Friday
Sep182020
The Commentariat -- Sept. 19, 2020
Afternoon Update:
** The Good. Nina Totenberg of NPR writes of her decades-long friendship with Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
The Bad & the Ugly. Peter Baker & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "President Trump pressed Senate Republicans on Saturday to confirm his choice to replace Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg 'without delay,' setting up a momentous battle sure to inflame the campaign even as party leaders weighed whether they could force a confirmation vote before the election on Nov. 3. Mr. Trump appears likely to nominate a successor to Justice Ginsburg this coming week after her death on Friday, a selection that if confirmed would shift the Supreme Court to the right for years. But with some Republican senators balking, Senator Mitch McConnell, the majority leader from Kentucky, was canvassing to figure out whether he had enough votes to rush a confirmation in the next six weeks. We were put in this position of power and importance to make decisions for the people who so proudly elected us, the most important of which has long been considered to be the selection of United States Supreme Court Justices,' Mr. Trump wrote Saturday morning on Twitter. 'We have this obligation, without delay!'" ~~~
~~~ The Most Dishonest Senator. Matthew Schwartz of NPR: Lindsey "Graham [R-S.C.], who as chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee would oversee confirmation hearings, said Saturday that he would support President Trump 'in any effort to move forward regarding the recent vacancy created by the passing of Justice Ginsburg.' But this is a reversal from his earlier position; Graham has said multiple times that if a vacancy opened up in the run-up to a presidential election, he would hold off on confirmation. 'I want you to use my words against me. If there's a Republican president in 2016 and a vacancy occurs in the last year of the first term, you can say Lindsey Graham said, "Let's let the next president, whoever it might be, make that nomination,"' he said in 2016 shortly after the death of Justice Antonin Scalia. 'And you could use my words against me and you'd be absolutely right.' Graham repeated the sentiment in October 2018 in an interview with The Atlantic's editor-in-chief, Jeffrey Goldberg. 'If an opening comes in the last year of President Trump's term, and the primary process has started, we'll wait till the next election.'" Graham has recently put forward phony rationales for going back on his word.
Alexander Bolton of the Hill: "Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), a key centrist vote in the Senate, said Saturday that the Senate should not vote to confirm late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg's successor before the election and the nominee should be chosen by whoever wins on Nov. 3. 'Given the proximity of the presidential election ... I do not believe that the Senate should vote on the nominee prior to the election,' Collins said in a statement. 'In fairness to the American people, who will either be re-electing the president or selecting a new one, the decision on a lifetime appointment to the Supreme Court should be made by the president who is elected on Nov. 3.'" ~~~
~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Pardon my cynicism, but this probably means that Mitch has secured assurances from 50 or more senators that they will vote to proceed with confirmation. Collins is behind her Democratic opponent Sara Gideon in recent polls, so Mitch can afford for her to take a fake "principled stand."
Steve M. "I think voters who aren't politically engaged will learn about this, see Trump and McConnell defying her last wishes, and be repulsed by their defiance of her final request. This has been an election about decency vs. cruelty. This will be another reminder of Trump and McConnell's cold-blooded, unfeeling nature. It's not a good look a few weeks before an election." Mrs. McC: I sure hope Steve, who is a cynic nes plus ultra, is right about this.
Katelyn Burns of Vox: "According to the Democratic donor site ActBlue, $6.2 million flowed through the site in the 9 pm hour Friday, immediately following news of Ginsburg's death. It was more money raised in a single hour on the site since its launch 16 years ago -- and it was immediately eclipsed by the 10 pm hour, which saw $6.3 million raised." ~~~
~~~ Michael Shear & Nicholas Fandos of the New York Times: "Just hours after Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg's death was announced on Friday, the leaders of three of the left's most potent advocacy groups, Demand Justice, Naral Pro-Choice America and Indivisible, were on a call with 1,000 progressive activists and strategists to begin to unfurl a plan they hoped they would not have to use. Demand Justice, a relatively new group led by the longtime Democratic aide Brian Fallon to match the powerful conservative legal apparatus, quickly pledged to spend $10 million 'to fight to ensure no justice is confirmed before the January inauguration.' At the same time, a coalition of President Trump's conservative allies said Saturday that it was preparing for an intense confrontation over Justice Ginsburg's seat, and was gearing up for a lobbying and public relations blitz. The message: Move quickly to replace her."
The New York Times' live updates of coronavirus developments Saturday are here. Several news outlets, including NBC News (but not the Times or WashPo) are reporting that more than 200,000 Americans have died from Covid-19.
Evan Perez of CNN: "A package containing the poison ricin and addressed to ... Donald Trump was intercepted by law enforcement earlier this week, according to two law enforcement officials. Two tests were done to confirm the presence of ricin. All mail for the White House is sorted and screened at an offsite facility before reaching the White House. A US law enforcement official told CNN that investigators are looking into the possibility the ricin package sent to Trump came from Canada. The FBI and Secret Service are investigating the matter.
~~~~~~~~~~
John Kruzel of the Hill: "Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the liberal leader of the Supreme Court and a trailblazing champion of women's rights, died on Friday. She was 87 years old." ~~~
~~~ ** Linda Greenhouse writes the New York Times obituary for Justice Ginsburg. ~~~
~~~ Robert Barnes & Michael Fletcher write the Washington Post's obituary of Justice Ginsburg. "The death was announced in a statement by the U.S. Supreme Court. She had recently been treated for pancreatic cancer. Born in Depression-era Brooklyn, Justice Ginsburg excelled academically and went to the top of her law school class at a time when women were still called upon to justify taking a man's place. She earned a reputation as the legal embodiment of the women's liberation movement and as a widely admired role model for generations of female lawyers. Working in the 1970s with the American Civil Liberties Union, Justice Ginsburg successfully argued a series of cases before the high court that strategically chipped away at the legal wall of gender discrimination, eventually causing it to topple." ~~~
~~~ Joan Biskupic & Ariane de Vogue write Justice Ginsburg's obituary for CNN. ~~~
~~~ Nina Totenberg, a friend of Justice Ginsburg's, writes the Justice's obituary for NPR. "Just days before her death, as her strength waned, Ginsburg dictated this statement to her granddaughter Clara Spera: 'My most fervent wish is that I will not be replaced until a new president is installed.'" ~~~
President Barack Obama's statement on Justice Ginsberg's passing.
Rebecca Shabad of NBC News: "'The American people should have a voice in the selection of their next Supreme Court Justice. Therefore, this vacancy should not be filled until we have a new president,' [Senate Minority Leader Chuck] Schumer tweeted, quoting [Majority Leader] McConnell, who made the same statement during Barack Obama's presidency after Justice Antonin Scalia died in 2016 [Mrs. McC: about 10 months before the election & nearly a year before the next president* was sworn in]."
John Santucci & Katherine Faulders of ABC News: "... Donald Trump is expected to put forth a nominee to fill Ruth Bader Ginsburg's seat on the Supreme Court in the coming days, multiple sources close to the president and with direct knowledge of the situation told ABC News." ~~~
~~~ Anita Kumar, et al., of Politico: "Trump is expected to make a formal nomination as soon as the middle of next week, according to two people familiar with the plans."
~~~ Remember Merrick Garland. Ted Barrett of CNN: "Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell released a statement following the death of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, saying President Trump's nominee to fill her seat 'will receive a vote on the floor of the United States Senate.'" Mrs. McC: McConnell put out this statement while Justice Ginsberg's body was still warm. Actually. ~~~
~~~ Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "President Trump, who counts his two Supreme Court appointments as among his greatest successes, last week issued a new list of 20 potential nominees to the court. There was no vacancy at the time, and the exercise seemed aimed at focusing attention on an issue that had helped secure his election in 2016." Mrs. McC: Nina Totenberg appeared on MSNBC last night, and she said she had learned a few weeks ago that Ginsberg was dying. Therefore, I would be willing to bet that Donald Trump knew, too, and that is why he flaunted his list of horribles for her "replacement." Perhaps I'm wrong, but I doubt it. Cruel, ghoulish bastard.
Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: A small crowd gathered outside the Supreme Court last night to mourn Ruth Bader Ginsburg. CNN reported that a few hecklers showed up. I saw a clip of a man pushing a woman in the group, which is more than "heckling." ~~~
Mrs. McCrabbie BTW: The documentary film "RBG" is available on Hulu & you can rent it on YouTube.
Presidential Race, Etc.
Trump's Racist Rally & Superspreader Spectacle. Matthew Choi of Politico: "... Donald Trump said his Democratic rival Joe Biden would 'turn Minnesota into a refugee camp' and bragged about deporting Somali nationals, sharpening his play for the battleground state during a Friday rally."
Sydney Ember & Reid Epstein of the New York Times: "Early voting began in four states on Friday, 46 days before Election Day on Nov. 3. Among the states where voters can now vote in person is Minnesota, where both President Trump and Joseph R. Biden Jr. will be making campaign stops on Friday. Voters also began casting ballots in South Dakota, Virginia and Wyoming. Elected Democrats, aiming to encourage their supporters to vote early, are eschewing the traditional Election Day photo-op for appearances at early voting sites. In Virginia, Senators Tim Kaine and Mark Warner voted in Richmond and Alexandria, while Gov. Ralph Northam cast his ballot in Richmond, where he was the fifth person in line at 8 a.m.... In 2012, Barack Obama became the first president to vote early, casting a ballot for himself at an early-voting site near his home on the South Side of Chicago." This is an item in the Times' election updates. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Michigan. David Eggert & Ed White of the AP: "A federal judge has blocked Michigan's longstanding ban on transporting voters to the polls, ruling it conflicts with U.S. election law. District Judge Stephanie Dawkins Davis in Detroit issued an injunction Thursday against enforcing the restriction in November's presidential election. A form of the prohibition has been on the books since 1895." --s ~~~
~~~ Eggert & White: "A judge on Friday cleared the way for more absentee ballots to be counted in Michigan, saying envelopes postmarked by the eve of the Nov. 3 election are eligible, even if they show up days later. The decision is significant in a state that is anticipating waves of absentee ballots this fall; about 2.3 million have already been requested. For absentee ballots to be counted, Michigan law requires them to be received by the time polls close on Election Day. But Court of Claims Judge Cynthia Stephens said there's a crucial need for flexibility in November, especially after more than 6,400 ballots were disqualified in the state's August primary election.... An absentee ballot can be counted if postmarked by Nov. 2 and received within 14 days after the election, said Stephens, who noted that it can take two weeks to certify Michigan election results anyway."
Arizona Senate Race. Yvonne Sanchez of the Arizona Republic: "If Mark Kelly [D] defeats incumbent Sen. Martha McSally [R] in Arizona's high-stakes [special] U.S. Senate race..., two Republican and Democratic election attorneys agree that state law and Senate practices would make Kelly eligible to take over the seat once held by Sen. John McCain as soon as Nov. 30, when the state election results are expected to be canvassed." McSally is an appointee. The November race is to take over McCain's Senate seat, not fill McSally's. Mrs. McC: How surprised would we be if Mitch McConnell refused to seat Kelly in December? For a normal leader, the fact that Kelly is an astronaut-hero married to former Congresswoman hero Gabby Giffords would make stiffing Kelly far more difficult. But Mitch is Mitch.
The Trumpidemic, Ctd.
The New York Times' live updates of coronavirus developments Friday are here. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
David Lim of Politico: "The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention now says that close contacts of people with Covid-19 should be tested, regardless of whether they have symptoms -- reversing controversial recommendations it made last month, reportedly over the advice of agency scientists. CDC's testing guidelines now bluntly counsel people who have been within six feet of a person 'with documented SARS-CoV-2 infection' for at least 15 minutes to get screened. 'You need a test,' reads the latest version of the document, released Friday.... In addition to recommending testing for close contacts of sick people, the CDC now says that contacts should self-quarantine at home for 14 days, even if they test negative -- and stay away from other household members in a separate bedroom if possible."
White House Put Kibosh on Mass Mask Distribution. Benjamin Siegel & Lucien Bruggeman of ABC News: "The United States Postal Service drafted plans to distribute 650 million reusable cotton face masks to Americans last spring -- five to every household -- as the country grappled with the first wave of the coronavirus outbreak, according to USPS internal documents obtained by a watchdog group.... 'There was concern from some in the White House Domestic Policy Council and the office of the vice president that households receiving masks might create concern or panic,' one administration official told The Washington Post about the proposal. Instead, the initiative, announced by the Trump administration under the 'Project: America Strong,' was a more targeted program to send face masks to critical infrastructure sectors, companies and health care, community and religious organizations." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Noah Weiland of the New York Times: "... emails obtained by The New York Times ... illustrate how [Michael] Caputo and Dr. [Paul] Alexander [of Health & Human Services] tried to browbeat career officials at the C.D.C. at the height of the pandemic, challenging the science behind their public statements and trying to silence agency staff. On Friday, two days after Mr. Caputo went on medical leave and Dr. Alexander was dismissed from the Department of Health and Human Services, the C.D.C. reversed a heavily criticized recommendation suggesting that people who have had close contact with a person infected with the coronavirus do not need to get tested if they have no symptoms. The emails shed light on the monthslong fight that led to their departures.... Current and former C.D.C. officials called it a five-month campaign of bullying and intimidation."
How Jared Kushner Knowingly & Viciously Sickened & Killed Americans. Katherine Eban of Vanity Fair: On March 20, some of the U.S.'s top business leaders asked for a White House meeting to offer their help to fight the coronavirus pandemic, which had already hit New York hard. They "came armed with specific commitments of support, a memo on the merits of the Defense Production Act, a document outlining impediments to the private-sector response, and two key questions: How could they best help? And how could they best support the government's strategy?... [Jared] Kushner, seated at the head of the conference table, in a chair taller than all the others, was quick to strike a confrontational tone. 'The federal government is not going to lead this response,' he announced. 'It's up to the states to figure out what they want to do.'... 'Free markets will solve this,' Kushner said dismissively. 'That is not the role of government.'... [An] attendee [said] ... he feared that the system was breaking. As evidence, he pointed to a CNN report about New York governor Andrew Cuomo and his desperate call for supplies. That's the CNN bullshit,' Kushner snapped. 'They lie.' According to another attendee, Kushner then began to rail against the governor: 'Cuomo didn't pound the phones hard enough to get PPE for his state.... His people are going to suffer and that's their problem.'... Kushner was accompanied by Navy Rear Admiral John Polowczyk, who had just been posted to FEMA to lead supply-chain efforts. He heaped flattery on Kushner, calling his ideas 'brilliant,' and expressed skepticism concerning the motives of those in the room and on the phone."
Other Craziness, Corruption, Laziness & Lies
Jonathan Martin & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "After months of heated accusations and painstaking negotiations, the White House and the pharmaceutical industry neared agreement late last month on a plan to make good on President Trump's longstanding promise to lower drug prices. The drug companies would spend $150 billion to address out-of-pocket consumer costs and would even pick up the bulk of the co-payments that older Americans shoulder in Medicare's prescription drug program. Then the agreement collapsed. The breaking point, according to four people familiar with the discussions: Mark Meadows, Mr. Trump's chief of staff, insisted the drug makers pay for $100 cash cards that would be mailed to seniors before November -- 'Trump Cards,' some in the industry called them. Some of the drugmakers bridled at being party to what they feared would be seen as an 11th-hour political boost for Mr. Trump, the people familiar with the matter said."
Jamie Ross of the Daily Beast: "Lawyers representing the United States at Julian Assange's extradition trial in Britain have accepted the claim that the WikiLeaks founder was offered a presidential pardon by a Congressman on the condition that he would help cover up Russia's involvement in hacking emails from the Democratic National Committee.Jennifer Robinson, a lawyer, told the court that she had attended a meeting between Assange, then Republican Congressman Dana Rohrabacher, and pro-Trump troll Charles Johnson at Assange's hide-out, the Ecuadorian embassy in London, on August 15, 2017. Robinson said the two Americans claimed to be emissaries from Washington and 'wanted us to believe they were acting on behalf of the president.' The pair allegedly told Assange that they could help grant him a pardon in exchange for him revealing information about the source of the WikiLeaks information that proved it was not the Russians who hacked Democratic emails." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Dan Alexander of Vanity Fair: Donald Trump has a 30% interest in a building in the San Francisco financial district that "is worth an estimated $442 million after debt -- making it the most valuable holding in his entire portfolio. It's worth more than twice as much as [his remaining interest in] Trump Tower, more than seven times as much as Trump's property in Vegas, 16 times as much as his Doral golf resort in Miami.... [On the] 43rd [floor is] a ... sign that read[s], 'Qatar Investment Authority Advisory (USA) Inc.' and, in smaller type, 'A subsidiary of the Qatar Investment Authority.' Nothing inside the place looked as if it had been touched.... [T]he office is just 5,557 square feet. If the Qataris are paying the average rate in the building, that would amount to $450,000 a year, and Trump's 30% would total $135,000.... Strip away the layers and it boils down to just the sort of arrangement the founding fathers feared. A foreign government, it seems, has been paying the president of the United States for more than a year. With so many other scandals brewing, this one has managed to go entirely undetected -- until now." --s ...
~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: I hope someone sometime figures out who got paid what to effect the supposed Trumpish Qatar-Israeli peace deal.
Aubrey Beldford & Adam Klasfeld of the OCCRP: "It was the day before Donald Trump's inauguration and, over lunch at Washington's Watergate Hotel, a foreign government was trying to break into the new U.S. administration.... The meeting on January 19, 2017, which has never before been disclosed, was key to building a close relationship between the administrations of Trump and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. It has perhaps been the most successful foreign lobbying effort of the Trump presidency -- no mean feat for an administration mired from the beginning in foreign influence scandals.... The warm relationship that followed would see Trump administration officials, and the president himself, make decisions that baffled advisers who believed they put Erdoğan's interests over America's. In a recent memoir, Trump's former national security adviser, John Bolton, described a 'bromance' between the two leaders. But behind that bromance is a deeper story -- one that involves Russia-linked oligarchs, alleged crooks, and key players in Trump's Ukraine impeachment scandal, an investigation by OCCRP, Courthouse News Service and NBC News has found." --s
Aaron Davis of the Washington Post: "A pattern of campaign contributions by employees and relatives of Loui DeJoy before he became postmaster general indicates a possible effort to reimburse his associates for donations as recently as 2018, according to a Federal Election Commission complaint filed Thursday by a government watchdog group. The filing by the nonprofit Campaign Legal Center is the third complaint seeking a state or federal investigation since The Washington Post this month reported allegations that DeJoy and his aides urged employees at New Breed Logistics, his former North Carolina-based company, to write checks and attend fundraisers on behalf of Republican candidates. DeJoy then defrayed the cost of those political contributions from 2003 to 2014 by boosting employee bonuses, two employees told The Post.... 'There is reason to believe that Louis DeJoy violated [the Federal Election Campaign Act] by reimbursing his employees for federal political contributions, using his own funds and/or corporate funds from the company he led, XPO Logistics, and its predecessor, New Breed Logistics,' the complaint states." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Ana Swanson, et al., of the New York Times: "The Trump administration said Friday it would bar the Chinese-owned mobile apps WeChat and TikTok from U.S. app stores as of Sunday, striking a harsh blow against two popular services used by more than 100 million people in the United States.... TikTok is currently in talks to be acquired by the American software maker Oracle, and could announce a deal that assuages the administration's national security concerns. In its announcement, the Commerce Department said that the president had given until Nov. 12 for TikTok's national security concerns to be resolved, and if they were, the prohibitions in the order could be lifted.... [TikTok] has also been utilized as a political tool -- hundreds of teenage TikTok users claimed credit for low turnout at a rally for Mr. Trump in Tulsa, Okla., earlier this year." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Beyond the Beltway
Michigan. Tom Batchelor of Newsweek: "Hundreds of pro-gun activists have demonstrated at Michigan's State Capitol in support of the right to open-carry firearms inside the government building. Heavily-armed protestors, some waving Confederate flags and Trump campaign banners, stood on the lawn outside the capitol building in Lansing brandishing AR-15 firearms and wearing body armour. Among those in attendance were members of the Proud Boys -- a far-right, all-male organization with a history of violence against political opponents -- and the Michigan Liberty Militia, a paramilitary group. After two hours of speeches a group gathered on the steps of the Hall of Justice chanting 'U-S-A' and 'four more years' for Donald Trump."
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Reader Comments (22)
RBG dead.
My wife just told me, and it was like a kick in the stomach.
I'm still trying to get my breath.
How bad will it be? I don't know, but I'd wager very, very bad. No matter who gets through the Senate I'm prepeared to detest him (yes, my money's on "him") for all the good reasons I already detest Republicans.
Yes it will be bad. It already is, even worse than I knew.
RBG dead--and this. Two things I didn't want to hear or know.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/supreme-court-phone-unfair-women-liberals/2020/09/18/219faad4-f911-11ea-be57-d00bb9bc632d_story.html
OMG!
RBG dead? You can be sure that Fatty, Himmler, and Moscow Mitch will shove Eva Braun onto the Supreme Court, toot sweet. McConnell declared that a year’s time was too short, prior to an election, to allow a sitting president to choose a Supreme Court candidate.
What will he declare when that time frame is shortened to 6 weeks?
We all know, don’t we?
Democrats, and Biden, need to go ballistic over allowing Hitler and Himmler the chance to slide a racist, rubber stamp traitor onto the court with just weeks to go before the election.
You can bet that Fatty Hitler will have a candidate ready by 6 AM tomorrow morning and that Moscow Mitch will vote him or her in by noon.
And many thanks to RBG for her meritorious service to the nation. She stands head and shoulders and hips and knees above Fatty and his treasonous AG, not to mention above Die for Your Masters Gorsuch, Rape Boy O’Kavanaugh, Hit Man Alito, and Coke Can Pubic Man Clarence Thomas.
RBG has earned, many times over, a period of reverence, thanks and celebration of her amazing life and achievements. It’s nauseating to see the tide of viciousness take over in just an hour or two after her death.
Each time I see the obit headline about Notorious RBG my eyes sting and well up as though I've lost someone close. But, then, haven't we all?
Hooda ever thought?
Principled pharmaceutical companies?
Or crooked companies with a bottom, unlike the Pretender who has none at all.
I know you’re all wondering, so I’ll end your consternation.
Regarding Fatty and McConnell’s scheme to ram Tom Cotton or Ted Cruz or some other dangerous hyper-partisan rubber stamp onto the court before RBG is even in the ground, Susan Collins has announced the she is “concerned”.
Got that? CON-SERNED. Wicked concerned.
That means that should Fatty declare that he wants Lucretia McEvil on the court, Collins will make a pained little face then grab Lucretia by the hand and take her shopping for a black robe
But Lisa Murkowski is apparently also “concerned”.
They can make it a girls’ night out shopping.
The pretense for denying the last real president his choice of Supreme Court justice because an election was ten months away, and the ‘merican people deserved a justice chosen by the next president (or, as it turned out, president*), has miraculously disappeared from the Giant Book of Confederate Pretenses. Imagine that! And now, with an election SIX WEEKS OFF.
Must be why Susie is concerned. She wouldn’t want to appear hypocritical, would she?
Anonymous,
Nauseating, yes. But predictable as the stink in a sleazy truck stop rest room. Otherwise known as the Senate Majority Leader’s office.
On a different sour note, what the hell is a “patriotic curriculum”? If this doesn’t sound like a page out the Hitler Youth Handbook, I don’t know what does. Might as well start up “re-education” camps for those for whom the all-white KKK-Hitler Youth curriculum doesn’t take.
This is really a kick in the gut. Goodbye 5-4 votes with any chance of a single defection making a change.
Suddenly Mitch has a reason for the senate to stay in town: Got to see if they can confirm the replacement before RBG is in the ground.
We have lost a great S. C. judge; we have lost a woman who fought for women and won; we have lost one of the best of human beings and it breaks our hearts.
But hearts of a different kind are absent in the bodies of the little man who heads the Senate along with the Dummkopf who plays at heading the country. Not even waiting a decent period before announcing a replacement on the court, the little man announces he'll get right on it! He obviously has no shame–-his words years ago should be ignored; the blatant hypocrisy is stunning.
Murkowski has come out already saying she is against this and will vote no. Susan Collins is in a tight race in Maine––she just might do more than "be concerned." There are a few others who might be willing to bar the next bench seat.
And isn't it pretty to think we would have time to honor and mourn RBG before politics rears its ugly head once again. Ruth knew this would happen so she left a message––-a message that will be ignored, I fear.
And we soldier on: Here's a dynamite Biden ad––on job growth that will hit the fat man where it hurts most:
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/joe-biden-donald-trump-boast-debunked-ad_n_5f65b1a7c5b6b9795b10e963
Somehow, I don’t think Republicans would be at all happy if Democrats decided to run the country by enacting “winner takes all” rules and laws. There is a lot of federal largesse that makes its way to freedumb-loving, self-supporting MAGAts. This push for voting on a new Justice makes me sick.
There appears to be no depth to which Moscow Mitch will not sink. What a serpent he is. Last night was awful. For him to muscle in immediately means there is indeed no honor left-- they are ALL villains. Last night daughter had company on the front porch. I went inside to get a peanut refill and could not believe my eyes at what was spooling across the bottom of MSNBC-- ended up screeching back out onto the porch with this news that was not even on my phone yet. I feel personally bereft and plan to put on my You Can't Handle The Ruth tee shirt shortly. I know you all feel the same. I guess it isn't simply that an icon has left the planet, but that we know the "bad man" and his posse (my grandchildren refer to Dumpie as the bad man when they see him-- they are almost 5 and 2 1/2) will take full advantage and are completely immune to feeling shame of any kind. I mistakenly thought, as Cecile Richards said, that RBG was immortal. I really thought that she was in a holding pattern with her cancer after the last episode, and thought we didn't have to worry now. Stupid me. Now we can only hope that everyone we know and love votes blue. RBG did her job with style and professionalism at all times-- now it is up to us.
DiJiT should have no incentive to send forward a Bader-replacement nomination before the election. His base will not leave him if he waits, in fact should be even more motivated to GOTV to shore up his "legitimacy" for a post-election nomination. A pre-election nomination would probably cause more people to vote for Biden (admittedly not many) because they will be motivated by the stupendous hypocrisy of the GOP senate. I'm sure someone will do a race-by-race senate analysis this week, but we know that DiJiT does not care about the party's prospects, just his own.
So, waiting a while could reduce his opposition vote by a smidgen.
If he has the patience to wait, he can expect to get his nomination through a lame duck senate, whether or not he wins. The GOP (even the concerned Susan) will not hesitate to put up a woman replacement (yes, woman, because that will appear
"fair"). If you check the female candidates, you will see that The Federalist Society has put forth some really bad prospects.
If the new court is seated in time to (possibly) referee the presidential outcome, we will have another crisis.
On another subject (sort of), if the election ties up in the electoral college and goes to the House, we could have another crisis, because the House vote is not all 438 members, but one vote per State delegation. There are more R-majority states than D's. So a lame duck party line vote would put DiJiT back in the WH.
https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2020/01/what-will-happen-if-theres-a-tie-in-the-electoral-college.html
We really need that D landslide vote.
I failed to note that even though he has no incentive to nominate, he probably will, because he is not very smart and doesn't listen to the few around him who are.
Don’t live in KY but I just donated to Amy McGrath’s campaign.
It’s bad enough to lose a world class jurist who will most likely be replaced by a cheap winger hack, but what really won’t leave me alone is the idea that a bigoted, know-nothing crook and traitor who slithered into office with help from the Russians, Jim Comey, and a supine press, gets to install three far right, hyper partisan bots on the highest court in the land.
The first seemed to at least have some qualifications, except for his belief that corporations come before people, that citizens are expected to obey the Bosses at all costs, and lay down their lives if required, for the Company. The next was a sniveling, lying rapist. If this downhill trend continues, who knows what kind of appalling pseudo human will be next. The Evangelicals must be dancing in the streets this morning with images of abortion providers being strung up by the neck in public squares.
I hate to resort to “if onlys”, but...Hillary! Jesus! You couldn’t have run just a teensier more alert campaign? Just think. This could have been her third Supreme Court nominee. Even McConnell couldn’t put off votes for four years.
Or could he?
@Akhilleus: My first reaction was "I can't breath!" because it was true, but I couldn't write it down because it seems to diminish the real people -- George Floyd & Eric Gardner & others -- whom bigots actually prevented from breathing. Then I cried. Then a little later I started thinking about it. And I too blame Jim Comey for this mess. "Well, I thought Hillary would win," does not cut it for me as an excuse for dumping on her the week before the election when many people already were voting.
Of course at the time Obama nominated Comey, Democrats like me were not impressed. There were certainly plenty of qualified, non-Republican candidates to head the FBI. Obama's gestures of bipartisanship -- remember how Bob Gates dumped on both Obama & Hillary Clinton -- were among his dumb, dumb, dumbest moves. He got nothing for it but grief. And we got Donald Trump, Bill Barr, Neil Gorsuch & Bart O'Kavanaugh, and and and. The idea that only Republicans can handle the "manly jobs" -- defense, intelligence jobs, etc. -- is a Democratic sickness that comes back to bite Americans.
Back East, Covid Negative, after three weeks of working in our Midwest bubble. Noted on the long drive back that some of the most aggressive speeders (those paying the least respect to the law) were the ones with the blue stripe flags, decals, and window adornments. "Law Enforcement is on my side, so I don't have to follow the law."
I know it's an oxymoron but it seems like we're in transition from a republic to an autocratic anarchistic government. Trump is definitely an autocrat yet with a different message is encouraging people to act on their beliefs/prejudices, and to hell with the rule of law.
Fast wheels. Slow learners.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/tens-of-thousands-of-motorcyclists-pack-lake-of-the-ozarks-for-bike-rally