If elected president, Sen. Ted Cruz has a novel idea for dealing with the Supreme Court’s recent Obergefell ruling on same-sex marriage: ignore the judicial completely and rule by executive fiat.
Ted Cruz has some unsolicited advice for the states not specifically named in last week’s Supreme Court ruling on gay marriage: Ignore it.
“Those who are not parties to the suit are not bound by it,” the Texas Republican told NPR News’ Steve Inskeep in an interview published on Monday. Since only suits against the states of Ohio, Tennessee, Michigan and Kentucky were specifically considered in the Supreme Court’s Obergefell v. Hodges decision, which was handed down last Friday, Cruz — a former Supreme Court clerk — believes that other states with gay marriage bans need not comply, absent a judicial order.
“[O]n a great many issues, others have largely acquiesced, even if they were not parties to the case,” the 2016 presidential contender added, “but there’s no legal obligation to acquiesce to anything other than a court judgement.”
While Cruz’s statement may be technically true, federal district and circuit courts are obligated to follow the Supreme Court’s precedent and overrule all other states’ same-sex marriage bans as unconstitutional.
Cruz’s logic is simple, you see. The judicial doesn’t get to interpret the constitutionality of the law because “sworn officers”, i.e. state and federal executives, have sworn the oath to the Constitution and should be allowed to decide what laws they consider to be valid, and that the judicial branch is not the final arbiter of anything.
If this sounds familiar, it’s exactly what Ted Cruz is accusing President Obama of doing on immigration, and now Cruz is more than happy to make this plenary executive argument apply to himself should he be elected to the White House. The hypocrisy could power suns for billions of years.
Cruz is far from the only potential lawless tyrant among the GOP 2016 ranks, Bobby Jindal wants to get rid of the Supreme Court altogether and Rand Paul makes a similar argument that people should be allowed to ignore laws they don’t agree with as part of his Glibertarian Nonsense Freedom and Eagle platform. Of course Republicans were going to run on more power for the executive. They always will. IOKIYAR.
Amir Khalid
This Ted Cruz clown graduated from an Ivy League law school. He seems to know less than they teach in high school civics.
MattF
Cruz is playing to the TP crowd. They’ll be mesmerized while he sounds brave, and, incidentally, while he picks their pockets.
ETA: I think the technical term for his claims is ‘jiggery-pokery.’
Jeffro
Wow – just ignore the highest court in the land.
I realize he annoys the heck out of everyone, even in his own party, but he’s dangerous to the Republic unless he gets a nice full dose of sunlight, and soon.
GregB
Both sides do it!
bemused
Diehard Cruz supporters don’t have a problem with a dictator president as long it’s their choice who is the tyrant.
MattF
Ugh. Added a clever comment to my post and it went into moderation. Bah.
What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?
So I guess the EPA can go ahead and ignore the court and regulate the crap out of the electric power industry, costs be damned?
Chris
Hey, that’s funny. Isn’t that EXACTLY what they’ve been accusing Obama of doing for all these years?
MomSense
@Amir Khalid:
In his defense, he hasn’t been a U.S. citizen for very long.
chopper
and the moment hillary moves in to the WH it’ll be right back to ‘the lawless presidency’.
Chris
@Chris:
(I mean on everything, not just immigration).
Bobby Thomson
He’s not saying the Supreme Court opinion isn’t controlling authority. He’s just encouraging people to force enforcement actions for which there will be no defense.
Gindy51
Hell he was raised to think this way, his way or the highway. He’s just as bad as his idiot father, the religious nut case who thinks his son is the savior of the USA. The apple didn’t fall far from that diseased tree, that’s for sure.
Bill
“Those who are not parties to the suit are not bound by it,” the Texas Republican told NPR News’ Steve Inskeep in an interview published on Monday. ”
Well then the second amendment is only a personal right in the District of Columbia. (See DC v. Heller.)
Ted knows damn well how the law works, which is why this crap is so galling. Look, I’m not happy with the death penalty decision the court handed down yesterday but for better or worse it’s the law of the land.
Omnes Omnibus
@Bobby Thomson: In other words, he is a complete asshole, and he is encouraging others to be complete assholes as well.
Redshift
Then there’s Huckabee saying that it isn’t the law of the land until legislatures pass “enabling legislation” (and strongly implying that they don’t have to.) It sounds like he’s assuming it works exactly like the rulings in, say, Vermont and Massachusetts, but I’m inclined to think he’s really just playing to the rubes by saying something that may not technically be a lie but is obviously BS.
Redshift
@Omnes Omnibus: That is pretty much his MO on everything. Look at all his “Speaker Cruz” shenanigans.
Omnes Omnibus
@Redshift: Oh yes, I was merely stating the obvious.
dedc79
We’ve seen similar language from some AGs and judges like Moore in Alabama. Here’s what it comes down to: “We know we lost, but this is our best and last opportunity for us to pretend like we’re still fighting to appease our voters.” So they latch on to this technicality and make these strongly-worded objections – but really all they’re saying is that once they get the official word from the court in their own jurisdiction, the fight is over.
MomSense
@Chris:
It’s always projection with these assholes.
JohnPM
@Bill:
Well then the second amendment is only a personal right in the District of Columbia. (See DC v. Heller.)
That was my first thought also.
Woodrowfan
Cruz is exactly the type of person who shoves others into camps and into ovens and thinks he’s doing the Lord’s work while he does so.
JPL
Since I don’t have cable, does anyone even challenge Cruz? Network news, doesn’t mention him often.
In case you haven’t seen this, there is a scathing article on NJ.com about the lies Christie tells. link
Paul in KY
He’s riffing off Pres. Jackson, who when the Supreme Court declared the forced moving of Cherokee Indians to be illegal & unconstitutional, wondered how Justice Marshall planned on enforcing the decision.
Pres. Jackson was quite a dick.
Iowa Old Lady
Iowa’s R Governor Branstad actually said low-key sensible things when asked about Texas AG Abbot’s claim that officials could refuse to issue marriage licenses. He said this was settled in Iowa in 2009 and he wasn’t going to get into what Texas was doing. He also said it was up to the delegates to the R state convention to decide if they wanted to keep opposition to SSM in their platform.
raven
It’s leap second!
raven
The Supremes put the hold on Mississippi abortion law.
JPL
@raven: nice let me guess ..5-4 with kennedy
NCSteve
So, basically, we’re back to Jefferson’s theory that all three branches were coequal interpreters of the Constitution and Marbury v. Madison is an unconstitutional power grab.
The Republic of Stupidity
Uh… shouldn’t that say, “more power for REPUBLICANS”?
J.D. Rhoades
You can accuse them of hypocrisy all day and all of the night. They don’t care. Their VOTERS don’t care. They have no principles whatsoever beyond “Republican Good, Liberal Bad.”
Barbara
This is always a lost cause. Southern states undertook responses like this during the 1950s and 1960s to hang on to Jim Crow laws and de jure segregation. When they kept losing, they enacted procedural laws that were designed to make it impossible for litigants to appeal to the US Supreme Court (by intentionally prohibiting litigants from taking the procedural steps that the USSC rules require in order to get an issue before the Supreme Court). So the Supreme Court changed its rules to accommodate the fact that litigants were being gagged by states in order to deprive them of the opportunity for federal review.
And then, the Reagan Justice Department tried to adopt a “non-adherence” policy in Social Security cases when it kept losing in federal courts (it had enacted by rule presumptions that anyone currently entitled to disability benefits was not in fact disabled and cutting their benefits first and making them apply all over again). So it kept litigating the same legal issues over and over again in every case until the Supreme Court told them to stop, once and for all.
cmorenc
@Iowa Old Lady:
What is this “SSM” in the GOP platform: ‘Super Sado-Masochism”?
Mudge
By this logic, I guess Citizen’s United only applies to Citizen’s United. Any state that wants to enforce campaign laws against any other deep-pocketed donor can do so. Good to know.
Mike in NC
The 2016 GOP lineup is the most deranged collection of scum we’ve seen yet. How will they top this in 2020?
Belafon
FTFY
Iowa Old Lady
@cmorenc: How did you know???
Jeffro
@cmorenc: Same s e x marriage
Belafon
@Barbara:
My dad, who developed epilepsy while in Vietnam, was on SSDI until Reagan did this, and my dad didn’t hear about the ability to reapply until 20 years later. My parents, who would otherwise be good southern conservatives, would gladly dig up Reagan, reanimate him, and set him on fire. They haven’t voted for a Republican for anything.
srv
Well, I for one, never thought there would be any consequences to Obama’s diktats.
Republican’s have lots of Federal agency activity to reimagine. And as for those judges, history will be coming around shortly.
JCT
The cupidity of this gang is awe-inspiring.
Cruz et al are not stupid, this is performance art coupled to grift writ large. Only difference from Limbaugh is that people actually voted for them because they are too blinded by their own hate to realize they are being played for fools.
This would be funny except for what it has done to our government and level of discourse.
Redshift
@JPL: I don’t think he generally makes these remarks in a forum where anyone can respond. In the Senate, i think people don’t challenge him because he doesn’t do anything, just bloviates, so it’s they just wait until he’s done and then go ahead and do whatever he was railing against.
rikyrah
UH HUH
UH HUH
………….
Rand Paul meets with Cliven Bundy on Nevada campaign stop
Jun. 29, 2015 11:55 PM EDT58
CARSON CITY, Nev. (AP) — Republican presidential candidate Sen. Rand Paul met with southern Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy on Monday during a question-and-answer session in the town of Mesquite with about 50 supporters and activists interested in land rights.
The meeting northeast of Las Vegas was part of a statewide tour with stops from Las Vegas to rural Elko.
bigstory.ap.org/article/809ff29a150b44c390cf8309bb6b0fd0/rand-paul-meets-cliven-bundy-nevada-campaig…
Felonius Monk
I get a real laugh from all the religious hand-wringing by these various state and local officials about denying marriage licenses to ssm couples. After all, think of all the fornicators, adulterers, thieves, murderers, and worshipers of false gods that they have previously denied marriage license to on these same religious grounds.
KG
When Alan Keyes suggested this a decade and a half ago, he was basically laughed out of the GOP presidential primary.
srv
If you can’t afford Hillary, there is a kindergrift discount:
John M
@Bobby Thomson: Exactly. If this nonsense were coming from a dimwit like Mike Huckabee or Sarah Palin, I would accept that they actually believe it. Cruz, a former Supreme Court clerk and high level appellate litigator, knows exactly what he’s doing. If Cruz manages to dupe some hapless county clerk into following his advice, there is a nearly 100 percent chance that the clerk will be sued and lose, and a non-trivial chance that the clerk will be sanctioned or otherwise on the hook for his opponent’s attorney fees. By then, Cruz will have moved on to some other outrage. Cruz seems to be of exceptionally low character, even for a republican politician in the Obama era.
Paul in KY
@srv: I know I shouldn’t really respond to you, but like NBA salaries, you can’t expect a person to turn down the price if it has been met.
If anyone wants Paul in KY to speak anywhere for 50 grand, I’ll be there!
elmo
@John M: My boss is a former FBI agent, a staunch Republican, and has nothing but contempt for “liberals.” He agrees with me that Ted Cruz is basically a real life Greg Stillson.
burnspbesq
@Amir Khalid:
It’s obvious who Cruz’ heroes are: Gamal Abdel Nasser and Lee Kwan Yew.
Bobby Thomson
@Omnes Omnibus: correct.
FlyingToaster
@srv:
Reality check, dude. His Wikipedia article specifically mentions the “unsuccessful” impeachment drive.
***
Is this the level of trolling we’ve fallen to? Egads, I’m starting to miss Putin’s stooges.
Matt McIrvin
@John M:
And then there’s a martyr to go on about!
Amir Khalid
@srv:
Refresh my memory: Is Chelsea Clinton running for any office?
Belafon
@Amir Khalid: No, but she had a baby so that her mom could.
/////
Peale
@Amir Khalid: Yes. Like all republicans, though, they are unsettled that someone born with a leg up in the world somehow gets to have an advantage. Chelsea should be working in a light assembly line somewhere like all wealthy children do.
burnspbesq
The last Supreme Court orders list of the term is up. Five cert grants, including Friedrichs v. California Teachers Assn., a critical case ivolving the free speech rights of public employee unions.
No action on the MS abortion case.
Origuy
@srv: I thought you were a libertarian? Market forces set the price!
srv
@Amir Khalid: You clearly don’t know much about this country – the Clintons are always running for something.
TooManyJens
Has Ted Cruz inspected the flag in the Supreme Court chambers for a fringe yet?
The Republic of Stupidity
@Mike in NC:
Genetic cloning?
Mandalay
@srv: It’s interesting to see how defensive some folks here are getting over you pointing out that Chelsea Clinton received $65,000 for a ten minute speech. Nothing to see here, move along…
SFAW
@Paul in KY:
50,000 lire/lira, maybe.
Punchy
@Matt McIrvin: I think the math works like this: sactioned and fined $500. GoFundMe page then collects $20K as the brave martyr nets $19.5K.
Rinse, repeat. If conservatives do one thing well, they can grift like a mutherfuckah
Brachiator
@Chris:
It’s different when a white man does it.
catclub
@dedc79:
But not Mississippi! Marriages are taking place. Also, dogs and cats living together.
Cruz is correct, but anyone who goes against that SC ruling is bound to be sued and guaranteed to lose in ANY federal court.
They should also be cited for contempt.
catclub
@Punchy: It only works for the first three interesting cases. Then we find out that liberals are more liberal with their donations, too. Remember the guy in South Carolina with health problems?
SFAW
@Mandalay:
I missed the part where President Bill Clinton (or perhaps it was Pres. Obama? AG Lynch?) issued an Executive Order mandating UMKC to have Hill/Chelsea give that speech. I guess I need to read more news feeds
catclub
@burnspbesq: No love for Augusto Pinochet?
SFAW
@catclub:
Ah, but the liberals weren’t donating to him for the right reasons! Or they told him he was an asshole for trying to game the system! Or they were just being mean! Or something else! Or ARGLE-BARGLE!
catclub
@Barbara: The good news is the right results happened. The bad news is that it took twenty five years of fighting, AFTER the decision.
Bill
@Mandalay: Can you or srv explain to me why we should be upset at Ms. Clinton getting $65,000 for giving a speech?
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Mandalay: Well, I won’t get defensive, but not being a Missouri tax-payer or a a donor to the school, I can’t much rouse myself to give a fuck about the really stupid decision they made
Actually, scrolling through the thread, I see some snark. Who got “defensive”?
GHayduke (formerly lojasmo)
@srv:
Who, besides you, gives a flying fuck?
Mandalay
@SFAW: Like I said, it’s interesting to see how some defensive some folks get: it’s legal, so there’s nothing to see here!
SFAW
OK, I’m a little weird, granted, but I was thinking of checking Cruz-hole’s piehole to see if his lips were dripping with the words of interposition and nullification.
I think he and Greg Abbott should have a steel-cage death match (or functional equivalent) to determine who become King/Emperor/Preznit of Dumbfuckistan when America finally walls it (i.e., Tejas, a/k/a Nuevo Aztlan) off from the rest of the country.
Roger Moore
@Bill:
Because she’s a Clinton. SATSQ.
SFAW
@Mandalay:
Looks like the only one approaching “defensive,” or anything similar, was srv. The others were more along the lines of “What? Again with this shit? There are Open Threads for that.”
SFAW
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Mandalay, for one.
VOR
@srv: Like it or not, but the Clintons probably get a lot of requests to speak to groups. One way to filter those requests is to put a price tag on a speech. They can always do a speech for free for a worthy cause, but having a price is a way to judge how serious the request is. And isn’t this the free market at work? Don’t like what the Clintons charge, then go find someone cheaper. I bet Sarah Palin’s rates have come down.
Back in 2010 author Neil Gaiman was attacked for charging $40k to speak to a library group in Stillwater, Minnesota. Here is his defense of his speaking fees.
Amir Khalid
@Mandalay:
We’re wondering what the point is of bringing up Chelsea’s speaking engagements, when as far anyone knows, she is a private citizen not seeking any public office.
SFAW
@Amir Khalid:
Oh, stop being so defensive about Mandalay’s being defensive regarding other persons’ alleged “defensiveness.”
By the way, how are you feeling these days? (I missed the updates.)
Amir Khalid
@SFAW:
Mostly better.
Belafon
@VOR: You have some extra text at the end of your link.
Elizabelle
Thinking of Cruz and bully boy Christie, set to announce today: you would think there is a shelf life for bad boy behavior. It may not wear well over the course of a year.
The Republican party seems full of older people who never quite matured into adults. Magical thinking, impatience, greed, incivility.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@VOR: I saw a blurb the other day that one of Gaiman’s books– American Gods, I think– is gonna be made into a mini-series by HBO and Starz. I hope they have a big budget.
Elizabelle
@JPL:
Your headline:
After 14 years of watching Christie, a warning: He lies | Moran
Moran, in this case, being the writer. But I loved seeing the word out there, in large print. Attached so closely to “Christie.”
Reading your article now, although it’s probably more than I want to know about CC.
SFAW
@Amir Khalid:
OK, glad to hear it. I’ll try to watch for “all better.”
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Elizabelle: I think Christie’s appeal has always been grossly inflated by the Beltway, the only group that has a higher percentage than GOP primary voters of whatever kind of personality it is that craves friendship/approval from overbearing bullies, and of course, he wants to Get Serious About Entitlements and hates teachers’ unions, items one and three on the VSP requirement list (number two being a willingness to send other people’s kids into shooting zones). IIANM, and with a knowledge of New Jersey that comes from Steve Kornacki, Springsteen songs and the Sopranos, he limped into office with less than 50% in a Republican-friendly year (building up to 2010) against a Goldman-Sachs Democrat with a center-left vanity candidate helping him shave down Corzine’s vote. In 2013, he was still in the glow of his Obama-hugging Sandy performance.
Checking wiki for the numbers, I find this truly bizarre nugget from the 2009 election
jl
@Paul in KY:
“Justice Marshall has made his decision, now let him enforce it”
Wikipedia give some details that indicate the situation was a bit more complicated than Jackson’s simple and direct defiance of a Supreme Court decision, but at best it was Jackson finding a loophole to slip through and making the most of it. Technically, the Indian Nations to be removed were not party to the case, an individual was party. (Edit: though Wikipedia has a quote from Justice Story that he thought the decision would do something to protect the Nations, not just an individual.)
But, whatever, Cruz is simply asking the US to go back to its best and finest traditional values.
shell
Nice story by Chris Christie about his family’s story. His father going to college nights while working at Breyer’s factory and was the first to get his degree. Christie didn’t mention whether his father took advantage of the GI Bill.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: okay, I’m very tired today and read that too quickly as Giuliani telling Daggett not to meddle in “our state” of New Jersey.
Paul in KY
@SFAW: Aw man, that’s like $18.00 American. I think I’m worth at least $40.00 (dollars not effing Lira).
Villago Delenda Est
It’s always projection with these assholes.
Always.
Jeffro
OT but check this out (from a WaPo article on “Flaggers” – African Americans who are fine w/ the Confederate flag):
You really can take 27% of any group, on any topic, and get an insane response!!
(Article: washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2015/06/30/why-some-black-defenders-of-the-confederate-flag-b… )
Elizabelle
@Amir Khalid: Glad to hear you are on the mend, and stay out of the way of stray Indonesian aircraft. Wow.
Very sorry to hear of the Indonesian C-130 crash. 113 on board, mostly military family members, no survivors. Unknown toll on the ground, but plane crashed into a neighborhood.
Some interesting (to me, not news to you) points: Medan, on the island of Sumatra has 2.2 million residents. That is huge.
Per 2014 estimates, only US cities larger than Medan are NYC (8.5 million), Los Angeles (3.9 million), Chicago (2.7) and Houston (2.2).
Medan is larger than next largest US cities: Philadelphia, Phoenix, San Antonio, San Diego and Dallas, all with populations of 1.38 to 1.56 million.
Medan is the FIFTH largest city in Indonesia, with 2.2 million. Jakarta has 10.1 million, Surabaya 2.8, Bandung and Bekasi roughly 2.5 million.
Puts the population density into stark relief. Makes me think the reason we might have such crazy ass politicians — like Mr. Cruz — is there is enough space to give them room.
Paul in KY
@jl: Thank you for the clarification!
jl
Though, after thinking about Cruz’ statement, he is advocating the executive take advantage of the same type of loophole Jackson did: only obey the order for the party to this particular case. So, what, the SCOTUS has to try a case for every state, or for every same sex couple that wants right to make a civil contract on equal basis with straight marriages.
So, actually, the parallels with Jackson and removal of the ‘Five Civilized Tribes’ are pretty close.
And the removal was pretty cynical. IIRC from reading, by Jackson administration, Cherokee, Chickasaw, and Choctaw were thoroughly assimilated economically, if not culturally into European society. I distinctly remember reading that foreign travelers would write that they noticed when on tribal lands things looked much more prosperous and well maintained than among white European squatters. So, these Nations were running farms, livestock, raising horses, they owned and ran successful brick factories and foundries. So, it was just a cynical land grab. The rationales for the removal I’ve read seem preposterous, One is that the Nations had dual loyalty to Spanish who were still intriguing in the area. But, the Nations were thoroughly economically integrated into US economy, what interest did they have in cooperating with Spanish.
So, thanks, Cruz for signalling where you want to take this country. Back to one its darkest, most cynical and racist episodes, where hypocrisy, brute force and power are what are really important.
jl
@Paul in KY: But after thinking about it, as per my previous commment above, the clarification may make Cruz look much worse.
The only bright spot I can see to this disgusting display is that the GOP may be just too obsessed and crazy this time for the general population to stomach.
The GOP may want to go back and pick the worst from the most cynical and vile episodes of US history, but I hope that we have come far enough that the general election voting population does not.
What the GOP is doing now, even if people do not get the historical reference points, is not dog whistle it is calliopes, brass bands and air horns hooked up to wall of sound amps and speakers on a rock concert stage.
SFAW
@Paul in KY:
Yes, I understand that the “$” symbol generally means it’s in USD, as opposed to NTD.
For $40, it had better be the best damn speech since 8/28/63. Otherwise, you’ll take $18 AND YOU’LL LIKE IT. Any complaints, and we’ll be revoking your credenza.
SFAW
@jl:
Right. And Peak Wingnut will have been reached, no doubt.
Elizabelle
Other point, from the story about the Indonesian C-130 crash, was the intersection of heavily populated areas and air travel that is not as safe as we in US take for granted. NY Times today:
Also: what I keep forgetting:
I want to see Indonesia. Also Viet Nam and Thailand. And Hong Kong. Five to seven year bucket list.
jl
@SFAW: yeah yeah, I understand at least 45 percent of the voting population, and most of the whites, will vote for them no matter what in the general election. We have to count on the five to ten percent of whites that can be salvaged from self destructive bigotry.
But we did not have to endure a president McCain or Romney, so there is that.
Edit: I think Creek were economically integrated too, but they were still in a mood to go to war over removal. And Seminole were a bit different, by that time mostly being refugees from other tribes that fled to Florida. But, it was all BS.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Can we assume the tax-payers of New Jersey are making yet another large donation to Chris Christie’s campaign?
Gene108
@Elizabelle:
Despite being the third most populace country on the planet, the US is not very densely populated.
jl
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Well, I heard on news that Christie said he was going to come out swinging like a tough guy, doing an unscripted, hand held mike speech, chit chat and Q&A.
Maybe extra security is needed to protect any teachers or retirees or insolent question askers in the audience.
“What kind a question is that, asshole! To the mooooon… to the mooon with you!” and Kaboom!, Christie makes a statement with his fists. He’s a real tough guy, blunt, takes no guff.
The carny freak show aspect of GOP primary may be getting out of hand.
Paul in KY
@jl: See, that’s just what I was getting at way back there ;-)
Elizabelle
@Gene108: Truly. Looking at those city numbers was interesting to me.
And STILL we have to co-exist with the “Don’t Fence Me in” crowd, guns at the ready.
Reminded me again that we can “afford” such craziness in our rightwing political class because we are so rich (although unequally so) and big.
That’s changing, and what probably drives some of the crazification. They live in mythology.
Amir Khalid
@Elizabelle:
What about Malaysia? Don’t you want to see Malaysia too?
SFAW
@jl:
Actually, in some ways, I’m more hopeful than you. Given that left-leaning and liberal policies are (generally) more popular than right-leaning (or out-and-out wingnutty) policies – as long as the word “liberal” isn’t used to describe them – it seems it would just take a really good PR campaign to get more than that five percent to wise up re: which policies are better for the country.
Of course, given that the Dems couldn’t fashion a good PR campaign if you spotted them the “P” and the “R,” I’m not overly optimistic. But, once the electorate gets the idea stuck in their heads that “The Republicans have been lying to you and screwing you over for years,” it might translate into long-term gains for the Dems.
And I might become smart and good-looking.
Paul in KY
@SFAW: Glad you are up on the ‘$’ thingee. Any idea on how many words constitute a ‘speech’?
Paul in KY
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Don’t forget New Jersey trooper overtime too, also!
SFAW
@Paul in KY:
Only about 10 or 20.
Thousand.
Paul in KY
@Amir Khalid: I thought if you hit Myanmar, you’ve pretty much done Malaysia too ;-)
Elizabelle
@Amir Khalid: Yes!! How did I not include Malaysia on the list!!
Seanly
@srv:
I will give a 10-minute speech on any topic desired for the low, low price of $6500 (plus travel expenses). I’m a huge bargain!
Paul in KY
@SFAW: Dammit! I guess the market has spoken for ole Paul in KY (sigh, shuffles away kicking at dirt).
SFAW
@Paul in KY:
Don’t know about Myanmar, but that’s true for Burma.
Amir Khalid
@Paul in KY:
No no no no no. There’s a whole lot of Thailand between Myanmar and here.
SFAW
@Seanly:
More than a herd of Winnebagos? I heard they’re giving them away.
Botsplainer
@Amir Khalid:
If anybody has an extra 15-20K, Mrs Botsplainer is running a kickass trip to Myanmar and Bhutan in October.
dmbeaster
@srv: Yeah, the Clintons just need to emulate St. Ronnie raking in $2,000,000 ( in 1990 dollars) from the Japanese conglomerate Fujisankei. That’s the right way to do it (Ronnie’s kids also did well with appearance fees).
Paul in KY
@SFAW: I’ve always wanted to visit Burma. Myanmar, not so much…
jl
@SFAW: I’m just hoping that the current GOP freakout will convince the 5 to 10 percent of white swing voters that can keep the total GOP general election vote below 50 percent that the GOP has gone stark raving mad, and scare them off.
Brachiator
@jl:
The news has been full of the right wing response to the Supreme Court decision (and to be fair, pictures of folks righteously celebrating the decision).
I think that polls showed support for same sex marriage. Have there been any follow-up polls subsequent to the Supreme Court decision?
Even in the GOP presidential debates, the obvious question might be, “polls show Americans support same sex marriage. Why do you insist on opposing it?”
Amir Khalid
@dmbeaster:
My understanding is that Reagan’s senile dementia began even before he left office in 1989. How did he command US$2 million in speaking fees in 1990?
jl
@Brachiator: yes, the same sex marriage decision, and the ACA decision and the Confederate flag freakout, GOP finest on display for all three. Hope they stay unhinged through the summer.. Hope Obama trying to stomp out company misclassification of workers as management to stiff them out of overtime pay will create another freakout.
Roger Moore
@Elizabelle:
You have to be a bit careful when comparing city sizes from one country to another, or even from region to region within a country, because different countries have different ideas about how much to include in the primary city of a metropolitan area and how much to put into the suburbs. So while Medan has a city population of about 2.2 million, it has a metropolitan area population of about 4.1 million. That makes its metropolitan area a bit smaller than the Seattle or Phoenix metropolitan areas.
SFAW
@jl:
Well, I would also hope for that, but history would seem to indicate otherwise.
Kay
Weren’t we just told that Elizabeth Warren had this wrong and industry wouldn’t be able to sue to block regulations they don’t like under the trade deal?
Steeplejack
@VOR:
Bad link. I fix: “A Political Football in a Teacup.”
Roger Moore
@jl:
No, that’s not the way things happen. What actually happens is that the district courts rule according to the precedent the Supreme Court just set, and the higher level courts refuse to hear the states’ appeals when they lose. The district courts make deliberately broad rulings, spelling out in detail that they apply to everyone in the district, not just to the plaintiff in that particular case. If the state government continues to ignore the rulings and behave as if each couple that wants to get married has to sue separately, the district courts treat the cases as frivolous and hand out legal fees, punitive damages, and contempt citations until the state governments get the message.
Paul in KY
@Amir Khalid: The man was a trained actor & pretty good with a teleprompter. They just put him up there & he reads the lines.
Steeplejack
@jl:
Aw, c’mon, you’re complaining about what the Times called Christie’s “brash touch” on the front page this morning. He’s just brash, s’all.
jl
@Roger Moore: I agree, but you need to take that advice to Mr. Cruz, GOP presidential primary candidate.
Chris T.
@SFAW: Defensensitivity?
Peale
@Brachiator: Nope. You see, that question allows them off the hook and lets them look daddy tough and principled.
Just ask them what they plan to do about gay marriage and then follow up with questions about contraception and divorce.
Pogonip
@elmo: That’s what I thought when I became aware of Cruz! “Wow! Stephen King is a prophet!”
Tree With Water
“Cruz is far from the only potential lawless tyrant among the GOP 2016 ranks..”.
No, he not. Which is why the democratic party has every right to be confident about 2016. It is also a tune the party can ear worm into everyone’s head in the country, starting today: there is not a dime’s worth of difference between any of them. Looking at any or all of them, and I see Louie Gohmert (give or take a few IQ points). I see a party begging to be put out of its misery.
Matt McIrvin
@Gene108: The US is not very densely populated, but, on the other hand, the people are unevenly distributed and parts of it are quite densely populated. Not up to the level of East Asian metropolises, but European-dense.
I recall a list of countries ranked by perceived population density: that is, the population density weighted by population density, so that it measures the local density where people actually live. I think of the US as much less densely populated than western Europe, but by that measure, the European countries were all over the place and the US was right in the middle.
ruemara
@Mandalay: you’re correct. A famous person getting reimbursed after performing the tasked agreed upon between themselves and another party is absolutely nothing to see and really a foolish thing to cling on. Unless we’re now opposed to people earning money through labour, whether you like the fact that they can earn money for doing that labor or not.
Tree With Water
@Matt McIrvin: The first time I ever flew across the country (SFO to Dulles), I was as astounded at the empty spaces as much as I was by the checker board farms that filled the horizon for so many miles of the trip.
Paul in KY
@Tree With Water: For me, it was the giant circular fields with the second hand style irrigation systems.
gene108
@Kay:
To be fair, tobacco companies have been sewing smaller countries, who try to put in anti-smoking laws already.
TPP is just them doing what they are already doing.
Kay
@gene108:
But we could talk about it, right? It’s not just some pie in the sky crazy Lefty thing?
thehill.com/regulation/242385-wto-rules-against-us-appeal-to-keep-country-of-origin-labeling-rule
opiejeanne
@Roger Moore: Seattle metropolitan population in 2014 is a little over 3 million, ant that takes in Bellevue as well as Tacoma and spans three counties. It accounts for more than half the population of the state.
The city itself is only about 650,000.
James E Powell
@Bill:
First, we are always supposed to be upset at whatever any Clinton does. No matter how ordinary the deed (e.g., having a baby) they find a reason to be outraged (she only had the baby to help her mother run for president). It is a fundamental tenet of right-wing thought that anything done by any Clinton (or any current or former employee of any Clinton) is evil. One only need study the matter to find the evil in it.
Second, we are always supposed to be offended when a Democrat gets paid. When Republicans pick up their wing-nut welfare checks (e.g., Bristol Palin), we are supposed to admire their business savvy. But if a Democrat does this it is wrong because Democrats are always wrong.
Southern Beale
BUT OBAMA IS AN IMPERIAL PRESIDNENT HE HAS CZARS
SFAW
@James E Powell:
Shouldn’t that be “abstinence spokes
griftermodel Bristol Palin”?SFAW
@Southern Beale:
What a commie!
gene108
@Kay:
That’s kind of not the same thing as a private company suing a government. The purpose of the WTO is settle these sorts of disputes.
This is to Phillip Morris suing Australia over Australia’s packaging laws.
U.S. won a case, early in the Obama admin regarding China dumping tires.
bloomberg.com/news/articles/2010-12-13/wto-rejects-chinese-complaint-against-u-s-s-anti-dumping-tari…