Not a man given to hyperbole or radical measures, and generally a “principle” kind of guy.
Actions Not Words
September 18, 2020 11:36 p.m.
Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s death is a grave, sorrowful and ill-timed calamity in the escalating crisis of American democracy, the crisis of the American state. The only relevant and timely thing I can think to add is this: You can’t work this kind of problem or operate in this kind of environment unless you’re ready to say what you’re going to do. You can’t start by saying McConnell has to follow his rule. You need to say what you’ll do when he doesn’t. Otherwise you’ve got one side with words and the other with the ability to act. And that’s a loser’s hand.
The thing to do, if Republicans take this course and the Democrats take the presidency and the Senate, to add either two or four new seats to the Supreme Court, for a total of our 11 or 13.
We are here because of the Republican party’s increasing unwillingness to accept limits on political action. To up the ante on that tendency, to meet it, is itself a grave threat to democratic governance. But an even graver threat is to remove any mechanism of consequences or accountability. Then there is truly no limit or disincentive to corruption, law breaking and bad action. That reality is precisely the one in which we currently find ourselves.
In war or in sports or really any kind of contest you never let the other side hold all the initiative. You can say that McConnell and Trump shouldn’t take this step, that the American people should get to decide. Because the reality is they can take this step. So what will you do when they do that. The answer is you take the clearest and most economical step to undo the corrupt act. Adding new Justices is the way to do that.
Make this new corruption a centerpiece of the campaign, hold it over the heads of embattled Republican senators, try in every way to get a just result, which is to put this in the hands of the next President and Congress. But make clear that if it happens Democrats will undo it next year if the people give them to power to do so.
Emphasis mine.
Come to India and see what it’s like under an actual proto-fascist government!
I should point out though that when you say ‘countries that aren’t too cold’, I may be suggesting mine based on a loophole where it isn’t too cold, but it is too hot most of the time.
I don’t think there’s any arguing that we’re not headed towards an AI-self-awareness-Judgement-Day scenario (come on — this /is/ 2020 after all, and we’re due a good sci-fi twist), but it sure is neat to see all the stops along the way.
The idea here isn’t that she should have been pressured, but that she should have realized it might have been a good idea to retire on her own.
However, the turtle in the office of the Senate Majority would have probably found some completely insane excuse to keep the seat open through the end of 2016
Are you kidding? With how psychotically narcissistic Trump is, I’m pretty sure this will be Justice Trump. The only question is if it’ll be one of his kids, or if he steps down from the Presidency after nominating himself (and thus dodging a possible election loss).
Frankly, we’re going to lose 200k to 250k lives to Covid.
But we’re going to have the most severely conservative SCOTUS in history, dragging the entire nation back to the Stone Age for the next 20-30 years. I’m thinking Covid will seem a distant second very soon.
Of course, all metrics go off-kilter if Trump is re-elected, because Trump might be able to nominate a third Justice (to replace 82yo Breyer) but he’ll simultaneously rack up his death count to 300k - 400k total.
Seriously. McConnell will have a prim smile on his tortoise lips as he shits on us, and dryly ask us how we like the aroma of his former meal.
But Senate Judiciary Chairman Lindsey Graham wasn’t sure if he would agree to that.
“I’d like to fill a vacancy. But we’d have to see. I don’t know how practical that would be,” Graham told CNN in July. “Let’s see what the market would bear.” -CNN Link
Lindsey Graham is the kind of guy who pressures you to have a party when your parents are gone for the weekend, then lingers by the back door the whole time, ready to bail if they come home. He’ll probably pull the “I meant to vote no but accidentally voted yes” waffle.
All he is gonna end up with is hatred from both sides. What a weasel.
"Brevity,is a great charm of eloquence " Cicero. Your observation is so apt. Well done!!
Eric Trump for USSC. You know it’s what the US of A deserves right now.
The US needs someone who can look away really hard when “AntiFa operatives” start shooting USPS employees, about, oh, three weeks from now.
So, tequila it is, then. Good suggestion!
Collins also said she wouldn’t support any nomination before the election. So that’s two. There needs to be two more, though, to stop it because McConnell went on record and said he would (didn’t even wait for her to grow cold, the sick, disgusting, power hungry piece of shit).
2020 got off to a rocky start and quickly spiraled out of control. And then, in mid-September, the Bad Thing happened. And people said that things would be okay, that there would be some way to make things as they had been before. They talked about holding Republicans to their promise. They talked about stacking the courts once Biden was in power. But they were wrong. Everything else that had happened so far in 2020 could be undone with time, but not the Bad Thing. The dam had broke. The election would ultimately be decided by by a flurry of cases before the Supreme Court, and even Roberts could not longer rein in the authoritarian impulses of his colleagues now.
Damn. Two months before the election. Not enough time to appoint a new one.
Moscow Mitch introduced that.
There’s precedent for changing the number of members on the court, but the lifetime appointment would arguably require an amendment to the Constitution – and I suspect it would ultimately be the Supreme Court itself that would have to decide whether that is necessary.
One possibility: Trump’s own vanity and desperation might delay an appointment until after the election…
It is unclear whether the White House and McConnell would try to rush through an appointment before the November 3 general election — or the “lame duck” Senate session right after — or, instead, make the matter the very center of the election, with promises to appoint a genuine conservative (and likely a woman), if Trump triumphs.
That’s a really excellent point. Trump has been using that sort of blackmail so far.
“I will defer taxes til next year, but if you elect me, I’ll see that they’re completely forgiven.” etc., etc.
He might use this in the same way, as it would give Republicans a dire event to avoid by voting.
“If you DON’T elect me, Biden will make a test tube baby with the DNA from Karl Marx and Gloria Steinem and force the Senate to approve it, and it will have the mark of the Beast, and day shall be as night, and hell shall be loosed upon the world.”
By “all of Obama’s terms in office”, you mean the second half of his second term, 2015-2017? Got it.
Anarchists and agitators, I suppose?
“On October 5, 2017, the Senate Judiciary Committee voted 11–9 on party lines to recommend Barrett and report her nomination to the full Senate. On October 30, the Senate invoked cloture by a vote of 54–42. The Senate confirmed her by a vote of 55–43 on October 31, with three Democrats—Joe Donnelly, Tim Kaine, and Joe Manchin voting for her. She received her commission on November 2. Barrett was the first woman confirmed to the federal bench during Trump’s presidency.”
48 years old. She’d be there a long time.
