I forgot to say this: The House should impeach Alito, and the Senate should convict him. It doesn't matter if his wife put up the flag, or even if a kid on the street did it as a prank. It's Alito's house. He is responsible for the flagpole and what it displays. He should be removed from the Supreme Court.
Alioto and Thomas are poster children of cowardice. They don't even have the guts to say they did what they did. They blame their wives for it. And let's add the Senate's minority leader to this as well, aka turtle faced McConnell, who wouldn't even defend his wife's honor.
This “Supreme Court” is the gift that keeps on giving. Un-f-ing-believable. But corrupting the court, and through them further weakening democracy, has been part the republican plan all along and they’ve never made a secret of it. I can’t quite understand why the Democratic Party hasn’t devised a successful national strategy to fight it. Until Trump, and even beyond, they’ve been afraid to call it what it is.
Or is it just that many of our fellow citizens are more comfortable in a racist plutocracy? Guns and religion - Obama was right.
Which is why elections matter. We need a resounding blue wave to take back the House and increase the Dem "majority" in the Senate. Only then, assuming Biden is re-elected, is there a slim chance of getting rid of the corrupt GQP on the Supreme Court, and appoint proper legal scholars who follow the rule of law, not their political leanings. (By the way, isn't it the Senate that hears the trial on the articles of impeachment passed by the House, such that the Senate would convict and remove that person from office?).
I have been dubious about expanding the number of supreme court justices but this is too much it is so blatant! Increasing to 13 giving each appellate court an associated justice sounds really good.
I didn't used to think so but my thoughts are changing there as well. Not sure exactly how to do it though: I think some sort of randomizer not linked to the four year presidential cycle, maybe a five year cycle, every justice who had been there four cycles would be out. Happens in July after the judicial year is over. People appionted near the beginning of a cycle (due to death, resignation, whatever) would get more time than someone appionted near the end of a cycle but thats the breaks.
I just read this, very interesting and thorough, I'm convinced and hope that somehow such a reform would pass. Best if done with a divided government, though admittedly harder.
"Lifetime" ain't what it was. SCOTUS was formed in 1789 when life expectancy was 40, not 76 as it is now. Given that a judge might become a supreme back then at about 30 or 35, it was a short term gig.
I agree, but failing to recuse is not as serious as failing to make an effort to objectively apply federal statutes and the Constitution. Supreme Court decisions have always, in varying degrees, been influenced by justices' personal and political views, but the justices never ruled on the basis of such views so blatantly before. The six Republican politicians on the Court have effectively announced that they can do whatever they want, and they know that they will get away with it. "Activists" does not begin to describe them. They've gone rogue.
I'll give examples so that I don't come off as just ranting. They invented the "major question doctrine" to allow themselves to strike down federal agency actions that they dislike because the agencies, acting pursuant to federal statutes, protect us from pollution and other harms. They allowed Texas to ban abortion while Roe v. Wade was still in effect. They have, so far only temporarily, allowed Idaho's abortion ban to override a federal statute that requires hospitals to provide emergency medical care. Finally, they effectively repealed section 3 of the 14th Amendment so that no state may keep an insurrectionist off its presidential ballot.
Not literally an insurrection, but, yes, a dereliction of duty to uphold the Constitution. And that makes it a violation of their oath of office and therefore an impeachable offense.
I hope the armed forces are loyal if the militias come out in November. Do I sound too gloomy? Is it not one of the possibilities? Some states won't ratify a Biden win? It's after midnight, I should get some winks.
You know, of course, that absolutely nothing will happen to either Alito or Thomas, and that they will not recuse but will rule on cases involving Trump. The level of hatred in this foul country is terrifying. I wish I could leave.
I can identify with what you are implying, the interesting moral moment upon finding oneself inhabited by non-luxurious, difficult emotions. My definition of what a 'good person' is has changed and maybe for the better, but not comfortable.
You are right. Nothing will happen to Alito or Thomas, unless, we have a full sweep with a strong Democratic majority in the Hose and Senate, and Biden as POTUS. I believe that more people are beginning to recognize that the problem isn't just Trump, but also his allies and enablers. Will there be enough people who will vote to make a difference? I hope so. If Trump wins the election, we may have an agonizing decision to make.
I wish all these "Originalists" would catapult themselves back to the 18th and 19th centuries and stay there. No indoor plumbing, no central air and heating, paved roads, safe vaccines, cars, luxury RVs, private jets, Whole Foods, etc.
Brennan Center paper proposing 18-year active terms and regularized appointments; every president would have an equal imprint on the Court during a four-year term. Such a system would enhance the democratic link between the Court and the public, making the institution more reflective of changing public values while preserving judicial independence.
SCOTUS was formed in 1789 when life expectancy was 40, not 76 as it is now. Given that a judge might become a supreme back then at about 30 or 35, it was a short term gig.
Owning the libs: Mrs. and Justice Alito "We don't know US Flag Code, who does? So in the future, we'll fly the Gadsden Flag and the Confederate Battle Flag. After all, they weren't mentioned by the Framers. Not get off my lawn."
I can remember back in 2016 many Democrats I knew in Florida hung upside down US flags in their yards and continued to do so for the entire duration of Trump's term in office. This doesn't excuse Alito. I'm just mentioning in it the spirit of objectivity. I also had a neighbor here in Milford do it from 2008 to 2016.
I'm also wondering if the DOJ can go after Perry for civil rights violations. This has been successful in similar past situations.
Wow! While reading this I'm thinking if every Republican could read this including the ones mentioned they'd see the error of their ways; How naive of me.: They don't have the slightest inkling of what rotten people they are. If they were halfway decent people the last person in the world they would want as president would be Donald Trump. Just seeing images of him ot hearing him speak or just hearing his name turns my stomach.
But back to Lucian's amazing article; Just one item alone, the fate of underage girls who have bee impregnated by rapists that the 'kind hearted' Republicans force to suffer not only the pangs of pregnancy for nine months but in many cases the burden, both emotional and financial, of raise the child to adulthood. No thought by the state legislators of the financial burden let alone the ruination of a young life unable to enjoy her childhood years in a normal way.
Imagine if you will a 15 or 16 year old girl hears a knock on the door. She opens the door to a stranger who hands her a baby and says raise this kid for me, and walks away. Almost the same thing without the physical anguish. But that is what Republicans in these Red states are virtually doing.
God help us all if these bastards get in power again . Be sure to vote Democrat while it's still legal. But even that won't work the more MAGA people run for office and get elected to run elections. They won't all be honest as in Georgia when trump thought he could corrupt Raffensburg, then called him a RINO when he proved not to be corruptible..
Please stay positive. I realize all bets are off but every vote will matter so encourage all young people to register and vote. We WILL get through this political insanity.
Yes, do encourage all young people you know to vote as if their futures depend on it, as it will. And please check out www.ActivateAmerica.vote to find volunteer opportunities to write postcards/letters, phone bank, text, canvass and register voters. We need all hands on deck NOW, not in the fall because most people will have already made up their minds or voted early.
The Alito story is just unbelievable, it beggars belief that he and Thomas are cognitively sound. And meantime everything else worsens, the acolytes at the trial today bowing down to their dark Lord while wearing identical uniforms and parroting the same talking points. When will it all end?
Abbott must be disappointed that he had to pardon the murderer. Back in eras of Reconstruction and Jim Crow to which he'd like to return (except for when President Grant sent troops to put down the KKK), he wouldn't have had to pardon him, because white people could murder Black people and not be tried for their crime.
I fear the timid Democrats, even if they retain or gain a majority in both houses of congress in 2025, and even if Biden retains office, have shown no willingness to buck Republican/Trumpista obstructionism and denial to date, and if they didn't do anything about the Supreme Court in 2021 when they maybe had a slim chance, that effort will go nowhere in the coming year(s). Geez, the Senate wouldn't even convict Drumpf in 2021 over an attempted COUP! And a majority of GOP reps voted against certifying the election results, didn't they? What makes anyone believe the GOP isn't even more in thrall to this creature now?
Biden should have had the lot arrested for sedition back then and again failed to take decisive action.
This is your occasional reminder that both Thomas and Alito are gifts from the Bush family to the country. HW Bush who should have been tried and convicted for treason in Iran Contra and W Bush who should have been tried and convicted of war crimes, not to mention that he was a gift to the country from SCOTUS, a member of whom at the time was Thomas. Our decline into fascism didn't start with Trump, it started with Nixon and got put on the fast track by Reagan, and has been magnified by each Republican mis-administration since.
I object to the entire concept of "pardons" as such. This is rank medievalism. Why should one individual be granted the power to overrule the legal system? Taxpayers pay for judges and juries and prisons and all the rest of this apparatus -- and one individual can, with caprice or malevolence or ignorance, wave a hand and undo what the law has deemed fit and proper? This is a sham. What's next, the King's Touch to cure illness?
We have parole boards and things like that to better adjudicate "pardons." Down with autocracy!
I forgot to say this: The House should impeach Alito, and the Senate should convict him. It doesn't matter if his wife put up the flag, or even if a kid on the street did it as a prank. It's Alito's house. He is responsible for the flagpole and what it displays. He should be removed from the Supreme Court.
Alioto and Thomas are poster children of cowardice. They don't even have the guts to say they did what they did. They blame their wives for it. And let's add the Senate's minority leader to this as well, aka turtle faced McConnell, who wouldn't even defend his wife's honor.
This “Supreme Court” is the gift that keeps on giving. Un-f-ing-believable. But corrupting the court, and through them further weakening democracy, has been part the republican plan all along and they’ve never made a secret of it. I can’t quite understand why the Democratic Party hasn’t devised a successful national strategy to fight it. Until Trump, and even beyond, they’ve been afraid to call it what it is.
Or is it just that many of our fellow citizens are more comfortable in a racist plutocracy? Guns and religion - Obama was right.
So was Clinton.
So was Clinton.
What did Clinton say?
And which Clinton?
Which is why elections matter. We need a resounding blue wave to take back the House and increase the Dem "majority" in the Senate. Only then, assuming Biden is re-elected, is there a slim chance of getting rid of the corrupt GQP on the Supreme Court, and appoint proper legal scholars who follow the rule of law, not their political leanings. (By the way, isn't it the Senate that hears the trial on the articles of impeachment passed by the House, such that the Senate would convict and remove that person from office?).
Yes, GOTV!
Corrected second "House" to Senate. h/t 2nydifi
Shared: MaryPat Sercu - MI and Charles W. Stotter also took note.
I agree he should be expelled, but not necessarily for the flag fiasco. There are more important improprieties to hang around his neck.
The upside down flag, supporting the overthrow of the newly elected President, is treasonous.
Perhaps something heavy enough to snap it like the ancient rotting twig it is.
Senate convict him.
YES.
… Senate should convict …
Agree. That’s what I was going to post. Impeach that sumbitch….
F*ckin’ A
Amen!!!
Treasonous!
I have been dubious about expanding the number of supreme court justices but this is too much it is so blatant! Increasing to 13 giving each appellate court an associated justice sounds really good.
I agree but also think Justices should be fixed terms and term limited.
I didn't used to think so but my thoughts are changing there as well. Not sure exactly how to do it though: I think some sort of randomizer not linked to the four year presidential cycle, maybe a five year cycle, every justice who had been there four cycles would be out. Happens in July after the judicial year is over. People appionted near the beginning of a cycle (due to death, resignation, whatever) would get more time than someone appionted near the end of a cycle but thats the breaks.
I just posted a link to a Brennan Center proposal for SCOTUS reform of term limits and appointments - makes a lot of sense.
I just read this, very interesting and thorough, I'm convinced and hope that somehow such a reform would pass. Best if done with a divided government, though admittedly harder.
"Lifetime" ain't what it was. SCOTUS was formed in 1789 when life expectancy was 40, not 76 as it is now. Given that a judge might become a supreme back then at about 30 or 35, it was a short term gig.
I agree, but failing to recuse is not as serious as failing to make an effort to objectively apply federal statutes and the Constitution. Supreme Court decisions have always, in varying degrees, been influenced by justices' personal and political views, but the justices never ruled on the basis of such views so blatantly before. The six Republican politicians on the Court have effectively announced that they can do whatever they want, and they know that they will get away with it. "Activists" does not begin to describe them. They've gone rogue.
I'll give examples so that I don't come off as just ranting. They invented the "major question doctrine" to allow themselves to strike down federal agency actions that they dislike because the agencies, acting pursuant to federal statutes, protect us from pollution and other harms. They allowed Texas to ban abortion while Roe v. Wade was still in effect. They have, so far only temporarily, allowed Idaho's abortion ban to override a federal statute that requires hospitals to provide emergency medical care. Finally, they effectively repealed section 3 of the 14th Amendment so that no state may keep an insurrectionist off its presidential ballot.
Dereliction of Duty - they'd be court martialed if they were in the military...though I doubt any of them have served.
Insurrection
Not literally an insurrection, but, yes, a dereliction of duty to uphold the Constitution. And that makes it a violation of their oath of office and therefore an impeachable offense.
Ah yes,
"Language in thought and Action"
I hope the armed forces are loyal if the militias come out in November. Do I sound too gloomy? Is it not one of the possibilities? Some states won't ratify a Biden win? It's after midnight, I should get some winks.
Its midnight in the Americas.
Will we wake-up?
"Goodnight and Goodluck."
BTW do you recommend the film by that name?
Film?
🤬🤬🤬
You know, of course, that absolutely nothing will happen to either Alito or Thomas, and that they will not recuse but will rule on cases involving Trump. The level of hatred in this foul country is terrifying. I wish I could leave.
The thing is—speaking only for myself—I hate them every bit as much as they hate people like me.
I can identify with what you are implying, the interesting moral moment upon finding oneself inhabited by non-luxurious, difficult emotions. My definition of what a 'good person' is has changed and maybe for the better, but not comfortable.
You are right. Nothing will happen to Alito or Thomas, unless, we have a full sweep with a strong Democratic majority in the Hose and Senate, and Biden as POTUS. I believe that more people are beginning to recognize that the problem isn't just Trump, but also his allies and enablers. Will there be enough people who will vote to make a difference? I hope so. If Trump wins the election, we may have an agonizing decision to make.
I wish all these "Originalists" would catapult themselves back to the 18th and 19th centuries and stay there. No indoor plumbing, no central air and heating, paved roads, safe vaccines, cars, luxury RVs, private jets, Whole Foods, etc.
And Thomas is nostalgic for the 18th and 19th centuries? Did he forget he could have been a slave before emancipation?
Brennan Center paper proposing 18-year active terms and regularized appointments; every president would have an equal imprint on the Court during a four-year term. Such a system would enhance the democratic link between the Court and the public, making the institution more reflective of changing public values while preserving judicial independence.
https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/policy-solutions/supreme-court-term-limits?can_id=18e9837b70b95185ddae792722637de8&email_referrer
SCOTUS was formed in 1789 when life expectancy was 40, not 76 as it is now. Given that a judge might become a supreme back then at about 30 or 35, it was a short term gig.
Sounds good!
Owning the libs: Mrs. and Justice Alito "We don't know US Flag Code, who does? So in the future, we'll fly the Gadsden Flag and the Confederate Battle Flag. After all, they weren't mentioned by the Framers. Not get off my lawn."
I can remember back in 2016 many Democrats I knew in Florida hung upside down US flags in their yards and continued to do so for the entire duration of Trump's term in office. This doesn't excuse Alito. I'm just mentioning in it the spirit of objectivity. I also had a neighbor here in Milford do it from 2008 to 2016.
I'm also wondering if the DOJ can go after Perry for civil rights violations. This has been successful in similar past situations.
None of the Florida Democrats or Milford neighbors were Supreme Court justices.
Wow! While reading this I'm thinking if every Republican could read this including the ones mentioned they'd see the error of their ways; How naive of me.: They don't have the slightest inkling of what rotten people they are. If they were halfway decent people the last person in the world they would want as president would be Donald Trump. Just seeing images of him ot hearing him speak or just hearing his name turns my stomach.
But back to Lucian's amazing article; Just one item alone, the fate of underage girls who have bee impregnated by rapists that the 'kind hearted' Republicans force to suffer not only the pangs of pregnancy for nine months but in many cases the burden, both emotional and financial, of raise the child to adulthood. No thought by the state legislators of the financial burden let alone the ruination of a young life unable to enjoy her childhood years in a normal way.
Imagine if you will a 15 or 16 year old girl hears a knock on the door. She opens the door to a stranger who hands her a baby and says raise this kid for me, and walks away. Almost the same thing without the physical anguish. But that is what Republicans in these Red states are virtually doing.
God help us all if these bastards get in power again . Be sure to vote Democrat while it's still legal. But even that won't work the more MAGA people run for office and get elected to run elections. They won't all be honest as in Georgia when trump thought he could corrupt Raffensburg, then called him a RINO when he proved not to be corruptible..
This happened in 2021. So why are we finally hearing about it May 16 2024?
Please stay positive. I realize all bets are off but every vote will matter so encourage all young people to register and vote. We WILL get through this political insanity.
Yes, do encourage all young people you know to vote as if their futures depend on it, as it will. And please check out www.ActivateAmerica.vote to find volunteer opportunities to write postcards/letters, phone bank, text, canvass and register voters. We need all hands on deck NOW, not in the fall because most people will have already made up their minds or voted early.
The Alito story is just unbelievable, it beggars belief that he and Thomas are cognitively sound. And meantime everything else worsens, the acolytes at the trial today bowing down to their dark Lord while wearing identical uniforms and parroting the same talking points. When will it all end?
And we have good ole Texas boy, W, to thank for Alito!!
Abbott must be disappointed that he had to pardon the murderer. Back in eras of Reconstruction and Jim Crow to which he'd like to return (except for when President Grant sent troops to put down the KKK), he wouldn't have had to pardon him, because white people could murder Black people and not be tried for their crime.
He’s not disappointed. He’s delighted! Abbott has done more to destroy the state of Texas than any other governor ever. May he rot in his wheelchair.
I fear the timid Democrats, even if they retain or gain a majority in both houses of congress in 2025, and even if Biden retains office, have shown no willingness to buck Republican/Trumpista obstructionism and denial to date, and if they didn't do anything about the Supreme Court in 2021 when they maybe had a slim chance, that effort will go nowhere in the coming year(s). Geez, the Senate wouldn't even convict Drumpf in 2021 over an attempted COUP! And a majority of GOP reps voted against certifying the election results, didn't they? What makes anyone believe the GOP isn't even more in thrall to this creature now?
Biden should have had the lot arrested for sedition back then and again failed to take decisive action.
This is your occasional reminder that both Thomas and Alito are gifts from the Bush family to the country. HW Bush who should have been tried and convicted for treason in Iran Contra and W Bush who should have been tried and convicted of war crimes, not to mention that he was a gift to the country from SCOTUS, a member of whom at the time was Thomas. Our decline into fascism didn't start with Trump, it started with Nixon and got put on the fast track by Reagan, and has been magnified by each Republican mis-administration since.
You’re doing a splendid job of reporting and reporting it all both gracefully and powerfully. I look forward to your every posting.
Hear hear!
Likewise!
I object to the entire concept of "pardons" as such. This is rank medievalism. Why should one individual be granted the power to overrule the legal system? Taxpayers pay for judges and juries and prisons and all the rest of this apparatus -- and one individual can, with caprice or malevolence or ignorance, wave a hand and undo what the law has deemed fit and proper? This is a sham. What's next, the King's Touch to cure illness?
We have parole boards and things like that to better adjudicate "pardons." Down with autocracy!
The Texas parole/pardons board voted unanimously to free Daniel Perry before Abbott pardoned him. Abbott appointed every member.
🤬