Right on cue, Republican Senator Mike Braun of Indiana today told a reporter that states not only should decide the issue of abortion but should also be able to decide the issues of whether interracial marriage should be legal and whether couples should have access to contraception. He told a reporter: “Well, you can list a whole host of issues, when it comes down to whatever they are, I’m going to say that they’re not going to all make you happy within a given state, but we’re better off having states manifest their points of view rather than homogenizing it across the country as Roe v. Wade did.”
In the midst of weariness of bigger and bigger threats looming to our autonomy and civil rights in a democratic country, tonight I'll take the smile at seeing Heather's lower case disdain for "justice Clarence Thomas," as she uses for former "president Trump," while holding full and righteous regard for Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson.
As I noted in yesterday's thread before closing down, I had just had the curious experience of seeing criminals questioning a judge.
Our world turned upside down.
No one and no place on Earth will be safe for as long as this state of affairs continues. The future of free people everywhere will be under threat for as long as these men stay free to strut and subvert.
If they have their way, America's system of justice will go the way of Putin's courts, tightly following the dictates of the Executive -- THEIR Executive, shoehorned in against the wishes of the people -- through perjured rubber-stamp judges.
As far as I'm concerned, the Republican Party is a white supremacist political association.
Moreover, the GOP has no interest in governing or helping this country.
The GOP mantra is power for power's sake, which is why instead of concentrating on viable policy solutions, these feckless neoconfederates prefer hot-button, nonsensical issues like CRT, book-banning, and the like.
If this pack of jackels regains electoral power in 2022 and 2024, the country is doomed.
The hearings today for the nomination of Ketanji Brown Jackson, that should be a celebration, were heartbreaking. I cannot believe the lack of respect and civility by the repubs during their grilling of a most qualified candidate. She was dignified, patient, articulate and prepared. Blatant racism and harassment, hours of asking the same questions, by what appeared to be a practiced and orchestrated plan by a party afraid of change and losing their control. CRT and leniency in sentencing were big topics. Hours of repub attack. And more tomorrow. Gratitude to Dem senators who questioned with respect and genuine interest. What a contrast. I’m not sure I want to spend another day in front of the screen, except to show my support. What strength Judge Brown Jackson must have to not just walk out. But she’s a professional, highly experienced and educated and no doubt, been here before. America 2022 on display.
Sometimes, like today, I feel like crawling in a hole and hibernating. If only there were a safe hole to climb into. Ukraine is a 12-hour car trip away.
I'm looking out at a sunny, peaceful city, all the way to the Taunus Mountains, which is where the mighty Roman army, on their way to conquer the rest of the land to the North Sea, was stopped by the german Kelts - fierce tribes that held the line. I think of the colonial patriots.
I think - every minute - of the heroic Ukrainians.
I sent an email to Senator Braun in support of the nomination of Judge Brown Jackson. In response he wrote of his concerns “ nominees for judicial branch posts who have a long history of liberal activism and hold views well outside of the mainstream. The role of a Supreme Court justice should be to interpret and apply our Constitution, not to reshape our country by legislating from the bench.” Per usual, I found his “concerns” deceitful and hypocritical.
I really wish I had been wrong decades ago. In the 90’s I watched Newt and newly hatched Fox use Lee Atwater’s evil screeds to malign all Democrats. In 2000, I watched W/Dickie steal the election with aid from James Baker and Roger Stone. Then rule like they had a mandate; no compromise there, although Teddy K. tried. Well, on to 2008 when, W/Dickie had trashed our international standing and our economy. Then watched McCain choose Palin and trash Obama as socialist and blame him for all their failures with great success. (This was the same McCain who had been in primary against Bush in 2000. I watched as the Bush crowd told the most egregious lies about McCain. A reporter asked how they could conduct such an obvious smear campaign and one of the perps said, “We go to church on Sunday and get forgiven.”). I skip to 2012 when Obama (still alive by some miracle) won, and the conventional wisdom was that republicans needed to get real and appeal to a more diverse electorate. Well, watched them double down on the propaganda that Fox had been pushing since it’s day one. (I know because my best friend’s family had it on literally 24/7 from it’s inception and it blasted vitriol no matter the hour and I had a front row seat.). We all know what happened next. The Republican party has been trying to destroy our democracy for half a century. Jennifer Rubin called it right. The Grand Ole Party died long ago. The zombie apocalypse lives…
GOP claims about a doctrine of State's Rights is bogus nomenclature, there is no doctrine, it is simply the 'My way or no way' autocratic doctrine with an Orwellian justification. Where was the State's Rights doctrine when cities and states wanted stricter Covid mandates like masking or vaccinations, or environmental rules like California's gas mileage rules or a shift to EVs, or deciding what to teach in schools and the Trumpists GOP clowns did everything it could to strangle states' decisions like withholding Congressionally appropriated money? The alarming thing is that many of these clowns (Cruz, Hawley and Braun) are lawyers, they know better! Disgraceful!
It's hard to imagine how much more toxic the Republican part has become since the 2012 opinion piece Heather referenced titled, "Let’s just say it: The Republicans are the problem." by Thomas Mann and Norman Ornstein. The damage done by Gingrich and Norquist alone is monumental and will likely follow us well into the future.
This says it all, ¨A full decade ago, in April 2012, respected scholars Thomas Mann, of the Brookings Institution, and Norm Ornstein, of the American Enterprise Institute, crunched the numbers and concluded: “The GOP has become an insurgent outlier in American politics. It is ideologically extreme; scornful of compromise; unmoved by conventional understanding of facts, evidence and science; and dismissive of the legitimacy of its political opposition. When one party moves this far from the mainstream,” they wrote, “it makes it nearly impossible for the political system to deal constructively with the country’s challenges.”
And yet, in the last decade, the party has moved even further to the right. Now it is not only calling for an end to the civil rights protections that undergird modern America, but also lining up behind a leader who tried to overthrow our democracy. A column by Jennifer Rubin in the Washington Post yesterday was titled: “Fringe Republicans are not the problem. It’s the party’s mainstream.”
They are the judges and grudge holders of Salem during the witch trials.
It has been a long time coming…I feared the worst twenty years ago when the white steepled formerly Congregational church in my then hometown of 600 in Vermont got a new pastor who declared no women could speak in Services and none could fail to use their husband‘s names…or Ms.. . In Vermont! „Christian“ Radio droned on crowding the airwaves around NPR, The worst of the Supreme Court Justices turn out to have been to law school at Harvard or Yale.
I’m just so tired of watching and listening to these yahoos acting like their some kind of Keystone Kops vampire hunters running around making sure they have a wooden stake in their hands at all times to pound in the hearts of liberal “sinners.” They just keep climbing out of their clown car dragging more oppressive ideas along with them. They don’t appear to read for meaning. I’ve yet to hear any of them give an accurate explanation of what CRT actually is. It has the word race in it. That’s about as far as any of them get. Durban was right—Trial by Ordeal, Judge Brown Jackson was a model of composed and cogent thoughts, and gave on the mark responses to some ridiculous questions.
I don’t believe judging from the books I’ve read on the subject, we often have towers of intellect sitting in Congress, but I think we may had had groups of people who were there to govern. These guys! They need to go back and take a remedial civics class. They have no business sitting in my bedroom, legislating my choices in sleeping partners. No business sitting in my womb. No business telling me who I can love. My problem is I can’t understand why they care about these things. I’d like my roads fixed, my pipes clean, a working supply chain, access to good healthcare, to go to an event and feel like I’ll get home at night. And peace in our time. These things seem to me to more about making things great, than rabble rousing about some theory they can’t give a definition for. The Party of No, the Right’s just Wrong. I hope they find that the loud folks hollering for “the good old days” are a very small part of their support. And there will be fewer of them come January.
Well here we are with senator Braun leading us forward, into the past. Following his lead we will march straight into 1858, when all was ‘right’ with the world, if you were a white, propertied male. And if you weren’t, we’ll that’s just your bad luck for being born that way. And senator Blackburn should be careful, lest she gets what she’s hoping for. Back in the good old days of the antebellum South, women had no rights, either — they couldn’t vote, let alone become US senators in the America she and Braun and the GOP wish to return to. Back then women didn’t have to worry the pretty little old heads with men’s stuff like politics or finance or business. I, for one, find the past the GOP longs for a dystopian nightmare, one we must work hard to prevent becoming reality.
Heather, I watched a good deal of the hearing. I think you captured a great deal of the roller coaster ride -- from the inspired and inspiring testimony of Justice Brown Jackson, to the hateful and divisive inquisitions launched by Ted Cruz and Lindsay Graham. With civil liberties under escalating attack from the Republican Party -- mainstream and fringe -- this country is in increasing danger of fracturing.
Good job. Your outrage here is clear, well written and appropriate. Thank you.
Calling out those, apparently many, who would be comfortable currying favor with Hitler is the right approach and ripping on them in communication is the way to fight.
Also, I personally recommend that you choose a place outside the country (Canada, Greece, Uruguay are good options) and make sure you can go there on short notice.
No, I am not joking and yes, my wife and I have put that in place for us and our kids.
If America returns to the days when it is legal to hold down a war veteran in a jail and stab his eyes out with a night stick, we are gone.
All those poor boys from the north and the south who fought in the civil war and died? For what? Here we are again.
In the midst of weariness of bigger and bigger threats looming to our autonomy and civil rights in a democratic country, tonight I'll take the smile at seeing Heather's lower case disdain for "justice Clarence Thomas," as she uses for former "president Trump," while holding full and righteous regard for Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson.
The dignified poise of Judge Brown Jackson is inspiring. It stands in sharp contrast to the shallow demagoguery of her detractors.
As I noted in yesterday's thread before closing down, I had just had the curious experience of seeing criminals questioning a judge.
Our world turned upside down.
No one and no place on Earth will be safe for as long as this state of affairs continues. The future of free people everywhere will be under threat for as long as these men stay free to strut and subvert.
If they have their way, America's system of justice will go the way of Putin's courts, tightly following the dictates of the Executive -- THEIR Executive, shoehorned in against the wishes of the people -- through perjured rubber-stamp judges.
As far as I'm concerned, the Republican Party is a white supremacist political association.
Moreover, the GOP has no interest in governing or helping this country.
The GOP mantra is power for power's sake, which is why instead of concentrating on viable policy solutions, these feckless neoconfederates prefer hot-button, nonsensical issues like CRT, book-banning, and the like.
If this pack of jackels regains electoral power in 2022 and 2024, the country is doomed.
The hearings today for the nomination of Ketanji Brown Jackson, that should be a celebration, were heartbreaking. I cannot believe the lack of respect and civility by the repubs during their grilling of a most qualified candidate. She was dignified, patient, articulate and prepared. Blatant racism and harassment, hours of asking the same questions, by what appeared to be a practiced and orchestrated plan by a party afraid of change and losing their control. CRT and leniency in sentencing were big topics. Hours of repub attack. And more tomorrow. Gratitude to Dem senators who questioned with respect and genuine interest. What a contrast. I’m not sure I want to spend another day in front of the screen, except to show my support. What strength Judge Brown Jackson must have to not just walk out. But she’s a professional, highly experienced and educated and no doubt, been here before. America 2022 on display.
Sometimes, like today, I feel like crawling in a hole and hibernating. If only there were a safe hole to climb into. Ukraine is a 12-hour car trip away.
I'm looking out at a sunny, peaceful city, all the way to the Taunus Mountains, which is where the mighty Roman army, on their way to conquer the rest of the land to the North Sea, was stopped by the german Kelts - fierce tribes that held the line. I think of the colonial patriots.
I think - every minute - of the heroic Ukrainians.
I sent an email to Senator Braun in support of the nomination of Judge Brown Jackson. In response he wrote of his concerns “ nominees for judicial branch posts who have a long history of liberal activism and hold views well outside of the mainstream. The role of a Supreme Court justice should be to interpret and apply our Constitution, not to reshape our country by legislating from the bench.” Per usual, I found his “concerns” deceitful and hypocritical.
I really wish I had been wrong decades ago. In the 90’s I watched Newt and newly hatched Fox use Lee Atwater’s evil screeds to malign all Democrats. In 2000, I watched W/Dickie steal the election with aid from James Baker and Roger Stone. Then rule like they had a mandate; no compromise there, although Teddy K. tried. Well, on to 2008 when, W/Dickie had trashed our international standing and our economy. Then watched McCain choose Palin and trash Obama as socialist and blame him for all their failures with great success. (This was the same McCain who had been in primary against Bush in 2000. I watched as the Bush crowd told the most egregious lies about McCain. A reporter asked how they could conduct such an obvious smear campaign and one of the perps said, “We go to church on Sunday and get forgiven.”). I skip to 2012 when Obama (still alive by some miracle) won, and the conventional wisdom was that republicans needed to get real and appeal to a more diverse electorate. Well, watched them double down on the propaganda that Fox had been pushing since it’s day one. (I know because my best friend’s family had it on literally 24/7 from it’s inception and it blasted vitriol no matter the hour and I had a front row seat.). We all know what happened next. The Republican party has been trying to destroy our democracy for half a century. Jennifer Rubin called it right. The Grand Ole Party died long ago. The zombie apocalypse lives…
GOP claims about a doctrine of State's Rights is bogus nomenclature, there is no doctrine, it is simply the 'My way or no way' autocratic doctrine with an Orwellian justification. Where was the State's Rights doctrine when cities and states wanted stricter Covid mandates like masking or vaccinations, or environmental rules like California's gas mileage rules or a shift to EVs, or deciding what to teach in schools and the Trumpists GOP clowns did everything it could to strangle states' decisions like withholding Congressionally appropriated money? The alarming thing is that many of these clowns (Cruz, Hawley and Braun) are lawyers, they know better! Disgraceful!
It's hard to imagine how much more toxic the Republican part has become since the 2012 opinion piece Heather referenced titled, "Let’s just say it: The Republicans are the problem." by Thomas Mann and Norman Ornstein. The damage done by Gingrich and Norquist alone is monumental and will likely follow us well into the future.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/lets-just-say-it-the-republicans-are-the-problem/2012/04/27/gIQAxCVUlT_story.html
This says it all, ¨A full decade ago, in April 2012, respected scholars Thomas Mann, of the Brookings Institution, and Norm Ornstein, of the American Enterprise Institute, crunched the numbers and concluded: “The GOP has become an insurgent outlier in American politics. It is ideologically extreme; scornful of compromise; unmoved by conventional understanding of facts, evidence and science; and dismissive of the legitimacy of its political opposition. When one party moves this far from the mainstream,” they wrote, “it makes it nearly impossible for the political system to deal constructively with the country’s challenges.”
And yet, in the last decade, the party has moved even further to the right. Now it is not only calling for an end to the civil rights protections that undergird modern America, but also lining up behind a leader who tried to overthrow our democracy. A column by Jennifer Rubin in the Washington Post yesterday was titled: “Fringe Republicans are not the problem. It’s the party’s mainstream.”
They are the judges and grudge holders of Salem during the witch trials.
It has been a long time coming…I feared the worst twenty years ago when the white steepled formerly Congregational church in my then hometown of 600 in Vermont got a new pastor who declared no women could speak in Services and none could fail to use their husband‘s names…or Ms.. . In Vermont! „Christian“ Radio droned on crowding the airwaves around NPR, The worst of the Supreme Court Justices turn out to have been to law school at Harvard or Yale.
I’m just so tired of watching and listening to these yahoos acting like their some kind of Keystone Kops vampire hunters running around making sure they have a wooden stake in their hands at all times to pound in the hearts of liberal “sinners.” They just keep climbing out of their clown car dragging more oppressive ideas along with them. They don’t appear to read for meaning. I’ve yet to hear any of them give an accurate explanation of what CRT actually is. It has the word race in it. That’s about as far as any of them get. Durban was right—Trial by Ordeal, Judge Brown Jackson was a model of composed and cogent thoughts, and gave on the mark responses to some ridiculous questions.
I don’t believe judging from the books I’ve read on the subject, we often have towers of intellect sitting in Congress, but I think we may had had groups of people who were there to govern. These guys! They need to go back and take a remedial civics class. They have no business sitting in my bedroom, legislating my choices in sleeping partners. No business sitting in my womb. No business telling me who I can love. My problem is I can’t understand why they care about these things. I’d like my roads fixed, my pipes clean, a working supply chain, access to good healthcare, to go to an event and feel like I’ll get home at night. And peace in our time. These things seem to me to more about making things great, than rabble rousing about some theory they can’t give a definition for. The Party of No, the Right’s just Wrong. I hope they find that the loud folks hollering for “the good old days” are a very small part of their support. And there will be fewer of them come January.
Well here we are with senator Braun leading us forward, into the past. Following his lead we will march straight into 1858, when all was ‘right’ with the world, if you were a white, propertied male. And if you weren’t, we’ll that’s just your bad luck for being born that way. And senator Blackburn should be careful, lest she gets what she’s hoping for. Back in the good old days of the antebellum South, women had no rights, either — they couldn’t vote, let alone become US senators in the America she and Braun and the GOP wish to return to. Back then women didn’t have to worry the pretty little old heads with men’s stuff like politics or finance or business. I, for one, find the past the GOP longs for a dystopian nightmare, one we must work hard to prevent becoming reality.
Heather, I watched a good deal of the hearing. I think you captured a great deal of the roller coaster ride -- from the inspired and inspiring testimony of Justice Brown Jackson, to the hateful and divisive inquisitions launched by Ted Cruz and Lindsay Graham. With civil liberties under escalating attack from the Republican Party -- mainstream and fringe -- this country is in increasing danger of fracturing.
Dr. Richardson.
Good job. Your outrage here is clear, well written and appropriate. Thank you.
Calling out those, apparently many, who would be comfortable currying favor with Hitler is the right approach and ripping on them in communication is the way to fight.
Also, I personally recommend that you choose a place outside the country (Canada, Greece, Uruguay are good options) and make sure you can go there on short notice.
No, I am not joking and yes, my wife and I have put that in place for us and our kids.
If America returns to the days when it is legal to hold down a war veteran in a jail and stab his eyes out with a night stick, we are gone.
All those poor boys from the north and the south who fought in the civil war and died? For what? Here we are again.