He engages with people who voted against him? And they are smiling in photos with him?
The monster ….. https://t.co/MLLvwM5SjO
— Bradley P. Moss (@BradMossEsq) September 13, 2021
… the ‘mother’s milk of politics‘, among other things:
Lower prescription drug costs
Universal preschool
Free community college
Affordable child care
Lower health care costsThat’s what my Build Back Better Agenda means for you. And we’ll pay for it by ensuring the super wealthy and big corporations pay their fair share.
— President Biden (@POTUS) September 12, 2021
NEW: House Democrats seek to extend monthly child tax payments, boost green energy and lower drug costs as part of sweeping new economic package https://t.co/AnUqB35bzX
— Tony Romm (@TonyRomm) September 11, 2021
Congressional Democrats have proposed ambitious bills with historic expansions of the social safety net and long-sought new programs. But many politically vulnerable Democrats are selling them at home as a chance to deliver the goods for their districts.https://t.co/pNOEudPxG6
— The Associated Press (@AP) September 12, 2021
Speaking of forgiveness..
We can’t ask people to change and then give them no chance to do so. I say this often because sometimes I need this reminder, too. https://t.co/qiIs5zmVA3
— Connie Schultz (@ConnieSchultz) September 12, 2021
Well said Congresswoman. We must never forget what happened on 9/11. As well, I apologize to you for anything I’ve done these past 20 years to contribute to anti-Muslim bigotry. And though you & I disagree on most policy, America is a much better place with you in Congress. https://t.co/Ri27bSyxhd
— Joe Walsh (@WalshFreedom) September 11, 2021
Baud
That first tweet is 100% about their desperate need to own the libs. It’s their opiod.
Baud
Does the media ever report on Republicans this way?
beth
Wait – I missed this – did some assholes really boo the President at the 9/11 memorial?
OzarkHillbilly
Took my vegetarian neighbor some squash and peppers. Found out she’s an anti vaxxer.
Sigh…
Shut that conversation down fast, before any damage could be done to the relationship. Neighbors are neighbors and we can’t pick them. She’s a sweet person but… I expect her to change her mind the first time she tries to travel. (quite the traveler, Australia is the only continent she has yet to visit)
Baud
@OzarkHillbilly:
No squash for you!
rikyrah
Good Morning,Everyone ???
Baud
@rikyrah:
Good morning.
Chief Oshkosh
@Baud: No.
SATSQ
Baud
debbie
First, I haven’t heard anything about booing. Was that sarcasm? Second, I love the security guys standing among the children. Who even knew they were there? ?
OzarkHillbilly
I’m gonna take a moment to brag about my eldest granddaughter. She’s the only girl on her junior high school football team. I don’t think the boys know what to make of her, as most keep a bit of distance between her and them. It’s got to feel a little bit lonely out there. I suppose all the popular girls are cheerleaders.
The coach had her in on all but 2 defensive series (she started out at defensive end and was moved to nose tackle in the 2nd half) and I saw him give her one on one instruction a couple times. So he’s taking her seriously.
She held her own on the field. On only one play did I see an opponent get the better of her. She never made “the big play” but by the end of the game they were double teaming her. She’s not big, but she is quick and strong and absolutely fearless.
Baud
Apparently, someone thought this headline was supportive. (About to be featured on MJ)
Baud
@OzarkHillbilly:
?
debbie
@OzarkHillbilly:
Good for her!
David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch
@beth:
I don’t know if they did or not, but it wouldn’t surprise me if it occurred as Dump’s cult has always been deplorable (to coin a phrase) and NYC boos everyone, included Derek Jeter and he brought them 5 titles.
Baud
Dorothy A. Winsor
@OzarkHillbilly: I’m impressed. What’s it like to watch her play
ETA: Speaking of infrastructure, my building’s hot water is off again this morning.
Spanky
Friday the 13th came on a Monday this month, I see.
Central Planning
@Baud: I thought opioids were their opioid.
David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch
@Baud:
better if they stay. Dubya got 61% of the vote 16 years ago, while Dump only received 52% last year.
Imagine the bonkers media coverage if Dems were on the cusp of losing a deep blue state like New York.
Let the treckie/techie migration turn TX blue the same way they converted once deep red California.
Baud
@Central Planning:
I wonder which they would choose if they were forced to.
Baud
@David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch:
I wish we could move people around like chess pieces. My first move would be to get an LA city block into Wyoming and turn that state blue.
Matt
The only apology I’ll believe from Joe Walsh is one in his suicide note. No forgiveness without repentance.
germy
Huge?
Booger
@OzarkHillbilly: Phrasing!
Baud
@germy:
That fact that that leaked suggests a little bit of Kabuki. There are so many balls I’m the air, I think that it’s beyond even the capacity of the Twitter intelligencia to process.
SiubhanDuinne
@Baud:
I don’t even understand it. What’s supposed to be “humiliating” about the picture? And was Biden really booed at the WTC memorial? Maybe he was, but I’ve certainly missed any news coverage of it.
debbie
The morning sun here is very red. Not sure what kind of sailors would be in Ohio, but hope they stay safe.
germy
Quote of the day:
Baud
@SiubhanDuinne:
It’s humiliating because they openly supported Trump and Biden was too weak to cancel them.
zhena gogolia
@SiubhanDuinne:
My comment on that picture is: Disrespectful little assholes.
OzarkHillbilly
@Booger: ???
Geminid
@Matt: Connie Schultz got it right.
zhena gogolia
@Baud:
They’re too young to vote. Their parents shouldn’t have used them as shills.
Baud
@zhena gogolia:
What’s the point of having children then?
Kay
Getting a head start campaigning for Republicans in the midterms. They should introduce her with the Trump campaign video she starred in during her confirmation.
OzarkHillbilly
It’s… Different, I guess. She said the other team never realized she was a girl. They’d come up to the line, point at her and say, “Watch him. Watch him.”
Baud
@Kay:
What that means is, “we’re going to be hyperpartisan but because I gave this speech, it’s unethical to call us hyperpartisan.”
germy
debbie
@Kay:
Oh, FFS. Being anti-abortion and pro-death penalty excludes her from her own words!
germy
@Kay:
Did Barrett wink when she said that?
Dan B
@Kay: Sounds like Ms. Barrett can’t see herself in a mirror. The SC just handed down some of the most ideological rulings in decades thanks to her. And she didn’t notice! Really?
Dorothy A. Winsor
Those kids will remember that Biden was nice to them. I don’t know if that will have a lasting impact, but Biden is a politician to his core. And I mean politician in a good sense, as in someone who gets serves the public and knows how the sausage is made. But I also suspect that Biden is just nice to kids because that’s the kind of person he is
Baud
@Kay:
It reminds me of religion people who say they are just doing what god wants, which coincidentally coincides with what they want.
Baud
@Dan B:
In fairness, this last term, Thomas, Gorsuch, and Alito were much worse.
germy
Elder picked up another endorsement!
Kay
@Baud:
Don’t underestimate her. It wasn’t directed at conservatives. It’s not defense. It’s offense. I guarantee she’s scolding liberals. We’re unfairly portraying her as a hack.
What a waste of time for the students. She wouldn’t answer any of the real questions. We’re permitted to ask her about her family, but only in glowing admiring terms where we ask how she manages “work life balance” in her incredibly elite, lifetime appointment job where they dispatch most of the work to one-pagers on the “shadow docket”. It’s a campaign event.
Gin & Tonic
@Baud: Just like the other Uncle Joe did.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Baud: Is that supposed to make me feel better?
Baud
@germy:
Where do I know that name from?
sab
@Geminid: I have found Connie Schultz to be very helpful all through Covid and the Trump years before that. She just seems very good at not letting other bad actors manipulate her into turning herself into a bad person. I try to follow her example.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Kay:
That ship has already sailed, Bony Carrot
@Baud:
@debbie:
@Dan B:
I honestly don’t get her. Does she really not think people will react to these rulings?
germy
@Baud:
Abused by Harvey Weinstein, driven mad by a brutal entertainment industry, now endorses monsters.
debbie
Asked and answered.
MomSense
@Baud:
Ha!!
MomSense
@OzarkHillbilly:
Quick and strong and absolutely fearless! Love it. ????
SiubhanDuinne
@zhena gogolia:
Maybe I’m just slow(er than usual) this morning, but I don’t even get that vibe. I mean, “TRUMP” and “MAGA” branding is always offensive, but most of the kids appear happy enough to be there. There must be some backstory to this photo that I’ve missed.
sab
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): She has spent her entire life in a very protected right wing bubble. She doesn’t get it, and her entire upbringing has trained her to block any thought that might enable her to get it. And we have managed to fill the Court with a majority just like her.
Chief Oshkosh
@OzarkHillbilly: Man, those are thankless positions. BTW, injuries I sustained at DE still cause me neck problems…45 years later. Good luck!
Amir Khalid
@Dan B:
I think what Justice Barrett really wants is that SCOTUS be partisan, without being seen as such.
germy
These photos…
Dan B
@Baud: She’ll allow the Handmaids a choice of outfits.
Chief Oshkosh
@Baud: To work the fields and go into the really tiny mine tunnels.
MomSense
@zhena gogolia:
He’s 1000% a better person than I am. It’s nice to have an adult, confident, well-adjusted, compassionate President.
Chief Oshkosh
@Baud: Et tu, Baud? C’mon, man! You are splitting some mighty fine hairs.
Kay
@Dan B:
It’s this weird illogical thing and it’s not limited to her. They insist “the institution” is somehow superior to the people who make it up and should have an independent and better reputation that the work that comes out of it, forever. They want a good reputation but they, as individuals, don’t want to earn it. Instead they believe they’re entitled to it because of the prestige of the institution. It’s backwards.
The thing is what it is. They can’t insist it’s something different. It doesn’t retain it’s prestige magically and the prestige and respect isn’t transferred like a deed to the new owner of bench real estate. It has to be earned over and over. There’s two possibilities if they’re losing the respect of the public- it’s the fault of the public or it’s their fault. It’s never, ever their fault.
She made decisions. One of them was to compliantly go along with that completely ridiculous confirmation that was a 5 day Trump campaign ad. Because it didn’t work doesn’t mean she should have done it.
MomSense
@Kay:
It’s the SCOTUS version of worse to be called racist than to be racist.
Baud
@germy:
Thanks.
evodevo
@OzarkHillbilly: Yeah..I know…we just had a similar encounter with a longtime friend who does our welding jobs yesterday…talking about the “fake pandemic” and masks…KY is full of them, and you can’t do business here without running into this. We just push back gently and then change the subject…
OzarkHillbilly
@MomSense: That’s my girl!
@Chief Oshkosh: I know, I try not to think about it. I am not one to talk anyway. It’s between her and her parents, and with teenagers, one must pick the battles.
Baud
@Dorothy A. Winsor: No.
@Chief Oshkosh: Yes.
Baud
@MomSense: This.
Geminid
Go west, young man! Joe Biden was scheduled to take off from Delaware at 8:10am, headed for Boise, Idaho. He’ll be briefed by state and federal wildfire officials and tour the headquarters of the National Interagency Task Wildfire Task Force. He’ll then fly to Mather, California, take an aerial tour of the Caldor fire, and deliver remarks on wildfires, climate change, and infrastructure.
President Biden will appear with Gavin Newsome at a campaign rally tonight. From Politico Playbook.
Baud
@Kay:
The public consists of liberals and conservatives, and it’s incumbent on liberals to respect institutions that conservatives respect.
OzarkHillbilly
@evodevo: When she started up I told her what I thought in no uncertain terms. Allowed her to spout the nonsensical bullshit back and then shut it down. No good was going to come of an argument.
WereBear
@OzarkHillbilly: is a sad artifact of our times.
Other MJS
@Baud:
I don’t even understand it. It’s humiliating to hang out with kids?
WereBear
@Baud: Bwahahahaha!
I guess our Corporate Overlords did not foresee the economic consequences of letting their designated Base indulge all their childish fantasies.
Drank their own poisoned soft drink, they did.
debbie
Some clever soul needs to rewrite REM’s What’s the Frequency, Kenneth? for Manchin’s statement yesterday, What’s the urgency? Do his constituents not need jobs, infrastructure, etc.?
zhena gogolia
@MomSense: Yes, I could never do it.
Kay
@MomSense:
I’ve never understood why they insist their workplace relations with the other justices are a defense to the accusation that they’re partisan. “One of the liberal justices gave me Halloween candy for my children”. The defense rests. Am I shocked a group of elite lawyers aren’t screaming campaign slogans at one another in the hallways? No, I am not.
If they’re not going to discuss laws and legal issues why have them speak at all? The students would learn more about “work life balance” from the women doing the catering after the event.
germy
@Other MJS:
The kids are wearing MAGA gear while one of their overweight fathers smirks in the background.
Biden doesn’t care, so they didn’t really “own” him. He’s happy to be there.
The Dark Avenger
Did Joe Walsh quit being a deadbeat dad yet?
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Amir Khalid:
Pretty much this. Typical conservative entitlement
OzarkHillbilly
They haven’t needed it yet, why change now?
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@debbie:
I remember people saying that Manchin’s vote was always there when we needed it. Well, we sure could use it now. He’s kneecapping our agenda at the moment
hueyplong
Barrett’s speech is essentially, “For the sake of respect for the Court as an institution, please be polite and permit us to get away clean with what we have done,”
It is directed at the likes of NPR, and you wouldn’t want to bet your own money against the proposition that it will air on NPR this very day, followed by approving commentary.
Betty
@OzarkHillbilly: Nose tackle? Now that sounds like serious business.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@sab:
That definitely has a lot to do with it. She’s been sheltered her entire life
Procopius
@OzarkHillbilly:
So good to see you say that. That’s been so missing from our nation since 9/11. “Either you’re with us or you’re with the terrorists.”
PST
Because that’s how it’s done in the real world. It’s one of the reasons to elect actual politicians with elective experience instead of businessman-dilettantes or other “outsiders.” There are lots of bad things to say about professional politicians, and I often say them, but we need our Democrats who know how to go home and sell our program using whatever words work in their backyards.
raven
@Betty: It’s the equivalent of a “center”on offense.
Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony
@SiubhanDuinne: They think he is an unpopular president who is desperately pandering by using kids as a prop, only the kids don’t even support him. Its ridiculous, but that is how they think. Keep in mind the right will keep trying to portray him as unpopular to support their voter fraud narrative, for now and the future.
Kay
@Baud:
This year they respect that court. For the 20 prior years it was filled with “black robed justices handing down edicts”. It’s respectable now that it’s been returned to the rightful owners.
They overturned Roe without a hearing. All the legalistic bullshit and ass-covering by the fancy lawyer club doesn’t change that reality. They’ve completely removed the practical effect on the public from the analysis. They embody what people hate about lawyers. They are like a caricature of abstract mumbo jumbo lawyering. It’s a fucking Simpon’s episode with more syllables.
We have heard more from lawyers defending the Texas decision than we have heard or are ever likely to hear from the women directly affected by it. It disgusts me. They’re not even in this. They were deliberately disappeared.
lollipopguild
@Kay: “yes I voted to end women’s right to vote and to bring back legal slavery, but you cannot call me a partisan hack”
Baud
@Kay:
Right. When conservatives disrespected the court, we need to be open to the debate. That’s how the game works.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Kay: Re the Court being the people who make it up: I think that when I hear someone say that a MAGA isn’t really a Republican or some action isn’t really American. Things are what they are, not what they used to be or what they ideally could be. They don’t have their “true” existence in the form of a Platonic ideal
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Kay:
I did see an article recently, presumably interviewing lawyers, (only saw the headline) that called the Texas decision “lawless” if that means anything. I’ve been seeing more of these takes lately
OzarkHillbilly
@Betty: It’s not very glamorous (which GD is shy of) and a successful play is anytime they occupy the center of the line and keep 2 or more opponents occupied. Basically, muck everything up so others can make the play. Every now and again make the play themselves. Which she almost did once but the running back was just out of reach.
WereBear
@David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch:
Actually, WaPo had an article on how the new abortion law is making all the tech workers, who trend pretty blue, rethinking their Texas habitation decisions.
As someone who spent some developmental years in the South, you couldn’t get me to live in a Red State if you dragged me there with a giant pickup, but a lot of people believe the shiny PR…
Now, they are being seriously dis-abused.
Kay
@hueyplong:
Under this theory of “institutions” it matters not at all who makes up the institution or what the institution does. It’s a ridiculous theory. It completely absolves the institution of any responsibility or accountability. They can ride on reputation forever.
Protecting a reputation means doing the work that will preserve it. It’s not seperate from that.
People at elite institutions have a HIGHER burden, not a lesser one, since they were handed a reputation they, personally, didn’t earn. They each have to earn it. It’s not a perpetual gift. It’s OUR belief. We own it. We can take it back. We can decide tommorrow that they no longer have a good reputation but instead have a bad one. It’s not up to them to grade their own work.
Baud
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
I can see an argument that so-and so-claims to be X but isn’t behaving the way an X should behave.
But usually when people make these arguments, what they really mean is “I want to preserve the X brand without taking on the people who are sullying it.”
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@WereBear:
I guess lower taxes aren’t worth it anymore for these people
Soprano2
@germy: I read quite a few of the comments, and they’re making a big deal out of the “Q” on the Quaker oil box that’s in the background. It’s how these people think, everything is about them. My first thought was how rude it was for those parents to bring their kids to an event with the president on 9-11 wearing that clothing. Society used to think rudeness like that was beyond the pale; now, 30% of adults apparently think it’s hilarious to do things like that.
MomSense
@Kay:
It’s the same thing Republicans have been doing forever. Sure they may pollute the water and air, keep producing cars with exploding gas tanks, cut food stamps and free lunches to kids but they are happily married family members who go to church every Sunday.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Soprano2:
It’s of a piece with Erika Casher who smirked during a school board meeting while a teenager spoke about the death of his grandmother from COVID-19. They’re awful people who have lost their empathy
Baud
@Soprano2:
Look at Trump’s and Rudy’s performances on 9/11. This is their culture.
Baud
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): I read she got fired.
rikyrah
@OzarkHillbilly:
Yess????????
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Baud:
It’s even worse in Rudy’s case. The dude was mayor of NYC during 9/11 for god’s sake and this is how he acted on the 20th anniversary?!
“America’s Mayor” my ass. I’d like to slap whoever came up with that idiotic moniker
Baud
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
I believe he did.
Betty
@Kay: I wonder if they are getting worried that the idea of court reform is gaining traction. After that move on the Texas abortion case, she may be right to be concerned.
Betty
Oldie but goodie: Evangelical relative today posting about Benghazi. Seriously!
MomSense
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
I think it was Oprah.
PST
@SiubhanDuinne:
I could be completely wrong about this. But my hot read of the situation was that the comment meant that it should be an even greater humiliation to Trump that his people are thrilled to be in the presence of the real President than it was to have a few supporters boo him.
Ken
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): I thought there some
scamlegalism where you can claim to be a Texas resident and pay no state income tax, while living most (all?) of the year elsewhere.Immanentize
@OzarkHillbilly: She’s been to Antarctica?!
I know, I’m leaving….
PST
@Baud:
Extra votes after President Vance takes office.
Baud
@PST:
Haha. We have a winner.
Baud
@Ken:
Each state determines who their residents are for income tax purposes. If someone is living in California most of the year, California tax authorities don’t care what Texas thinks.
rikyrah
@Kay:
She is a phucking hack?
Subsole
@OzarkHillbilly: Just due to my upbringing, it is absolutely wild to contemplate a girl playing football. I cannot imagine the schools I went to even allowing it. And yet, there she is.
Things get better. Slowly. But they do get better.
@Baud: What it also means is that the Staff are trying to tell Monsignor
RichelieuLeo to include some subtlety in the next batch of clone-justices Opus Dei decants.Immanentize
@Kay: This has been my position for decades. Doing work before the Court, and having met a bunch of the Justices, they are more lucky than brilliant. RBH was brilliant and perhaps Scalia too. The others are just either lucky folks or political water carriers.
It always amazed me the reverence some of my colleagues had for the Justices. It made them poor advocates before them because they ended up way too deferential. Their submissivenedd made them not question any question, so they were not lightt on their feet in argument at all. The great advocates I’ve seen before the Court treat them like equals (at best) regardless of their attitude about their own superiority. Rhenquist was very smart and careful, but he wasn’t creative. But he thought he was the shit.
rikyrah
@Amir Khalid:
Truth
Starfish
@Dan B:
They really should ask more questions to make sure they are not putting vampires on the Supreme Court.
Subsole
@Baud: Only because they were there longer. Give her time to catch up.
Immanentize
@rikyrah: Worse, Boney Carrot* is like the boss’s mean ass son brought in to learn the business.
* I really don’t like cutesy nicknames for our opponents and I try never to use them — but this one is so right on it makes me laugh.
Adding — considering her birth/adoption record, I do wonder how many miscarriages she has had. Someone should ask her….
OzarkHillbilly
@Immanentize: Yep, said it was one of her favorite trips.
OzarkHillbilly
@Subsole: It’s a brave new world.
Geminid
@Immanentize: I always thought Justice Sotomayor stood out from the others for her years of trial experience as a federal prosecutor and then U.S. District Court judge. A different, and I think better, resume than typical Supreme Court justices.
A Ghost to Most
Joe has been the president we needed.
WaterGirl
@germy:
That shouldn’t just be the quote of the day. That should be the quote of the year, possibly of the decade.
Subsole
@OzarkHillbilly: Don’t know how it is up in the hollers, but down here what makes it extra-frustrating is that sometimes you can actually break through. You can see them turn it over. Start following the logic to its conclusion.
But then they go turn on Rush or some other AM a-hole, or watch fox, and you’re back to zero. Because their emotions are all riled up and they aren’t thinking anymore.
If they weren’t absolutely drowning in propaganda, some of them might have a chance to get out.
Subsole
@OzarkHillbilly: Counterpoint: they’ve needed it for a long time. They just wanted their spite more.
Guess which one they’ve been choosing these last, oh, 40 years.
Immanentize
@OzarkHillbilly: now I am jealous.
But how can someone so well travelled be an anti-vaxxer. I guess the vegetarian thing is a clue.
Barbara
@germy: McGowan seems to have thrived on controversy for a long time. Which does not mean she is always wrong, but prior abuse also doesn’t make her automatically right.
Immanentize
@Geminid: I agree, Sotomayor is by far the most perceptive Justice about criminal law cases.
OzarkHillbilly
@Immanentize: She’s also black, with all that history. She said her ex is a doctor and he told her “all the people dying are vaccinated”. I don’t know how one pushes back against that. I just said it was bullshit and changed the subject.
Suzanne
@Baud: One thing that the Trumpy right wing just cannot grasp is that the kind of white-collar employees (relatively young, with degrees, liberal, who tend to buy cool clothes and shoes and cars, and have “high social capital”) are highly desired by firms and are in relatively short supply. So they make corporate statements that are considered “woke” and maintain offices in places that are considered attractive to this cohort, even if they are expensive.
It’s a fundamental misunderstanding of an economic constraint.
Starfish
@David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch:
Texas is extremely gerrymandered. Techie friends who were there tried. They could not overcome the gerrymander.
Subsole
@WereBear: Yeah. One of the many things that sucks about this is it’s chasing off the people we really, really need to stay and fight.
Baud
@OzarkHillbilly: Yeah, that’s harder than dealing with media.
@Suzanne: Agree.
@Starfish: State-wide elections are not gerrymandered. The GOP still has the edge, but it’s been shrinking.
Barbara
@Kay: This is a habit of thinking that is very Catholic — the idea of Church as somehow transcending through Platonic magic the grubby and malevolent deeds of its earthly representatives. It’s delusional even in that context, and it’s downright idiotic when it comes to American political institutions. SCOTUS is political in that it is a creation of our founding political document. It absolutely requires the consent of the polity to retain influence.
bnateAZ
@Baud: well.. to be fair… opioids are their opioids too
Starfish
@Subsole: When I was in junior high about 30 years ago, there was a girl on the middle school football team. I don’t think she continued in high school.
Kay
@Betty:
IMO, court reform is a pipe dream. I’m glad some people are saying it but it isn’t going to happen. It wouldn’t happen with 60 Ds in the senate. The supreme court fights were for all the marbles. We blew it. Letting them block Garland was a mistake and Ginsburg (and now Breyer) refusing to retire were mistakes. We’re not getting a do-over. Some errors can be fixed and others can’t.
I’d rather any time, energy and money devoted to court reform be reassigned to state races. We need genuinely creative people doing planning and substituting 11 for 9 isn’t good enough. We’re stuck with that court. Figure out how to deal with it or live under far Right, minority rule.
Starfish
@Immanentize: Before the current batch of folks decided that they would be anti-vax to be proper Trumpers, there was an anti-vax ideology on the left. It had a lot of nature is our friend would do us no harm feelings. You know, the kind of stuff that people who have lived through floods, hurricanes, or fires should understand is very stupid.
Starfish
@OzarkHillbilly: Why is he an ex? It sounds like she doesn’t know any people who have gotten serious COVID which is odd.
Kay
@Barbara:
Comey “the FBI is..”
YOU, dumbass. The FBI is you. If you’re bad the FBI is bad. If there’s 3 Comeys in a row the thing is ruined.
The institution isn’t floating above the people who make it up. They should maybe stop “protecting” it and instead improve its reputation with their work?
Chief Oshkosh
@Subsole:
Yeah, but…fuck ’em.
OzarkHillbilly
None of my business, so I didn’t ask.
Not really all that odd. I know a number of people who got covid and only one who’s case was severe. He died in less than 6 days.
Baud
@Kay:
Right. If all the commenters here started posting racist, fascist crap, it wouldn’t do Cole any good to put up a post about how this isn’t really Balloon Juice without doing anything to fix the problem.
Immanentize
@Starfish: In Boston, we call those people Christian Scientists. But even they are pro-vax. It’s the woo woo, Enya, crystals for deodorant crew that are anti-vax. They smell bad too.
Kay
@Barbara:
She needs to defend her work. She refused to do it in her confirmation hearing and not TURNING IN any work with this shadow docket bullshit isn’t acceptable.
I’m not interested in heartwarming anecdotes about the other justices. She’s a fucking judge. The thing is designed so her work speaks for itself. She had her turn to speak. She issued an order. If she wants to speak again she can hold a hearing and sign an opinion.
They refuse to accept accountability for their work.
Starfish
@OzarkHillbilly: The people that I know of who died are all relations of people that I know rather than people that I know directly. A coworker caught it and was struggling with mental acuity for months.
I imagined that you live in a place that is more rural, so everyone is up in everyone else’s business and more likely to know people who died.
Immanentize
@Kay: why accept accountability when you really don’t even have to do the work the job is defined by? For the rest of your life.
Raoul Paste
@Subsole: “… but then they watch Fox,…and you’re back to zero…:.
I was making this point with my wife last night, who is the better person than I am, and wants to persuade with some gently placed facts.
Fox owns them
Starfish
@Immanentize: On the east coast, the anti-vaxxers would get shouted down more quickly than where I live. The mixture of the hippies and libertarians made for some very toxic “It is bad vibes to call someone out for their magical nonsense.”
Kay
@Barbara:
I’m giving her a more of a hearing than she’s given me. I’m reading her words in the orders and opinions. I’m not called to add any “background” to the orders and opinions she issues. I’m not giving her that.
They’re demanding that we not use their work to judge them, and instead rely on what they tell us about themselves. That isn’t how this works. She taught law students? Good God. Did she teach them the part where the court speaks thru its rulings? That’s pretty important for them to know! For 60k a year they should at least be getting that.
Subsole
@OzarkHillbilly: Thank god. Trashman can have the old one.
jonas
@debbie:
I’m always wondering this about Manchin as well — he represents one of the poorest, most underresourced states in the country and here he is going “sure, half my constituents don’t have jobs that can support their families, adequate health care, or good schools, but what about inflation?” I mean, I would get Manchin’s hesitancy if this were some huge bill on gun control or abortion or something, but this is about shoveling massive amounts of money at the people who need it most. I simply don’t get it.
different-church-lady
Ten years ago who had “Joe Walsh: the last principled conservative” on their Bingo card?
OzarkHillbilly
I do, with 12.5 acres deep in the boonie woods that is more holler than hill, and they probably are all up in everyone’s business, but I’m an atheist which makes me an untouchable. I am friendly with the 3 folks within a half mile of our place and keep half an eye on their places and hope they are doing the same for me but we really don’t interact.
Most of my friends are either in STL or are union carpenters scattered throughout a dozen or more counties.
Subsole
@Starfish: Cool. Where was this, if you don’t mind me asking?
Subsole
@Starfish: Hell, anyone who works with animals. Or has passing familiarity with botany.
People used to feed horses clover, then noticed the horses got hemophiliac. Because too much clover thins your blood. It is in fact the active ingredient in some rat poisons, I believe.
Plants are living creatures. They defend themselves. They don’t care if you’re a cow or a toddler.
There’s loving nature, and there’s loving the idea of nature.
Roger Moore
@Kay:
They want people to believe it, and they have to go with the evidence they have, no matter how weak it is.
Subsole
@Chief Oshkosh: Yeah. I fought it for two decades. I’m done.
Subsole
@Raoul Paste: It really wasn’t even fox, where I was. It was AM radio. Fox often just reinforced points that the hate-jockeys were spitting earlier in the day.
Searcher
… did someone’s Twitter get hacked?
Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony
@Betty: I saw that too! The rightwing media bat signal must have gone out!
Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony
@Subsole: AM radio is a huge hate and propaganda source in the mid-west. Bringing back the fairness doctrine would really make a difference here.
Kayla Rudbek
@Subsole: arsenic is perfectly natural, after all…
evodevo
@Subsole: That applies to the species known as “sweet clover” (Melilotus)…other clovers are just fine…sweet clover is toxic to most livestock because of the presence of dicumarol in moldy plant matter when hay is spoiled by moisture…
frosty
Nominated for a rotating tag. Hope it’s not too many characters!
Josie
@Baud:
It’s true that state wide elections are not gerrymandered. Gerrymandering, however, affects voting for state legislators which affects voter suppression. This in turn affects state wide elections. Texas has been utilizing this process since the days of Tom Delay. Only massive voter registration and getting people to the polls can overcome it.
sdhays
@Kay: The only conservative “justice” on that court appointed by a President who actually won his election fair and square is Clarence Freaking Thomas. All the others are there because the Republican Party was willing to burn down anything and everything in their path for solid control of the Court.
I think more and more Democrats are coming to the realization of how much has been stolen by Republicans feeling that they have no need to play by any rules. I also don’t think this Court can help itself – it’s going to keep poking the bear with awful decisions without even trying to finesse. They think they’ve won.
To me, Court Reform will happen IF, and it’s a big IF, Democrats can continue to maintain control of the Presidency and Congress. If Democrats are able to hold on, eventually the Court will force their hand and make reform unavoidable. I’d argue that we’re already there, but unfortunately there are a number of Democrats who are still squeamish about using their power.
Another Scott
@Baud: Here’s a non-WaPo link that’s probably related.
Crazy politics, unreliable electric grid, lack of water, hmm, what to do, what to do… :-/
I assume Gov. Hochul is burning up the phone lines…
Cheers,
Scott.
Another Scott
@Josie: Well said. There’s all kinds of bad going on at the state level that cannot be ignored if we want to move forward. Gerrymandering is just one tactic.
If the GQP didn’t think it was important, they wouldn’t be doing it…
Cheers,
Scott.
Another Scott
@SiubhanDuinne: I’m mildly curious what’s happening in this 9/11 picture, but I haven’t seen anything else about it.
Cheers,
Scott.
Soprano2
I’m the same way. The only person I knew who died of Covid was my former choir director who was 89. On Friday I talked to our regular customer whose aunt and uncle died and left a 12-year-old an orphan. It’s a huge mess – they of course had no will or trust, and no instructions on who should care for their daughter, so the family is dealing with the fallout now. They have no idea who is going to care for the child. It’ll probably end up being the parents of my customer, who told me she’s already told her family that she’s not willing to be a single mother again. It’s such a tragedy, and totally preventable.
MisterForkbeard
@Baud: The better caption is “Biden so popular that kids whose parent dress them in Trump clothing love him”
opiejeanne
@Soprano2: I’m old enough to remember kids sitting on the floor in the front of the audience, holding flip-flops at a Kerry speech because their parents had told them to go sit there for the camera.
Mo Salad
@Other MJS: No it’s humiliating FOR those kids, being seen with Joe.
Steeplejack
@OzarkHillbilly:
“Double-teaming her,” I’m guessing.
J R in WV
@OzarkHillbilly:
Wow! If i knew her, I would be really proud. Watching some NFL yesterday, I see that while there are big (huge!) guys on the pro teams, there are also plenty of guys under 6′ and under 200 pounds, so plenty of room for quick and strong with a dash of fearless. QB, RB, receivers, punters, FG kickers, return specialists.
Good for her!
NorthLeft12
It is really refreshing to see President Biden give those kids a happy moment they will never forget, and not be overly concerned over being “owned” by their parents. Joe has enough self confidence and empathy to understand that situation far better than any of the right wing assholes who will mock him for it. Says a lot about their motivations and weakness.
J R in WV
@WereBear:
The US Navy put me and Wife in Mississippi for a year back in 1972 — it was like being dragged into 1951 as far as race went ~!!~
Horrible… the local liquor store had a sign “All Proceeds from Sales to N**rs will be donated to the United Klans” which means we drove up to Moss Point where the dark complected folks were allowed to live for those purchases.
And that was far from the worst. Wife was hired as a reference librarian at the city library. No signs, but also no as in Zero black patrons, they all knew they weren’t welcome.
Starfish
@Subsole: This was in Mississippi.
J R in WV
@Starfish:
To fight the gerrymander, liberals have to move into the red districts, and vote there. But it is painful to have right-wing bigots for all your neighbors. I couldn’t do it.
I would have to live in a multi-cultural neighborhood that always went blue but it didn’t matter because that neighborhood is outnumbered 8-12 by the Republicans.
TheTruffle
@Kay: I don’t buy that anymore. If momentum builds for court reform then it could happen. Biden formed a commission on expanding it. I think it would be a mistake to throw up our hands here
@sdhays: The key is to keep grabbing as many Senate seats as we can and pressing the issue. Also, Thomas isn’t getting any younger.
tam1MI
It sure as hell wasn’t there when he voted to put Rapey McRapist on the Supreme Court.
Elie
@SiubhanDuinne:
I agree — I don’t see the negativity at all but maybe I’m just nuts. They look happy and he looks relaxed. Other folks standing around too… hmmmm
SWMBO
@TheTruffle: John Roberts b. January 27, 1955
Clarence Thomas b. June 23, 1948
Stephen Breyer b. August 15, 1938
Samuel Alito b. April 1, 1950
Sonia Sotomayer b.June 25, 1954
Elena Kagan b.April 28, 1960
Neil Gorsuch b. August 29, 1967
Brett Kavanaugh b.February 12, 1965
Amy Coney Barrett b. January 29, 1972
Alito, Thomas, and Breyer are all getting up there.
TheTruffle
@SWMBO:
Ideally, there would be term limits for SCOTUS. At this point, I think that yes, expanding the court is possible if momentum builds for it.