There’s a lot of whinging in the comments to the live feed post of the Kavanaugh hearings about the Democrats caving, the Democrats not being willing to fight even if they know they can’t win and beat back this nomination because they neither have the votes, nor the ability to set the committee’s rules or the Senates. And that if they won’t make this fight, then what good are they.
Are any of you actually watching the actual hearing? I realize I had to take a work call, so I’m about a 40 minutes behind and only just now in the middle of Senator Whitehouse’s opening remarks, but I haven’t seen any of the Democrats preemptively surrendering or going into duck and cover mode. Sure, Senator Duckworth hasn’t vaulted over the desk top and beaten Judge Kavanaugh to death with her prosthetic leg, nor have Kamala Harris and Corey Booker hit Ted Cruz with a metal folding chair. Nor has Senator Hirono and Senator Feinstein given Senator Grassley an atomic wedgy yet this morning,* but that doesn’t mean they’re not doing what they’re supposed to do. Nor does it mean they aren’t fighting this nomination appropriately. They’re making motions. They’re making their points. They’re arguing repeatedly that the hearings should be delayed, not cancelled, but delayed until the appropriate documentation from Judge Kavanaugh’s time as the Staff Secretary and Deputy White House Council in the Bush 43 administration is released and reviewed as part of the appropriate due diligence.
Everybody needs to get a grip. Getting discouraged, freaking out, being paralyzed by fear isn’t going to help the situation. This fight may not be winnable, but it doesn’t look like the Democrats on the Senate Judiciary committee have surrendered preemptively. You shouldn’t either.
Open thread.
* This is sarcasm. I am neither advocating violence by Democratic senators, nor would I expect them to actually engage in it.
Major Major Major Major
Thank you.
EricNNY
I think the Dem Sens are doing what they can with what they have. They’re making some pretty awesome points and laying the absurdity of this confirmation out fairly clearly. Will it matter? Probably not, but they’re taking the fight to them.
lgerard
I found this pretty interesting
particularly this part
Boussinesque
Thanks for this, Adam.
oatler.
I still want to see Grassley get the Dreaded Rear Admiral.
But seriously, fuck that Iowa cocksucker.
TenguPhule
But think of the ratings! //
Domestic short hair tabby (fka vheidi)
I think they are kicking ass. Whitehouse was great, that 5-4 list was as impressive as it was horrifying. Also, f*ck bk with a rusty pitchfork for his treatment of the Parkland dad, what a gutless coward.
swiftfox
Based on what I read at LGM, I’d be more peeved at Schumer for rolling over for McConnell on the lower court nominees.
TenguPhule
And the Republican shits are gleefully ignoring the rules and traditions.
this is gonna be bad.
Adam L Silverman
@TenguPhule:
Adam L Silverman
@TenguPhule: They have the votes. They control the leadership. They set the rules.
JGabriel
Adam Silverman @ Top:
Now, THAT I’d tune in for.
Seriously, though, I haven’t been watching it all, but the little I’ve seen – basically the opening and most of the latter 3/4ths of Whitehouse, has been a pretty strong showing from the Democrats. So I’m with you, Adam. Anyone who’s complaining about Dems caving is watching a different hearing than the one I’ve been seeing.
Turgidson
It sounds like the Democrats are being appropriately outraged at the hearing. But most likely, any hope there was of snuffing this nomination out (and I readily admit there might have never been any hope to begin with) probably was extinguished when the Democrats and various grassroots orgs who did so well in beating back ACA repeal and at least making the tax cuts difficult to pass and toxic when they did, could not sustain the energy on this nomination and make the so-called pro choice GOP senators or anyone else feel pressure to consider opposing this sham. That ship seems to have sailed unless there’s a really,really egregious smoking gun about to be revealed.
Mary G
No one is asking for anything like that, and discounting emotional arguments is acting like a Republican. This is a visceral issue to me and many other women and not at all worthy of you, Adam.
You are too young to remember pre-Roe days, but some of us are not:
ByRookorbyCrook
Until the democratic senators hold their breath until they turn blue, I will consider them all DINO’s.
TenguPhule
@Adam L Silverman: They’ve set the rules to “We’re Republicans, Fuck you.”
The backlash is going to wind up as “You’re a Republican, any last words before sentence is carried out?”
Emma
@TenguPhule: For crying out loud. I never thought of you as naive. Of course Republicans will do what they will do. Personally, I think the Dems are doing a good job laying out the reasons why this will be an illegitimate appointment. It needs to go on the record. EVERYTHING about this administration needs to go on the record, if only to prevent the compliant press to fake-outrage the country to death when the cleanup starts.
HeleninEire
Y’all I am so gonna get the Woodward book. Even if only half the shit in that book is true I still wanna read it.
Didja know that Trump ordered Assad killed and Mattis ignored the order? There is so much treason in that sentence that I just can’t even.
Also don’t @ me about the word treason. Yeah I know.
Roger Moore
One of the things I get out of this is that Democrats are just as addicted to feeling persecuted and outraged as Republicans are. It’s just that we focus our feelings of outrage and persecution differently. Instead of focusing it outward onto all the people who are actually causing our problems, we focus on our own party, especially our elected officials. Our problems are never because the other guys have been effective at what they’re doing; it’s always because our own side is a bunch of disorganized gutless losers who will betray us the moment our backs are turned.
I wonder if in some way this is a reflection of the inherent problems in maintaining a diverse coalition like the Democrats. The diversity of the coalition means there’s always a worry that we’re going to lose out to our own allies before we even make contact with the enemy.
JGabriel
Third comma of second paragraph above should be a dash.
Really missing that editing button, Alain & M^4.
Adam L Silverman
@Mary G: I’m not discounting the importance and the significance. Nor am I discounting who is going to be harmed. I’m not saying not to be outraged. I am saying that becoming overwrought and going all “woe is us” isn’t going to make anything better. I recognize just how bad the situation is. I may, perhaps, have some insights into just how much worse it is than most are aware of. None of that is my point. My point is that panic is not going to help anyone. Panic and despair is what they want. Fear is being pushed as a motivator for one side and a demotivator for the other. All I’m saying is don’t buy what is being sold.
Kristine
I am guessing this has been discussed before, but if evidence surfaces later that Kavanaugh lied during this hearing or previous hearings, can he be recalled/impeached/removed from the Court?
TenguPhule
@Turgidson:
its worse then that. There are about half a dozen smoking guns lying there in plain sight and both media and Republicans are ignoring them while the Democrats keep pointing them out using large neon signs and very simple words.
The guy releasing Shithole’s papers for the nominations USED TO WORK FOR HIM and is one of Trump’s lawyer’s lawyers.
Its so fucking corrupt that we’d expect it from an African warlord.
Mayur
Repeat memo to everyone I know:
None of you who are jumping up and down screaming how the Democrats aren’t doing enough! to stop Kavanaugh were doing nearly as much to get out and exhort your friends, family, and community to vote in the 66 Senate elections decided in 2010 and 2014. If five of those had gone differently we’d have Merrick Garland (or maybe even Sri Srinivasan or Paul Watford) currently seated instead of Gorsuch, and we could grab the popcorn and watch Kavanaugh be eviscerated and sent home, guts in hand.
Too large an overlap between the insufficiently-motivated-to-GOTV-in-midterms crowd and the Democrats-never-try-hard-enough crowd.
HeleninEire
And about that Assad order: Adam assuming it’s true and Mattis ignored it because it is illegal; it is, right? What would Mattis’ responsibility be beyond that? Does he have to report it to????? Dunno, the Congress?
TenguPhule
@Kristine:
impeachment is a political process.
JGabriel
@Turgidson:
The fact that 93% of Kavanaugh’s documents haven’t been provided to Democratic Senators is an egregious smoking gun right there. The measure of people who don’t see that is the measure of how far our democracy has fallen.
Mnemosyne
@Turgidson:
Any hope of snuffing this nomination out died when alleged “Democrats” decided not to vote for Hillary Clinton because she was “too corporate” when they picked apart her 20+ years of tax returns.
And that’s even before we get to the outcry about Merrick Garland being “to the right of Antonin Scalia” because of one (1) Guantanamo decision. I bet the “civil liberties” dudebros are still proud of themselves for shutting that one down.
TenguPhule
@HeleninEire:
Three Constitutional violations for the price of one!
Major Major Major Major
@swiftfox: yeah, what’s the deal there? All I’ve seen is sturm and drang on twitter.
JGabriel
@Kristine:
The Constitution allows for any SC Justice or federal judge to be impeached as long as there are enough votes to support it in Congress.
Ruviana
@HeleninEire: I read the Michael Wolffe book and it was pretty astonishing. Initially I was going to give Woodward a pass but given everything I’ve heard so far it’s going on my to read list.
Mnemosyne
@Kristine:
Only if 2/3rds of the Senate votes to impeach him.
Turgidson
@JGabriel:
Totally agreed. I meant the kind of “egregious smoking gun” that GOP senators might actually care about (if such a thing even exists, which is doubtful short of video of BK murdering puppies with a burning cross while wearing ANTIFA garb). They’re obviously all comfortable with trying to confirm him without doing any actual vetting and do not find that the least bit scandalous.
TenguPhule
@Emma:
Now who’s naive?
The Republicans are wrecking everything. There isn’t even a fig leaf this time.
kindness
That’s funny. Adam commenting on liberals who complain wondering why Democrats aren’t the Green Hornet. I could swear you’ve been here before Adam. Curious you don’t know us.
germy
The Scum Also Rises
BroD
@oatler.:
I’d buy a ticket.
Fair Economist
@Kristine: Kavanaugh can be impeached for any reason if we can find 67 Senators willing to impeach. This is unlikely, though, even if you are optimistic abour 2018 and 2020. Other fixes like reforming the Court would be much easier.
Adam L Silverman
@HeleninEire: I’m guessing, since I’ve only read what was quoted in the WaPo article, that because it was made in a phone call, that Secretary Mattis took it as an off the cuff expression of exasperation to do something. So he turned to his aide and started doing something – planning for a conventional response. Until or unless the President rescinds the presidential policy directives banning assassinations and state sponsored killings delineated in Executive Orders 11905 issued by President Ford, 12036 issued by President Carter, and 12333 issued by President Reagan, this statement over the phone was an illegal order and could be ignored. Which is what Secretary Mattis did.
germy
@Kristine:
That’s what I keep wondering (and hoping). Maybe Adam can explain.
James E Powell
@Mayur:
Settle down there, you have no evidence of this. Many people here devoted their time and money to campaigns in their respective states. Comments on a blog – even a great one like Balloon Juice – are not related to political activity.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Whitehouse torched him, and the “Roberts 5”. Dick Durbin has a disappointed dad affect, but he’s angry and he has not forgotten that Kavanagh lied to him, and is not going to during questioning. I heard Harris lit him up and if Amy Klobuchar does have 2020 ambitions and saw the reaction to her mealy-mouthed both-sidesism on Reid and McConnell yesterday, she knows she has some catching up to do. I think the Dems are doing what they need to do within the parameters of what they can do.
I get that people are frustrated with the slow, hard boring of hard boards, and that makes people desperate for the One Weird Trick That Will Stop Kavanagh by getting people on D-Kos and Eschaton posting “This!”, but there’s no other way to go than the slow, frustrating attrition against eh Republican majorities, today, in November, and in 2020.
That said, it would be awesome if Dianne Feinstein violated the “Committee Secret” and posted those fucking documents.
EricNNY
@Turgidson:
Burning cross would actually be a plus for the Rethugs.
Mnemosyne
@swiftfox:
You mean the deal that was made while Obama was still in office to try and get more of Obama’s nominees through that is now screwing us because the Republicans are using the rule change we asked for against us?
Jesus, I wish people had memories longer than that of the average fruit fly.
Emma
@TenguPhule: Then let us all sit down, mourn the death of the Republic and begin planning migrations and underground railroads.
germy
“I was just being polite.”
TenguPhule
@Adam L Silverman:
Fairly certain that was rescinded on 1/21/17. //
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Mnemosyne: I think that deal, and McC’s rush to confirm Kavanagh, suggest that McC knows there’s a chance, however slim, that he could lose his majority. Josh Barro noted the other day that the wonks give Dems a 1 in 6 or 7 chance of taking the Senate, which is both a long shot and better odds than people gave trump of winning the EC.
TenguPhule
@Emma:
what do you mean begin?
James E Powell
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
What could the Republicans do about it? It’s not like it’s a crime.
The Moar You Know
@Adam L Silverman: And, most importantly to note, voters set the stage for this state of affairs to pass.
Hope the results end up largely “educational” as opposed to “tragic”.
cain
I think what a lot of feel is that Democrats play law abiding folks, playing by the rules. The republicans break the rules, or use the rules to block everything. Here we are, the Democrats as the helpless minority party. Fair enough, but they seemed to be equally helpless when they were the majority party and the Republicans were walking all over them blocking everything. I guess, we’re a little pissed that from a surface level it seems like surrender monkeying.. and remember perception is everything now thanks to 24 hour news. They could lose the PR view of this whole thing and cause themselves to be in trouble with their liberal base.
Anonymous At Work
Not sure what hearing you are watching but the collective Democratic strategy seems to involve giving Grassley an aneurysm…
BruceFromOhio
This, thanks.
TenguPhule
@James E Powell:
Since when have Republicans cared about reality over perception?
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@James E Powell: DiFi is one of the last of the Cardinals, I’d say its down to her and Leahy, who really believe all that old claptrap about the Senate. I think they were both opposed to the nuclear option in the name of tradition and comity and blah blah blah
eemom
I’m sure Woodward’s “book” will be a fun read, but am I the only one who thinks it shouldn’t be fucking “breaking news” on a day when the murder of democracy is advancing toward a vote on Capitol Hill?
Adam L Silverman
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I think it is a combination of seeing the internal polling and recognizing that it isn’t quite as locked in for retention as the public polling is showing and the recognition that if the Democrats retake the House, then the actual proper oversight and investigations are going to so swamp the White House and, especially, the White House Counsel’s Office, that even if there’s still plenty of judicial vacancies to fill, there will neither be the ability nor the appetite to fill them because the White House and White House Counsel’s office will be snowed under.
Turgidson
@EricNNY:
Good point.
Adam L Silverman
@Anonymous At Work: Well that’s a technique!
germy
Kamala noticed that Kavanaugh wouldn’t shake the hand of the father whose daughter was murdered.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Mary G: I’ve been trying to imagine the shock of younger women who have always taken access to abortion as their right, even if they choose not to use it. There will be both the actual injury of the law change and the added insult of men like Kavanaugh who believe they get to decide these things for us. Because they do.
I value Adam’s admonition not to despair. As I recall, despair is a mortal sin. But today I have to go do other things to avoid it.
Fair Economist
@cain: The Democrats have done a much better job of blocking than the Republicans did the last time we had the trifecta. We got lots more legislation passed and two SC justices.
Mike in NC
I watched one of our cats come into the room via the pet door was had installed several months ago. I couldn’t help but notice that he had something in his mouth. Quickly determined it was a mouse; not a toy one but a real freakin’ mouse. Fortunately the wife is out and I took it away before it could go hide someplace where even the cats couldn’t reach it.
ChrisH
I have to wonder, if the eorst case scenario pans out and we learn Trump was actively working with the Russian government, what do we do with two supreme Court justices that were placed on the court by an agent of a hostile foreign power?
Maybe breaking more norms isn’t the answer but if we learn that is how things went down and we have control of the Senate and House in 2021, I’d be in favor of salting the earth of Trump’s presidency, including removing Kavanaugh and Gorsuch and saying President Gillibramd/Booker etc. Get to call a mulligan and nominate two replacements.
James E Powell
This is one of those episodes where what Kevin Drum calls the Democrats’ “hack gap” shows up. If this situation was reversed, if the nominee had tons of documents from his work in the Clinton administration that Democrats were refusing to produce and/or refusing to allow questions on, that fact would have been the lead story on every cable channel for the last week. It would have been the only thing discussed on the Sunday shows. The NYT & WaPo would be running apoplectic editorials and OpEds. The whole political press/media world would come to a grinding halt to confront the question “What are they hiding?”
But we are who we are, they are who they are, and we are stuck where we are. November 6th is the whole ballgame.
TenguPhule
@ChrisH:
Conviction for treason, obvious sentencing.
Martin
Reminder that not every problem has a solution. This isn’t the SAT. Sometimes shit goes wrong and the only thing you can do is cope.
When Dems are back in power, then we can talk about how to make things right.
@Dorothy A. Winsor: It’s only a small thing, but no matter what happens with RvW, abortion will still be legal and easy to access in CA. We’re continuing to advance bills to make it easier (requiring all public universities to provide emergency contraceptives/medical abortion meds), and while flying to CA is a much larger hurdle than women should have to go through, its at least something. Meanwhile, we’ll be leading the charge to make it legal nationally.
D58826
Then what bloody good are the folding chairs??
Mandalay
@Adam L Silverman:
That’s rich coming from you. That’s **exactly what you did**, concern trolling the results of your ten minute internet search desperately looking for dirt on Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, coyly suggesting – more in sorrow than in anger – that others might want to dig deeper.
Miss Bianca
@Roger Moore:
This. QFT.
Martin
@ChrisH: Supreme court justices can be impeached. Congress can also pass a law to increase the number of USSC justices. There are remedies, provided congress does its job (yeah, I know).
HeleninEire
@TenguPhule: I’ve already contributed my part to the underground railroad. Haven’t gotten many proposals, though. ;)
Fair Economist
@James E Powell: It is not exactly a hack gap but a media gap. There are plenty of people willing and eager to talk about the outrage of Kavanaugh’s missing documents, starting apparently with every Dem on the Justice committee. But the media chooses not to invite them to speak.
TenguPhule
@HeleninEire: If you lived in Japan I’d marry you in a heartbeat.
Mnemosyne
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
Kavanaugh is actually worse than just being a “pro-life” fanatic. He voted in favor of mentally disabled women being forced to undergo abortions that they did not consent to. He wants government control of abortions, which means the government could decide that certain “undesirables” need to be forced to undergo abortions and Kavanaugh would sign off on it.
The allegedly “pro-life” forced birthers don’t care, because that’s what they want. ?
Fair Economist
In terms of raising awareness on Kavanaugh’s millions of missing documents, I’m willing to bet a lot are emails. #wherearehisemails #kavanaughsmissingemails
debit
@Martin: My concern, and probably the concern of D senators is that the worm always turns. If we impeach a SC justice, then the Republicans will too just as soon as they’re back in power. No reason, other than to show us that they can. It’s like we’re married to an abuser and have no escape – even if the court ordered counseling works for a time, once they feel safe, they’ll start smacking us around again. Rules and comity are all we have, unless someone can figure out a way to guarantee they’ll never have a majority in Congress again.
Mnemosyne
@Mandalay:
So is AOC campaigning in her own district yet, or is she still jetsetting around the country boosting “socialist” white men’s campaigns over those of women and POC?
Fair Economist
@debit: If the Republicans could impeach a Justice they would. They did it to a President, remember? McConnell has made it clear there is no point in observing norms anymore. We should do anything moral in our power from now on.
Our defense against this is that it is very hard to get 67 Senators, and will be harder once Puerto Rico and the DC retrocession are states.
Ella in New Mexico
The idea that the Democrats in the Senate didn’t work hard enough to flip “pro-choice” Republican Senators and that’s why we’re going to get Brent Kavanaugh on the SC is foolish. No matter how hard we worked, no matter what the issues were, we were going to get this turd period.
That decision was made long ago, in some dark room by the ideologues who are currently dictating to Republicans this vote and all others and just exactly what their talking points and agenda will be LEST ALL THAT STUFF COMES OUT ABOUT YOU KNOW WHAT AND YOUR LIFE IS RUINED FOREVER.
None of them will mutiny. This is fear in action right now. Not principle, not even pure politics. It’s fear of something really big. The same thing that will keep them supporting everything that fucking idiot in the White House, come Hell or high water.
Ella in New Mexico
I really hope we get the edit feature back. This place is getting to be too much like Twitter, except you can’t even delete your mistakes.
Adam L Silverman
@Mandalay: I didn’t panic. I didn’t scream woe is us. I simply said it took me ten minutes to find material that seems to completely contradict the narrative that she and her supporters are putting out. To be perfectly honest, provided she is elected, which I think is a foregone conclusion, she’s going to be one freshman representative among 435 other representatives. For the next several years, provided she survives a reelection attempt, she’s simply another vote in the Democratic House caucus. This is fine. She’s neither the party’s savior, nor is she going to personally destroy it. But a little due diligence on her backstory would be nice. That’s it. That was the only point of that comment.
Miss Bianca
@ChrisH: I hope you don’t mind that I included your question in my latest email to Cory Gardner.
TenguPhule
@debit:
FEMA reeducation camps.
Adam L Silverman
@HeleninEire: Have you gotten me a professorship of senior fellowship at the university yet? If not, then you’ve clearly not done anywhere close to enough.
HeleninEire
@TenguPhule: Well, now. You would respond to my request for proposals in a heartbeat. The decision is mine.
Miss Bianca
@HeleninEire: I have yet to hear back from you on my gay marriage proposal. Harrumph! Harrumph, harrumph, harrumph!
HeleninEire
@Adam L Silverman: Looking for your response to my Request for Proposals. Haven’t seen it yet. Send it on. Like all of your peer reviewed papers, Dr. Silverman, your response will be “peer”* reviewed.
*Me and my girls!!!
Radiumgirl
@Adam L Silverman: You’re one big reason I read this blog, Adam. I appreciate your eternal calm in the ever-raging storm.
oldgold
The consensus of mainstream historians is that FDR was way out of line in considering packing the Supreme Court in 1937. My view is that FDR was fully justified.
In 1936 FDR won the Electoral College 523-8. The Senate was 74 D [77%] – 22 R. The House was 332 D [74%] – 103 R.
For the previous 4 years the Supremes, relying on an asinine view of the Commerce Clause, had gutted the New Deal.
Given the gravity of the crisis, the consensus behind the New deal as expressed in the recent election and the intransigence of the Supremes, packing the Court was well worth exploring.
Adam L Silverman
@Radiumgirl: Thank you.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
I dunno, I think the other side will take it as a lack of resolve if somebody doesn’t at least THROW a folding chair. Or maybe empty a water glass in Cruz’ direction.
joel hanes
Vox thinks the Dems have a good strategy for the hearings and are pursuing it with skill.
https://www.vox.com/2018/9/4/17819022/brett-kavanaugh-hearing-supreme-court-process
Uncle Cosmo
@Mayur:
Omar Khayyam, Rubaiyat, LXXI, 1120 CE, transl. Edward FitzGerald, 1859 CE.
Aleta
I haven’t noticed any commenters surrender preemptively. Blaming Dem senators to the extent that we don’t have their backs for this moment weakens our strength, imo, and is dangerous because the time is dangerous, but that isn’t surrendering.
Jeffro
Folksy sister Lindsey Graham is lecturing the Democrats for being hypocritical re: Kavanaugh, which led him to say, “If you want to pick judges, you’d better win”. Like, multiple times. Lindsey, you prick, I’d like to thank you for some of the best ready-for-TV-ads footage we’ve possibly EVER been given.
James E Powell
@Fair Economist:
You’re right. I kind of lump it all together. I do wonder though, do big shot Democrats – especially senators & congresspersons of significant tenure – call the networks and demand to get on the shows? This is a question I’d ask Chuck Todd while he appears to be in a reflective mood. The imbalance has been there since at least the middle of the first Clinton administration. It’s all most Americans have ever known.
Uncle Cosmo
@D58826: Maybe Harris & Booker got the same tweet this AM from Beto O’Rourke – photo of him cradling a folding chair, captioned BACK OFF, I GOT THIS.
@Ceci n est pas mon nym:
Ha! An idea whose “hour has come ’round again/ Sloshing toward the Senate to be dissolved…”
H.E.Wolf
Thank you, Adam. Defeatism accomplishes nothing; unless it’s an attempt to discourager les autres.
There’s always something useful to be done, if one wants to find it. I’m working from home in my free time to match would-be volunteers in our state with the local field organizers for the state Democratic Party. Total: 4,375 volunteers matched in the past 11 months (and I expect to reach 5K by the end of Sept, because the sign-up rate is accelerating). My stretch goal is 6K by mid-Oct.
Even if only 1 in 10 were to walk their talk – and I think that’s a very low estimate – that’s 437 volunteers actively working to get out the vote in our state.
Then there a dozen or more neighbors, acquaintances, and random strangers* who have agreed to join me at the campaign office this fall, and help with Tasks for Introverts for an hour or two.
*Someone makes a snarky comment about Republicans in my hearing, and I recruit them!
Thank you to all the jackals who are inspiring me by their election-related efforts. I would do much less of this, without your example to lift me up.
HeleninEire
@Miss Bianca: Oh hi girl. Do you submit a proposal?
Aleta
@Aleta: Nor did I see any freaking out, being paralyzed by fear. There’s a line, may be invisible, between the encouragement you intend and exaggeration. If feelings are high, exaggeration can act like a counterforce on getting a grip. It’s delicate because of the seriousness of today’s attack.
J R in WV
@eemom:
Yes!
SATSQ
J R in WV
@Martin:
I remember when there were women working undercover to provide free travel to New York state for abortions back when it was illegal in most states. They raised money to pay for the medical treatment for women who couldn’t afford it, too. Now after nearly 50 years I forget the names of the groups… a shame.
This was prior to Roe V Wade, of course, and we can do it again.
jl
Kavanaugh and Gorsuch are both illegitimate and did not follow proper procedure, though I realize that is subjective.
If the GOP goes this route, Demos should just add another justice (or two) to the SCOTUS as soon as they have the power to do that.
Or kick some of the reactionaries off (though I realize dong so is a real stretch).
Letting the current extremist and malfeasant GOP grab power this way, with nothing like any kind of effective response, could turn the Constitution into a suicide pact.
Miss Bianca
@HeleninEire: Hell to the yeah, babe! (It is “babe”, right?) ; )
TenguPhule
@J R in WV:
This time they’ll have to dodge Imperial Stormtroopers.
debbie
Glad to have missed the whinging, though the excerpts I’ve heard were bad enough. I am happy with the Dem-created chaos, such as it is, because there isn’t anything else that can be done.
If I had one criticism, I would have retorted to the GOPer (Cornyn?) who congratulated Grassley for presiding over “mob rule” by saying, “The Brits thought the Founders were a rowdy mod, so thank you very much for that compliment.”
Kathleen
@HeleninEire: Oooh! Loving this episode of B J Bachelorette
Will you bestow a green balloon upon your choice?
MoxieM
@J R in WV: The Jane Collective? They taught each other how to safely perform early term abortions, and had an Underground Railroad for women who needed them.
I didn’t think I was this old, but I guess I am: I remember a friend’s mom going to Tijuana for an abortion, getting infected, and luckily had a US doc who was willing to give her the necessary antibiotics. It helped that she was a respectably married mother of 3. And a couple of friends from high school who got preggers–as baby sitters, by the dad no less– and managed by various string pulling to get late term saline abortions in hospital. Not a fun procedure by any means. And, I myself had to have a 2nd trimester week termination of a very wanted child for medical reasons, which was hell itself. I can’t imagine adding a layer of shit frosting of State intervention, or of having to go to another country. So this shit-smirking dude is very personally offensive. I just hope RBG doesn’t stroke out.
sukabi
@Anonymous At Work: whatever works.
2liberal
@Fair Economist:
It should have been THREE sc justices. That’s a big loss.