Last week, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg revealed the startling intelligence that she’d rather not see a racist, sexist, xenophobic, self-aggrandizing demagogue appoint a successor for her or a fellow justice. The sturdy oak legs upholding Beltway fainting couches were groaning under the weight of their owners’ insensate carcasses within seconds. Justice Ginsburg doesn’t give a shit about that. Yesterday, she amplified her remarks for CNN:
“He is a faker,” she said of the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, going point by point, as if presenting a legal brief. “He has no consistency about him. He says whatever comes into his head at the moment. He really has an ego… How has he gotten away with not turning over his tax returns? The press seems to be very gentle with him on that…”
“I think he has gotten so much free publicity,” she added, drawing a contrast between what she believes is tougher media treatment of Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton and returning to an overriding complaint: “Every other presidential candidate has turned over tax returns.”
Looks like No-fucks-left-to-give-itis has spread from the White House to the Supreme Court.
PS: The belief that RBG should have retired early in PBO’s first or second term is a perfectly legitimate point of view. I don’t happen to share it, but, fine, wevs. However, here’s a pre-emptive “GFYS” and a bonus “you’re not fit to trim her bunions” for the commenters who invariably show up in threads that mention RBG to call her names like “selfish asshole” because she didn’t retire on their timetable.
Oh, and open thread.
Keith P.
Kudos to Redstate (I read them a LOT since Trump ascended…it’s cathartic). Whereas some right-wing sites would bitch and moan, they actually chide Trump for whining about RBG speaking her mind, as Scalia tended to do. It’s her right, and nobody – not Trump and not John Roberts (although Trump probably doesn’t know this) – can tell her otherwise.
japa21
As the saying goes, “No shit, Sherlock.”
Iowa Old Lady
@Keith P.: Oh you are NOT going to tempt me into reading Red State. Get thee behind me.
Bobby Thomson
I actually think it’s inappropriate for SCOTUS justices to comment publicly about politics. Sauce for the goose and all that, but it rankles.
Mike J
I guess it’s Newt for veep.
Steve in the ATL
I will be happy entertain Trump’s concerns after he apologizes for and retracts all the grossly inappropriate things he has said. Until then, he can STFU.
SiubhanDuinne
Have been waiting for an open thread to ask this question: How do you all feel about leaving up Facebook pages of people who have been dead for more than a year? There are six people I knew, either very well or casually or just virtually, who passed years and years ago — yet I still get reminders of their birthdays, and every now and then some sleepy algorithm awakens sufficiently to let me know that one or another of them “likes” some website or product. (Of course, I could just “unfriend” them so as not to see the “likes” and birthday reminders, but that seems cold and churlish.)
I understand that loved ones may not want to disable the FB pages immediately, and for a while it even makes a nice place to share memories and condolences. But after several years it just starts being creepy.
Your thoughts?
Mary Jo
I, for one, am delighted that RBG is still around and is speaking her mind. She has tremendous influence. Law students will be reading and studying her opinions for the next 100 years.
She’ll go when she’s good and ready, and not a moment sooner. If we want a Democratic President to appoint her successor, then we should keep electing Democratic Presidents (and Senators).
Tom Levenson
@Mike J: Really? I didn’t think the FSM loved me that much.
ETA: I don’t want to lose my senior senator, but I’d pay real money to see Elizabeth Warren debate the Newt.
WarMunchkin
@Mike J:
OH HAPPY DAY
Betty Cracker
@Mike J: So, the Six Wives Club it is, eh? I thought Trump would go with the beady-eyed Pence.
SiubhanDuinne
@Mike J:
Aw heck. I was looking forward to using that “Feed the birds, Trump-Pence a bag” line, and now I guess I won’t have that chance.
Never mind, there are plenty of jokes to be had about the much-marriedness of the ticket.
Prescott Cactus
RGB isn’t a aging quarterback or home run hitter. She deserves the respect of leaving the game on her own terms, if and when she is ready to walk or be wheeled if, if that is the case.
Betty Cracker
@Mary Jo: Amen and amen. Ginsburg is a treasure. May she live a thousand years!
Citizen Alan
If the American people vote Trump in, we as a nation deserve to see the strongest liberal voice of my lifetime be replaced by whatever dumb hick with a JD and enough money to bribe Trump. Heightening the contradictions and all that.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
are there more than that one dimwitted purity sniveler?
Bobby Thomson
@SiubhanDuinne: gmta
NotMax
@SiubhanDuinne
Don’t use FB myself (and have never visited there) but gads, that smacks of necrotrolling.
Another tick mark in the negatives column.
There ought to be (perhaps is within the labyrinthine FB settings?) a way to lock down a FB site in stasis for just such situations.
SiubhanDuinne
@Betty Cracker:
Honestly, the very idea of going from Michelle and Jill to Melania and Callista just gives me the heebie-jeebies.
Betty Cracker
@SiubhanDuinne: I find the weird algorithmic hiccups kind of bittersweet. Could be that the survivors just don’t know what the password is and haven’t a clue about how to get the page taken down without it. Maybe I dreamt it, but I swear I read something recently about FB offering a service that would allow deceased page-owners to convert their page to a perpetual memorial upon their demise (arrangements made in advance, obvs). Now that seems kind of odd.
Bobby Thomson
@SiubhanDuinne: I’m not sure if you can even turn it into a memorial page without knowing the password. I don’t have the heart to delete it even if I could. I still keep his contact information in my phone.
Betty Cracker
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: There are at least two. I don’t hold grudges about much, but goddamn it, don’t diss RBG on my watch.
Miss Bianca
btw, Betty, I am so swiping “you’re not fit to trim her bunions”.
Having spent first an hour + on the telephone with my tech guru and then almost an hour on the telehone with Amazon tech support, I am hungry like the wolf and need food before I start hurting someone.
Tom Hamill
Jiggery Pokery applesauce.
Kylroy
@Citizen Alan: Beyond the fact that “heightening the contradictions” does not work, and never has, Supreme Court justices are the worst place to do so. Whoever is in power at the moment one of the justices dies gets to determine 1/9th of American policy for the next however-long-the-person-lives. Not something you can correct two or four years down the road.
MattF
Yeah, the fainting spells over politicizing the SC don’t meet the ‘reality’ benchmark. What do they think happened 16 years ago in Bush v. Gore? I’ll agree it’s unfortunate, but Ginsberg is doing what she must.
Prescott Cactus
Mike [email protected]:
Maybe Roger Ailes and Newt used to harass Gretchen together ?
Ben Cisco (onboard the Defiant)
Betty always brings the good stuff.
NotMax
@Srv</a.
Honest question:
Is there anything – just one instance or example – which she has ever done, said, espoused or proposed which you don't oppose, revile or spit upon?
Reflexive hatred becomes just so much background noise.
Roger Moore
@Iowa Old Lady:
Believe it or not, one of their posters had something sensible to say about Dallas, too. I would lump that in the “even a blind squirrel” category, but it still puts them ahead of Bill Kristol.
PST
Now Clinton has to choose Warren. We’ll have six wives vs. no wives. An average of 1.5 per candidate.
Prescott Cactus
@SiubhanDuinne:
It seems like unfriending the dead would spin the wheel of karma against you in some way. Family or partners may not be able to “suspend” account”.
Your spirit can move to a new astral plane, but Mark Zuckerberg is going to get ad revenue from them forever. . .
UN friend and forget.
Iowa Old Lady
@SiubhanDuinne: It wouldn’t surprise me if their descendants didn’t even think about the FB page. Mr IOL wouldn’t for an instant think of mine. He doesn’t use FB himself.
Gelfling545
@SiubhanDuinne: Loved ones may not be able to remove FB pages if the person did not confide their password.
Ian
@Prescott Cactus:
Maybe someone with decency has been put in charge of fox? /s
PhoenixRising
Six Wives Club! You’re killing me. Perfect.
Soprano2
@SiubhanDuinne: My sister’s FB page is still up, and it’s been almost 4 years since she was killed in a plane crash. I keep thinking I should contact FB about it, but I’m afraid they’ll be assholes and delete the page once they find out. One reason I leave it up is that her memorial page somehow got locked down, so that only the person who created it can see it, and they can’t get any answers from FB about why it’s locked or how to get it unlocked. Every now and then I get some kind of reminder from the page that was created for her boyfriend and his three children, and it always kicks me in the gut – I’m convinced that my sister took the picture of them at the Royals game the night of the crash that they use for their picture, but I’ll never know for sure. I don’t know if any of this helps, but it is a comfort to me sometimes to look at her page and what her friends have posted on it.
I agree that it can be a little creepy – I’ve got two other friends who are deceased whose pages are still up. One of them doesn’t have any activity, but the other one’s husband posts on hers from time to time.
Trollhattan
Note to self: when dressing for an outdoor raptor show, dress big, wear large hat.
Roger Moore
@SiubhanDuinne:
I think a better solution is for Facebook to turn those kinds of notifications off for people they are informed are deceased. The page itself isn’t hurting anyone, just Facebook’s unfortunate emails in their name.
SiubhanDuinne
@Bobby Thomson:
Oh, I know that impulse all too well. (I carried my father’s SS card and driver’s license in my wallet for a decade after he died.) That’s really why I can’t just coldly unfriend them. But it is a bit disconcerting to be encouraged to “wish so-and-so a happy birthday” when they’ve been gone four or five years.
SiubhanDuinne
@Soprano2:
I am so sorry about your sister. What a terrible loss.
Brachiator
Sweet Mother of All that is Holy, RBG is laying it down!
Her very refreshing, and humorous, candor is a ray of light on an otherwise dismal time. And yeh, there will be couches of faint, and the clutching of pearls as people pretend that Trump has somehow pulled a cloak of rectitude over his smarmy ass just because he is a presidential candidate.
I tire of all the would-be Littlefingers who think that they are playing Game of Thrones with the Supreme Court, moving pieces to maintain or extend a liberal balance or power. RBG should be on the bench as long as she is capable of delivering opinions. Her work matters, and her dissents will form the core of future decisions.
chopper
@PhoenixRising:
america wants a pre-nup.
lamh35
David Duke Plans to Run for Congress Against the Republican Who Spoke to His Group http://thebea.st/29NMb3C via @thedailybeast
Tegdirb
@Mike J: That or Newt doesn’t want to have to comment on this mess after declining for [insert made up reason here].
lamh35
David Duke Plans to Run for Congress Against the Republican Who Spoke to His Group via @thedailybeast
Schlemazel Khan
I do find it unbecoming for a USSC justice to speak publicly this way. If you are comparing it to Scalia’s bullshit you have chosen an awful swamp to try and defend. That she is right and accurate is also beside the point, we can’t decry assholes on the right and defend this simply on the grounds that Fat Tony’s opinions were wrong and hers are correct. After 40 years of damage done by assholes we are going to have to rebuild the court and that means behaving better than them.
Roger Moore
@Trollhattan:
And pack some serious firepower. Oh, wait, different kind of raptor.
Prescott Cactus
@Ian: I’m thinking that would require “an outsider”.
@Soprano2: Sympathies to your family. Unexpected deaths rock our foundations the hardest. Peace !
Gelfling545
@SiubhanDuinne: oddly, this happened to me just today. My daughter’s mother in law passed away in early spring & today would have been her birthday. I wrote on her page that she was remembered with love. Quite a few others did as well. I doubt very much that her son has her FB password or would be concerned about contacting FB to close the page. It’s just not that big a deal.
Trollhattan
I’ll worry about Ginsburg opining the moment the moar conservative SCOTUS justices stop making their rumba line over to the Federalist Society where they fight over the biggest prawn on the pu pu platter. Non-partisan my ass.
SiubhanDuinne
Now, on a completely different note: Both MELANIA TRUMP and CALLISTA GINGRICH turn out to be, like Reince Priebus, obvious anagrams. There are hundreds and hundreds.
Among the best:
IMMATURE PLAN, TERMINAL PUMA, TIP MENU ALARM, and TAMALE IN RUMP.
Also:
A GASTRIC CHILLING, ARCHAIC GILT SLING, IT’S GLACIAL GRINCH, and GALA SHIT CIRCLING.
Yes, I am very mean, and also in 5th grade.
Keith P.
@Iowa Old Lady: It’s a mishmash of emotion over there. They still hate Hillary with a passion but hate Trump I think even more (but not enough to vote for Hillary). They are still holding out hope that Ted Cruz somehow comes swooping in to save the day at the convention, but otherwise are resigned to Hillary thrashing the ever-loving shit out of Trump on election day.
TaMara (HFG)
@SiubhanDuinne: Oh boy. I really miss my uncle and wished several times my aunt hadn’t deleted his page. It would be comforting to be reminded not all my relatives are batshit crazy republicans. He built houses with Jimmy Carter and there were photos of the two of them together on the page.
But I can see how someone you don’t have the personal of a connection with would be disturbing years later. You can just “unfollow” them, it means you won’t see anything regarding them unless you actually go over to their page – that way you don’t have to unfriend…and you won’t see their stuff.
I’ve done that with quite a few old high school people who track me down and want to be friends.
scav
@SiubhanDuinne: People are more than their digital echo, especially if it’s being monetized after their deaths. Generally you don’t have to keep all their clothes after their gone, although a considered selection of their favorite blazer or sweater might bring comfort or smell right for a while. If the posts bring a similar comfort is one thing: if it just means essentially continuing to receive junk mail addressed to their address, I don’t much see that it honors them — it just muddles their personal memory with corporate irritation.
Mike J
@Tom Hamill:
I nearly caught one of those at the pokestop in the park this weekend.
Betty Cracker
@Trollhattan: Well said, sir.
SiubhanDuinne
@scav:
Well put.
Mike J
@Prescott Cactus:
Roger Moore
@SiubhanDuinne:
Not even close to the best political anagrams. My favorite:
Tony Blair, MP -> I’m Tory Plan B
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Schlemazel Khan: I’m skeptical of any argument that the Justices are like the Vestal Virgins– I remember the hand-wringing when Obama criticized Citizens United in his SOU– but I tend to agree with you in this case. She should just say she has no further comment. IMHO>
SiubhanDuinne
@TaMara (HFG):
That’s a good idea. I’ll unfollow. Doesn’t seem quite as dismissive.
dogwood
On the day after the 2012 election I texted a friend that RBG might be the happiest woman in America. That didn’t mean that I wanted her to leave. It just seemed that given her health and long service, it wouldn’t be unreasonable to imagine that she might want to retire.
Eric U.
@SiubhanDuinne: my cousin’s daughter died a couple of years ago. Someone still posts on her facebook page occasionally. I understand it, but it does freak me out a little.
She was a wheelchair-bound quadriplegic from pre-toddler years because of some horrible disease. Only reason she lived into her 30’s was because of really good insurance supplied by a truly evil corporation. She would occasionally type out some horrible right-wing nonsense about the ACA, so I figure she was watching Fox a lot of the time. Sorta glad I never posted any responses now. I really wish they would auto-filter politics out of my feed, I just want to see things about my family, not their sick and twisted views on politics. Fortunately, it’s only a couple of them.
Origuy
From Facebook’s Help: How to request removal of a deceased family member’s account.
Short answer: send them a scan of the death certificate or other documentation.
Brachiator
@Soprano2: Very sorry to hear about your sister.
I have seen some Internet discussions that suggest that there is no consensus on how to deal with these cyber issues, but back in February 2015, FB announced a new policy about memorializing a user’s account. The problem here may be that they presumed that someone would make certain selections themselves, thinking about the future. But there may be some support person there who might be able to help you resolve things in a way that works for you.
SiubhanDuinne
@Roger Moore:
That´s great!
gindy51
@NotMax: You can contact Facebook and let them know the person has died and they will look into it and memorialize the account. They like to do that so their headcount of people is actual users. It’s the same reason they don’t like second or third accounts for gaming even though they do let that slide a lot.
Iowa Old Lady
My local paper says that our Tea Party Representative, Rod Blum, is skipping the R convention to campaign at home. Roll Call lists him as among the most vulnerable incumbents. He’s in his first term and he’s the first R to represent my district in all the time I’ve lived here.
Trollhattan
On this busy news day, y’all may have missed this FBI announcement that they’re clearing their plates to take on some new business.
Half tempted to send them a participation trophy.
Ninedragonspot
Retired admiral Stavridis being vetted for Clinton VP? Huh? Head fake?
Aardvark Cheeselog
Not only that, but would-be fainters who could not find a couch (all of them being occupied) were forced into pearl-bruisingly intense pearl-clutching by the lack.
Kay
Ha! So true. My daughter once called someone a “ruiner”- it’s a person who ruins everything.
JPL
Did she make a political statement? Yes. Trump is dangerous, and she did what she thought was the right thing to do. She is notorious!
@Origuy: What if the death certificate isn’t the same as your name on the account?. Wouldn’t they find out that you lied when setting up the account? teehee
Schlemazel Khan
@Trollhattan:
Long past time to let it go. They found some of the money rotting away in a river near the jump zone. It seems most likely Mr. Cooper didn’t make it safely away with the money. It was a clever idea for the times but he picked the wrong day, he needed better weather. If he didn’t die in the jump he landed empty handed.
Trollhattan
US Women’s Olympic Soccer team announced:
Win it all, ladies.
muddy
The best thing you will see all day.
That doctor is my new hero. That is some sweet sweet trolling right there. Shave the head, spare time in November etc. The “Skip Trump” movement is born!
NotMax
@Kay
Word I coined many, many, many moons ago applies to Mr. you know who.
Bozoic. (boh-zoh-ik)
Gene108
@Mike J:
Maybe Newt turned down Roger Ailes’ sexual advances?
Kay
Where are the incredibly rich people? They should hold a press conference: “he’s not that rich- we know”.
Mitt Romney could finally make himself useful.
CaseyL
@Mike J: If Trump names Newt as his Veep, I’m gonna go back to thinking Trump’s entire candidacy is the longest piece of trolling performance art ever. Because even Trump couldn’t be serious about that….could he?
Trollhattan
@Schlemazel Khan:
Yup, I don’t know how he could have survived the jump and finding the money was pure kismet. It was during my Seattle days and just about the biggest news story to ever hit the region. All the Boeing folks were like “Now that’s something we didn’t exactly design the 727 for, but hey, it worked!”
Keith P.
@CaseyL: I’m having to pinch myself, asking “Is this real? Is this actually going to happen?” But then, I start to wonder if I’m missing something, and Newt is secretly going to be an awesome second…but Hannity is all-in on Newt, so he has to be a disastrous pick, right? I’ll shut up now, lest I jinx it.
p.a.
@Trollhattan: Maybe the eagle thought the kid was Bilbo?
Mark k
yea olds suck and should have all retired: millennials
my brain is fit, I ain’t going anywhere, we’re taking everything back: boomers
fuck both of you: us gen Xers
Trollhattan
@Gene108:
Hubba-hubba, there’s some blubba.
singfoom
I’m with several others in this thread, I agree with what RBG said, but also think it’s untoward for a sitting Supreme Court justice to wade into the political fray.
Scalia took many chances to bray into the media microphone. I thought that was lacking decorum as well at the time. It’d be better if they only spoke through their decisions.
I think that’s part of the gig. YMMV
Steeplejack
@SiubhanDuinne:
Some (computer-illiterate) people may not know the deceased had a Facebook page. Those who do may not think about “taking charge” and wrapping up the page. Some may not know how to do so. I am a computer-savvy guy, but if my brother got hit by a meteor I’m not sure I would know how to (eventually) wrap up his Facebook page. And I might run into password problems at the “final solution.”
My advice: unfriend them and remove the site from your view. You don’t have to visit the cemetery, so to speak, but others might want to.
Trollhattan
@Mark k:
Don’t get caught in the crossfire, sonnyboy, it’s ON between the dungarees and the Dockers.
NotMax
@Gene108
Perma-grifter Newt has never turned down an advance in his life.
Trollhattan
@p.a.:
“Hey, kid, you should check out the view from up here!”
p.a.
@Trollhattan: wonder how many agents made it to retirement milking this one??
smintheus
If I understand correctly, Sanders is selfish for not endorsing his primary rival on your own schedule, while the aged RBG is anything but selfish for not allowing a Democratic president to replace her while there still is actually a Democratic president?
p.a.
@Gene108: possibly. Ailes should’ve offered $ and a louder bullhorn.
Miss Bianca
@CaseyL: that would be awesome if true, but the principle of Occam’s Razor suggests that maybe only Newtie is desperate enough to accept.
@smintheus: yeah, cuz that’ whole “replace while we got a Democratic President” thing is working out so well for Garland Merrick, ain’t it?
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Schlemazel Khan: Sometimes Occam’s Razor is a drag. I think that, as with ghosts and Sasquatch(es), a world where DB Cooper got away with would be a more interesting one, I want to believe, but I don’t.
ETA: @Miss Bianca: I suspect Chris Christie would throw his wife under Trump’s bus if that would slow it down enough for him to climb on, and I owe you an Occam’s Razor coke, or something.
Trollhattan
@p.a.:
Jeez, that could be two generations if I recall the # of years you need as a fed for max pension. Maybe the Cooper desk was used as a rookie hazing assignment. “Go out and find some new leads, kid.”
Schlemazel Khan
@Trollhattan:
Do it for all that fat cash they pay you to play
CONGRATULATIONS!
@SiubhanDuinne: I’m not taking the one for my dog down, not ever.
I’m pretty OK with it. It would be nice if there was some way to mark the person deceased without Facebook just nuking the account, but that doesn’t seem to exist – I’m thinking, with a couple of high school friends who I decided to look up thirty years after the fact, Facebook would have been a nice avenue to let me know that they were now dead.
There’s online memorial services but they’re all inadequate and horrible. Facebook, there’s a market here!
NotMax
@Jim, Foolish Literalist
Pig Newton will slurp from any available trough.
Brachiator
@singfoom:
Trump is a political fraud. I commend anyone who treats him like the snake oil peddler that he is.
Mike J
@Gene108:
The Hill is now reporting that Fox is unlikely to rehire Newt even if he doesn’t get nod. So I call that a yes.
smintheus
@Miss Bianca: And she was obliged to wait until 2016 why exactly?
Omnes Omnibus
@smintheus: Different jobs.
Raven
@SiubhanDuinne: The Southern Dragon from FDL has no one to take it down. Sometimes folks post remembrances.
gogol's wife
@Brachiator:
I agree. I think she would probably not comment if he weren’t “a threat to the Republic,” as the WaPo said.
David ?▶️Hillary/Harley Quinn 2016▶️? Koch
@Trollhattan: Allie Long has made quite a comeback
Schlemazel Khan
@CaseyL:
Maybe Newt put Drumpf up to this. The salamander know he could never get the nomination and that the Drumpfster fire will burn out very fast. He makes a deal & that $50 million dollars people talked about giving Drumpf to back out changes hands. Newt is a guy that could sucker people into the deal on both ends. That he picked a losing horse in the big race is just typical for the pustual.
Betty Cracker
@smintheus:
You don’t. For starters, RBG isn’t a politician seeking a job but rather a legendary and working liberal justice, the likes of whom we’ll probably never see confirmed again in a permanently polarized Congress. Then there’s the fact that her refusal to retire isn’t a potential hindrance to keeping the White House in Democratic hands.
Raven
Fuck some untoward.
dedc79
I wouldn’t call her an asshole, but I do think it was selfish. This isn’t just any job she holds, it’s one of the most powerful jobs in the country. And as great as she’s been, there are countless qualified progressives fit to take her place. Her opinions are only good for as long as there are 5 justices on the bench (or at the moment, four) willing to follow them. It might sound strange to say, but the single most important decision a justice makes in this day and age is determining when to retire. She had a chance to retire when she was highly likely to be replaced by someone equally if not more progressive, she declined that opportunity, and now we run the risk of her being replaced by President Trump.
Barbara
@SiubhanDuinne: I think that it’s entirely up to the family — if they get solace from occasionally posting on that page, then they should keep it. However, if you want to delete a FB account, you need to be the executor of the estate or the person who has the death certificates. You don’t need the password — you just scan in the death certificate.
rikyrah
@Mike J:
Does God really love us enough for a Ferret Head / Little LeRoy Gingrich ticket?
I dunno.
SgrAstar
Smacked it out of the park, Betty. Admiration!
LanceThruster
@SiubhanDuinne:
Electronic immortality.
Steeplejack
@SiubhanDuinne, @TaMara (HFG):
I agree with TaMara: unfollow rather than unfriend.
(I use Facebook hardly at all; my page is like the lot on the street with the foreclosed house and the car up on blocks in the side yard.)
smintheus
@Betty Cracker: Can we afford to lose that seat on this court to a Republican nominee? She’s now lashing out at Trump because she views him as a genuine threat to win the presidency and appoint her replacement, but a president Cruz or Rubio or Kasich would be equally catastrophic.
I don’t see any real harm and possibly some good coming from Sanders’ delay in endorsing Clinton. I see no good at all coming from RBG’s decision not to retire under Obama, except the prolonging of RBG’s already long career a few more years.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
anyone seen an update on the Capitol lockdown? at first it sounded like some open carry goober was trying to make a point, but this sounds more serious
Blue Galangal
Oh, wow. RedState hates Trump SO MUCH. That was freaking hilarious.
randy khan
On the one hand, I agree with everything RBG said, and I’m glad she said it. (I think she will actually move some people to vote the right way, or to vote when they wouldn’t have voted.)
But she really shouldn’t have given that last interview, or maybe even the one before it. Nobody can punish her for it (Supreme Court Justices are essentially immune from sanctions for judicial misconduct and impeachment is unlikely to say the least), but it does raise ethical issues – and she knows that. While I won’t go as far as the Slate writer who thinks she might have to recuse herself from any case involving Trump (including, hypothetically, any case in which a Trump Administration is a party), it’s still not right for a sitting Supreme Court Justice to be quite so obvious about her political views.
Trollhattan
@David ?▶️Hillary/Harley Quinn 2016▶️? Koch:
Yup, great for her and the team. Saw her last month when Chicago visited Portland. Here she is, after being greeted by Johnston (who could totally kick my ass). I was stoked at seeing four of our WWC squad between the two teams, little did I know we were watching seven of our US Olympic squad (which is only 18 instead of 23)..
hovercraft
@SiubhanDuinne:
That is such a depressing thought. Please FSM do not let that happen.
Everyone get out the vote, phone bank, canvass, help register new voters. We need to destroy this dumpster fire of a candidacy so it does not have the chance to set us back 50 years.
randy khan
@smintheus:
You seem to be assuming that RGB has had no influence on the results over the last few years. I don’t know that we can say that.
germy
@NotMax:
He has expensive tastes, as does his wife.
Trollhattan
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Gun-humper descends to lecture on what constitutes a machine gun in 3…2…1…
Steeplejack
@Trollhattan:
Eh, they solved this on Leverage the other night. (Rerun, but first time I’d seen it.)
laura
@Kylroy: really? I’m aware that Scala died, and that President Obama has in fact nominated Merrick Garland. To date not so much as a single hearing.
Why every other sitting President was able to do as you suggested, and this particular President has been unsuccessful is a puzzle.
Amanda in the South Bay
@Miss Bianca: or you know prior to the 2024 election when we had a Democratic senate. It’s all fine and dandy to vaguely nerdshame people as being into GoT chicanery but she really should’ve retired when Reid was majority leader.
SiubhanDuinne
@Steeplejack:
Thanks. Had already decided to take TaMara’s very good advice.
Brachiator
@dedc79:
Absolutely false. A justice’s opinions and dissents can have huge impact long after that justice is gone.
Nonsense.
Amanda in the South Bay
@laura: Because Scalia died a few years too late?
Matt McIrvin
@Trollhattan: Finally, I can breathe easy.
Miss Bianca
@smintheus: And she’s obliged to submit to *your* timetable why, exactly? Oh, right…
Well, any further exchange on this particular topic is not only pointless, but running the risk of a post-emptive GFYS from Betty C. Now, I ain’t going to have that on *my* conscience.
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Now that I think about it, you’re probably right. I wouldn’t put that past Chris Christie, either!
laura
@Raven: Never. Give. Up. Southern Dragon, what a gentle person who left many ripples on the pond.
Betty Cracker
@Brachiator:
Yep. Thank you for noting that.
JGabriel
via srv:
I really hope Clinton doesn’t go with a military VP. It’s not that I have anything against the military, it’s just that Clinton is enough of a mil-geek on her own. I don’t think she needs a military adviser for VP.
negative 1
@Matt McIrvin: They just realized the documentary they all just watched on the History Channel was a rerun.
negative 1
@Betty Cracker: Sorry, as soon as I read your response I clicked over to Slate and the headline was “Ruth Bader Ginsberg Risked Her Legacy To Insult Trump”. So now that has to be added to all of her opinions, I guess.
smintheus
@Miss Bianca: Did I say RBG is obliged to retire on my timetable? I contrasted the hand-wringing with regard to Sanders, who appears to be risking little or nothing of consequence by delaying, with the refusal to apply that to RBG — when she herself admits that there’s now a huge danger due to her decision not to make the seemingly prudent move before the next election.
satby
@SiubhanDuinne: yeah, I think it’s a bit weird. A friend who’s daughter was murdered years ago still has her page up. It might be so the daughter’s children can see it when they get older, because they were toddlers when she was slain, but it’s still vaguely creepy to me. But, it’s important to her, and her call.
JPL
Sorry if this was mentioned, but another racist plans on attending the GOP convention. Nigel Farage will attend but not endorse. He’s still upset that the President offered his support to Cameron.
Trollhattan
@JGabriel:
Yeah, for such a notorious schemer and murderer (mwa-ha-ha) she doesn’t really need to burnish her tough-gal cred with a mil guy. Dubious.
Trollhattan
@satby:
Similar perhaps to parents who retain a lost child’s bedroom, intact?
for something really odd and very 21st century, friends who lost their son last year know he has Bitcoins but have no way to get at them. It took untold DMV hours just to donate his car. Crazy stuff you wish never to learn of, much less have to tackle.
Keith G
@dedc79:
If there is a need to replace her with in the next four years, her replacement will be chosen by HRC. That has been known to be the most likely outcome for about a year. Seriously.
If HRC gets a chance to chose Scalia’s replacement, I am pretty sure she will find someone a bit younger and a bit less centrist than Garland. Thus, I am equally sure that a RBG replacement chosen by HRC would be preferable to one chosen by Obama (using Garland as the measure).
If that were not enough. Tradition and the Constitution leave it up to RBG to decide when she is no longer able or desirous to serve. That is good enough for me. I do wish the RBG would have observed the tradition of discretion in interviews. Nothing was gained by this.
cckids
@SiubhanDuinne:
I agree. My mom & dad had a joint FB page, Mom keeps it in both their names, which bugs me, but I wouldn’t tell her that.
My deepest FB dislike is their “you’ve got memories” feature, which randomly pops up pictures I posted years ago. I’ve lost 3 people over the past 4 years, and I’m not always ready to have their pictures front & center. And I can’t find a way to turn it off.
burnspbesq
@Gelfling545:
Password or no password, I would be interested to see how Facebook would react to a letter from counsel for the estate with a certified copy of letters testamentary enclosed.
They may think they’re above the law. A judge might see it differently.
Litlebritdifrnt
@Betty Cracker: Betty did you not crown Calista “The Queen of the Cream Cheese People” when you were posting over at Rumproast?
germy
Open thread?
What was the deal with GWB at the memorial service? Why was he so… animated?
SiubhanDuinne
@satby:
Certainly it’s the decision of the surviving spouse or other close family member whether to take the page down or leave it up. And I have no problem with perpetual memorial sites. My problem is being instructed by Facebook to send annual birthday greetings to Mary Smith, who’s been dead for four or five years, and even worse, to see on Mary’s wall messages from random people saying variations on “Hope you have a great day!” (That’s happened only a few times, but I have seen it.) Or, in an ad, Mary Smith “likes” Subaru or Target or Walker’s Shortbread or something.
Keith G
@JGabriel:
I conclude that Hillary will not do this for I have been schooled in a previous thread that she does not make mistakes.
TS
@Kylroy:
Unless your name is Barack Hussein Obama wherein a GOP Senate will not confirm your SCOTUS choice
Brachiator
@burnspbesq: RE:
Loved ones may not be able to remove FB pages if the person did not confide their password
Requesting the deletion of an FB page after death is relatively easy. Their new policy was designed to address another issue. From the 2015 article:
Digital afterlife issues provoke new questions based on how we want to use new technology. I guess a consensus is slowly emerging:
“Several state legislatures have debated the question of whether families can access someone’s digital assets after they die. Most large Internet companies, citing federal privacy laws, will not allow your family to access your account after death. Though some states — including Delaware and Virginia — allow parents or guardians to manage their deceased children’s accounts, in most areas, families must seek a court order to obtain the rights, which can take months or years.”
hovercraft
@MattF:
I’m amused by the beltway “yes nino could be salty and political, but this may cross the line”, the double standard is amazing. The SC has been the pinnacle of politics for decades, there is a reason the conservatives have been running on appointing justices forever, they get to codify your political priorities into law. The installation of the shrub was simply the most nakedly political decision they handed down. So to the fainting idjits STFU.
Betty Cracker
@negative 1: I understand the individual words in your comment, but the overall meaning eludes me. Maybe it’s my fault. It has been a long day.
@smintheus:
That is your opinion, which is not universally shared. But dog knows re-litigating the 2016 Democratic primary on the day that it finally, finally, finally fucking ended would be as pointless as sending the late Justice Scalia a box of Omaha steaks, so I’ll just leave it at that.
JPL
@germy: It was sad! Remember when the right was saying that the Obama’s weren’t presidential.. hmmm
les
On the “should she talk” point–I think it’s pertinent that there’s never really been a situation like this. It’s not just usual political dissing; T-rump is clearly not remotely qualified, and his candidacy isn’t just politics, it’s the product of a political party’s descent to madness. If she was talking about policies and what she likes/doesn’t like, I’d say no. Pointing out his reality is something different.
Miss Bianca
@JGabriel: I have a hard time believing she’d do it – altho’ I’ve been wrong before, Heaven knows – and I rather hope she doesn’t, but it’s her call and I’ll trust her on it.
Miss Bianca
@smintheus</a.>: Different jobs, different obligations – or are you being wilfully obtuse? The loser in a presidential primary is pretty much obligated to concede, congratulate and endorse in a timely manner. A sitting SCJ is *not* obligated to retire. So, your point, such as it is, would appear to be competely specious.
satby
@SiubhanDuinne: yeah, that’s super creepy. I said it badly, but I think that the perpetual page can keep people stuck in mourning. OTOH, it may be the repository for any photo memories, because none of them make physical pictures anymore.
debbie
I ran a search on this thread and don’t see anyone linking to Trump’s reaction to RBG’s remarks.
Go, RBG, go!
hovercraft
@Roger Moore:
Is that the guy who was on Joyann Reids’s show this weekend, he was very sensible about BLM, saying that his conservative brethren need to listen to what they are saying. For years they dismissed the complaints as fiction, now that there is video proof they say that these instances are anomalies and very rare, he wants is fellow travelers to wake up.
dedc79
@Brachiator:
The word “can” is doing all the work in that sentence. A SCOTUS with six Alitos would not only reverse ginsburg’s most important decisions, but many others as well. Precedent only matters when you’ve got a majority willing to follow it.
negative 1
@Betty Cracker: No worries. I was just amused that you were having a discussion about the legacy (opinions, dissents, etc.) of a supreme court justice, but that Slate feels none of that sh!t will matter now that Ginsberg insulted Trump!
satby
@les: I agree here, this a an unprecedented situation. Like all bullies, the Republicans count on other people’s civility and dislike of confrontation while they merrily trash the joint.
? Martin
@randy khan: A number of legal folks on Twitter are discussing this, and one line of argument is that Trump is a different case because he is directly attacking the rule of law and the judicial system in this country in a way that no previous candidate has – from the attacks on Curiel to advocating for things that are baldly unconstitutional. In that sense Trump is not a preference but a direct threat. That is she is speaking on behalf of the judicial branch, not unlike what some executive branch directors have already done.
Matt McIrvin
@SiubhanDuinne: Also, being encouraged to friend people you knew IRL who died before you got around to friending them. That happens to me on occasion.
NotMax
Good on him.
debbie
@SiubhanDuinne:
Wouldn’t the FB page be the digital version of a headstone?
Also, I believe you can block notifications from specific friends without having to unfriend them.
cokane
Still incredible to me that the Senate can get away with blocking a nominee for this long. The Republican party needs to be shamed in November
hovercraft
@JPL:
Well racists seeking to hold off the hordes of invaders must stand together cheek by jowl.
? Martin
@NotMax: There’s nothing untoward going on. Niantic used an old Google API that gives the message of full access, but the API doesn’t actually allow for the kinds of access the news has been reporting. The old API can’t actually access your email.
This is more a fuck-up on Google’s side for presenting an unnecessarily alarming warning.
Soylent Green
@Trollhattan: Closing the D.B Cooper investigation will not stop those of us who live nearby from attending the annual D.B. Cooper Day at the Ariel General Store and Tavern in Ariel, Washington. This funky old bar and restaurant out in the boonies near Mount St. Helens is festooned with Cooper memorabilia.
D.B. Cooper Day at the Ariel General Store & Tavern:
An annual celebration of the infamous, unsolved skyjacking
hovercraft
@germy:
I think he was going for the ‘celebrate their lives’ vibe, but it came off as creepy because he was the only one who seemed pretty cheerful. The other speakers cracked some jokes but for the most part remained pretty somber.
dogwood
I have no idea why RBG inserted herself into the election, and I’m not going to cheerlead for it. This is the Trump effect writ large. His racist, misogynist, islomophobic campaign has plenty of people saying things you’d never expect. We expect Republican Senators to say they aren’t going to the convention because of other commitments, but you’ve got Sasse releasing a statement that he won’t be going because he will be taking his children on a tour of dumpster fires in Nebraska rather than attending the one in Cleveland. Flake’s official statement is that he has to mow his lawn. Trump and his supporters who revile political correctness are seeing that it works both ways. He is a disgusting human being.
Ian
@Keith G:
In fairness Garland was chosen because they thought the Republicans wouldn’t be this venal about it. Orrin Hatch said the Rethugs should just give up and accept any nominee from Garland rightward (paraphrasing).
Here is the quote http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2016/03/16/3760775/republicans-backed-merrick-garland-1997/
Gravenstone
@SiubhanDuinne:
I have a dear friend who passed away almost two years ago now. her family keeps the profile up and occasionally mention it in posts themselves, or some of her other friends will do so as memories move them. It can be occasionally jarring as a reminder that she passed far too young, but I understand and accept the catharsis the mentions afford her family. For me by far the most poignant posts are mentions of her young daughter since K passed away barely a year after her daughter was born.
Trollhattan
@Soylent Green:
Heh. He’s going to surprise the hell out of everybody when he’s appointed first Governor of the State of Jefferson. Pretty sure they’re relying on him for their budget, now that the Bundys are in the slammer. .
David ?▶️Hillary/Harley Quinn 2016▶️? Koch
@Trollhattan: can you post a link to the rest of the album.
scott alloway
@NotMax: Stopped at your post. I believe there’s a legacy type setting that allows your designated rep or someone else to change the page. It’s fairly recent. I still post a note on my late firend Jean’s page every birhday, however. The kids read it (they’re 40 something now).
scott alloway
@srv: Slider down and in to see if the GOP will bite.
Trollhattan
@David ?▶️Hillary/Harley Quinn 2016▶️? Koch:
See whether this works. Think I have them in chron order.
Eric U.
Recent stories say that RGB is being very convincing during arguments, swaying Kennedy. Too bad she couldn’t do that when Scalia was around.
Brachiator
@dedc79:
Yeah? And so?
Playing musical chairs with justices guarantees nothing, even under your fantasy scenario.
David ?▶️Hillary/Harley Quinn 2016▶️? Koch
@Trollhattan: perfect!
Trollhattan
@David ?▶️Hillary/Harley Quinn 2016▶️? Koch:
Great, enjoy! We sure did, my first NWSL match and hopefully not my last. Flabbergasted to discover the only two left coast teams are Seattle and Portland. Thorns are basically my home team, even if the drive is 600 miles.
randy khan
@? Martin: I understand that line of reasoning. There is a question about when you reach a point that judges should speak out, I suppose, but I don’t know that we’ve reached it.
ThresherK
@Trollhattan: Now I’m officially jealous. Spousal ThresherK has no problem with me watching all the NWSL I can find on TV (she doesn’t know how little that is–it’s not a joke). But she’s not interested in going 100 miles to see in person. And I’m old enough that I’d look a touch creepy going there alone.
dedc79
@Brachiator: Souter and Stevens waited for a Democrat to be in the white house to retire and their replacements were critical votes for gay marriage. If they had retired when W was president, Kennedy wouldn’t have had 5 votes in support of his opinion.
Miss Bianca
@randy khan: Well, if not now…when?
Gravenstone
@Eric U.: You’re presuming that she didn’t try to persuade? Or the more likely outcome that Scalia just browbeat the persuadable votes into his point of view.
Jeffro
@randy khan:
I’d like to agree, but a) the Right has been quite open about selecting/backing/repeating the views of right-wing justices that they’ve managed to get onto the Court and b) there really hasn’t been a time in our history when justices didn’t offer their opinions about American politics and politicians in one way or another.
Also, c) Trump is an extraordinary case, and those who pop off in opposition should get a pass. As conservative writer PJ O’Rourke put it (which I don’t agree with re: HRC, but anyway), “Clinton is wrong on every issue, but she’s wrong within normal parameters…Trump is not.”
Jeffro
@? Martin: Ah I see you got there ahead of me and put it better than I could (for ‘C’). Trump is indeed a special case…and the fact that it’s given the GOP powers-that-be almost no pause to reflect should be the club we smack them with for the next four months.
the Conster, la Citoyenne
RBG can do whatever the fuck she wants. She’s earned it, and she’s right about Trump. No time for pearl clutching, not when Trump is blowing up every rule and standard.
Hillary can also do whatever she wants for VP. She needs to pick who she feels comfortable with, and has rapport with. It’s her time now, finally, and she should get the benefit of any doubt. I wasn’t sure about Biden, and how’d that work out.
Original Lee
@SiubhanDuinne: I have a number of deceased friends and family on FB. One of them arranged with her niece to keep the page somewhat active to promote her pet causes – breast cancer research and foster children – and it is indeed bittersweet when a new post goes up and everyone shares more memories. The sisters of two of the others post birthday memories. And so on. I suppose if it really bugged me, I would unfollow them instead of unfriend them. That way, if I became aware that maybe something was going on that I would want to know about (such as a scholarship named after them), I could always still go to the page. YMMV.
Lurker Extraordinaire
@Mike J: I don’t know if it’s been thrown out here but:
If, God forbid, Trump wins and Newt (spit!) is his veep, Trump resigns and boom, Gingrich is prez. Nightmare scenario, but I wouldn’t put it past Salamander or the Repukes.
Corner Stone
Sandra Day O’Connor, anyone? Who in the absolute fuck that was alive in 2000 has had the merest inkling in their head that the SCOTUS is not a partisan body?
STFU about RBG.
nutella
@dedc79:
Maybe in the past that would have been a good point. You and smintheus seem not to have noticed that Obama, in contrast with every other president of the US, has not been permitted to fill a Supreme Court seat. If RBG had retired during Obama’s term we wouldn’t have gotten a replacement for her either.
Are you so stuck with your position “That woman is wrong! and selfish!” that you can’t adjust it now that circumstances have radically changed?
Omnes Omnibus
@nutella: Obama did get Kagan and Sotomayor onto the Court.
sm*t cl*de
according to a person with knowledge of the vetting process.
An anonymous ratfucker — what better source could there be?
nutella
@Omnes Omnibus:
Woops, forgot. Ok I take it back.
amk
but, but …. wapo was all tut-tutting about the inappropriateness of it all?
#assholes
Ruckus
@NotMax:
There actually is a way to stop things like bday notifications but some one has to know them and then actually set them.
I like the idea that a page stays live for like 6-12 months and is closed. I do have a friend who died and his wife kept posting for about 6 months. I think that’s about long enough, one can start their own page. Of course I have another friend who died in an accident, in the 80s and there is a page, Friends of ———-, and his wife still posts there every once in a while. I like that even more, and as I was an eye witness to the accident from about 25 feet away and I was the last person to talk to him I feel very OK about it.
kevin
I actually agree that it is inappropriate for a sitting supreme court justice to express a preference in a presidential contest. I would think RBG, who has never done this before, thinks so too. Makes me think she plans on retiring shortly after the election, so she will not be ruling on any cases involving the new president.
jayboat
I agree with those here that want the people hammering RGB to stfu. You can go back to a kinder gentler unicorn time in your dreams.
This is 2016, the time of t-rump, gnoot, rmoney, roberts and the rest of the mouthbreathers.
She’s a trip without a suitcase, and I love her for it.
amk
@kevin: shrub2000. stop the pearl clutching.
J R in WV
No analysis here, but I think Ruth Bader Ginsburg has the right and responsibility to make her beliefs plain, when it doesn’t involve a specific case before the court.
Just as all of us here do. Perhaps she is commenting here with a silly pseudoname?
Brachiator
@dedc79:
Souter was appointed by Bush, Stevens by Ford. With your little game playing at work, we might never have had these two great justices. There would be more emphasis on appointing empty headed morons to rubber stamp conservative or liberal positions.
Lurker Extraordinaire
Stavridis? Investigated for misusing funds and a G4 for wine trips during his stint at NATO? He of the horrible AFN commercials? Uh….she could do so much better.
liberal
Yes, either she’s a fucking idiot like yourself who has no understanding of cost/benefit analysis, or she’s an egotistical, selfish asshole.
randy khan
@Miss Bianca: My honest answer would be “probably never” so long as there’s no threat to our basic governmental structure. But I could be wrong.
Steve in the ATL
@hovercraft:
More like centuries! Remember how the Jeffersonian Democrats clutched their pearls after Marbury v. Madison? I’ll bet efgoldman does!
smintheus
@nutella:
He has filled Supreme Court seats. We’re also aware that RBG is courting disaster if a Republican is elected this year, and for what purpose? She’s like all to many academics I know, who refuse to be “hurried” into retirement because she worked hard to get where she is, and she wants to retain that status for as long as possible consequences for everyone else be damned.
smintheus
@Miss Bianca: @Keith G: So RBG, unlike everyone else, has reliable polling more than a year in advance of the general election? Does seem odd then that she is now acting all worried that Trump might actually win this and end up naming her replacement.
Lurking Canadian
@Lurker Extraordinaire: Trump doesn’t have to resign. They can impeach him during the Inaugural Ball.
I wouldn’t expect the rump Dem Senate caucus to vote to acquit.
Paul in KY
@NotMax: If he wins, that’s the age we’ll be living in: The Bozoic Age.
Paul in KY
@CaseyL: Think he would be getting some of that sweet Adelson money. Probably only reason. Plus, Newt has a nasty way with words, so he’d be a prime attack dog on Mrs. Clinton.
Also, no other more ‘viable’ Repub probably wanted it.
Stan
@Bobby Thomson: The Court gave up all pretense to political neutrality with Bush v Gore.
No one has any right to complain about her now.
Paul in KY
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: DB Cooper was a POS hijacking criminal. Hope he died in the jump. If he was still alive & found, should serve out rest of life in prison.
pluky
@Gene108:
Noooo!!!!!! The image, the horror!!!!!
Bobby Thomson
Hey what do you know. Justice Ginsberg confirmed today she made a mistake. Because she did.
That’s what people with integrity do instead of ranting about ends justifying means and other people doing worse.