We dodged a bullet today solely because Justice Scalia took a dirt nap in February:
A case that had the potential to weaken public sector unions across the United States ended with a somewhat unexpected victory for unions on Tuesday, as the Supreme Court divided 4-4 on the question of requiring nonmembers to pay a fee to the public sector union that negotiates the collective bargain agreement that covers them as well.
The split vote in Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association means a lower court verdict in favor of the union stands.
If Justice Scalia had been around to weigh in on the con side, all 50 states would almost certainly have magically become “right to work” states. That would have been a very bad thing.
We can count on Justice Scalia remaining helpfully dead for the remainder of President Obama’s term and even after a new president is sworn in. But we can’t count on the “still dead” strategy to always break our way on lower court decisions or to remain in force after January 2017.
If that isn’t motivation enough for you to vote for the Democrat in November, well, enjoy a wingnut super-majority on the SCOTUS for the rest of your life.
Alain the site fixer
OT: The theme developer has solved the :”back” issue. So when the new stuff goes live soon, back will work again for navigating comments!
that is all, continue celebrating having one less pernicious foe of progress, I’m doing a brief happy dance.
ETA: Fixed some overlooked links so site is throwing less SSL errors which should speed things up a bit loading/reloading pages. Now back to test site stuff.
LAO
Thank you Betty — I had the same reaction (breaking news, Scalia still dead) and I felt slightly ashamed. But now I just feel affirmed.
trollhattan
A big deal indeed, the US Chamber of Commerce must be in extended mourning.
Thanks, Nino!
PaulWartenberg2016
Every Democratic and Left-leaning Independent voter needs to remember this not only when they’re voting for President in the general election, they need to remember this for the Senate races and do everything possible to vote Democrats for the Senate this 2016.
GET THE DAMN VOTE OUT, DEMOCRATS.
azlib
It is always curious how “states rights” only apply in the conservative mind to specific issues.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@LAO: if you were ashamed of that, I don’t want to tell you what breaking news I’m hoping for from SC reporters in the next month…
boatboy_srq
This case was one of the few instances where school choice actually had advantages. Friedrichs could have found a new home at some wingnut academy, and I wouldn’t want her in a public school teaching any children I might have had.
Still and all a welcome decision.
Something tells me a predictably-split SCOTUS which would hand decisions back to less conservatist lower courts wasn’t something the GOTea had in mind when they refused to entertain any SCOTUS nominees.
Betty Cracker
@LAO: It’s not very nice to dance on someone’s grave — even a prick like Scalia — and I don’t feel good about it. But it’s rare to see a single person’s death have such a salutary effect so quickly!
Cacti
Thanks for croaking, Tony!
MattF
Worth noting that the lower court decision in favor of the unions relied on precedents. So, a ‘conservative’ SC justice means overturning precedents. “Y’see, sonny, in the old days, we had these organizations called ‘unions’….”
Kropadope
Dammit, Betty Cracker, I love you, but I felt really bad about myself when I smiled at that headline.
@LAO: Jynx.
Alain the site fixer
@azlib: I thinkj Adam Silverman said yesterday that there are no state’s rights, just state’s powers in the Constitution. We threw that unworkable crap out with the Articles of Confederation when we ratified it. Now I’m really going back to work, but feeling lighter that a sad event – the death of someone – has directly resulted in some greater good.
dr. bloor
@boatboy_srq:
The 4-4 split will cut both ways on a case-by-case basis, and they are well aware that this is the best they can hope for given Scalia’s mysterious death by smothering.
Oops! Said too much.
Punchy
So uncivil.
Cacti
No need to feel any remorse over Scalia grave dancing.
The man spent his public career actively making things worse, or attempting to, for anyone that didn’t fit his narrow world view. His death means he can do no more harm.
Good riddance.
LAO
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: just slightly ashamed — not “throw myself in front of a NYC bus” ashamed. And, I see that I was not alone.
Brachiator
The crazy thing is that this will just make the dumbass Republicans dig in ever more in their refusal to consider Obama’s nominee.
patrick II
During the time of my young Catholic upbringing, I would be going to confession over my guilt about my joy in seeing someone like Scalia kick off. The guilt and confession part of that syndrome seems to be gone now.
The sadness part comes in knowing that the walking death old vampire Cheney will keep stealing young virgin’s hearts and outlive me.
Elizabelle
@Cacti: What Cacti said. And Ms. Cracker too.
I feel no sadness whatsoever at Scalia’s death. Good riddance.
I hope Merrick Garland gets a hearing. Saw some crap about Hillary opposing Alito but, let’s drop the false equivalencies, Alito got a hearing. We all remember that because Mrs. Alito was crying at one point, and maybe Lindsey Graham got the vapors too.
The Supreme Court is huge. I don’t think there actually are that many Bernie supporters (real ones, not internet phenoms) who won’t support the Democratic nominee, but if one runs across them, hammer them with the importance of the Supreme Court.
Al Gore would not have appointed Roberts or “Scalito.” And we are now stuck with them.
MattF
@Brachiator: Unions are a sore spot for Republicans. I remember, some years ago, I was watching C-SPAN interviewing Noot Gingrich. Noot was actually sounding rather rational… until the subject of unions came up. The transformation in Noot’s demeanor was remarkable– his face turned red, his hair stood on end, steam started coming out of his ears.
WereBear
Nothing became his life as well as the leaving of it.
SiubhanDuinne
Just heard that Florida cops have arrested Corey Lewandowski (sp?), Trump’s thuggish campaign manager. Anyone have details or even confirmation? Nothing on line as of a minute ago, but report was from NPR.
Edit: found it.
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/elections/2016/03/29/donald-trump-corey-lewandowski-jupiter-police-department-michelle-fields/82378766/
Betty Cracker
@Brachiator: It’s early yet, but I’m pretty resigned to the idea that the Repubs won’t give Judge Garland an up or down vote. It sucks, but it doesn’t surprise me. I just hope the Dems make the very most of it.
WereBear
I don’t have any qualms about it either. I’m not exactly throwing parties, mind you, but the man was a hideously uncaring and cruel person who gloried in his “nyah nyah” power to make people’s lives nastier, more brutish, and shorter.
Really, what are we supposed to feel? Reminds me of the scolds who tut-tutted about the death of Osama bin Laden, when even the Dali Lama was cool with it.
Some people are not worth mourning. It’s just a fact.
RandomMonster
Tell that to her: Susan Sarandon Says She May Not Vote For Clinton If Sanders Loses Dem Race.
Betty Cracker
@SiubhanDuinne: It’s true according to The Tampa Bay Times app — the thug was charged, not arrested, I believe.
ETA: Nope, looks like he was arrested according to TPM. Ha!
SFAW
Thanks, Obama?
MattF
@SiubhanDuinne: TPM has the story.
JPL
Scalia didn’t mind being mocked when he was alive, and he sure as hell doesn’t care now. I’m glad he’s still dead.
Elizabelle
@patrick II: Scalia’s son, Paul, is a Jesuit priest who was assigned for a while to my mom’s church in northern VA. I sat through a few of his services. He was popular with the parish.
Even so, I was elated when I heard of his father’s passing. Ye sow what ye reap.
Also, I hope some enterprising reporter is following up on that men in robes killing animals group that Scalia had his Last Supper with.
I don’t care about their male bonding rituals, but I do care if Scalia was accepting paid travel from peeps whose cases he adjudicated. Lot of smoke there, that is not the case with many of the other justices.
amk
@RandomMonster:
She is rich. Politics is just a lazy hobby for her.
A Ghost To Most
@Betty Cracker:
I won’t dance on his grave; I’ll be too busy pissing on it.
Fuck Fat Tony.
gene108
@Brachiator:
They’ve already dug-in. They can’t dig in anymore.
They know full well the good times they are enjoying, especially at the state level, relies heavily on the Roberts Court decisions such as removing the pre-clearance provisions from the VRA, the Citizen’s United decision and probably a few more decisions, I am not aware of unlike some lawyers on this blog.
A generation of a Democratic appointee dominated court will undo all the conservative’s “good works”.
MattF
@Elizabelle: Scalia’s reasoning about that sort of thing seemed to be “If I’m doing it, it must be ethical.”
Felonius Monk
I tell my RWNJ friends that Fat Tony was a great patriot — He died to save his country.
SFAW
@A Ghost To Most:
Hey, leave some room for the rest of us!
WarMunchkin
Scary how powerful that “right-to-work” framing has worked for a lot of people. It’s too easy to make people scramble over each other to get any job, no matter how little it pays compared to the time spent working or how little security it offers.
Linnaeus
@MattF:
Well, among other things, organized labor is one of the few remaining bulwarks against the kind of neofeudalist society that Gingrich and his sort would like.
Technocrat
The Court became more liberal when Scalia died. Full stop.
Betty Cracker
@WarMunchkin: It’s one of those clever branding phrases like “death tax.”
Punchy
IANAL, but I find this development stunning. Such disfunction in state gov’t seem unprecedented.
The NC GOP Legy and Gubbnah pass a bill, certain to be tested in court, but the State AG says no dice, he aint doing that. Wouldn’t the decision to not defend it nearly automatically get it tossed? Could this be called a AG veto?
Elizabelle
@Felonius Monk:
That’s perfect.
@MattF: True that. Wanker.
coin operated
My dad used to joke that people are going to lob grenades into his grave to help him get to hell a little quicker.
I’d be willing to give Fat Tony the same send off.
Edited for clarity…
NonyNony
@RandomMonster:
Let’s remember that Sarandon was a chair of Ralph Nader’s national campaign in 2000.
Some people learned lessons from that experience. Sarandon apparently learned the lesson that “George W Bush wasn’t a bad enough president to bring on REVOLUTION – we need someone even worse than him to get the sheeple to wake up.”
She’ll be fine – she can probably easily move to Europe or Canada if things get bad here – so why should she worry at all about things that the rest of us who can’t move so easily to another country have to deal with?
Elizabelle
@WarMunchkin:
Wish people realized it’s actually “right to exploit.”
Do any benefits accrue to the employee (other than not having to join a union/pay union dues, if you are not inclined)?
Even the Trumpmaroons must realize that in America, it’s an employer’s market.
Hungry Joe
The raw randomness of life sometimes knocks me back on my heels. One guy — Scalia — dies, and the economic security of hundreds of thousands of workers and their families is no longer threatened. Had the composition of the Supreme Court flipped by just one, Gore would have been President and there likely would have been no invasion of Iraq; everyone killed and horribly injured and displaced, and all the destruction … simply doesn’t happen. Man, would I like a glimpse at that alternate universe.
NonyNony
@Punchy:
I doubt it – the state can probably spend money and hire someone else to do the dirty work for them.
I wonder if the leg and the governor were thinking about this when they passed the bill – Cooper (State AG) is running for governor himself, so they might have been trying to put him between a rock and a hard place (do his job as AG and piss off his base, or refuse to defend the law and be subjected to ads about him being “above the law”).
On second thought I doubt it – I don’t think much thought went into rushing this mess through the leg.
JPL
The NYTimes has an article about how a four-four tie affects the remaining cases. link Hopefully, Kennedy will decide to side with the sane members on a few of the cases.
SFAW
@LAO:
Why should anyone of good conscience, judgment, and ethcs feel ashamed about Fat Nino? For all the blather (mostly, but not exclusively, from the Right) about his brilliant legal mind etc etc etc, for AT LEAST the last 15-plus years, he’s been an intellectually dishonest hack. He should have recused himself from Bush v Gore, but apparently felt it was more important to put his thumb on the scale (by making up some horseshit rationale for stopping the count) to get Jeb’s Smarter Brother elected. [And Fuck You, Sandra, for going along with him.] Whether he was pulling that shit before the 2000, I don’t know — he probably was, but I wasn’t paying close enough attention.
Since that time, a number of his arguments had been models of “What’s the result I want? OK, now how can I justify it without breaking into hysterical laughter in public?” And, of course, he frequently contradicted himself and his “firmly held beliefs.”
The only thing that would have made the Schadenfreude greater would have been if Rushbo had been found in a French maid’s outfit, near Fat Nino’s body. [YMMV – feel free to substitute another name for Rushbo.]
Brachiator
@Betty Cracker:
Not only will I dance on his grave, but the dance I will do will be a tango.
Thanks, Obama!
boatboy_srq
@SiubhanDuinne: @WereBear: Wingnutty political functionary accused of battery where the victim is a Brietbart muckraker. Not sure there’s a protagonist in this.
boatboy_srq
@dr. bloor: Goosefeathers.
Kropadope
@coin operated: I never read the unedited comment, but I’m damn near certain I know what you wrote.
MattF
@boatboy_srq: Rooting for injuries!
Kropadope
Which side of this grave is the bathroom on again?
SFAW
@Felonius Monk:
Outstanding!
Chris
@WereBear:
I mean, it’s vaguely sad that we feel the same way about the death of a Supreme Court justice that we do about a terrorist leader whose calling in life was killing Americans. But yeah, I don’t know how else we’re supposed to feel. I don’t want to live in a country in which politicians across the aisle from me are viewed as mortal enemies, but I can hardly help that that’s what they are.
coin operated
@Kropadope: Same content, but edited to present tense. Unlike Fat Tony, my dad is still alive….
smith
@Elizabelle:
Even as they vote to sustain the power imbalance between corporations and labor. This is the major reason I have little sympathy for working class Republicans being squeezed to death by capitalism. Unions were the only thing they had to counteract their employers’ running rampant over them and their lives, and they happily gave them up for what? Reassurance that their bigotry was justified? The thrill of being on the same side as really rich guys? Seems like a feeble reward for giving up your and your children’s futures.
Elizabelle
@Punchy: Fascinating.
The North Carolina attorney general is a Democrat, Roy Cooper, elected three times since 2000. He’s running against Art Pope’s handpuppet, Pat McCrory this fall.
I think I might have to do some volunteering in North Carolina. The bathroom business struck me as overreach that could a long ways towards motivating Democrats and moderates to turn out, even if it weren’t a presidential election.
The overreach also struck me as desperation.
imonlylurking
@Elizabelle:
Dow Chemicals Settles Suit
Chris
@Hungry Joe:
Yes. The Great Men theory of history catches a lot of flak and rightly so, but it’s true that there are still moments where one person makes a huge difference in the lives of millions.
Tom
@boatboy_srq: ‘Protagonist’ doesn’t always equate to ‘good guy’ – see “Dexter”.
Kropadope
Since Open Thread, I’ve seen an alternate explanation raised for why Hillary won’t debate Bernie. She normally gets 250K to speak at events in NY.
Bartholomew
Yes, sure! The latest falling-off-the-truck-backwards success completely justifies the Democratic party leadership’s decision to triangulate instead of actually lead. How appalling that this bad policy penny has never dropped for so many. It makes planetary monkeydom look hopelessly doomed by … itself.
See, first (1) you make promises to get elected. Then you (2) refuse to use your elected power to counter the enemies of your supporters unless absolutely forced; folding publicly in every other instance.
Then you have it! Once corruption takes over, holding power is much easier. Just (3) panic your desperate base every election with the specter of ‘the Other’ side winning. At that point you (4) don’t have to work much at all, since you don’t really do anything except ask for money and pose heroically … and most importantly, you can (5) keep the hot flowing loot for your next victim I mean office.
Sadly the afflicted society dies over time. Call it history. Fear is potent. Ignorance eventually kills its host.
LOL, I remember reading about the fear element on BJ in its more hopeful days. It was so beautiful. Like a wax apple as it turns out, but whatev.
Sarah Silverman Explains Why She’s Voting for Bernie Sanders
Kropadope
@botboy_srq via Tom: He right, you know. Isn’t protagonist more along the lines of “whom this story is about.”
bemused
I like reading Dahlia Lithwick on SC cases and Rachel Maddow occasionally has her on the show. She writes at Slate and I just noticed she has podcasts.
Elizabelle
Wow. NC Attorney General Roy Cooper is someone to watch. We might have to throw him some fundraising. Plus, he’s father to three daughters. One of them named Hilary.
Read more here: http://www.newsobserver.com/news/politics-government/state-politics/article63019077.html#storylink=cpy
LAO
@Chris: seconded.
@SFAW: I feel what I feel. I was no particular fan of Scalia’s, but for a couple of criminal constitutional decisions. And I’m certainly happy he is no longer on the Court. But, I’m also sure that RWNJ’s will be dancing in the streets when RBG dies — which will enrage me. And then I’ll be forced to remember my reaction to Scalis’s death.
No judgment here — celebrate all you like. The country is better off without him on the Court.
Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism
@NonyNony: McCrony isn’t that smart.
They already had plenty of ammunition for bashing Cooper for “not doing his job”; he refused to join the multi-state lawsuit seeking to overturn the ACA. He’s done his odious duty defending several of the laws the ReThugs have passed here, but this one is an ethical problem for him.
Enhanced Voting Techinques
@azlib: “It is always curious how “states rights” only apply in the conservative mind to specific issues. ”
Not really, if you take the view point that the only citizen is white, male, Protestant land owner then it all makes sense. The Right, taking us back to the 1750s.
Kropadope
@Bartholomew:
Man, I just had to go through all this with NR. And if that’s you again, you don’t need two nyms.
Roger Moore
I’m extremely happy that he’s going to remain dead when Evenwel v. Abbott is decided. It had the potential to throw out an important principle of one person, one vote by ruling that districts should be created with roughly equal numbers of eligible voters rather than roughly equal numbers of residents.
Paul in KY
@Betty Cracker: I took more pleasure from Scalia’s death than I did when Joffery strangled in GOT & I rewinded 3 times on that one.
A Ghost To Most
@Kropadope:
All of them, Katie
WJS
But if I vote for Clinton, she’ll name Bill Kristol to the Supreme Court! I know because I saw it on Facebook!
Kropadope
@A Ghost To Most: Well, I don’t want to inconvenience the dancers.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
I am inappropriately happy to read of Lewandowksi’s legal complication. The newly released video is much more damning. And fuck him with an acid-dipped, oxidized, and dully serrated weed whip for publicly calling Fields delusional.
Zinsky
Dirt nap, indeed. You are too funny, Betty, and I love you too!
Brachiator
@gene108:
Actually, the GOP owes its success at the state level to healthy (or unhealthy) majorities and control of governor offices. Redistricting and gerrymandering works.
I also think that Citizens’ United may be less of an issue at the state level than some want to believe, but I don’t know if there is good data or reporting on this.
Elizabelle
@imonlylurking: OMG, that’s fabulous.
We need a new tagline. What has Dead Scalia done for you today?
From “lurking”s link:
Seriously, I wish more businesses would turn on the Republican party, because it deals out mostly chaos and uncertainty. They try to blame it on Obama, but it’s the Republicans who are loopy.
SFAW
@LAO:
I really wasn’t trying to give you a hard time (except jokingly).
The difference between Fat Nino’s and RBG’s situations is that Fat Nino was not constrained by the bounds of consistency nor intellectual honesty; as best as I can tell, RBG is.
It’s not unlike comparing the purported “Bush Derangement Syndrome” to Obama Derangement Syndrome: the Left hated Bush for what he actually did; the Right hated Obama (far more than the Left ever hated Bush) before Obama ever did anything.
Roger Moore
@Elizabelle:
I always like to describe it as right to mooch, because that’s the best description of benefiting from something other people are paying for.
Betty Cracker
@Paul in KY: Spoiler alert! I haven’t watched that series yet! Ha, just kidding. I haven’t watched it, but I don’t expect people to embargo pop culture references until I catch up!
Elizabelle
My comment is in moderation. Not sure why …
LABiker
Isn’t there a tag for excellent posts? I think this one deserves it. First thing I read this morning was something on FB about Susan Sarandon’s hope for a quick revolution after Trump wins the presidency. It ruined my day until I read this. Thanks for bringing me back from the edge.
Paul in KY
@Hungry Joe: I should have been in that Goreian universe! Instead, I got trapped here in this shit one (grumble, grumble, kicks dirt)…
different-church-lady
You know, even counting Sarandon, we still haven’t reached the mclaren benchmark of naming five on the record for denying us their voterly essence. So point taken but worry not.
Elizabelle
@imonlylurking:
OMG, that’s fabulous.
We need a new tagline. What has Dead Scalia done for you today?
See lurking’s link.
Roger Moore
@SFAW:
Clarence Thomas. It would turn all those 4-4 ties into 4-3 liberal wins.
Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism
@Brachiator: I can guarantee that Citizen’s United played a role in the GOP takeover of NC.
Roger Moore
@Chris:
Then maybe Scalia shouldn’t have made killing Americans his life’s calling. Make no mistake, rulings like gutting Medicaid expansion predictably result in more Americans dying than Osama ever dreamed of.
LAO
@SFAW: we cool.
Geeno
@Brachiator: Doesn’t it take two to tango?
different-church-lady
@Bartholomew: Ah yes, another offering from the ever-popular “blather blather blather link” genre.
Chris
@Roger Moore:
Oh, totally. Hence, viewing him as a mortal enemy. Us needing to treat so many of our own leaders as a danger similar to Osama Bin Laden’s is what’s sad; you shouldn’t, idealistic as it is to say, have to worry about your own leaders that way. But we do.
Paul in KY
@Elizabelle: Sounds like a fine Democratic politician. Will have to get him some money.
Luthe
Silly question, but can anyone explain to me why the Supreme Court is ruling on union issues anyway? I’m not sure which Constitutional principle this involves.
The Moar You Know
You guys don’t know what a big deal this is for the teachers. Just got off the phone with my wife, she’s crying from relief.
Of course, it’s not over. Some other group of fuckers will be trying to kneecap them starting today. But at least for today, their livelihoods are safe.
JPL
Patty Duke died. I always liked her.
Elizabelle
@Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism: I have been giving some thought to moving to North Carolina, at least to volunteer in the 2016 race. Of course, Virginia could be a battleground too.
McCrory has got to go. Am wondering if the “worm is turning” and people are waking up to just how much damage Art Pope and his minions are doing.
RobNYNY
@Elizabelle: When I was growing up on the farm, we tended to reap what we had sown. Glad to hear it works the other way around, too. I guess on the same farms where you count your chickens before they hatch.
SiubhanDuinne
RIP Patty Duke ?
Elizabelle
LA Times reporting Patty Duke has died. Age 69. Sepsis from a ruptured intestine. How sad.
boatboy_srq
@Tom: Understood. But this is one instance where there doesn’t seem to be a primary actor. Muckraking agitprop journalists aren’t especially sympathetic, and from what I’ve seen of the surveillance video “battery” is a stretch. But Trump’s lackey is a worm, and the way he and the Trump campaign are fighting this isn’t at all honorable. There are no sympathetic characters here. The only thing that is significant is that a male staffer handled a female journalist in a less-than-respectful way – and given Michelle Fields’ work this isn’t as incomprehensible as it could be.
Paul in KY
@Betty Cracker: An Indian coworker of mine has been watching Season 1 – 4 & really likes it. Comments on the intricate plots & general excellence of the stories. Does think its strange to have no dance sequences (OK, that was a joke there).
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
OT, again – Trump’s yoooogely classy Drumpf verse form on the twitter about the legal news:
@boatboy_srq: I can’t say battery is a stretch without looking at the FL statute. Which, having no actual life, I’m fixing to do.
Kropadope
@Elizabelle: She was only 69? Wasn’t she from the black and white era of television?
Also: Maybe someone should check on her cousin, their being two of a kind and all.
gogol's wife
@JPL:
Oh, that’s sad. I loved her TV show.
Cermet
@LAO: Learn to distinguish between previewed evil and real evil. Scalia was real evil – he knowing created false ideas to justify his previewed beliefs. When thugs hate someone it is mostly due to their willing and brain dead attitude of allowing their “betters” to feed them false information. Their hatred is morally repellent and evil. Hatred of Scalia was, is and remains correctly focused anger towards a truely evil man.
Elizabelle
@Betty Cracker: Could you release my comment from moderation?
About Dow Chemical — they settled with $835 million judgment, since they can’t rely on Scalia’s vote.
Not sure what tripped moderation.
But, thanks Dead Scalia!
And thank you Betty.
LAO
@Elizabelle: Horrible. My intestine has been perforated twice — I hate hearing people die of this.
Geeno
@Kropadope: She was a kid back then
The Moar You Know
@Punchy: Happened in CA with Prop 8. State refused to defend. Buncha conservative fuckers had to actually pony up cash and fight for it themselves, crying about the unfairness of it all the entire time. And then crying harder when they lost.
gogol's wife
@Kropadope:
She was a child star.
Roger Moore
@Luthe:
The claim is that it’s a 1st Amendment issue, that being forced to pay an agency fee to the teacher’s union is using the government’s power to compel speech. Also, FWIW, not everything the Supreme Court does is necessarily based on the constitution. Appeals can also involve things like statutory interpretation or even findings of fact. The Supreme Court is also the originating court for lawsuits between states.
japa21
@Brachiator: Trust me, the Koch brothers and others pour a ton of money into state races. This will be specially true in Illinois this year as they try to reduce the number of Democrats below a veto proof majority.
boatboy_srq
@Elizabelle: Seconded.
Brachiator
@Betty Cracker:
Agreed. The Republicans will insist on acting stupid.
And the Democrats have an opportunity to make clear that this crap is not “both sides do it” politicking, but obstructionism that’s harmful to the nation.
LAO
@Cermet: Ok. I understand everyone’s opinion. I have no problem with it. But, as a general rule, largely influenced by my job, I don’t often apply the label “evil” to individuals. Scalia was motivated by his world view — all judge’s are — I disagreed with that view, it didn’t make him evil in my mind, just a shithead. It is unfortunate that he was position of tremendous power with the ability to really hurt people.
Technocrat
@Kropadope:
Well played! Aaaand now I have the theme song playing in my head.
RIP Patty.
Elizabelle
@boatboy_srq: Makes me smile, every time I think of it.
We must do another DC meetup soon. We have that Murphy’s gift cert to drink up (Old Town, Alexandria), and there is some desire for doing a meetup in DC or Maryland … Spring is upon us.
The Moar You Know
@Elizabelle: That’s a horrific way to die. We all gotta go sometime but that’s way down on the list of how I’d like to check out.
Brachiator
@japa21:
I would never deny that the Koch boys and others pour money into elections.
I don’t know that they consistently get their money’s worth.
MrSnrub
My co-worker wants Bernie to win, but if Hillary gets the nomination, he’ll vote Trump, because reasons.
Brachiator
@Geeno:
I bring a friend who also hates Scalia.
Elizabelle
@LAO: Scalia’s decisions led to cruelty and evil.
I think Scalia was a bad Catholic, too.
There’s the extremely conservative Church infrastructure — Scalia actually worshipped that.
And there’s the faith, as exemplified by Pope Francis. Who, I suspect, Scalia was not too impressed with.
Mr. Scalia, he done left this world with a black Democrat in office as President, a libtard white Pope from South America as Pope, and a lot of us rejoicing at Scalia going on to his eternal reward. Hope he packed ice!
Kropadope
@gogol’s wife: @Geeno: I know, it was still found it surprising, though. It’s been a good 25 years since I last saw her on TV, though I guess B&W wasn’t that remotely distant. My dad who was apparently only about a decade younger than Duke was old enough to watch I Love Lucy as it originally aired. It’s just one of those things that seem like it should be farther off.
the Conster, la Citoyenne
@MrSnrub:
Let me guess – he’s a white guy.
Brachiator
@Kropadope:
She also won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress at age 16 for her role in The Miracle Worker, which she had originated on Broadway.
A good film which still holds up well.
Elizabelle
How does one puncture or rupture an intestine? Injury? The organ deteriorates or has a flaw?
MrSnrub
@the Conster, la Citoyenne: Yes. Yes he is.
And if Trump is elected, Congress won’t let him do anything stupid, so checks and balances for the win.
different-church-lady
@MrSnrub:
I suppose asking him how well that worked out with GWB wouldn’t do any good, would it.
Kropadope
@the Conster, la Citoyenne: I was gonna guess stupid.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
Having looked at the statute, simple battery works for me. In pertinent part:
Link; emphasis added. Subsection 2 defines prior convictions with which the charge will be elevated to felony battery.
It’s defensible (ahem) with an argument that it was incidental rather than intentional, but there ain’t no fucking question that he grabbed her, slightly roughly. An apology could have kept his abusive ass out of court, but that ain’t the Trump way, and he’s there for a reason. “He” being formally known as the defendant in State of Florida v. Corey Lewandowski.
Elizabelle
@Brachiator:
Anne Bancroft won Best Actress for The Miracle Worker. She was gone at 73 (uterine cancer).
Always loved Anne Bancroft. The fictional Mrs. Robinson, the real Mrs. Mel Brooks.
Kropadope
@MrSnrub:
Don’t you mean that if Trump is elected, he won’t stop Congress from doing anything stupid?
rikyrah
A crusade to defeat the legacy of highways rammed through poor neighborhoods
By Ashley Halsey III March 29 at 12:01 AM
As a child, Anthony Foxx knew he couldn’t ride his bike far from home without being blocked by a freeway. By the time he became U.S. transportation secretary he understood why.
“We now know — overwhelmingly — that our urban freeways were almost always routed through low-income and minority neighborhoods, creating disconnections from opportunity that exist to this day,” Foxx said.
When the expressways that walled off his Charlotte neighborhood were designed, black residents of North Carolina still were denied voting rights. That highways routinely were routed through poor neighborhoods — Robert Moses, a polarizing urban planner of the era, called them “blighted” — is well known to those who suffered the consequences.
That a member of President Obama’s Cabinet intends to lob that fact into a larger public discussion about race and opportunity, and encourage steps to rectify it, appears unprecedented.
“I really believe that this is an issue that has been on the shelf collecting dust for a long time,” Foxx said.
Foxx will launch his crusade in a speech Tuesday to the Rotary Club in Charlotte — “It’s probably not the speech they’re expecting to hear,” he said — and repeat it Wednesday in Washington before the Center for American Progress.
“It became clear to me only later on that those freeways were there to carry people through my neighborhood, but never to my neighborhood,” said Foxx, who grew up in Lincoln Heights, a neighborhood walled in by three highways. “Businesses didn’t invest there. Grocery stores and pharmacies didn’t take the risk. I could not even get a pizza delivered to my house.”
SFAW
@different-church-lady:
“Mein Fuehrer! I can vote!”
Brachiator
@MrSnrub:
I would be curious to know the actual reasons why your co-worker feels this way.
LAO
@Elizabelle: For me — crohn’s disease and a love of crunchy peanut butter.
MattF
@Elizabelle: Bunch of new restaurants in my neighborhood (including new Greek from Mike Isabella).
Bill Arnold
@Kropadope:
This article The Company Scalia Kept had a partially curative effect on my guilty feelings about Scalia. Warning, bit of a downer reading if you like animals. (About Scalia’s hunting partner)
Steve in the ATL
@a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q): In black letter law, battery is defined as “an offensive touching.” Thus concludes my knowledge of this area of law.
I do remember a case from the Civil Rights era wherein a white restaurant proprietor grabbed a plate out of the hands of a black patron in the buffet line to prevent him from getting food. I think it was a civil case; can’t imagine anyone in Georgia prosecuting that. Anyway, the court upheld it, holding that the plate snatching was battery as it was an offensive touching.
What does this have to with State of Florida v. Lewandowski? Nothing. My brain has refused to function since I was just told that my company is “is pivoting to support a vertical go-to-market approach.”
boatboy_srq
@Elizabelle: Indeed we do. Murphy’s, or La Tasca (Clarendon not DC this time) have my vote. Any FPers coming to town soon?
Technocrat
@a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q):
Sooo, a conservative woman gets Donald Trump’s campaign manager arrested. I can’t imagine the shitstorm of misogyny she’s about to experience.
I hope Trump’s female supporters are paying attention.
MattF
@Steve in the ATL: With a side of synergy.
Linnaeus
@Brachiator:
Maybe they don’t, but given that the Koch brothers have, for all intents and purposes, unlimited resources, even a suboptimal outcome for them is still pretty shitty for the rest of us.
Brachiator
@Elizabelle:
Yep. Good actress. I think I saw The Miracle Worker in school. I was always impressed by the fierce intelligence and toughness of Bancroft’s Annie Sullivan.
And she was no nonsense sultry as Mrs Robinson in The Graduate.
She and Mel Brooks seemed to have a very good and happy marriage.
By contrast, Patty Duke’s life had much unhappiness. Here, “rest in peace” is very appropriate.
Elizabelle
@LAO: Endangered by a peanut. Alas. Sorry to hear about the Crohn’s. That’s a tough one.
MrSnrub
@Brachiator: 1) he hates Hillary with a passion, untrustworthy, etc.
2) He like’s the screw-the-establishment aspect of Trump, which I suspect is why he likes Bernie.
Steve in the ATL
@Roger Moore:
You know, I hate it when lawyers come in here with well written, factually accurate, and relevant posts. Reminds me of how little I know about my profession!
Elizabelle
@MattF: And very Metro accessible.
Maybe we could Uber over to David Brooks’ manse after, and carol to him?
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@Steve in the ATL: Oh holy hell. Your brain has every right to go on strike. What constitutes battery (or assault in the state where my license lives) will be defined differently by statute in various states. I was struck by FL not requiring an intent to (or attempt to) cause physical harm, or any actual physical harm. I have a story about harm level and charging decisions, for another time upon request.
@Steve in the ATL: If it’s any consolation, I’d be walking talking malpractice trying to do your job. Or tax. It’s all in how we specialize.
MattF
@Elizabelle: Brooks moved out of Bethesda several years ago. However, we still have Wolf Blitzer and Cokie Roberts. So, there’s that.
Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism
@Elizabelle: For my mother, a twisted bowel. It’s apparently a fairly common thing in the elderly; several of her cohort at her church had had the same problem. Or so I was told when I got the phone call by the church secretary who was desperately trying to assure me that it need not be fatal.
Sad_Dem
@A Ghost To Most:
Why not both?
LAO
@Steve in the ATL:
I’m afraid to ask what this means.
Miss Bianca
@Hungry Joe:
I think this is illustrative of why Thomas Jefferson hated the way his cousin John Marshall, the first Chief Justice, really fashioned the Supreme Court into the “3rd branch of government”. According to the little I’ve read on the subject, Jefferson was afraid of exactly such a scenario occuring when you had nine – well, in his day it would have been five or six – unelected, and really damn near unimpeachable – (wo)men given such sweeping powers of judicial review.
Paul in KY
@LAO: His ‘world view’ was that if you are not a rich landowner, you can (and should) DIAF. (am paraphrasing, somewhat).
Does that sound like a non-evil worldview?
Miss Bianca
@rikyrah:
YEEESS!
It’s about damn time someone highlighted the racist travesty of the way the highway system was designed! So many neighborhoods in so many cities – Chicago being a perfect case in point – that were just deliberately destroyed.
MattF
@LAO: Something like “I’m in charge here, so I can say things that are completely meaningless.”
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@LAO: I’m afraid I won’t understand what it means when he tells us.
The Trump thug has 2 defense attorneys in his new case.
Original report:
You simply cannot make this shit up.
rikyrah
GOP Rips Hillary Clinton for Politicizing Hyperpolitical SCOTUS Fight
By Claire Landsbaum
Hillary Clinton isn’t the first to speak out against Senate Republicans’ unprecedented refusal to confirm — or, in many cases, to even meet with — President Obama’s Supreme Court nominee. In a speech at the University of Wisconsin on Monday, Clinton echoed the sentiments of many Democratic lawmakers when she called on Senator Chuck Grassley, the Republican chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, to “step up and do his job” and hold a hearing for Merrick Garland, whom Obama nominated in March. In response, Republicans criticized her for politicizing the already-political nomination process.
In her speech, Clinton used Grassley’s own words against him: “He says we should wait for a new president because, and I quote, ‘The American people shouldn’t be denied a voice.’ “Well, as one of the more than 65 million Americans who voted to re-elect Barack Obama, I’d say my voice is being ignored.”
She also linked GOP obstruction to the rise of candidates who suggest things like banning all Muslims from the United States. “The same obstructionism that we’ve seen from Republicans since the beginning of the Obama administration, the same disregard for the rule of law [has] given rise to the extremist candidacies of Donald Trump and Ted Cruz,” she said. “What the Republicans have sown with their extremist tactics, they are now reaping with Donald Trump’s candidacy.”
rikyrah
UH HUH
UH HUH
This Little-Discussed Organizational Issue Could Create Total Chaos at the Republican Convention
By Ed Kilgore
In early June, several hundred paid professionals and a supporting army of volunteers will slowly begin to assemble near the banks of the Cuyahoga River in Ohio, with the quadrennial mission of planning and executing a Republican National Convention, scheduled for July 18 to 21, at Quicken Loans Arena, in Cleveland. The event is convened by the RNC, but the ostensible managers actually play a subordinate role. Over the past four decades, their job has been only to build an apparatus for the conclave — a solid but mindless machine — and then turn it over to the “putative nominee” along with a long list of decisions that must be made to bring the event to life and then to fruition.
In a normal election year, the RNC’s Committee on Arrangements gives the assumed general-election candidate and his staff a schedule of speakers with no names; the skeleton of a platform with few planks; some ideas for framing acceptance speeches with no actual speeches; and a process for total control of every word placed on a teleprompter, and for making sure nothing else gets said in the hall, but missing the vetters and enforcers who will crack the supplied whip.
But this time around — if, say, neither Donald Trump nor (less likely) Ted Cruz manages to rack up 1,237 delegates — there may be no one to whom the keys to this turnkey operation can be handed. If there is a contested convention with any doubt about the identity of the nominee, a planning process that depends entirely on the arrival of a candidate-captain at least a couple of weeks before the first gavel drops will instead be rudderless. That in turn could immensely complicate the process of naming a nominee, and at the same time turn the convention from the highly choreographed infomercial we’ve seen in both parties for decades into a disorganized mess that undermines the show of unity these events are intended to produce.
News-media interest in a contested convention so far has focused almost entirely on byzantine scenarios for the presidential balloting and what they might produce. But a better and more immediate question is whether chaos will break out long before the balloting begins, in the full view of cameras and with no one in particular in charge.
different-church-lady
@LAO:
It means idiots with MBAs have taken over Steve’s company.
Elizabelle
@MattF: Oh. We will have to stuff our pockets with stones, you are saying?
Someone should start a tourbus company: Homes of the Buckrakers and Other People Screwing Up Washington . Riders could get out and point and laugh at the houses.
David Gregory goes on the tour. Lots of ’em. If we ever find out where Scalia is buried, people could get out and leave suitable offerings.
MattF
@rikyrah: But, apparently, no guns among the delegates. I’ve decided that’s a good thing.
Steve in the ATL
@different-church-lady:
It’s awesome–we have Bain AND McKinsey people here!
rikyrah
LL at TOD has posted:
on revolutionary fantasies
By Liberal Librarian
Let me tell you a bit about revolution.
……………………………………………………….
I have pictures of my dad when he lived in Cuba. He was a big, strapping man, full of life and vigor. Within a year of arriving in New York City, he suffered a heart attack and stroke. I never knew the man in those pictures.
People like Ms. Sarandon who speak cavalierly about “revolution” are the same type of people on the Right who speak about sending troops to every brush fire war across the globe. They have no knowledge on what they’re speaking about, but they think their fantasies accord them a special insight.
Revolutions are brutish, violent things. Revolutions are more often like Petrograd 1918 than Berlin 1989. Unless you have no other choice, they’re not things to be wished for.
The likes of Ms. Sarandon think that we’re like Paris in 1789, pushed to the brink, ready for revolt.
We’re not. We’re the richest country in the world. Aside from the screeching on the fringes, most people are content with their lives. And the idea that a country which can’t muster above a 40% turnout in off-year elections would be ready to take to the streets to overthrow a Trump presidency is laughable in the extreme.
If those of us on the left were more concerned with voting in every election rather than engaging in revolutionary fantasies, we wouldn’t be in the current parlous state. People like Ms. Sarandon prattle on about revolution; it won’t be their bodies on the front line.
Mnemosyne
@WereBear:
Now you’ve reminded me that I didn’t check to see if John Oliver did a fuck-eulogy for Scalia. He usually reserves those for actual mass murderers, though, not mere assholes like Scalia.
MattF
@Steve in the ATL: And, you’re implying, hired by someone in your company? Condolences.
Roger Moore
@Steve in the ATL:
IANAL; I just happen to be an amateur Supreme Court watcher.
Roger Moore
@LAO:
It probably means that somebody in the company has paid a consultant way to much money.
LAO
@MattF:
I have never been so happy to be self-employed.
@Paul in KY:
You have convinced me with your paraphrasing. Let me try to explain my position, as an example, I’m 100% pro-choice; I don’t care why a woman’s wants or needs an abortion — its her body and her choice. I would place zero restrictions on abortion. Many people in this country and around the world, believe me to be evil for my “world view” on this issue, because they believe I advocate the baby murder. I don’t think I am evil.
The use of the term evil, doesn’t work for me. It is a moralistic judgment. But again — everyone is free to disagree with me.
@Elizabelle:
It hasn’t killed me so far!
Roger Moore
@Miss Bianca:
Nit: Marshall was the [edit] fourth Chief Justice. The first was John Jay, who retired after a few years to run (successfully) for Governor of New York.
Steve in the ATL
@Roger Moore:
You’re not helping my self-esteem.
rikyrah
The rage of Trump fans isn’t new. I’ve dealt with it for years.
As a Chicago Tribune columnist, I saw how angry white people became when the racial order was threatened.
By Dawn M. Turner March 29 at 11:27 AM
During the past six months, I’ve watched media outlets work themselves into a tizzy over the violence and hatred orchestrated by Donald Trump supporters. Commentators act like this is a relatively new phenomenon. But I know firsthand how any challenge to the nation’s established racial order makes some white folks lose their minds and their decorum.
For more than a decade, I wrote a column in the Chicago Tribune that often focused on race. Before Trump gave his supporters license to give in to their lesser selves and convey their hatred in mixed company, they did so in my email box. They are part of a disaffected angry knot of Americans who feel as though they’ve been bruised by diversity.
My experience isn’t unique. Any writer who has dared train a lens on race, women’s issues, social justice issues, immigration, abortion, sexuality, you name it, has faced some of the most vile backlash around.
Once, my neighbor, a dear friend who happens to be a white Republican woman, said to me, “I don’t know how you read the comments at the end of your column.”
I told her that they were nothing compared to my emails. It’s one thing to see these people on television or online, but to interact with them is quite another matter.
LAO
@a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q): I’m trying to picture Preet Bharara in a strip club, having an altercation. My brain is melting.
@Steve in the ATL: I had the same reaction.
Miss Bianca
@Roger Moore:
D’oh!! *smacks self in forehead*
God, is it John Jay i’m thinking about after all?
Gotta do more research…you’re a great one for keeping me on my toes!
ETA: Of course it’s not John Jay I’m thinking of…didn’t you just say he took early retirement from the court and all?
Mas cafe…mas cafe…
rikyrah
hat tip-POU
Argentina Gifts President Obama Complete, Restored Copy of 1951 ‘Native Son’ Film Adaptation
By Sergio | Shadow and Act
March 29, 2016 at 1:16PM
Richard Wright’s seminal novel “Native Son,” first published in 1940, is one of the most important books ever written about racism and the black experience in America. That can’t be argued. However, it has had the sad misfortune of also being extremely unlucky at the movies.
There have been 2 film versions, and both of them were pretty lousy. There was the 1986 version made for PBS, which did get a brief theatrical run, with Victor Love as the lead troubled character, Bigger Thomas, and Oprah Winfrey, in one of her first film roles, as his downtrodden suffering mother (“My baby! My baby! Please suh my baby ain’t meant no harm!”… or lines to that effect).
But the earlier 1951 film version, directed by French filmmaker Pierre Chenal, is the one that really needs to be seen to be believed.
Though the novel is set in Chicago, and obviously well aware that it would be impossible to shoot the film there (with the exception of some travelogue footage that opens the film), as well as to raise the money to make it, the film was completely shot in and around Buenos Aires, Argentina.
ruemara
I was very gracious and thanked Mr. Scalia for his contribution to this verdict. You see, I can be nice.
Bill Arnold
@MrSnrub:
OK, but why does he hate Hillary Clinton? I’ve never heard a response to that question from a Trump supporter that amounts to more than a repeat of the hatefully curated RW collection of Hillary Hate accumulated over the years. And broadly, why is it reasonable to trust DT (or TC) more than HC?
Paul in KY
@LAO: I guess ‘evil’ is a personal judgement call.
What do you call it when someone makes a conscious decision to do people that they have not met & do not know harm, due only to the perceived personal advantages doing that harm gives them?
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@rikyrah: Thank you for quoting that essay. Life isn’t a beautifully scripted series of scenes.
Preach it.
@LAO: Why do you hate me so? Now I’ve hurt myself too with thoughts like that. I’ll retaliate when I recover.
Mnemosyne
@rikyrah:
People who love the idea of revolutions have never had to deal with the aftermath of them. They are most often bloody and leave the worst-off even worse off than before. The American Revolution is a major anomaly in world history, and that’s only because several of the Founding Fathers (including you-know-who) worked really hard to prevent retaliation against the remaining Loyalists afterwards.
MattF
@Mnemosyne: There’s a reason why ‘revolution’ and ‘civil war’ tend to be alternative descriptions of the same historical events.
Miss Bianca
@Mnemosyne:
The more I hear/read about Thomas Jefferson (why yes, I’m on a bit of a Founding Fathers kick myself these days) and his thing about needing a revolution or armed insurrection every generation or so, the more I am appalled. Like, “dude, REALLY? One wasn’t enough for you?”
I mean I get that he’s the Happy/Civil Libertarian and all (as opposed to the really grumpy malcontented ones we have nowadays, who I think would frankly disgust him), but I sometimes wonder if he had actually DONE any fighting whether he’d have been so into that “blood of patriots and martyrs” bit.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@LAO: I’m sending Adam a set of links on the topic of grabbers and strippers and law in Florida. He can include them in an evening post if he likes – or is nagged to do so – in order not to clutter (seperate) grave dancing and grieving posts.
Roger Moore
@Miss Bianca:
No, it was Marshall who really turned the Supreme Court into a coequal branch of government. He was also the Chief Justice during all of Jefferson’s time in office, as well as all of the Madison, Monroe, and John Quincy Adams administrations and most of Jackson’s administration. John Adams appointed him during his lame duck period as a way of interfering with Jefferson (hence the enmity), and it was probably the most consequential appointment of his administration.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q): Mike Grunwald of (unfortunately) Politico calls it Choose Your Own Adventure Liberalism: If we X (in this case, let Trump win)…. then the American People will Y (in this case, rise up as one to elect Bernie and a Bernista Congress in 4/2 years to pass the Great Sanders Agenda!). Even more annoying is their counterfactual: “If Obama had just fought and /or really wanted…”
ETA, I think it was Martin here who described it as the conviction that given the chance, the great majority of voters will react to [ Obama’s/the Democrats’ action X] the way we think they should.
The Other Chuck
@Brachiator:
And will, as usual, squander it.
amygdala
@Elizabelle:
It can happen after postoperatively or rarely, after procedures like colonoscopy, or with severe intestinal obstruction. Diverticulosis would be a consideration at her age. Whatever the cause, leaking of gut contents causes peritonitis, which is serious and can be difficult to diagnosis as we get older.
Frankensteinbeck
@LAO:
Officially, it means that they want to reorganize the whole company’s chain of command and processes so that the boss of the company specifically tells you underlings what to do in product development, carried through a hierarchy without being changed much.
EDIT – It is quite possible your boss literally does not know what it means, and just likes the sound, but that’s how it translates.
@Brachiator:
I agree on this point. It’s hard to tell how much good CU money does in downticket races, because it got launched in a year the GOP was already guaranteed a sweep, and then they got to gerrymander. We can tell that on large scales, it hits diminishing returns or even bites them in the ass quickly.
Mnemosyne
@Miss Bianca:
It’s especially weird because Jefferson got all freaked out at the mere idea of a slave revolt — he was the first president to undermine Haiti’s successful revolution (Adams supported it and you-know-who helped them write their constitution). As with so many other things with Jefferson, revolutions were for white Europeans, not black people.
Though apparently the events of the Terror (which took place after he left) cooled his enthusiasm a bit.
“Should we honor our treaty, King Louis’ head? ‘Uh, do whatever you want, I’m super dead!'”
feebog
As someone who fervently wished Fat Tony would go face down in a plate of pasta, and said so publically on a number of occasions, I shed no tears at his passing. I considered him the most dangerous man in the world, surpassing Darth Cheney once he was out of office. As was noted upthread, he decided what outcome he wanted and then shaped his arguments to fit the outcome, even if that meant ignoring precedent. It also often meant twisting or ignoring past arguments and rulings he had made. He had no principals, no moral character, and certainly no compassion for others. If there is a hell, he has a front row seat near the furnace.
LAO
@a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q): OT: I see on my twitter feed, Oregon District Court has told Shawna Cox to “zip it” on social media. No official order filed yet. The over/under on the revocation bond — 6 days?
Steve in the ATL
@LAO: Oh yeah…right in my veins
Steve in the ATL
@Miss Bianca: Thomas Jefferson did many wonderful things for our country, but I have never quite been able to forgive him for founding UVA
Miss Bianca
@Mnemosyne:
Yes, the pardoxes inherent in being a liberty-lovin’ slave holder! “Liberty for me, but not for thee, cuz…how else am I gonna get all my reading done and be a Renaissance man and shit if I have to worry about slave revolts or picking my own tobacco? HUH???”
And yet he thought of himself as a champion of the people, (as long as they were white, I guess) and You-Know-Who the Bastard Parvenu was to be despised for his ambition and “aristocratic leanings”. Weird, eh?
I would guess “Hamilton” has some interesting things to say on that divide?
@Steve in the ATL:
My dear sir, what has UVA ever done to you? Is this in reference to some alma mater rivalry thing obscure to us Northerners? ; )
Iowa Old Lady
@LABiker: I’m trying to imagine what Sarandon means by “revolution.” Since I’m reading Chernow’s bio of Hamilton, my first thought was guns aimed at those in charge, but I presume that’s not it. So….what?
Frankensteinbeck
@Miss Bianca:
I read the ‘tree of liberty’ letter, though. It was obviously snark, and snark was considered a high political art at the time. His point wasn’t that occasional rebellions are good, but that occasional rebellions are inevitable. You could tell America’s government was working pretty well because the rebellions they were facing were tiny and dumbass.
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
This election is proving to be a direct test of any number of political theories. The progressives got the pure, ‘Wall Street is the enemy’ candidate they’ve been looking for. Voters have not swept to his side and there’s no sign he’d bring about any political revolution, BUT, there’s a lot more support than moderates like myself would have thought. We’ve seen that what I can only call Whitesplainin’ arguments do not sway minorities. And we saw a GOP candidate try open racism rather than dog whistles. The result was that a plurality, maybe a bare majority, of GOP voters supported him even though in every other way he’s an overt blithering imbecile and empty suit.
Miss Bianca
@Frankensteinbeck:
Well, maybe I’ll have to -re-read it myself, because at the time the snark escaped me…and gee, here I was patting myself on the back at the time for twigging that Jonathan Swift wasn’t *really* advocating eating cold roast babies in “A Modest Proposal”…
burnspbesq
@Punchy:
Roy Cooper, the NC AG, is likely to be the Dem nominee for Guv. I will contribute to his campaign if he is. McCrory really needs to go.
Frankensteinbeck
@Miss Bianca:
‘Obviously’ might have been the wrong word. These guys were masters of dry wit and satire. He viewed Shay’s Rebellion like we view the Tea Party – pathetic morons, but also a fact of life.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Iowa Old Lady: I’m sure she meant a peaceful revolution at the ballot box. Voting for whom, exactly, I don’t know; which Senate seats and legislators and Governor’s mansions would be targeted and by whom. Rahm! of course will be driven out, in (I think) three and a half years, and then… something better. Sarandon had some kind of sit-down with Cory of the Problematic Last Name, recorded in the NYT. For some reason his loyalty to Jamie Dimon and Mark Zuckerberg and other con-friendly tech types doesn’t bother her. She backed Edwards in ’08, so apparently her purity standards are somewhat…. fluid. One of Sanders’ most loyal supporters here says the “Revolution” is really the long, slow, hard work of incrementalism, compromise and persuasion. Bernie himself says the mill-youngs and mill-youngs are gonna metaphorically appear on Mitch McConnell’s symbolic lawn any day now. We’ll see.
Brachiator
@Iowa Old Lady:
You say you want a revolution,
Well you know,
We all want to change the world
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@Steve in the ATL: Yours and mine both man. We need MAT for this I think.
PST
@amygdala: On the subject of how an intestine can rupture, one other possibility is an infarction. This is the intestinal equivalent of a stroke or heart attack. If a traveling blood clot blocks circulation to part of the gut, perforation will occur as tissue dies. I see this in medical malpractice cases because it can be difficult to diagnose. There does not need to be any trauma.
PST
I was amused to see the idiom “dirt nap” here. I used it this weekend and no one in my family had ever heard it, including my wife, who is in the funeral trade. I thought it was well known, but maybe I’ve just seen too many gangster pictures.
Iowa Old Lady
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: @Brachiator: I don’t see how that changes what we do now enough to count as a revolution.
Mnemosyne
@Mnemosyne:
Yep, the class divide gets referred to a lot in the play, including the part I just quoted. Reading about the Hamilton/Adams divide, that sounds like class snobbery as well. Adams liked Burr, the scion of the good New England Puritan Edwards family, and loathed Hamilton, “the bastard brat of a Scotch peddler.”
Hamilton wasn’t above a little immigrant-bashing himself, though — that was part of his beef with Jefferson’s Treasury guy, Albert Gallatin, who was a Swiss immigrant with a thick accent, and therefore untrustworthy.
Mnemosyne
@Iowa Old Lady:
My unanswerable question after reading Chernow: would the XYZ Affair have turned out differently if one of the envoys had been Talleyrand’s old friend, the French-speaking Hamilton? We’ll never know, but John Adams’s inability to separate politics and personal animus bit him in the ass more than once throughout his life.
J R in WV
@LAO:
I think that the fact that Fat Tony used his great power to hurt people, and obviously enjoyed it, just proves that he was evil to the core.
He took expensive things from people who often came before his court, and never recused himself. He was on an all-expenses paid vacation with rich guys with important business before the SC all the time when he died. Evil, self-evidently evil, all the time.
Stillwater
Well, as a liberal, I happen to agree with the view you attribute to Scalia: public sector unions ought to be disbanded. I’m not sure how any liberal can agree that the union protection accorded to bad cops (and even teachers) is consistent with anything resembling a properly functioning gummint.