Yep.
And gives Democrats a mandate to go big on structural change to the judiciary. That is a LOT to trade away, even for a Supreme Court seat that could be rendered a lot less meaningful on a bigger court. https://t.co/MfKJxHnaqv
— Greg Pinelo (@gregpinelo) September 22, 2020
Maybe I’m an optimist, but I get the impression that Trump has figured out that the minute he actually announces his SCOTUS nominee, the spotlight switches from Donald Trump to Mitch McConnell (& his merry band of GOP miscreants). Trump is neither smart nor informed, but he has the narcissist’s gift for knowing how to keep all eyes on *HIM*. So… what I’m hoping… we get another couple weeks of ‘I’m picking a nominee, the best nominee, a total winner’ at every rally and presser, while #MoscowMitch looks at the Senate calendar and stews. Root for injuries!
I genuinely appreciate how he doesn’t pretend there’s any principle here other than power, and how he exposes the absurdity of the Republicans who do. https://t.co/XrUbvHXN36
— Michael Grunwald (@MikeGrunwald) September 21, 2020
Two weeks, tops. https://t.co/Fyi1eyKXT1
— Daniel W. Drezner (@dandrezner) September 21, 2020
Look, we'll see how this ultimately plays, but folks who thought a Supreme Court vacancy would be a good thing for the GOP in the election… are not seeing polls vindicate that point of view.
— (((Harry Enten))) (@ForecasterEnten) September 21, 2020
If voters prefer waiting until after the election by a 13-point margin *and* D's are more fired up about the Supreme Court, this starts to look like a challenging issue for Republicans. Which is not to say they won't confirm someone, just that it could come at an electoral price. https://t.co/wsbllBsEgn
— Nate Silver (@NateSilver538) September 21, 2020
If it's in between—more than merely *somewhat* unpopular, but not quite to the point of being *extremely* unpopular—then there's probably a ton of in-fighting within the GOP, which is not what you want on the eve of an election.
— Nate Silver (@NateSilver538) September 21, 2020
The Moar You Know
When you have the Senate, you can just grab America by the pussy. You can sort of do whatever you want.
Baud
For the first time ever, Trump gives us words to live by.
lamh36
lamh36
debbie
Drezner: “Two weeks tops.” For what?
Baud
@debbie: Naming a nominee.
debbie
@Baud:
It bookends nicely with “The Constitution says I can do anything I want.”
MattF
We shall see how Rs handle the hearings. Trump has said out loud that he needs a full Court to invalidate the election, so Ds have a perfectly good reason to ask a nominee if they’ve made any commitment.
debbie
@Baud:
Huh, he’s been pimping a Saturday announcement pretty hard. The longer, the better, though.
Nora Lenderbee
Oh, yes it is.
debbie
@MattF:
I cannot imagine the court would go along with that ridiculousness.
David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch
Act Blue
raised $37 million in past 24 hours.
Right now, they’ve raised nearly $200 million since Friday night and at this pace, they’ll hit 300 million by this Friday night. That’s $300 million in 7 days. If they push through a vote, I can see a Billion dollars being raised in October.
Benw
Top 5 Trump nominee options:
1. Judge Jeanine
2. Brett Farve
3. himself
4. Rocky Balboa
5. Ivanka
Redshift
@Baud: I suspect Drezner is snarking about Trump’s repeated promises to have a health care plan (and various other things) in two weeks.
Kent
I think this is an extraordinarily big point. Trump needs to shift the race somehow in a way that is positive for him. I don’t see how this does it. It takes all the focus off him but not in a good way. This could be like the dog who caught the car. How is he going to go off and do his monster MAGA rallies and yell about the wall and Obamagate when every bit of media attention will be on the SCOTUS nomination? Whatever bullshit he says on the fly in rallies is actually likely to hurt the nomination if he forces GOP Senators to defend his remarks.
MattF
@Benw: And Lou Dobbs.
MP
@David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch: Doing my very small part. Winning this election and putting us back on a democratic path is cheaper than emigrating*.
– And as a bonus, it’s the right thing to do.
Steeplejack (phone)
@debbie:
It’s a joke about how everything Trump announces is just about to happen or “in two weeks.”
David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch
@Benw: Dump just said he wants someone with judicial experience and has narrowed his short list to Mike Judge, Aaron Judge, and Judge Reinhold
debbie
@Steeplejack (phone):
Thanks. I’d forgotten about that. I’m trying to forget about all of it.
Tim C.
Yeah, one of the biggest victories the GOP has had over the last five years is convincing a majority of Americans that their lives and opinions don’t really matter.
That ends soon.
Steeplejack (phone)
Thematically related—good, detailed thread:
mali muso
Back to watching the ActBlue counter spin upwards as a comfort mechanism. I have so much rage it has got to be unhealthy.
Bill Arnold
@Steeplejack (phone):
In software schedule estimation, “two weeks” has long been literally a joke. Ask a starting programmer how long something will take and they will often be tempted to estimate “two weeks”. (They soon learn to double or triple their estimates. Also, software work is often split up into two week “sprints”.)
The Trump team might publish something on their promised timeline re health care. If they do, it will be vague, short and full of obvious gaps and what detail there is will look bad to most non-cult Americans, and even to some DJT cult members.
Ruckus
@Kent:
Agreed.
Think you summed it up nicely.
Benw
@MattF: LOL Dobbs
@David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch: I am kicking myself for not thinking of those
We could have a top ten!
Toldyouso
@Steeplejack (phone):
Yeah, I guess I am naïve but I thought that Bobby Three Sticks had more spine.
Captain C
@lamh36: I see an ad involving Seinfeld and co..
Roger Moore
I still think the logical, if completely unethical, thing for the Republicans to make a big show of holding off voting on Trump’s nominee and then voting during the lame duck session. It lets the Senators who are worried about the politics of it hurting their reelection chances demonstrate their independence without actually interfering with them getting their 6-3 majority.
Ruckus
@mali muso:
It is unhealthy.
I try to take it in small doses, with respite stuff inbetween. Even work reduces stress these days. Of course we are short on work right now so that means the old man works less. I don’t mind it a lot but it’s screwing with my retirement plans. The retirement practice is nice though.
MattF
@Bill Arnold: The rule I learned was ‘double and go to the next higher unit of time measurement.’ So, two weeks translates to four months.
Hungry Joe
@Benw: Never mind all those “Judges”: What about Margaret Court? Since she’s a vicious, just plain awful human being, she’s probably the favorite.
Ruckus
@Roger Moore:
Well just given the timing and trumps tremendous follow through history, it will probably work out that way, no matter what mitch wants.
VeniceRiley
Couple that with it would give Senator Harris free time to take shots at the nominee and make her cry on TV. I’m sure some Dems will happily give her their five minutes!
Sloane Ranger
Amy Comey Barrett was at the White House again today for what that’s worth, but Trump has also said he will see the Cuban American candidate when he’s in Florida. I assume that will be the weekend. That would take the announcement to Sunday at the earliest.
I’m not convinced he will delay beyond Monday at the latest. Trump believes he can control the media narrative and will say or do something to tear attention away from the nomination fight plus he thinks he might need that vote on SCOTUS to save his bacon.
I think the only hope is that nominating anyone proves so unpopular that Republican Senators see their polls crashing and get cold feet.
Of course I’m a foreigner, so what do I know?
mali muso
@Ruckus: yeah, I have really been trying to put some limits on my doom-scrolling. Planning to vote here in Virginia tomorrow, so hopefully that helps too.
Roger Moore
@MattF:
The key thing with estimating how long any project will take is to remember Hofstadter’s Law.
Another Scott
TheHill:
Interesting.
Cheers,
Scott.
Shakti
I thought he would try to hit a land speed record and ask Mitch to hold the vote on Yom Kippur to please his evangelical base and as an extra special fuck you to all the senators of Jewish origin (who are all Democratic.) But then I remembered Ivanka converted to Judaism and Stephen Miller is…observant?
No, for maximum fuck you effect, he’s going to try for a vote on Wednesday, November 4th at midnight. Literally as the votes are coming in and then he can say it’s after the “election”, declare victory. Half the country won’t know whether to vote or protest. The Democratic senators up for reelection won’t know whether to be at their hq or on the floor. :/ And I can see McConnell doing this.
Otherwise, it’s in the lame duck. Like right on January 2nd. I can see McConnell not giving a shit about tentative non-work periods.
Baud
@Another Scott:
I hope there’s still an arcane Senate rule permitting dueling.
piratedan
assuming we all survive all of this shit and manage to restore something resembling Democracy to the governing of our nation, maybe this will spur some long rational discussions about what is in the national interest and if its proper for multiple national broadcast networks to act as de facto propaganda arms of a national party…
Will any VSP (very serious person) come right out and willingly admit that not only has the GOP been co-opted by white supremacists (and evangelicals, who are supposedly church going white supremacists), they’re so wrapped up in their racism that they’re happy to be bankrolled by America’s long standing foreign rival and they’ve destroyed the facade of being the party that supports veterans, strong fiscal policy and less intrusive national government.
I know that the Dems have danced around the edges of this, but the media refuses to accept this fact and I can’t help but feeling that as soon as someone on the Dem side states this unequivocally that’ll be set for another round of “both sides” as armies of straw men and fainting couches are deployed via FEMA because those that are responsible for this firehose of bullshit refuse to acknowledge that they’re standing by the hydrant with a wrench but claim that they have no idea on what to do next, but they sure as hell don’t want the people currently under the deluge to offer an opinion.
glyph2112
Good lord I hate 2020.
BTW, if our plan is to stack the SC or up it to 13 if Biden (for the love thats all mighty please) wins, whats to stop the Magats from going ahead and adding a bunch of conservatives now? If Trump loses, and we take the senate, could they just confirm a bunch in the lame duck session?
And there is no issue that is going to crank up the Magats. They are already true believers and are ramped up. Overall, I don’t see anything that can add to his base. They just get more Karen-ee.
Baud
@piratedan:
We’re stuck as long as Dems need white voters in swing states.
Benw
@Hungry Joe: huh I didn’t know that. But yeah, also being Aussie makes her an even dumber pick!
Ryan
it’s exactly what you want on the eve of an election.
Baud
@glyph2112: They’ll confirm as many judges as they can regardless of what we do.
Ryan
@Bill Arnold: You ever see The Money Pit?
Shalimar
@David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch: Or Kavanaugh’s best friend Mark Judge.
David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch
@piratedan:
Shalimar
@glyph2112: I’m pretty sure changing the # of Supreme Court justices requires Congress, not just the Senate. The House isn’t going to vote for it while Trump is in office.
MP
@Baud: As a native South Carolinian, I would settle for beating with a cane.
Jeffro
@lamh36: this
this is exactly why trumpov & Co have to have that ninth justice in place before the election…As someone put it they are going to try and do push vegan or on be on As someone put it they are going to try and do Bush v Gore on steroids
no way, uh uh
J R in WV
Nate says:
Speak for yourself, Nate… it is exactly what I want to see as we are now voting in the election.
Everyone still acts as if the election happens next November 3rd.
The Election is now taking place — right now !!
Not GONNA happen soon, already happening right now! Get over it, figure it out, the election is already underway, RIGHT NOW!!
Another Scott
TheHill:
This was published after the story about Schumer’s invoking the 2 hour rule (and it doesn’t mention it), so who knows what – if anything – the Democrats can do about the rush.
Fired up yet?
Grrr…
Cheers,
Scott.
Jeffro
@Benw: wait…didn’t Scott Baio watch several episodes of LA Law back in the 90s? He is practically overqualified by GOP standards
Kathleen
@piratedan: Could not agree more.
Another Scott
@Jeffro: Bob Loblaw!!11
Cheers,
Scott.
Jeffro
@Shakti: trumpov wants Judge #9 in place before Election Day. They will not wait until election night or afterwards to start the legal barrage
Shalimar
@Jeffro: Scott Baio portrayed Bob Loblaw on Arrested Development, so he has legal experience.
Kent
Eyes on the prize folks.
We can work around a 6-3 Scotus and still get enormous amounts of progressive objectives implemented. Stack the courts, brow-beat SCOTUS, or just intentionally create a constitutional crisis by ignoring them and telling Roberts to shut the fuck up, we aren’t going to dump 10 million people off health care just because he says so. Have the AG write a legal memo explaining why SCOTUS is completely wrong and needs to reconsider their decision and until they do, business as usual. Or whatever.
We cannot work around the re-election of Donald Trump and get anything at all done. That is Armageddon no matter how you look at it.
Jeffro
@Jeffro: I really need to edit before posting when using voice texting!!
jc
Too often Republicans don’t pretend that there are any principles here other than power … which is why they so quickly line up behind McConnell’s shameless hypocrisy. And their base voters will rationalize and justify it all away. It takes a depressingly warped psychological makeup to be a Republican these days.
Jeffro
@Shalimar: OMG too funny! I had no idea ?
the Fro has not and does not Watch a lot of TV, in case y’all had not figured that out yet
(Cobra Kai being a very recent exception!)
RaflW
@David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch: My MIL, who has become quite activated in the past few years, probably hand’t written a campaign check before Saturday (I’m not sure about that, but I think its the case).
She has mailed checks to three senate campaigns and Biden-Harris. Since Saturday! I wonder how many other older folks are doing it the oldfashioned way that won’t even register on ActBlue.
I’ve also given via FundHero a couple times this week.
Benw
@Jeffro: @Another Scott: damn good catch, you guys!
I’m not sure Trump is more likely to nominate: Bob Loblaw or Scott Baio
ETA: also too Shalimar
Quinerly
Very good refresher on the process. I have heard it mentioned that if the nominee has already gone through a hearing process in the Senate for a lower level Federal Bench appt, McConnell and crew might try to waive all hearings on a nominee and go straight to a vote. Dunno… Just throwing that out. I can’t believe they would go that route….. But…. Who the fuck knows?
https://constitutioncenter.org/interactive-constitution/blog/the-supreme-court-nomination-process-what-happens-next
Geoduck
Maybe we’ll get really lucky and the Shiatgibbon will actually pick one of his eighty-year-old male cronies for the job.
J R in WV
@glyph2112:
They need to change the law spelling out the number of justices on the Supreme court, which need to pass the House as well as the Senate. They can’t do that, Nancy Pelosi won’t let them, the Democratic majority House won’t pass such a bill until the Democratic party owns the Senate, we hope, after the currently happening election.
Fair Economist
@glyph2112: Changing the size of the Court requires a law, and the House has to sign off on that. So not currently an option for the Repugs
Edit: yar, ninja’d by one post!
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@Benw: You figure Presidential Medal of Freedom winner Rush isn’t on the short list?
Comrade Colette Collaboratrice
@mali muso:
Same. And same. I keep trying not to look at the headlines, just like I keep trying not to drink.
Another Scott
Politico:
It’s probably Politico being Politico, but I’ll be rooting for injuries myself.
Cheers,
Scott.
patrick II
@lamh36:
“because there may be litigation after the election”.
That’s they key to voting before the election. Anyone who Trump has interviewed and then nominates the Supreme Court Justice will have been asked for and given a loyalty pledge.
Quinerly
@Geoduck: I will be surprised if it’s not 48 year old Amy Coney Barrett. As the Politico piece said, “she’s been groomed for this her entire life.” As a member of this fringy People of Praise “Hand maid” group she is the ultimate insult to the memory of RBG and I think the most in your face, stick it to the Libs pick he can make.
Sorry that I have been harping on her for days but I am sick to my stomach over this. I hope I am wrong. I just feel it in my bones. She wasn’t drilled enough on this PoP shit the first go around in 2017. And, Trump is on the record saying he was saving her for RBG’s seat.
HumboldtBlue
I have no confidence the results of this election will match reality. I have no confidence the GOP won’t pull out every fucking Russian ploy they can to keep the Senate and I have no confidence that voters in states like Georgia, Florida and Wisconsin will see an honest count of ballots.
I have no confidence we will have a country as we know it after Nov. 3.
So I made a big pot of hocks beans greens onions carrots and andouille and now I’m gonna drink beer til I’m blind.
kindness
I doubt your average Republican Senator is concerned about the appearances of voting in a new Supreme Court Justice lickity split. They will because that is what their money lords tell them to do. And they obey the money. Their constituents be damned!
schrodingers_cat
How are my BJ peeps? I had a productive day. Took a break from politics. I am making a website for our DTC. Besides information on how to vote what else should go on there?
Shalimar
@Quinerly: If they could skip hearings without blowback at the polls, they would. The only limit on what McConnelll and Graham do is how badly the polls show them losing on November 3rd.
sdhays
I don’t believe that there’s going to be a lot of infighting. Infighting requires having opinions and the hard work of developing an argument. Those muscles have atrophied in the Republican caucus. They will do whatever Moscow Mitch decides and they will just move along. At most, they’ll grumble, quietly, into their pillows at night.
Another Scott
@schrodingers_cat: Howdy!
DTC? Democratic Town Council?
Pointers to places with more information, like:
https://www.sec.state.ma.us/ele/eleev/evidx.htm
maybe?
Good luck! Make us proud!!
Cheers,
Scott.
sdhays
@Quinerly: I’m of the opinion that they’re all pretty much equally awful, so I don’t really care who he picks, but it would DEFINITELY be in character for him to essentially promise this seat to Barret and then fuck her over because he had an especially big poop this morning.
Quinerly
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: Rush’s dad was an atty here in Missouri. Was still practicing at age 100. Rush’s brother (Stephen) was appointed by Reagan to the Federal Bench here. His son, (Stephen Jr) was appointed to the Federal Bench by GWB towards the end of GWB’s term. I am doing this by memory, so I could be “off” a bit. Think I got the names/timeline right.
Cacti
It does make me mildly happy that Mitch has painted himself into a corner with his own chicanery.
Had he just allowed a vote on Garland with Repukes voting no, he could have kept the SCOTUS seat empty, and given himself an out of “we still allowed a vote on Obama’s choice”.
The “bothsides do it” media would have totally eaten it up.
Now, he may be headed for a 6th right wing Justice on a Court that’s about to expand to 13 or more.
schrodingers_cat
@Another Scott: Thanks. Already included. DTC : Democratic Town Committee. I am good, how have you been?
Humdog
I thought it would make sense for Shitstain to say he won’t pick a new justice until after he is re-elected. That would keep the institutional Rs working hard for his re-election and keep the god botherers bothered enough to show up at the polls for him.
Hungry Joe
@Benw: Margaret Court — now a minister — has made all kinds of nasty comments about the LGBTQ community; she was (and apparently continues to be) unnerved by the very existence of Martina Navratilova. And she made nice noises about Apartheid, back in THAT day. A real charmer. I so want Serena to break her record …
Another Scott
@schrodingers_cat: Busy, busy. No rest for the weary. But we keep slogging away.
Post more often, and don’t let the crabby family here get to you.
Cheers,
Scott.
Matt McIrvin
@Kent: Nah, he wants someone seated fast to help him try to steal the election after he loses. He’s stated outright that that’s his plan: when he loses, he will sue to be reinstalled as President on the grounds that the mail ballots were all fake. He figures he’ll have enough hacks on the court to put him over.
Quinerly
@sdhays: but she’s blonde….
TS (the original)
@lamh36:
And it doesn’t even get a mention in the first debate. The biggest fail from a country that has, until trump, been at the forefront of fighting disease.
Feathers
One thing I want to see when the Dems are in power again is all of these quickly installed judges have the materials they submitted to the committees and their security clearance information doublechecked (because you know it wasn’t the first time around) and anyone found to have lied get pulled from the job.
Actually, doing this for all the Trump appointees and prosecuting those we can would be a great idea.
If the Republicans are going to have new norms, we need to as well. Not going beyond the law, but holding others to it.
TaMara (HFG)
I’m thinking of calling Gardner’s office and saying, “Proceed, Senator, cram that Supreme Court nominee through. I am looking forward to that vote ensuring your loss on Nov 3 and ushering in a Democratic Senate majority.”
Miss Bianca
@Quinerly: I can believe anything of McConnell and Company at this point
@TaMara (HFG): Go for it! I’m still trying to craft my particular epistle.
trnc
I really hope Bart’s pre-SC finances are investigated. They should have been focused on more during the hearings.
trnc
What would people here think about passing a senate rule that essentially says SC (or maybe all judicial) nominees who don’t get a hearing and a vote within 90 or 120 days of nomination are automatically confirmed?
Benw
@Hungry Joe: thanks I read up a little on her when I saw your comment. She and Pence could be big buddies if Mother allowed it
WaterGirl
Oh my god, is anyone else’s skin crawling with that statement that is SO VERY MUCH LIKE “when you’re a star, you can do what you want”. Take, take, take. You cannot tell me this man is not a rapist.
edit: And I see from comment #! that I am not the only one.
mali muso
Update from an hour and a half of watching the ActBlue counter spin in the background. It’s racking up about 1 million every half hour. This is good self care for my mental health.
germy
Kavanaugh lied under oath, so I suspect any other trump appointee would also lie under oath.
Ella in New Mexico
I don’t think he’s that smart and I also don’t think shoving a RW nominee down the nation’s throat will work out in any way, shape or form that will help Trump or McConnell.
So while I’m glad the Senate Dems will do their best to stall this I’m all for letting these jackasses be who they are so Americans can see them for what they are.
Letting Trump be Trump (and R’s) has worked for us lately. Maybe we shouldn’t panic and just ride the ride and do our due diligence.
sdhays
@Quinerly: She’s also a “she”, and I’m sure that makes Dump uncomfortable. I’m sure he’s annoyed that he feels he “has” to appoint a woman for the “suburban housewife” vote.
Patricia Kayden
Feathers
@trnc: Ayup. There really needs to be a focus on white collar crime. Rebuild the Justice Department, rewrite laws so they have some teeth. Don’t just go for the people at the top. In other areas of crime, they go for the people at the bottom of the totem pole and get them to flip. Need to do the same for white collar crime. Part of the problem with current policing is that only certain sorts of people are seen as criminals. We need to pull back that sort of criminality, but increase the vision of the moneyed class as having unearned wealth. One of the things about watching old movies, particularly noir and melodrama, is the way that “upstanding” citizens are seen as criminals. We need more of that sort of movie.
Shakti
@Jeffro: To the extent McConnell wants the confirmation vote to happen before Election Day, it’ll be pushed before Election Day, if the legal barrage will hurt his ability to stay as Majority Leader. As far as he’s concerned he can technically do it anytime from now until January 2 at the very least. The man wants the judge to be his crowning legacy so some double checking of the ideological bona fides is required.
GSLiC is more interested in staying out of prison by backstopping the election so he’s on a different more urgent time schedule than the Senate.
I was thinking more of in terms of ‘what would a chaos demon do to inflict chaos and pain.’
They’re both more than capable of spite confirming in the lame duck if they lose, though.
Omnes Omnibus
??????
dnfree
@MattF: that’s the rule I know too. One day is two weeks. Three hours is six days.
Sally
@Quinerly: I think this is a strong possibility too. and then they’ll say “You forced us to do this!”
Shakti
@Omnes Omnibus: Golden Shower Lover in Chief
I haven’t seen anything that definitively refutes the existence of the pee tape.
J R in WV
@HumboldtBlue:
Quite a coincidence — I made a dish of onions, carrots, andouille, and sauerkraut, and we had a bottle of sparkling white.
Sally
@trnc: Yes, something like that. Garland must not be allowed to happen again.
Chris Johnson
@Feathers: Absolutely. Agree 100%.
There’s a poster here who works for the IRS, who occasionally mentions that every dollar spent on the IRS nets something like four returned to the Treasury.
I would not have thought I’d be rooting for the IRS in all earnestness, but… YEAAAAAHHH. Bring it! I would let them audit me and spend a bunch of money with my accountant to walk through that process, with a song in my heart, if I knew it was screwing some of these oligarchs. FUND THE IRS! :D
Chris Johnson
As far as Trump vs McConnell regarding the SC nomination… that is the opportunity for an epic own-goal catastrophic fail. This can go WRONG, terribly terribly wrong.
The thing is, McConnell wants coherent evil things and to further the power of the GOP. And a bunch of GOPers who aren’t the Lincoln project want a wingnut uber-conservative, and all that is wrong but understandable.
Trump does not CARE about that part.
Trump only wants a justice that will agree to hand him the Presidency, and probably also give him a third term or suspend elections entirely, forever. Trump wants to be King, or God. To do anything he wants, forever, to wave a hand and ‘make it so’. Tinkerbell jurisprudence. Divine right of kings. Trump wants to roll back the fuckin’ Magna CARTA.
It is not beyond the realm of possibility that, pressured by Republicans, Trump will throw a hissy fit and nominate fucking Jared Kushner, or some completely bonkers suggestion that completely fails to meet the Republicans’ needs.
He does not CARE about locking in conservative control. Literally the only thing the guy cares about is being crowned God and ruling unquestioned forever, doing anything he wants. He has to select some human being who will give this to him.
He said a woman. Anyone want to lay odds on whether he is demanding that it should be Ivanka? And the Republicans are shitting themselves and desperately trying to sell him on the Federalist judge options, and praying he doesn’t let it slip in public before they can shake him from the idea? And the harder they try, the more oppositional the demented old fuck becomes?
Jay
Elizabelle
@Patricia Kayden: I think Barack Obama would be a superb choice. And he’s young!
WaterGirl
@Sally: Having to codify things like this into laws is something I never could have imagined before Trump. It’s like having to put “do not stick your dick into the garbage disposal when it is turned on.”
You really think you don’t need to say that, yet here we are.
Omnes Omnibus
@Elizabelle: You might want to check with him and his wife.
Omnes Omnibus
@WaterGirl: Do you know why irons have stickers saying do not iron clothing while wearing it? Because lawyers insisted. Why did they insist? Because people ironed clothing while wearing it.
Jay
@WaterGirl:
did you read the “Safe Operation” part of the User’s Manual?
J R in WV
@Jay:
Very Trumpian, for a story out of Canada. It is out of Canada, isn’t it? And you guys give us a hard time about OUR politicians… ;-)
Take care Jay, fascists are everywhere. Give them an ounce of power, they will take all they can grab!!!
Miss Bianca
@Omnes Omnibus:
Do not laugh…Do NOT laugh…DO NOT LAUGH…
WaterGirl
@Omnes Omnibus: Ha!
I do recall sitting around the dining room table on a Sunday when I was 15 or so. I had just gotten my first camera, and I was reading the instructions.
I relentlessly mocked this from the instructions: “Do not put your finger over the camera lens when taking a photograph.”
Jay
Jay
@J R in WV:
“KKKonservatives” are basically all the same, no matter the country, some just hide all their evil better.
Sally
@WaterGirl: Yes, it makes governing, running a country, just living a life, extremely difficult. We all rely on norms all day every day. There are many of these “norms” we will have to codify, as quickly as possible in the Biden-Harris first term. It will be exhausting. We must go after white collar crime and claw back the billions, even trillions, these parasites suck out of society.
Sally
@Elizabelle: No he is not! He is nearly sixty. We need to put 40 – 50 year olds on the court. He wouldn’t take it anyway.
Jay
Ian
@Roger Moore:
The lame duck session isn’t unethical. Congressional terms go from January-January. Important legislation that they don’t want to have messed with by elections or just don’t think will pass before elections are passed in the lame duck.
I am all for any way we can hold the seat, but I am confused why so many people around here keep commenting on a post election confirmation being somehow worse or less legitimate than them shoving it through before the election. If we think that congress passing or confirming stuff after the election is unethical we should push for immediate seating of newly elected individuals.
Jay
@Ian:
A pre-election confirmation will drive Democratic voter turn out costing (hopefully) several ReThugs their seats.
A Lame Duck Confirmation might allow some ReThugs to survive, by allowing them to make performative noises about a “no” or “not voting”, before the election, squeaking a win.
It’s cynical, performative gaslighting that the Beltway Press will ignore, “bothsides” and most voters won’t even notice it is happening.
Before or after, the Court is still lost, the ACA is gone, Dumph becomes Emperor For Life, before just costs ReThugs more lost votes.
artem1s
anyone thinking this could really backfire for the Teahaddists? And McConnell? It reminds me of the Harriet Miers debacle by W? Not only is she batshit crazy with the Handmaids Tale shit, Trump doesn’t get anything out of this nomination. I can see him completely screwing with Moscow Mitch. Trumps going to blow off the GOP – none of their choices has saved his ass yet, so why would he believe their choice is going to gain him any votes? I doubt it will drag on past the election, but I could see the more reactionary choices getting rejected by a lot of Senators. And they don’t want to be seen as Trumps puppet leading up to this election. I could see the fight over who gets the nod going on for quite a while. And then there is also the actual reality of Trump’s diminishing mental state. He’s gonna make a show over changing his mind at least once just because he thinks it makes for good TV.
Omnes Omnibus
Fuck off, ghoul.
MoCA Ace
That’s TMYN for the win! almost spit my cocktail all over my laptop. First comment and I can quit reading already.
Dopey-o
Sent this out today via USPS: may be reused without attribution. I wish you would!
Misterpuff
And replace it with the MAGA Carta.
Jay
@Omnes Omnibus:
back atcha you illiterate moron,
there are things that can be done, before and after, if,
I was just explaining in short, to some one who doesn’t understand it, the political difference to a Confirmation before, and a Confirmation after,
But as always, as a ‘Merkin, your default is always “ignorant asshole”.
Audio
@debbie:
i think that is supposed to be a reference to the many many times trump has said his health plan is coming in two weeks
Uncle Cosmo
It takes Frozen North-sized chutzpah for you to post this shit. But it’s perfectly in character from a Canucklehead imbecile who can’t spell (& can’t be arsed to use a spell checker), never posts anything worthwhile reading that he hasn’t c&p’d from someone else, & never fails to instruct “us ‘Merkins” on how to run our country when he hasn’t the faintest notion of how it works.
Cole should have banned your worthless arse years ago.
Dopey-o
Yeah, you arseholes up there in Canukistan are notorious for your arrogant actions. Colonizing third world nations, killing off all the native First Nations people, protecting dangerous bears and mooses, sending a steady stream of toxic maple syrup south across our border by managing your hardwood forests. Don’t get me started on the Calgary Stampede!
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Really, Uncle Cosmo, get a freakin’ grip! You’re worse than wrong, arrogant and offensive. You’re repetitious.
Chris T.
Probably responding to a dead thread here, but: that particular rule has a flaw, albeit a slow one. Imagine Trump nominates Ivanka and then McConnell holds the vote long enough, and she’s automatically confirmed. Ew.