on it and get the attention of people to the correct path!!! See me? I’m already there with my band getting loud. https://youtu.be/Q91hydQRGyM
Oh yes, I see a lot of people moving on the road to our freedoms! See me? I’m that little white girl with the pigtails drawing flags and peace signs on the sidewalk! https://youtu.be/3YHVC1DcHmo
Unita! 🗽
Don’t forget the one black man whose ire is still at a boil…
It's still White Man's Juju, Jeri.
But don't ask me to try to comprehend the almost measureless resentment that seems to explain that man's actions and inaction.
Prejudice allied with the lust for power and money. An alliance from Hell.
I think this is worse than tribal intolerance, Sandy. This is war and began a long time ago but was initiated in full when the beast came down the escalator with his red sparrow wife.
Corporations as people have replaced flesh and blood people, the public.
Yes. Criminal. Actually insane. Gaslight Inc.
It is a terrorist cell against the USA.
I don't know if logic counts for anything, but these good Foes of the Earth are indeed hoist of their own petard -- they've provided a perfect reductio ad absurdum of their Originalist doctrine.
Since, however, the more radical among them do appear to be bent on dissolving the Constitution in an acid bath, along with the body politic, perhaps to establish a billionaire variation on the divers squirearchies that adorned the 13 Colonies, it may be that this apparent self-destruction will count for them as a success.
Or could they envy Russia's current limelight as "the universal enemy"?
It would be a remarkable achievement: universal scorn and hatred both in space and in such time as remains to the posterity of homo sapiens.
I think they are duped by putin and power and white supremacy. CINOs.
Don’t forget, Karen, they will all choke from the pollution….many women in their lives, including their daughters, will have to seek abortions somewhere and they may be killed by guns they were happy to protect. It all comes back in the end. People all over the world are coping with this, and much worse, cruelty.
They are not running it. They are dismantling it.
That is the correct assessment, Lynn. May the People absolutely not allow it.
Unita! 🗽
Because the US Government is not working (except to print money from the Fed to feed to corporations, $5 Trillion in the last two years).
Republicans have showstopped all legislation for a decade.
So, the court justices are legislating through the judical branch because they can.
Republicans have stacked the court with their paid mercenaries and now they will roll down the street pushing their will on everyone.
It is brilliant because: The Justices are appointed for life and doing legislative dirty work saves legislators on the Republican side from blowback if they wrote laws like this.
The Pubs know how to play hardball. No doubt.
And the masses are too busy slaving away to put food on the table (and now gas in our gas guzzlers) to pay attention to "politics".
That is the nail slammed on its head. My husband also represents too many. He reads about it, but doesn't want to talk about it or get involved with standing against the Dark Side. He is so frustrating. He will vote blue, but won't do much more. Many people I know are the same.
Sadly true. I fear that even if 'Awakening" now those gamely existing it's too late. We have to crush the midterms.
And have from the 60’s. Cheating, dirty tricks, lawbreaking, propaganda, you name it, they’ve done it.
Feeling hopeless and helpless? Heather's suggestion: One essential job we all have now is to learn about the real mechanics of persuasive language. She estimates we have maybe 2 yrs.
Studying how to be as effective as those who are already masters at 'framing the conversation' have been so far... is ON THE BALLOT!
We have a lot of catching up to do since we're way behind! 😊
Get a copy of George Lakoff's tiny book with BIG ideas, "Don't Think of an Elephant!" Simple, enlightening and empowering. Maybe $2 -$4 on alibris.com? We have work to do.
👍🏼
Blatant corruption in full view.
Yup, we are seeing it with our own eyes! After my tears this morning, I am mad as hell! Will go into the fray next week to help my local Democrat club register new voters in this red county.
Lynn, it’s a good thing we humans are so complicated. I just finished 200 postcards to Arizona voters. I won’t give up. Ever. But hard not to be discouraged. Have to work on that.
I hear you.
Time to open a can of whoop ass and take them to the woodshed before we start believing they are allowed to.
Salud Susan! 🗽
I like your attitude.
Right now, we need to keep ourselves and each other propped up with attitude like that.
🙋🏻🙋🏼🙋🏽🙋🏾🙋🏿🗽
Because that's the way Trump wanted it.
From way before chump, he is the useful fool, just like Clarence. Both with flame throwers
These recent abrogations of precedent and reversals of stare decisis form the core principles on which the Federalist Society was created by, among others, Antonin Scalia.
The Federalist Society's primary purpose has been to cloak those principles - hamstringing government regulation of business, minimization of civil liberties, empowering oligarchs and autocrats - in academic and intellectual legitimacy.
A great example of that cloaking takes the form of Justice Alito's shabby quotation of Sir Matthew Hale, a discredited 18th century English jurist largely responsible for the abhorrent common law doctrine that a husband, no matter how violent or non-consensual, could never be guilty of raping his wife. Alito relied on Hale for the common-law understanding of "when life begins," and even then, in a disingenuous sleight of hand, Alito appears to have substituted conception for quickening.
What amazes me is how many women I know who quietly or willingly supported Trump who now bemoan this loss of a fundamental human right.
Without Trump's appointments of Gorsuch, Kavanaugh and Coney-Barrett, all Federalist Society members, these reversals could never have occurred.
Elections have consequences.
But what scares me, the women that support this move! Literally posting god is good, the babies that will be saved, god’s will is being done. I’m so sickened!
Should I start a list of women that would turn me in for supporting rights? Maybe our new school shirts this year should be brown.
:-(
It's pretty disheartening, isn't it?
Until their own preteen daughters happen to get impregnated via rape or incest.
If we can prove, or the J6 Committee can prove that TFG was "installed by putinand the rethuglicans and fiddled with our country's election...can he and all his thugs and policies become null and void as the coup against our republic?
‘…academic and intellectual legitimacy..’ while I appreciate the research into Sammie Alito’s basis for making his own laws, I find that his and the majority’s reasoning is pseudo intellectual at best!
Legitimate!? Consider, in 1980 Reagan started the false narrative that government is the problem. Since then the gop has dedicated itself to doing nothing for the common folk, the party of NO! Now, they proudly proclaim, see we told you government is the problem!
The oligarchs provide dark money for looney right wing egg heads to come up with outrageous theories. Doubt that any of their papers are peer reviewed by an independent academic group! Other right wing egg heads repeat or expand on the written drivel , voila it must be true!
I don’t know the Latin term for the logical fallacy which is perpetuated by the gop, perhaps it falls under the category of circular reasoning!
A case in point, since 2010 the right wing controlled the state legislature in North Carolina has underfunded public education.
Parents ( possibly funded or urged by right easing groups) complained that the public school was not meeting the needs of their child.
Right wing Solution, vouchers with an income test for private school tuition. The right wing controlled state Supreme Court allowed the voucher program based on their reasoning, not law, that the money was going to public children!!!??
Since the onset of the voucher program, the funding has increased with every budget and the income limit is now well above double the poverty level!
The gop created the problem then implemented their desired outcome.
Public education in Wisconsin is under the same attack. Starve the public schools and send tax money to private voucher schools. Even starving our great public universities.
But the dems gave the defense department even MORE money then they requested. So, oh dear, no money left for schools, for healthcare, for building affordable housing….
So Heather indicates in her FB discourse that we have two years to act to salvage democracy. She suggests the actual powers of the justices are vaguely defined and that we should demand that Congress tighten the job description to curtail this drastic overreach. Anyone have the legal expertise to tackle what the revised duties of the Supreme Court justices should look like?
This is a great group to ask! Or Glenn Kirschner!
Looking on from Europe, I don’t understand why the Democratic Party doesn’t live up to its name and fight back - not only individuals like Newsom and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, but the Democratic Party as an institution. It should be on a war footing (political, legislative, judicial, institutional), but instead, it’s business and internecine squabbling as usual.
I read this morning that Joe Biden signed more oil drill permits than Donald Trump. If that’s true, it’s clear that the Democratic Party is no more interested in slowing down global heating than are the Republicans. In those circumstances, its protests over the EPA case sound hollow.
The Democratic Party wasted years in neglecting state legislatures, with the result that even in swing states where they might command majorities, they have been trounced by the GOP.
On the question of abortion, I note that unlike every other country where women have had that right enshrined in law, the US never bothered to do so - or rather, the Democratic Party never bothered. It assumed that Roe v Wade - a decision taken on the basis of privacy, not equality - would suffice and would stand, even though it was the stated intention of Republicans to overturn it.
Such hubris in the Democratic Party reminds me of that other hubris, in 1933, which led the Nazi Party to power because the opposition parties could not agree to cooperate in opposing it, and had spent 15 years fighting each other.
Here’s a lesson from history: when freedom is lost, it’s exceedingly hard to regain it. It often takes generations, or a long fratricidal war, to do so, if it can be done at all.
Annis,
Excellent post indeed. Thank you. "It (the Democratic Party) should be on a war footing (political, legislative, judicial, institutional), but instead, it’s business and internecine squabbling as usual."
Yes, the Republicans do seem to be much better at organizing and executing. I think this is because the legislators themselves are NOT doing that action. Rather, big corporations, large donors and religious organizations are doing the on the ground work.
Republican legislators have not done anything, except fruther cut taxes in 2017, since Bush declared war on Iraq based on lies.
However, rich Republicans with time on their hands have been organizing and acting.
The Heritage foundation, by paying off Presidents and Justices alike, has gained control of the Supreme Court.
One area where the Republicans do seem to have been more legislatively aggressive was in 2010, while Obama and the Democrats slept, through the very aggressive Gerrymandering that was done in Republican states. Not a peep of opposition from the Dems.
Just whining and crying when the results came in.
Anyway, very good post. Thanks.
"Just whining and crying when the results came in" describes the Democrats and the Democratic Party to a T.
Indeed, it's as if there had been a secret understanding reached that the Democrats would let the Republicans proceed with this dismantling of democracy... an agreement that would, could, only have been made by those so wealthy that they're living in a bubble.
It’s possible… though I tend to believe in the “cock ups and cowards” version of history. True conspiracies (successful ones) are rare. Or so successful in their myth making that they succeed in hiding their conspiracist beginnings for a long time (e.g. the Bolshevik coup that displaced the original 1917 Russian Revolution).
You nailed us perfectly
As I mentioned in another post, when I was texting to GOTV in a swing state primary a few days ago, a voter responded with.....Republicans take away our rights and Democrats are doing nothing about, so why should I vote - just organize.
“ In the one term Trump’s three justices have been on the court, they have decimated the legal landscape under which we have lived for generations, slashing power from the federal government, where Congress represents the majority, and returning it to states, where a Republican minority can impose its will. Thanks to the skewing of our electoral system, those states are now poised to take control of our federal government permanently.”
This is the most chilling thing I have read in a long time.
Agreed
I would imagine that were you writing this with a pen, the script would be varied and shaky so angry you must be as am I, given the devastating decisions brought by this illegitimate court
Use that anger well.
"...It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they here gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."
I will be thinking about those words all weekend.
Salud, David! 🗽
How? I really want to know. What are your thoughts?
Two weeks and they destroyed the country. The 50 year campaign paid off.
As Richard Hofstadter pointed out back in 1954:
It can most accurately be called pseudo-conservative — I borrow the term from the study of The Authoritarian Personality published five years ago by Theodore W. Adorno and his associates — because its exponents, although they believe themselves to be conservatives and usually employ the rhetoric of conservatism, show signs of a serious and restless dissatisfaction with American life, traditions and institutions. They have little in common with the temperate and compromising spirit of true conservatism in the classical sense of the word... Their political reactions express rather a profound if largely unconscious hatred of our society and its ways — a hatred which one would hesitate to impute to them if one did not have suggestive clinical evidence.
Adorno and his co-workers found that their pseudo-conservative subjects, although given to a form of political expression that combines a curious mixture of largely conservative with occasional radical notions, succeed in concealing from themselves impulsive tendencies that, if released in action, would be very far from conservative. The pseudo-conservative, Adorno writes, shows “conventionality and authoritarian submissiveness” in his conscious thinking and “violence, anarchic impulses, and chaotic destructiveness in the unconscious sphere. . . . The pseudo conservative is a man who, in the name of upholding traditional American values and institutions and defending them against more or less fictitious dangers, consciously or unconsciously aims at their abolition.”
That describes Alito to a tee.
Thomas is additionally constantly angry with his knickers always in a knot cutting off circulation to his libido.
Kavanaugh is a dry drunk former frat brat.
Coney Barrett has her husband’s leash around her neck cutting off her vagus nerve from performing.
Roberts has not a set left after straddling the fence for so long.
And Gorusch. A sheep in cheap wolf’s clothing.
Always thanks to you, TC, for your stellar and curiously connecting references.
I though Brett baby was still in the "I like beer" column.
He doesn’t think beer is “real alcohol”. 🙄
Another poet in our midst!! Thank your for your accurate verbiage of our Scrotus.
"The pseudo conservative is a man who, in the name of upholding traditional American values and institutions and defending them against more or less fictitious dangers, consciously or unconsciously aims at their abolition"
TC, exactly correct.
We saw on Jan 6 all of the “authoritarian submissiveness”, “violence, anarchic impulses, and chaotic destructiveness.” Now the past two weeks of chaotic destructiveness from six on the Court.
Thanks, TC, for bringing in Hofstadter and Adorno. Everybody read this if you haven’t already.
TCinLA, Once again, a super description of long time plans of the “conservative” religious-based Republicans. I don’t often agree with Barry Goldwater, but he was right when he said “Mark my words. If and when the preachers get control of the (Republican) party, and they’re sure trying to do so, it’s going to be a terrible damn problem. Frankly, these people frighten me. Politics and governing demand compromise. But these Christians believe they are acting in the name of God, so they can’t and won’t compromise. I know; I’ve tried to deal with them.”
Which is why the WaPo headline's wording is so dangerous.
Are we thus completely completely hopeless?
Don’t tell me voting will fix this as it seems ‘the fix’ is in!
Voting can fix it. Congress could pass a law, mandatory retirement after 20 years of service for Justices, effective immediately. Thomas retirees immediately. Roberts and Alito gone in 4 years.
Voting only fixes it if scotus doesn't destroy the vote before November. Once that's done it's over. So yeah it's over. Unless they lose their majority...J6 justice dept action is our only hope as far as I can see. I think it's time democrats start playing dirty. I'm done with diplomacy. There's a time and place for that and it isn't here and now. We're dangling by a thread.
It ain't over just because they say it is over. They do not abide by any rules so WTF. We can do whatever we want-- we have power in numbers-- we just need to organize and we need to use our laws for those who subvert them towards autocracy. I believe J6 has Russia in its' sights. That is the final pulling back of this red curtain. We saw reputhuglican's fricking meeting in Moscow on the 4th of July. And look where we are this 4th of July weekend. Seems like a total coup they planned with the trump-putin axis. Be careful in crowds and at parades.... I do not trust any of them.
I remember Helsinki, so does Putin
Yep, some of us are elephants and never forget where traitors tread.
I'm certain this SCOTUS can find a reason that no one in government can be prosecuted for any acts committed while in office.
Unless you're a socialist, I mean, Democrat. Haha. Fullest extent for them!
From "Justice" Roberts upcoming opinion: "...while under the 'Democratic party appointees and hires are inherently illegitimate' doctrine as codified by the Founders..."
Sarah, I am using the word "socialized democracy in place of socialist since the brainwashed have had that word sinisterized. And then I list about 30 things that the brainwashed untilized because many of us want ALL of us to have a certain quality of life. Golden Rule philosophy instead of golden idol worshipping at the crooked one's crooked feet.
Yes. But there has been no effective counter-attack from the Democrats so far; I think we have to look elsewhere for leadership.
Sure there has! "We need a strong Republican party" from Pelosi, and "We should not expand the Supreme Court " from Biden was ENORMOUSLY effective. And now that they're saying, "Vote for Republicans, just not MAGA Republicans " the messaging couldn't be clearer or more differentiated. /s
True. But where?
Congress has proven over and over again it is hamstrung.
Voting is fast becoming an illusion!
Sorry!
As much as I agree, and as frustrated as I am, I still think we need to do our damnedest to turn out the vote.
Two more Democratic Senators could revoke the filibuster.
Holding the House would empower all of us.
As Yoda says, "Do or do not. There is no try."
This is exactly how I feel. Now is not the time to give up. We can do this.
Yes, Yoda! I’ll Do and I’ll still try!!!
Voting might have fixed this a decade ago, but now? We might be waiting for a miracle. Listening to Heather Cox Richardson on FB today, I heard a very discouraged voice. https://www.facebook.com/heathercoxrichardson/videos/1129851077608040/
Absolutely not discouraged. I think vital to watch it as she explains everything that is going on, in context, with historical perspective and with possible outcomes. She was describing the emergency we are in and what we can do to about it. "We have two years". She is a force of nature. A brilliant guide for us.
Morning, Irene. I found her voice tired, but not discouraged at all.
Unita! 🗽
Christine and Wendy, thank you. Attitude is important.
Change or stop the filibuster! Immediately!
Without the votes it's not possible. I hope Biden has some carrots for Manchin and Sinema.
Overwhelm the GQP dirty tricks voter suppression with vast voter turn out is a solution. “Approximately 240 million people were eligible to vote in the 2020 presidential election and roughly 66.1% of them submitted ballots, totaling about 158 million.”
The masses of asses, it seems
Yet that is the definition of closing the barn door after the horses bolted.
If only. . .and if also traitor Trump’s three appointments would be rescinded. But first, more Democrats in the House and Senate. Then Thomas could be impeached and convicted related to the insurrection. Retirement would be too good for him.
Exactly, the fix is in
I see all the signs of a fascist regime erecting their platform. I hope I am overreacting but everything that has been happening in certain states and with the SCOTUS fits the description. Back to the 1930s and Charles Lindbergh ....... There are so many signs. Chaos is in the playbook of Putin and other fascist leaders, so the authoritarian leader will arrive to offer stability. I also understand why Manchin was so Republican acting; now coal fired furnaces will belch anew.
Coal was already on its way out in this country, economic reasons. The rule being challenged was never in effect in the first place. I think the idea was to strip power from the regulators across the entire federal government, on the flimsiest excuse.
You are right, Kathy, and not overreacting. It is not just confederacy white male stuff, it is Nazi level control of our people Shist. We need may need to see who in our military are with us or against us.
As I have said before, their holocaust was our pandemic...the war has been our cyberwar of propaganda and 45 rallies. Same Nazi tactics Hitler used. Many of us saw it and tried to signal... Jordan Kleeper interviewed two young women who look as they spend enormous amounts of time on their hair, makeup and clothing and cute sunglasses. They know nothing about the J6 Hearings and never heard of January 6th and what happened to our country. That is exactly how Nazi, white supremacist men like their women. Sorry guys, it is now 2022 and the majority of us ain't going back.
If only the principal Founding Fathers: George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Alexander Hamilton, John Jay and James Madison could see the country now and speak to us.
‘What would Madison make of American democracy today, an era in which (Andrew) Jacksonian populism looks restrained by comparison? Madison’s worst fears of mob rule have been realized—and the cooling mechanisms he designed to slow down the formation of impetuous majorities have broken.’
‘The polarization of Congress, reflecting an electorate that has not been this divided since about the time of the Civil War, has led to ideological warfare between parties that directly channels the passions of their most extreme constituents and donors—precisely the type of factionalism the Founders abhorred.’ (AtlanticMagazine) See the link below.
'James Madison's Mob-Rule Fears Have Been Realized'
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2018/10/james-madison-mob-rule/568351/
Yeah, well, maybe Madison might have helped think through the whole "two senators from every state" nonsense. There's a reason that zero newer democracies have adopted our structure of government.
👍🏼
The Founders might say; it’s your country now. We did our job. Now it’s time for all good people to come to the aid of their country. We’ve overcome the most powerful force in the world to create this Nation….don’t give up.
Keith, I don't know why you began by impersonating The Founders, but 'don't give up' sounded more like it. Washington, Adams, Madison, Jefferson and the rest wouldn't remain in their graves if they knew was going on.
Thank you Fern, for adding clarity to clarity, and to that I add my personal thanks for something thankless... trying to survey today's pseudo-legal catastrophe through the eyes of those who drafted the Constitution.
It does, however, seem to me that today's action by the Supreme Court takes America back to a time before the Federalist letters were written.
*
Putin's black shamans seem to be having a field day...
James Madison, in particular, was keenly aware of the vulnerabilities and the threats to democracy.
Thank you, Fern, for The Atlantic link: “Editor’s Note: This article is part of a series that attempts to answer the question: Is democracy dying?”
"Dying" is the wrong word.
Is democracy being murdered?
Yes. Stifled.
*
One gets the (perhaps false) impression that as the noose tightens on the conspiracy, the mercenaries parachuted into the Supreme Court are moving to take preemptive action.
Removing the ground from under the feet of the American people?
I call the Supreme Court nine “unaccountable, unelected bureaucrats.”
“Parachuted mercenaries” is a wonderful description!
❤️
Yes, we must lift their Nazi knees off the neck of our Democracy.
Thank you, Irenie. You are a strong partner through the storm.
Simple answer, YES!
Madison anticipated mob rule, but not that it would be deliberately aided and abetted by the Senate
Citizen60, Unless you were making a joke, until 1913, with the passage the Seventeen Amendment, senators were elected by their state legislatures, a measure that was intended to “keep down the turbulence of democracy.' Madison didn't have the opportunity to assess what mischief could be made under the current system. ” (AtlanticMag) See link to article, 'This is Not the Senate the Framers Imagined.'
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/01/not-senate-framers-imagined/605017/
Am Atlantic subscriber. No, it isn’t the Senate Madison imagined. Neither is the Electoral College—designed to prevent mob rule AND to prevent unqualified individuals from becoming President.
The Framers devised a wholly-new, power-sharing form of government they hoped had sufficient checks and balances to maintain it. So, doesn’t matter how Senators were elected on Madison’s day versus ours. He couldn’t imagine his feared “mob rule” President would/could be aided and abetted by the duly-elected Senate. He thought, as several did, that the Congress and Senate would jealousy guard their powers—not create an imperial presidency, which they have by ceding many of their apportioned powers to the President, so he’ll be responsible for so much more than intended. Nor that the “educated” Senators—leaders in their own States—would refuse to act once in DC.
Citizen60, If you have the time, I would appreciate knowing your thoughts about how the system could be more democratic in terms of the distribution of wealth as well as being more difficult to be manipulate by special interests. L. Warren did a lot of work on this, but I do not know how on target and doable it was. I also don't know how effective safeguards could be concerning guidelines for presidential candidates. The character of candidates appears to be an outstanding factor, which has been impossible to control. Thank you.
To those Democrats and liberal independents who just couldn’t bring yourselves to vote for Hillary Clinton in 2016, the current Supreme Court is your gift to us all.
“But those emails!”
If that isn’t spot on, not sure what is, Ralph. And pretty soon, it appears that elections will not matter as that one did.
I’ll just not ever forget Trump lurking, walking, and stalking her on the debate stage. It was unnerving. I thought then, there is no woman that will vote for him after seeing that. Being me, I decided later that not many women could have watched that part.
Here’s faith that this next election will not be our last real one.
Salud, Ralph!
This SC sh*t duckery is breath taking. I’m trying to see into the minds of the radicals, trying to get a handle on their thinking. Given the potential outcomes for their rulings, one can only deduce that their deliberate intention is the obliteration of the United States. ( the world). Do they believe they are God’s good little children by fomenting the Apocalypse? Are they brain damaged by the religious stew they are boiling in? Or are they just a puny clique of narcissistic sociopaths unexpectedly positioned by tyrants to do their willl?
"Congress shall make no law impeding the choices of wealthy White men." about sums it up.
I choose your last question as the answer. I would add they are bought and paid for by the Koch brothers, even though one Koch brother is dead.
And the Mercers, and the Murdochs and global corporate powers.
Fucking amazingly well said. Damn.
All the above is the answer.
Money. Power. Global domination with Putin and Jong Un. The former guy's highest level narcissism played right into the goals of the extremist rethugs in that their monkey really wants to play with the big boys with global POWER and MONEY. He was the right monkey for this job and they INSTALLED him. When he said if he did "not win the 2016 election it was because it was rigged," was our cue that "they" were doing exactly what he accuses others of doing. He is such a egoic wild card that he could not help revealing what was happening behind the scenes and with all the putinesque propaganda machines helping. At least that has been my take since 2016.
Agree totally.
Ah, Sarah, it is so nice to not be alone...!
As one pundit observed, why is the conservative block of SCOTUS in such a rush to roll back settled law? Each Justice has a lifetime appointment. What don’t we know about why they’re pushing these decisions so quickly? There’s a strategy here. I’m thinking about what it might be but I can’t put my finger on it.
Judiciary + 30 state legislatures doing end run around of federal representatives = bloodless coup, or at least, legislative power grab.
Could it be that the court needs to rush things through before more revelations are brought for from j6 that perhaps could be fraudulent enough to allow the country to remove T's appointees from their appointments to the Supreme Court?
Dr Heather Cox Richardson's clearest, most damning summation yet.
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world...
Yes. Read again Yeats' great prophetic poem, The Second Coming.
For my part, I woke up one night in early 2016 and started to write down some crappy lines I had just dreamed. After the November presidential election, I realized I'd written these exactly 9 months before... Here...
*
MINDSHIT
*
It looks as though
You think you know
The things you know
The least...
*
Your mind's a screen
As clear and clean
As virgin snow --
And so you're free on it to sow
A trail of footmarks, mud and blood...
A billion spruce trees there you'll grow
Where there's no wood.
*
You fight to close the stable door
The horse is not there anymore.
I don't think that it ever was
Inside the stall, and that's because
In there's the lair of the Beast.
Peter, Thank you for sharing your poem, and the shout out to Yeats. A friend recently shared a series of metal sculptures he was making inspired by Second Coming, a poem I was unaware of until he mentioned it.
Now, here it is again.
How much longer will we have the ability to share our art publicly?
Thank you, Kim.
Yeats means much to me. The man's spirit, not just the poems. These days I'm very taken with The Circus Animals' Desertion...
Strangely, the first (or perhaps the second) poem I ever wrote has an image in common with Yeats’ Wanderings of Oisin, a horseman riding westward from Ireland, over the waves. Otherwise, nothing in common.
On June 30th I wrote:
“Fundamentally, there is only one road. One road, two directions. We have allowed ourselves to be led down the wrong one. Time to turn. NOW.”
That may express my feeling about free will. A single root choice: to move away from or towards what we truly are—innate freedom.
For centuries, we’ve been exploring (and exploiting) in every direction except one: within ourselves. And never more than now.
I’m old. My concern in these last years of life is to yell “STOP!”—not in the sense of leaving off living, but PAUSE, take a breather, take a coffee break… Then ask: Who’s searching? Who is asking the questions? Who’s for speeding, accelerating, accelerating—Look No Hands! Look No Steering! Look No Brakes!—down that AI Superhighway?
Set all that aside one moment. So, what is possible? What’s impossible? Is anything impossible for the human mind? I’ve no idea—but just as I’ve always been a doubter, this I doubt, too. And no, I’m not thinking at all of the grotesque hitech junkie’s credo that if-it-can-be-done-it-must-be-done, however absurd “it” may be, I’m thinking of our unaided potential.
Here's a translation of my stepdaughter’s verse:
*
they seek the strain
they want to find
the strain – the Stamm – of Mandelstam
your inner freedom virus strain
to have it sealed
inside a flask
inside a bank
inside a safe
the strain of virus
that corrodes your chain.
*
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osip_Mandelstam
I'm wondering , for the first time, whether moving away actually does make sense.
I guess it's running away, but when a tsunami is approaching perhaps that's the wisest course.
I won't yet. but something must be done. horrendous.
thank you Heather.
Tom Fiero, merced.
Plenty of Tories left for England during our Revolution; their fear of what might happen overwhelmed them. Washington stayed … so did thousands and thousands of other Americans who faced a very uncertain outcome for their efforts …which we are about to celebrate in a few days. Liberty is ours because we earned it. It’s our country if we can keep it …vote and keep pushing.
🙋🏻🙋🏼🙋🏽🙋🏾🙋🏿🗽
I’ve got friends that started making plans to move away. Getting their citizenship in EU so they can get out. Someone I’m related to asked if I’d move with them is they could get their citizenship. People are preparing for an exodus.
Where are you going to move? You can't escape the Climate Crisis, and what the Supreme Court has just done means that our planet is going to become a battlefield due to famine and refugees from uninhabitable environments. It's started in some places, and it's going to become a widespread problem by the time you could get settled in your new country.
But no real exodus is possible.
It's not like the draft dodgers during the Vietnam war.
These bastards would extend the Monroe Doctrine to the galaxy.
Monroe Doctrine: 'a principle of US policy, originated by President James Monroe in 1823, that any intervention by external powers in the politics of the Americas is a potentially hostile act against the US'. Peter how would the Doctrine limit people taking up residence in another country?
It's simple enough.
Monroe proclaimed a priority interest in the USA's backyard (just as the Russian dictator has declared that Russia's near abroad -- and wherever Russian is spoken -- is not abroad at all; an emphatic restatement of Brezhnev's doctrine of "limited sovereignty" underpinning the Warsaw Pact's August 1968 occupation of Czechoslovakia...).
The problem, as we have all seen during the course of past decades is that the Monroe Doctrine has now spread across the terrestrial globe and will brook no limits.
Meanwhile, those who irritate the Powers-that-Be down by the Potomac or who are careless enough to let themselves be found in the wrong place at the wrong time can (like Assange) expect to be delivered up pig-in-a-poke-style to US "justice", which will then decide which cruel and usual punishment best suits the crime of lese-majeste against the Imperium.