Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

We will not go back.

Do we throw up our hands or do we roll up our sleeves? (hint, door #2)

Accountability, motherfuckers.

I see no possible difficulties whatsoever with this fool-proof plan.

“In this country American means white. everybody else has to hyphenate.”

When they say they are pro-life, they do not mean yours.

Democracy is not a spectator sport.

Dear elected officials: Trump is temporary, dishonor is forever.

When you’re a Republican, they let you do it.

Within six months Twitter will be fully self-driving.

The most dangerous place for a black man in America is in a white man’s imagination.

The real work of an opposition party is to oppose.

Republicans seem to think life begins at the candlelight dinner the night before.

Let there be snark.

To the privileged, equality seems like oppression.

Dear Washington Post, you are the darkness now.

Roe is not about choice. It is about freedom.

A democracy can’t function when people can’t distinguish facts from lies.

Today in our ongoing national embarrassment…

Human rights are not a matter of opinion!

Since we are repeating ourselves, let me just say fuck that.

if you can’t see it, then you are useless in the fight to stop it.

Since when do we limit our critiques to things we could do better ourselves?

T R E 4 5 O N

You are here: Home / Politics / America / Supreme Court Nomination Live Feed and Open Thread

Supreme Court Nomination Live Feed and Open Thread

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Here’s a live feed for the Supreme Court nomination announcement:

Apparently Judge Barrett is at home in Indiana:

NBC news has decided to break the news!

But there’s still a chance for the dark horse!

She just exudes Supreme Courtattitude!

Stay out of the way or the rabid lady from Fox News will nosh on your soul!

Open thread.

Reader Interactions

188Comments

  3. 3.

    PsiFighter37

    Fuck everyone who voted for Jill Stein and Gary Johnson. Just needed to say it one more time. This is what I am going to have to live with for most of my remaining life – a conservative SCOTUS.

  7. 7.

    WereBear

    Trump has certainly simplified my political life. Every decision he makes is gonna suck, so there is no real suspense here.

  9. 9.

    HAL

    Wow. Trump picked the guy who doesn’t think a sitting president can be indicted? Shocking.

  12. 12.

    TenguPhule

    Reading between the lines: Kavanaugh is anti-abortion, anti-ACA, anti-EPA, anti-CFPB, Pro-punishment without trial and infamous for authoring “that U.S. Presidents should be exempt from “time-consuming and distracting” lawsuits and investigations, which “would ill serve the public interest, especially in times of financial or national security crisis.”.

  15. 15.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Yarrow: The casting for a new Cujo in the remake is a bit different, but based on that screen grab from Fox it should work.

  16. 16.

    cmorenc

    @HAL:

    Wow. Trump picked the guy who doesn’t think a sitting president can be indicted? Shocking.

    Trump’s most important selection criteria for a SCOTUS nominee – you nailed it.

  18. 18.

    TenguPhule

    @Baud:

    FWIW, I don’t think Kavanaugh will be as bad as Gorsuch (or Alito or Thomas for that matter.)

    And you would be wrong. He’s at least on par and probably worse.

  20. 20.

    TenguPhule

    @Quinerly:

    I truly thought it was going to be the White chick with the 7 children.

    I figured it was this asshole simply because he checks off all the rightwing boxes.

  23. 23.

    TenguPhule

    @Baud:

    Based on what?

    His record since coming into the federal court system. Its horrible, to say the least.

  24. 24.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Quinerly: He is not. I actually know him. He sat for an interview for me for a research project I was working on where I needed to interview national security and senior law enforcement personnel from a variety of administrations – Democratic and Republican. While I don’t agree with him politically, he was exceedingly gracious with his time.

  25. 25.

    ? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?

    @Baud:
    Just wait for TenguPhule.

    The nominee will still be pretty bad unfortunately. All we can do is vote and keep up enthusiasm and engagement at this point. That and make sure people have the right IDs etc. This is going to be a long fight

  30. 30.

    efgoldman

    Not watching
    Not looking
    Not reading

    Agree w/Cole: they can fuck up things just fine without my help
    I’ll wait for the next thread

    Fuckem

  33. 33.

    cmorenc

    @Adam L Silverman:

    While I don’t agree with him politically, he was exceedingly gracious with his time.

    People can be exceedingly gracious one-on-one while still being colossal assholes on policy questions in ways that grievously impact a huge number of people in exceedingly ungracious ways. The late Sen Jesse Helms R-NC was as nice as can be face-to-face (just ask U2’s Bono about that) but was nevertheless a toxic asshole.

  34. 34.

    TenguPhule

    @Baud: Seven-Sky v. Holder
    Sissel v. United States Department of Health & Human Services,

    EPA v. EME Homer City Generation, L.P.

    PHH Corp. v. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau

    His opinions are fucking terrible. And he follows the formula of the others, justifying increasingly ridiculous reaching beyond the scope of the law itself by planting the seeds in his own damn opinions.

  37. 37.

    B.B.A.

    Cocaine Mitch will schedule the confirmation vote for tonight at 2:30 AM.

    at least that’s what I were do if I were him.

    …thank god I’m not him.

  39. 39.

    Major Major Major Major

    I’m sure this person will be as bad as possible.

    Can anybody recommend some soft sci-fi or high concept fantasy books? I recently enjoyed Pandora’s Star (Peter Hamilton) and have been reading a lot of short fantasy too, things in the Pratchett vein.

  40. 40.

    Baud

    @TenguPhule: You’re not answering my question. I think Kavanaugh will be more like Roberts than the other three GOP justices based on my familiarity with all of their works. You seem to think he’ll be worse. Saying he’ll be bad does not tell me why you think he’ll be worse.

  41. 41.

    JPL

    @HAL: I thought he thought that a sitting president can be impeached, but not indicted?
    hmm

    He has had rulings on privacy overturned by the Supreme Court. He ruled that you didn’t need a warrant to follow cell phone locations.

  42. 42.

    justawriter

    My question for the nominee, “Sir, this administration will go down in history as one of the worst in history and your nomination came only because you will be a rubber stamp on a court that will be lumped in with worst decisions in history like Plessy, Korematsu and most of what was decided last month. Are you willing to endure that stain on your legacy for the rest of history?”

  43. 43.

    TenguPhule

    @Baud: He’s like Gorsch and Alito. He makes shit up to justify his opinions and doesn’t seem to have Robert’s concerns about the appearance of fairness or reason based on his current record.

  45. 45.

    Quinerly

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: Trump looks like shit. Haven’t actually watched him in several weeks. He startled me tonight… bloated, his color. I still don’t think he’s long for this world.

  46. 46.

    jimmiraybob

    @HAL:

    Wow. Trump picked the guy who doesn’t think a sitting president can be indicted? Shocking.

    That’s why i called it for Kavanaugh this morning. Once you figure out that with Trump it’s all about Trump it’s pretty easy peazy to predict outcomes. Of course I never completely ruled out the Duck Dynasty boys as co-Justices as another FU to the country.

  48. 48.

    JPL

    @Baud: If you consider that all of them are likely to vote down Roe, I think that Amy was more likely to keep other rulings in place.

  52. 52.

    TenguPhule

    @Quinerly:

    He startled me tonight… bloated, his color. I still don’t think he’s long for this world.

    Sorry, Dick Cheney is proof that evil will cling on no matter how horrible it looks.

  53. 53.

    Lyrebird

    @Adam L Silverman: I have not met Ed Meese, I did work for one of his loudest critics, but I also want to say – I have met and interacted with some of his kids. Long ago. He and his spouse must’ve done some things right at home, bc said persons were humble, gracious, and generally kinder than the people around them.

  54. 54.

    JPL

    @Baud: Pretty much police authority rules, so that sucks. I was basing my comment on her previous writings and a law professor’s thoughts. The professor figured that it was doubtful she voted for him.

  58. 58.

    Lyrebird

    @Major Major Major Major: Fool’s Run by Patricia McKillip is more on the sci fi end compared to her other work.

    Ever read Light Raid or …uh… the other one that Connie Willis co-wrote with the same other author? Those are lighter than the above and fun.

  59. 59.

    Major Major Major Major

    @TenguPhule: current mood, not a value judgment:

    Yes:
    – space opera
    – genre-savvy fantasy (see above re Pratchett)
    – classics (might pick up The Gods Themselves, just read The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress and The Stars My Destination)

    No:
    – urban fantasy
    – procedurals
    – lovecraftian
    – urban fantasy lovecraftian procedurals (looking at you, Stross)
    – interminable series
    – cliched elves
    – alt history

  60. 60.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Quinerly: Like the pharaohs of old, he will have all of his subjects killed and embalmed so they may follow him to the afterlife. I hope your soul weighs less than a feather.//

  62. 62.

    jl

    Didn’t watch the circus, but heard who it was Kavanaugh, IMHO, a ruthless partisan hack. Natural pick for Trump to make. Not sure if we can stop the confirmation.

  64. 64.

    bob7094

    OT, but just happend to be driving most of the Pennsylvania Turnpike today and saw a billboard with “GOP” with a hammer and sickle in the O. Between the Tuscarora Tunnel and the Kittatinny Tunnel. Didn’t get the attribution.

  67. 67.

    Steeplejack

    Just saw on an early start to Rachel Maddow’s show that Kavanaugh is the nominee and that his career highlights include:

    ▸ Served in the Bush White House 2001-06. [Probable torture apologist.]

    ▸ Associate counsel to Kenneth Starr and helped draft impeachment against Bill Clinton. [Veteran witch hunter and GOP idealogue.]

    Great choice!

    Think I’ll skip the circus coverage and instant TV analysis. Either baseball or the new episode of Love It or List It.

  68. 68.

    Quinerly

    @Yutsano: he’s so much of a Bushie that he married a woman who also was a Bushie. He just told the story of their first date on 9/10 and how they ran out of the WH together on 9/11.

  74. 74.

    HAL

    @JPL: Maybe my phrasing is wrong?

    Notably, Kavanaugh’s time working on Starr’s independent counsel investigation led him to conclude that presidents should not be bothered by criminal investigations or civil lawsuits while in office — a view that could be extremely significant given the wide range of pending legal actions against Trump and the ongoing special counsel investigation into possible collusion between the 2016 Trump campaign and Russia.

  77. 77.

    Anne Laurie

    @Quinerly:

    I truly thought it was going to be the White chick with the 7 children.

    In Trump’s tiny mind, no ladyperson can ever look properly “prime time worthy” for such an important role.

    (Especially since I get the feeling that he still resents his parents saying things like “Maryanne never gives us a minute’s worry — unlike you-know-who… ” Judge Trump Barry’s recommendation is also why I was sure it wouldn’t be Hardiman, either.)

  78. 78.

    lamh36

    @NateSilver538
    10m10 minutes ago
    More
    3. Red-state Democratic senators won’t feel that much pressure to vote aye and won’t face that many political consequences for failing to do so. He’ll be pretty easy to frame as a partisan and he’s not as sympathetic as e.g. Barrett.

  81. 81.

    ? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?

    @Major Major Major Major:
    en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warriors_(novel_series)

    Warriors is a series of novels published by HarperCollins.
    Here’s a good primer:

    It is written by authors Kate Cary, Cherith Baldry, and Tui Sutherland, with the plot developed by editor Victoria Holmes, who collectively use the pseudonym Erin Hunter. The series follows the adventures of four Clans of wild cats—ThunderClan, ShadowClan, WindClan,and RiverClan —in their forest and lake homes, who look up to StarClan, the spirits of their warriors ancestors, who guide the four clans.

    I only ever read the first series and most of the second. All in all, I liked it.

  86. 86.

    Chris Johnson

    @Quinerly: Is he enough of a Bushie that he might be a NeverTrumper and bent on revenge? That would be interesting as hell, though terrible in most other ways.

    I never forget that Putin’s end game is NOT to make America great, or to protect Trump in the long run. It is inevitable that the Trumpsters will be set up for destruction, but only after they have done as much damage as possible. Nothing would suit Putin better than to reduce America to factional savagery, and if Democrats can’t be effective opponents then Putin will just have to plunge the Republicans into civil war. They naturally fall in line, so things have to get really ugly and treacherous in order to get the old guard Republicans fully at war with the new breed alt-right Republicans.

    There aren’t even nearly enough Bushie donor-class Republicans to do it. You’d have to do things like fuck with Harley-Davidson or the NFL or something. Or have your lackeys go hat in hand to Moscow and send them off looking like beggars.

    In no way does Putin want a right-wing America to be strong, or effective, or any of that. This Bushie guy could be a trap.

  87. 87.

    Quinerly

    @Anne Laurie: I see your points but it would have been a real coup for the Right for the deciding vote to overturn Roe be made by someone with a uterus. I truly thought that was the direction this would go. Dalia Lithwick has also been saying it for a week.

  93. 93.

    ? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?

    @Quinerly:

    they ran out of the WH together on 9/11.

    In happiness perhaps. The WTC ruins would make a good destination for a honeymoon wouldn’t it?

  97. 97.

    dnfree

    @Major Major Major Major: I see someone else mentioned Connie Willis….she has some writings set in a world with a form of time travel that are fun and somewhat thought-provoking as well. The one that’s purely for fun is “To Say Nothing of the Dog”, which is a takeoff on an older travel book. Her World War II pair of books (I think “Blackout” and “All Clear” or something like that) do a good job of evoking the atmosphere in Britain.

    amazon.com/Say-Nothing-Dog-Connie-Willis/dp/0553575384

  99. 99.

    Quinerly

    I need to get more caught up on Kavanaugh. Seems like a strange pick to me. Long paper trail… Plus, it took Bush 3 years to get him confirmed to the DC Circuit. He’s a solid Bushie.

  100. 100.

    Anne Laurie

    @Major Major Major Major: This might be a good time to read or re-read LeGuin’s Earthsea books (the first trilogy, then the darker sequels written after a decades-plus gap).

    Or, if you’ve been reading Heinlein, look up Andre Norton — I suspect her books are about due for a critical rediscovery, because she was WAY ahead of her time with her young-adult characters.

  103. 103.

    lamh36

    Thread from one of the Parkland bus tour organizers at their townhall (I think) in Texas, where Open Carry folks were in attendence as a “counter-protest”

    @MattxRed
    Protestor: “Mr. Hogg are you anti-gun?”

    David: “No, I come from a family of gun owners.”

    P: “So why do you want to take my gun.”

    D: “Our policy isn’t in disarming law abiding citizens, it’s about due process and preventing gun violence.”

    The other protestors see us talking..

    10:06 AM – Jul 8, 2018 · Texas, USA

    twitter.com/MattxRed/status/1015975296506515457

    I really tip my hat to these kids.

  105. 105.

    ArchTeryx

    @Major Major Major Major: It’s kind of a plug for a friend but I quite enjoyed Roz Gibson’s (who?) Griffin Ranger series, if you’re into xeno / parallel Earth type fiction. (However, a warning: It’s very dark in places, particularly the much longer, and frankly much better, second book). It starts out as a sort of fantasy/Western mashup and veers HARD to science fiction once the villain reveals himself and the action starts heating up.

    I more or less created a very big TVTropes page from scratch about the series. Is here: tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Literature/GriffinRanger

  106. 106.

    Another Scott

    Nina at NPR:

    […]

    Brett Kavanaugh of Maryland, U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit

    Kavanaugh, 53, is a former clerk to the man he could replace on the Supreme Court, Kennedy. He was named to the D.C. Circuit by George W. Bush in 2003, but his confirmation was stalled by Democrats for nearly three years. They said he was too partisan, young and inexperienced.

    They also said he was too partisan because of his work for independent counsel Kenneth Starr in the investigation of President Bill Clinton, his involvement in the Florida recount in 2000, and his work as a counsel and later staff secretary for Bush, during which he took strong positions in favor of presidential power and privilege. In 2006, he was finally confirmed.

    Kavanaugh’s record on the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, with some 286-plus opinions, is definitely the most prolific of any of the potential nominees. It is a record noteworthy for its skill and conservatism.

    In a recent case that combined the controversial issues of abortion and immigration, he wrote a decision that temporarily barred a pregnant teenager, who was in immigration custody, from obtaining an abortion. The decision, for a three-judge court, was subsequently overturned by the full court, over Kavanaugh’s dissent.

    He also dissented in a case involving a challenge brought by religious groups to the contraception provision of the Affordable Care Act. That regulation required religious groups to certify that they were exempting themselves from providing contraceptive services; it was eventually withdrawn by the Trump administration.

    On questions involving government regulation, he often, but not always, has sought to limit or throw out Obama-era environmental regulations.

    Kavanaugh has also authored or signed on to a number of opinions deferring to presidential power in high-profile cases. For instance, after the Supreme Court ruled that enemy combatants detained at Guantanamo Bay have the right to challenge their detentions in court, Kavanaugh was among the conservative judges on the D.C. Circuit who subsequently ruled in ways that critics have said actively subverted the high court’s decision, so as to render it toothless.

    Finally, Kavanaugh wrote an extensive law review article in 2009 that could have implications for the special counsel investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election. In that article, he said that after seeing firsthand the many difficult duties that a president encounters, he thinks, in retrospect, that presidents should operate free from the threat of civil suits — like the sexual harassment suit that led to Clinton’s impeachment — and that presidents should also be free from criminal investigations.

    The article seems to suggest that both of these presidential protections should be enacted by Congress but does not say do without qualification. Such views could well have implications for special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation of Trump, including the question of whether the president can be subpoenaed to answer questions about his possible involvement in criminal activity. The ultimate check on a president’s criminal actions, Kavanaugh said, is impeachment, but he does not say how members of Congress might gather the needed information for such a proceeding.

    […]

    Emphasis added.

    He’s going to be a disaster if he’s confirmed. As we suspected that any of Donnie’s nominees would be.

    Donnie must be rubbing his little hands in glee at the prospect of riling up our side, and thus riling up the MAGAts in return. He knows the GOP is facing the prospects of a huge defeat in 120 days unless he somehow manage to get his base to rescue him. It looks like Kavanaugh checks off all the boxes…

    Yes, we should fight it, but do it in a way that increases the wave in November.

    Eyes on the prize…

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  107. 107.

    West of the Rockies

    Pirro is vile. Maybe it is a shtick, but I’m surprised people keep tuning her in: her constant rage, scolding delivery, and mugging for the camera would wear thin.

  108. 108.

    joel hanes

    @Major Major Major Major:

    classics

    More Than Human, Theodore Sturgeon
    Davy, Edgar Pangborn
    People of the Air, Peter S. Beagle
    Earth Abides, George R. Stewart
    A Canticle For Liebowitz, Miller
    Tales From The White Hart, Arthur Clarke
    The Once And Future King, White

  110. 110.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Quinerly:
    This is going to get ugly fast. Kavanaugh is not just going to face an angry Democratic caucus in the Senate, but the hardcore social and religious conservatives are gunning for him as well:

    And Bush 43’s announcement is really an exercise in trolling. Yes, Kavanaugh worked for him and he put him on the Federal bench. At the same time, he knows the President hates him and his family and as this gets amplified, the President will start the same thing he did with VP Pence when Manafort pushed Pence onto the ticket – start asking if he can change his mind and nominate someone else. My guess is he gets it with both barrels from Hannity and Dobbs tonight during evening Executive time!

    Senator Schumer may not have to do anything to have the wheels come off of this.

  111. 111.

    lamh36

    @NAACP
    10s11 seconds ago
    More
    The #NAACP knows Brett Kavanaugh well. We opposed his nomination to DC Circuit. His tenure on bench was exactly as we predicted. He is strong and consistent vote for wealthy and powerful. He must NOT be elevated to the SCOTUS. #SaveSCOTUS #ScotusPick

  114. 114.

    lamh36

    @lamh36: I tip my hat to these kids, even as I’m aware of the same message being given by Black gun contral/violence activist..

    But some White folk will listen to white folk before they listen to Black folks

  116. 116.

    RSA

    @Major Major Major Major:

    Can anybody recommend some soft sci-fi or high concept fantasy books?

    I’ve become a fan of Matthew Hughes’s Henghis Hapthorn series. It’s inspired by (some would say a pastiche of) Jack Vance’s Dying Earth stories, but I think the Hapthorn stories are solid on their own; I like the universe building and the mannered language. The first novel was preceded by a set of short stories collected in 9 Tales of Henghis Hapthorn, so it’s possible to get a taste before diving in.

  118. 118.

    West of the Rockies

    @Major Major Major Major:

    I’m in the minority, but I can’t stand Niven… The man cannot write female characters.

    Vinge us awesome. I liked Rainbow’s End, but it is mostly Earth-bound cyber stuff. His Fire Upon the Deep is a good place to start.

  119. 119.

    Bill Arnold

    @HAL:

    Wow. Trump picked the guy who doesn’t think a sitting president can be indicted? Shocking.

    Yep. Pretty clear-cut case of judge-shopping by a POTUS under investigation, IMO, though of course deniable.
    Supreme Court nominee has argued presidents should not be distracted by investigations and lawsuits
    and more specifically,
    Separation of Powers During the Forty-Fourth Presidency and Beyond – Brett M. Kavanaugh (2009)

    I. PROVIDE SITTING PRESIDENTS WITH A TEMPORARY DEFERRAL OF CIVIL SUITS AND OF CRIMINAL PROSECUTIONS AND INVESTIGATIONS
    II. ENSURE PROMPT SENATE VOTES ON EXECUTIVE AND JUDICIAL NOMINATIONS
    III. STREAMLINE EXECUTIVE BRANCH ORGANIZATION AND ENSURE THAT OFFICIALS IN INDEPENDENT AGENCIES ARE MORE ACCOUNTABLE
    IV. RECOGNIZE THAT BOTH THE LEGISLATIVE AND EXECUTIVE BRANCHES HAVE LEGITIMATE AND SOMETIMES OVERLAPPING ROLES IN WAR AND NATIONAL SECURITY
    V. CONSIDER THE POSSIBLE BENEFITS OF A SINGLE, SIX-YEAR PRESIDENTIAL TERM

    (bold mine)
    But read the pdf section I. for details. (As usual, if paywall comes up delete WaPo cookies or use a private browsing/incongnito windows)

  120. 120.

    dm

    @Major Major Major Major: try Hannu Rajaniemi, *The Quantum Thief*, *Fractal Prince*, and *The Causal Angel*. Those are sort of space opera and cyberspace opera.

    For “just” space opera: Yoon Ha Lee, *Ninefox Gambit*, *Raven Stratagem*, and *Revenant Gun* (though I haven’t read the third yet).

  121. 121.

    lamh36

    @jemelehill
    14m14 minutes ago
    More Jemele Hill Retweeted Dylan Itzikowitz
    Shout out to the fans who yell that players should protest, discuss politics and social issues away from ✌?work✌?but won’t use that same energy to criticize the Cardinals for using the team’s web site to endorse a Supreme Court nominee

    #StickToSportsWhenItsConvenientForMe

    twitter.com/jemelehill/status/1016498634622472192

  122. 122.

    West of the Rockies

    @joel hanes:

    I so loved Earth Abides and Liebowitz. The 5-decade-later sequel to Canticle was not quite as stunning. YMMV.

  123. 123.

    Anne Laurie

    @Quinerly:

    Cruz was against Kavanaugh.

    I swear, somewhere in the organ that passes for a heart, Ted Cruz is convinced that if Trump gets the boot, then the second-place Repub candidate in 2016 gets to be President…

  125. 125.

    Adam L Silverman

    @West of the Rockies: They have her heavily made up, so she doesn’t look as old as she is, and they put her in spandex tops with push up bras. She’s just ethnic enough to look exotic without looking “brown”, just made up enough to look young enough, and just pushed up enough to still get the Scooter Supremacy crowd enthused.

  127. 127.

    lamh36

    @jbendery
    Follow Follow @jbendery
    More
    The Judicial Crisis Network — the PR arm of The Federalist Society, which recommended Kavanaugh to Trump — announces a $1.4 million ad buy in Alabama, Indiana, North Dakota and West Virginia.

    Hi Sens. Doug Jones, Joe Donnelly, Heidi Heitkamp and Joe Manchin.

    8:30 PM – 9 Jul 2018

    twitter.com/jbendery/status/1016494886026186752

  128. 128.

    Anne Laurie

    @Adam L Silverman: If the paperback wasn’t so pricey, I’d be tempted. Don’t want to read comix except in hardcopy, but the Legion was my soul salvation back when I was in junior high & Jim Shooter was the hot new scripter…

  129. 129.

    lamh36

    @Pappiness
    Follow Follow @Pappiness
    More
    Brett Kavanaugh: “The country loses when the President’s focus is distracted by the burdens of civil litigation or criminal investigation and possible prosecution.”

    Trump didn’t nominate Kavanaugh because of Roe v. Wade. The only Pro-Life he cares about is his own.

    8:36 PM – 9 Jul 2018
    twitter.com/Pappiness/status/1016496250798137344

  130. 130.

    Gravenstone

    @JPL: if he’d argued that a sitting president couldn’t be impeached, that would be rather notable. And unconstitutional.

  131. 131.

    The Dangerman

    @Adam L Silverman:

    This is going to get ugly fast. Kavanaugh is not just going to face an angry Democratic caucus in the Senate, but the hardcore social and religious conservatives are gunning for him as well:

    They will all roll faster than it takes for the guy in the second car in line at a red light in Los Angeles to honk his horn after the light turns green (it’s always a guy)…

    …or I will have to amend my latest guess on Trump 2020; I’ve already figured he gets primaried from the center by someone like Flake, but maybe he gets it from the Right, too (especially if this guy gets confirmed and Roe v. Wade doesn’t get overturned). If Trump doesn’t win the nomination, all hell breaks loose from the Trumpistas at the convention.

    If we survive that long. I feel Trump saying nyet to NATO coming.

  132. 132.

    ? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?

    @lamh36:
    Those kinds of people make me sick. Gutless and cowardly. Good Germans, one and all.

  135. 135.

    RSA

    @Major Major Major Major: Oh, and for genre-savvy fantasy, though not to Pratchett’s levels of farce, have you tried Roger Zelazny? I’m thinking specifically of his “Unicorn Variations” short story, Lord of Light, and his collaboration with Gahan Wilson, A Night in the Lonesome October.

    I’d also recommend Gahan Wilson’s solo effort, Eddie Deco’s Last Caper, which is clever and funny, but you said no Cthulhu. :-)

  136. 136.

    frosty

    @Major Major Major Major: Space opera: Probably out of print*, but look for books by Keith Laumer from the 1960s. Several novels featuring a Terran diplomat, Jaime Retief, that humorously skewers the whole diplomatic trade. I also really liked Earthblood, a non-Retief one.

    Possibly interminable series: Vorkosigan series by Lois McMaster Bujold.

    Not space opera, but “near-ish future” New York 2140, which the author described as a Comedy of Coping.

    *Dunno about Kindle, I still rely on paper.

  137. 137.

    Steeplejack

    @Major Major Major Major:

    I read Vinge’s A Fire Upon the Deep and A Deepness in the Sky a while back without having read any of his stuff and thought that was a good intro. Actually, you’ll know from the first one whether you want to continue.

    Have you read any Iain M. Banks?

    ETA: Larry Niven is a little tainted for me by his collaborations with Jerry Pournelle, but I liked the Ringworld novels quite a bit. Start with the first one of those?

  138. 138.

    dm

    @Major Major Major Major: for deeply realized fantasy (no elves, but Yoruban spirits, instead: *Children of Blood and Bone* by Tomi Ayademi.

    For fantasy infused with Russian influences: anything by Leigh Bardugo. No elves, just some magic. Unless eighteenth century Amsterdam triggers your “no urban fantasy” prohibition.

  139. 139.

    Bill Arnold

    @Major Major Major Major:
    I’d suggest A Fire Upon The Deep as well. If the start grabs you go for it:
    A Fire Upon The Deep

    The curse of the mummy’s tomb, a comic image from mankind’s own pre-history, lost before time. They had laughed when they said it, laughed with joy at the treasure…and determined to be cautious just the same. They would live here a year or five, the little company from Straum, the archaeologist programmers, their families and schools. A year or five would be enough to hand-make the protocols, to skim the top and identify the treasure’s origin in time and space, to learn a secret or two that would make Straumli Realm rich.

    It’s old, but has aged quite well.

  141. 141.

    Jager

    I listened to NPR’s live coverage, trump had his fake sincerity thing going on, he introduced Ed Meese for chrissakes. Then he brought on young Bret Kavanaugh with a lot of BS about the elitist schools he went to and and teaches at…I went into the liquor store bought a nice Pinot Noir, shot the shit with the Indian guy behind the counter, get back in the car and Kavanaugh is kissing trumps’s ass ass about how there has never been a president who has spent more time and council to pick a justice….the young justice wraps it up with the BS about meeting his wife at the White House, etc, his kids (I’m sure they’re nice) As i pull in the garage I hear Nina Totenberg say the fucker worked on the recount in Florida and with Kn Starr. I’m on my 3rd Jack in 20 minutes and i still have to grill the chicken…Jesus.

  142. 142.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @dnfree:

    The one that’s purely for fun is “To Say Nothing of the Dog”, which is a takeoff on an older travel book.

    That “older travel book” is the delicious Three Men in a Boat by Jerome K. Jerome.

  143. 143.

    RSA

    @West of the Rockies:

    I’m in the minority, but I can’t stand Niven… The man cannot write female characters.

    I’m with you, aside from Mote, which I liked (maybe Pournelle’s influence? which ordinarily I would take to be a bad thing). Aside from female characters, almost all of Niven’s male protagonists sound like the same guy.

  145. 145.

    Mike in NC

    For dinner tonight I made Pat Conroy’s crabcakes for our guests from Raleigh. Followed by vodka martinis and (for some) a little Jamaican Berry weed. Fat Bastard call fall into a sinkhole outside of Mar-A-Lago and never surface again.

  146. 146.

    Gravenstone

    @dm: I have soft spot for ‘Lucifer’s Hammer’, but a lot of their other stuff is mixed.

  147. 147.

    dm

    @frosty: *New York 2140* was amazingly optimistic, for a post-climate-crash novel. A subplot brings new meaning to “liquid assets”.

    What a love-letter to New York.

  149. 149.

    Steeplejack

    @Anne Laurie:

    I loved Andre Norton when I started devouring science fiction at age 10 or so. I haven’t read any of her stuff in decades, but you’re right—she’s probably due for a look back.

    I really liked her continuing theme about telepaths. Don’t remember seeing that with anyone else from that period.

  150. 150.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Anne Laurie: It works very well in the Kindle app. They’ve got it set up so it embiggens each panel as your read them in order. Makes it very enjoyable. I just reread it using the Kindle App on my iPad mini and there were no issues.

  155. 155.

    imonlylurking

    @Major Major Major Major:
    I greatly enjoyed Patricia Wrede’s Western Fantasy series. I wish there were more.
    Sharon Shinn’s Archangel books are fun.
    If you have a Kindle, there’s a series -10 books- called The Girl in the Box by Robert Crane. The first three are in a free bundle. **warning, addictive!**

  156. 156.

    Bill Arnold

    @Major Major Major Major:
    On the fantasy question, I was captivated by A Darker Shade Of Magic (V.E. Schwab (Victoria)). Her sequels were quite readable as well. Not sure what you mean by “high concept fantasy”; if you mean e.g. realistic magic systems, not much of that out there.
    On soft sci-fi, don’t read much of that. You might find your mind bent by some of Iain M Banks work; I’d suggest starting with The Player of Games but there are people who argue for other reading orders for his books.

  157. 157.

    dm

    @Gravenstone: I was squicked out by the chemical warfare versus the cannibals subplot. Also, the fully functioning nuclear power plant post disaster probably strains credibility after Fukushima.

    *Mote in God’s Eye* was okay, though I had trouble with the British Imperial Navy transplanted to space (interstellar empress never made much sense to me on an energy/economic basis).

  158. 158.

    justawriter

    @Anne Laurie: Wow, didn’t know there were still Legion fans left in the world. They were my favorite going all the way back to when the Legion of Super Pets was still a thing (late 60s). I reluctantly agreed that Crisis was needed to clean up the mess that was the 80 year old DC universe, but got turned off when the money decided they could get a lot more money if they rebooted everything every five years. Plus, ever since Batman went emo under Frank Miller, every story line in comics is about how no matter how many times the good guys win, things just get shittier. So I stopped reading comics.

  162. 162.

    Bill Arnold

    @Major Major Major Major:
    Warning “Quantum Thief” is maniacally, joyously concept-heavy. And the sequels are even loopier. Good stuff, but expect your head to spin and you might need to work out some of the vocabulary.

  163. 163.

    MobileForkbeard

    @Steeplejack: I’m not a big fan or Pournelle solo, but the Niven/Pournelle collaborations tend to be better than Niven’s solo stuff, from what my teenage self experienced.

  164. 164.

    Gravenstone

    @dm: I liked the build up to the Hammer Fall (Hot Fudge Sundae, which falls on Tuesdae next week). And I view ‘the Magician ‘ as a potential role model for these contentious times.

    It was one of the novels we could have studied for one if my HS lit classes. We ended up going with Dune. Hardly a slouch second choice.

  165. 165.

    frosty

    @dm:

    What a love-letter to New York.

    I recommended it to my brother, who works in Manhattan. His response was “Lots of NYC inside baseball, and I love the epigraphs!”

  166. 166.

    ? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?

    @justawriter:
    You should try reading Rebirth. It’s an attempt to try to get away from the overly dark stories like Frank Miller’s.

  169. 169.

    justawriter

    SF I have been reading lately: Space but with a touch of “real” life (trips across solar systems don’t happen in an hour) Jack Campbell’s Lost Fleet Series, and Mike Shepherd’s Kris Longknife series. Just kind of goofy, John Scalzi’s Agent to the Stars and Red Shirts. And if you haven’t read Spider Robinson’s Callahan’s books, that is my one permanent recommendation whether you like that kind of thing or not.

  170. 170.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    Trump looks like death warmed over in the vid and what’s up with his hair and artificial tan?

  173. 173.

    Juju

    @Quinerly: I couldn’t bring myself to watch the announcement because that breathing sniffling thing is so damb annoying. Also Trump.

  175. 175.

    Viva BrisVegas

    @Major Major Major Major:

    Yes:
    – space opera
    – genre-savvy fantasy (see above re Pratchett)
    – classics (might pick up The Gods Themselves, just read The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress and The Stars My Destination)

    If you are talking classics, and on the off chance you haven’t already read them, anything by Jack Vance. He covers all three preferences.

    Tschai, Lyonesse, The Demon Prices, Emphyrio, Dragon Masters, Dying Earth.

    Then if you want a bit of Scottish socialist space opera, the late great Ian M. Banks.

    To tell the truth not much of the current crop of SF has tickled my fancy.

  176. 176.

    Villago Delenda Est

    Anyone appointed to any position by this “President” is illegitimate

    Period..

  177. 177.

    ArchTeryx

    @Bill Arnold: They thought they were just doing IT archaeology, but what they put together was the Shake and Bake recipe for a Lovecraftian Outer God, and once THAT Eldritch Abomination got set loose, finding a bottle big enough to put it back in occupied about half the story. (The other half was set on a medieval world with some amazingly creative aliens that got embroiled in the bigger plot toward the end).

  178. 178.

    joel hanes

    @chopper:

    the treatment of POC in [Lucifer’s Hammer] is comically bad.

    Agreed. And, being Niven, the treatment of female characters almost as bad.
    To be fair, his male characters are at best two-dimensional.

    One does not read Niven for character sketches;
    if you want rounded characters, you want LeGuin.

  180. 180.

    Bill Arnold

    Well this is rich. In that 2009 Minnesota law review article (link above), Kavanaugh argues that

    Congress should consider doing the same, moreover, with respect to criminal investigations and prosecutions of the President. 30 In particular, Congress might consider a law exempting a President—while in office—from criminal prosecution and investigation, including from questioning by criminal prosecutors or defense counsel.

    Then he notes that

    A second possible concern is that the country needs a check against a bad-behaving or law-breaking President. But the Constitution already provides that check. If the President does something dastardly, the impeachment process is available.

    So, without investigation, how does he suggest that the House of Representatives discovers that the President has done something dastardly? IANAL, but this seems badly reasoned, at best.

  181. 181.

    Zinsky

    Shit got real tonight. The consequences of the laziness and apathy of Democratic voters should be apparent to even the brain-damaged.

  182. 182.

    Ridnik Chrome

    I have a soft spot for Niven’s “A World Out of Time”. I’ve re-read it a few times over the years, and it still holds up pretty well for me.

    Surprised nobody’s mentioned William Gibson. “Neuromancer”, “Count Zero” and most of the stories in “Burning Chrome” are excellent and beautifully written.

    As for Kavanagh, not much we can do to block him, and once he’s on the court he’ll vote with the wingnut contingent more often than Kennedy did. Best we can hope for is that we win back the White House in 2020 and one of the nuts gets caught in bed with a live boy or a dead girl.

  183. 183.

    dm

    Speaking of Scottish SF: Ken Macleod’s *Cassini Division* is pretty space opera. It’s part of a tetraology, but can be read independently of the others. Anarchist Trotskyists in space!

  184. 184.

    Yarrow

    @bob7094: I don’t know who else is putting those up, but Mad Dog PAC is definitely doing so. Pretty sure you can buy t-shirts like that too.

  187. 187.

    Groucho48

    Surprised no one has mentioned The Expanse series, by James Corey (who is actually two people collaborating). As good a space opera series as I’ve ever read. And, the TV series has just been picked up by Amazon for season 4.

    The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet, by Becky Chambers, isn’t exactly Pratchett-style humor, but, it is a light, sunny read.

    The Lt. Leary series, by David Drake is pretty much a homage to the Aubrey-Maturin series, by Patrick O’Brien, though, not nearly on the same level, quality-wise.

    J.A. Sutherland has a similar homage to Napoleonic naval style adventures in space…the Alexis Carew series.

    For a fantasy-oriented choice…Lindsay Buroker has several series out, both fantasy and S-F. I’d recommend The Emperor’s Edge series. Pretty decent fantasy. Wise-cracking heroine main character, whose mouth continually gets her into trouble but her quick mind slowly gets her out. She, somewhat unwillingly, teams up with a premier assassin-type and they have a fine old time righting wrongs.

  188. 188.

    trnc

    @Bill Arnold:

    So, without investigation, how does he suggest that the House of Representatives discovers that the President has done something dastardly? IANAL, but this seems badly reasoned, at best.

    Totes agree, but then again, how does the same crowd who says mental illness is the number one gun issue believe that mentally ill people will be prevented from buying guns without a background check?

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