In the Senate Judiciary hearings before the lunch break, the Democrats focused relentlessly on the threat Barrett poses to the ACA. I don’t know if voters will notice, but Papaya Pinochet got awfully defensive on Twitter:
We will have Healthcare which is FAR BETTER than ObamaCare, at a FAR LOWER COST – BIG PREMIUM REDUCTION. PEOPLE WITH PRE EXISTING CONDITIONS WILL BE PROTECTED AT AN EVEN HIGHER LEVEL THAN NOW. HIGHLY UNPOPULAR AND UNFAIR INDIVIDUAL MANDATE ALREADY TERMINATED. YOU’RE WELCOME!
Republicans must state loudly and clearly that WE are going to provide much better Healthcare at a much lower cost. Get the word out! Will always protect pre-existing conditions!!!
As those of us who’ve been paying attention know, Trump started claiming he would replace the ACA with a better, cheaper healthcare plan in 2015 and has done exactly jack and shit since then except undermine the healthcare people already have and threaten to use far-right judges to throw tens of millions off their healthcare — during a pandemic with mass unemployment. He’s got no credibility on this or any other issue.
I think this is a good strategy for the Dems. Senator Whitehouse was a highlight from the morning’s statements:
WATCH: @SenWhitehouse lays out Senator Cornyn and Senate Republicans’ years of fighting to destroy the ACA and how they would be responsible for millions losing coverage and protections if Judge Barrett strikes it down. pic.twitter.com/BQk8xZf8kp
— Senate Democrats (@SenateDems) October 12, 2020
So was Senator Klobuchar:
Amy Klobuchar says the American people are the only thing that can alter Barrett's hearings: "It is you calling Republican senators and telling them enough is enough, telling them it is personal, telling them they have their priorities wrong. So do it" https://t.co/uScvfX9o80 pic.twitter.com/O2yTFqMocy
— CBS News (@CBSNews) October 12, 2020
My two senators are Republican snakes, but I called them anyway. It went to voice mail. Maybe that’s a good sign? Open thread.
Burnspbesq
Trump ALWAYS lies. Never forget that.
germy
The clip above of Whitehouse doesn’t show Cornyn’s reaction. I was watching on PBS, so they had a split screen. Cornyn removed his mask. I thought he’d interrupt Whitehouse but instead he kept quiet, just shook his head and smirked at Graham as if to say “These f*cking democrats, am I rite?”
mali muso
Can’t watch the hearings because I’m at work…although I wouldn’t be able to subject myself to them regardless. Too much blood pressure raising fury here. I dunno if calling my Senators (Kaine and Warner) would be worth it as they are on the side of good.
Jeffro
I haven’t been watching, so forgive me if one of the D Senators already spelled this out for the R Senators:
And then just walk out and hope the Ds haven’t caught this virus.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
I’ve said this elsewhere, on Day 1 of the Biden Administration, he convenes a meeting with Senate Majority Leader Schumer and Chief Justice Roberts. He offers the latter two options: we’re adding justices to the court, FOUR fucking justices buddy chew on that for a minute, *or* the Senate begins impeachment proceedings against
Amy Covid Barrettthe Handmaid as soon as Schumer stops to talk to the Villagers before hustling his arse over to the Capitol.Roberts will not want to go down in history as the Chief Justice who presided over an expanded court because the former Senate Majority leader thru out every standing norm in the process. He also won’t want to preside over an expanded court that would have an entrenched librul majority for a generation. I know Roberts has no formal say in this, hence the friendly little chat with the two people who will wreck his historical record. Thus, impeach the Handmaid’s self out of there, nominate somebody, go thru the confirmation process all with a nominal, if grudging “ok” behind the scenes from the Chief Justice.
piratedan
I think its fine, laudable for our Senators to call these people out and encourage them to participate in the process. As frustrating as it is to reach voice mail and be ignored, you get the sense of trying to have your voice heard,
If the GOP proceeds as planned, because THIS ONE SEAT and gutting the ACA (Obama’s signature achievement it could be argued) and attempted steal at the ballot box, is the hill they choose to die on takes place then
Let them… give them their shovels and break out the lawn chairs and the beer… if they think that they can have endless ownership of the rules…. well, they can THINK that…
If they choose to go there, then the Dems I would expect, after victories at the ballot box (short of Russian penetration at the ballot box and actually altering vote totals) is going to result in a more inclusive national health care plan. An expansion of the SCOTUS and the judiciary, a legislative VRA that is comprehensive against both racism, gerrymandering and voter suppression.
Then they’re gonna get climate change legislation up their ass
DC as a state, a referendum in Puerto Rico and other American territories
A move to treating the internet as a national utility
and investigations into corruption, treason, and campaign violations
bring it GOP because the American people are not playin’ any more and if you’re gonna throw down, well, we can throw down too… churches, taxed. enforcement of charity regs at the IRS. New tax laws, police reform, white collar crime enforcement… its all coming. Those of us who have been playing by the rules and watching you wink at them are not taking this shit anymore, the lights are on and if you’re not on the front porch by dark, well that sucks to be you… enjoy the doghouse.
Kay
I think Trump is supposed to coordinate his lies with the GOP Congress and the judge, so I love that he admits they’re all gunning for the ACA.
He does it every day. They all claim they aren’t, he’s screaming over them “yes we are!”
laura
Quick question for the legal beagles- overturning Roe would deny women the right to determine when and if to continue a pregnancy. Overturning Griswold would deny the right to access to birth control. But doesn’t overturning Griswold also overturn the penumbra theory that undergirds the right to privacy- and if there is no constitutional right to privacy, doesnt that also infringe on a man’s rights and not just women as Roe and Griswold are currently framed? Who or what entity benefits if there is no legal right to privacy?
Joy in FL
Betty Cracker, I have the same senators you have. I just called and also got voicemail for each one.
Dorothy A. Winsor
Mr DAW just tried to fix the zipper on his pants by using crazy glue. This will not end well.
sdhays
@laura: Facebook.
Baud
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
Was he wearing them at the time?
trnc
Good one. I’m proud of this group for being able to manufacture new nicknames 4 years into the atrocity.
narya
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: I think Justice BeerMe is easier to impeach. so much shady dealing there. And I think Kennedy’s retirement is worthy of investigation as well. Lay it all bare.
Jerzy Russian
Is it too much to ask that anyone from the press actually ask to see the details of Trump’s healthcare “plan”? How many Senate and Congress hearings on the ACA were held? How many on Trump’s plan so far (after 4+ years)?
Kay
This is the nonsense the far Right judge and her political colleagues are asking you to accept- you may not mention anything about her personal life and how that informs her work, EXCEPT if it’s politically beneficial to her.
It’s gibberish and it happens every time they’re jamming one of these judges onto the court. Pick. Choose ONE. Either your personal life and beliefs inform your work or they don’t. You don’t just get to pick the ones that benefit Donald Trump’s reelection campaign.
What they’re telling you is the judge will rule based on her personal experiences and in the next breath they deny it. It’s incoherent.
Betty Cracker
Our big ol’ vegan teddy bear, Senator Cory Booker, is bringing the righteous wrath.
Baud
@Jerzy Russian:
Yes, because it has nothing to do with Biden’s views on court packing.
SiubhanDuinne
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
Um.
You’re a storyteller. If you don’t take us to the last page of the last chapter of this episode, I will be disappoint.
Betty Cracker
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Hooboy! Stand by with scissors?
Baud
@Kay:
Wait, we can take her kids away if she votes the wrong way?
Jerzy Russian
@Baud: Who among us hasn’t glued their peckers to their pants?
SiubhanDuinne
@Betty Cracker:
Isn’t he lovely? ?
Baud
@Jerzy Russian:
Those of us who don’t wear pants.
SaltWaterCleanse
@piratedan: A-fucking-MEN!
J R in WV
This is from way down on the first hearing thread, posted here so more folks may see it:
October 12, 2020 at 12:07 pm
@Ohio Mom:
There is a religious movement among the Theocratic Nut Jobs to take very literally the text in the Bible about “Spare the Rod and Spoil the Child” — to use corporeal punishment on children as soon as they resist, as in pre-toddler aged babies. The specific age number I saw was 8 months. Here’s their favorite text, and note that it only addresses sons, daughters don’t count as they are as sheep, plain old property:
It’s in the Bible. If you don’t beat your kids, you hate them, but those who beat their kids, love them. It isn’t the most hateful instruction in the Bible, but it’s pretty close. So these kids have learned that they will be hurt for the slightest failure to obey any requirement of any adult. They have been spanked and beaten with switches. Rods. Stand at attention or get hit. With a stick, lest you hurt your hand.
In boot camp, the Drill Instructors are not allowed to hit adult recruits. They may not be allowed to use profanity any more, although I learned a good bit of creative cursing in Boot Camp. But little kids, infants, THOSE LITTLE BABIES, you are instructed, required, to beat them, in Amy Covid Barrett’s religion.
I suppose it is too much to hope for that, since all they are allowed to ask about is her wonderful family, she will get remorselessly questioned about child rearing and corporeal punishments. And then i hope Child Protective Services comes to take those kids away and provide them with counseling and love, because sure to God they aren’t getting any love but the beating kind at home right now.
I guess I should say here at the end, I don’t know for a fact that Amy and her master/husband use corporeal punishment on their kids, but I would bet thousands of dollars on it. It is a pretty common requirement among fundamentalist religious, and it’s common knowledge that she belongs to one of the more fundamental sects of Catholicism, was in fact a Handmaid in that primitive sect.
Immanentize
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
Baud got there first
Jeffro
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: Why negotiate? Just add the four seats (and 50% more federal judges too) and keep on moving down our long national to-do list.
clay
@Dorothy A. Winsor: I think DAW is the noise he’s going to make when it all goes wrong.
Jeffro
@Betty Cracker: I thought he was at home planning how to destroy the suburbs starting in January? ;)
Immanentize
@Betty Cracker: Lorena Bobbitt on line two…
Salty Sam
@Jerzy Russian: It’s not like he hasn’t been asked. But it is a futile gesture- he just goes into Gish Gallop mode. He’s got nuthin’.
Betty Cracker
It’s cold comfort, but I’m gratified that Barrett has to sit there while Democratic senators call out her corrupt fraud of a president, denounce the fraudulent charade of this hearing and recount in detail the human costs of the actions everyone knows she intends to take.
Kay
@Baud:
How dare you mention her kids. They’re only to be used politically to argue that the fact that she has them means she won’t take away health insurance for 20 million people.
Kids: off limits when it’s politically incovenient for the judge in her campaign, but in play when they’re politically beneficial.
She’s yet another “rules don’t apply to me” Trump employee.
Ryan
Now, now, I’m sure Trump’s ACA replacement is only under routine audit.
trnc
What is the magic number of kids that make you care about health care? DT has 5 and pretty obviously doesn’t give a crap. Also, “I care about health care” doesn’t equal “I will not baselessly call the ACA unconstitutional.”
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Baud: No. Thank god for small mercies
He wasn’t wearing them at the time. So the denouement is yet to come.
Baud
@Kay:
Somehow I think she and her kids will be ok without the ACA.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@Jeffro:
Regarding expanding the judiciary, I agree, just do it.
Regarding the SC, Dems still need to consider optics. I know, I know, the GOP doesn’t but then they get to play under the Villager IOKIYAR rules. By offering an option, the Dems can say “we tried not to pack the court *and* right on obvious wrong”
Villagers will still interpret thru a GOP lens but what can you do?
Baud
@trnc:
Scalia had 9 kids.
ETA: one is now Secretary of Labor.
Betty Cracker
My secret to getting through these hearings? I mute the Republicans, except for Graham since he might have something to say about who’s up next or other procedural matters. Graham really is an old-timey bagman rather than a pure ideologue like Cruz or Hawley. He’ll go along with whatever is in fashion among the people he needs to cling to power, and right now, that’s wingnut judges. As horrible and corrupt as Graham is, he’s preferable to the Cruzes and Hawleys of the world.
SiubhanDuinne
Kamala’s up!
ETA: Hope they can fix the sound. Can hardly understand her.
The Moar You Know
Trump is about to be in for the shock of his life when the Supreme Court rules the ACA unconstitutional in November and the GOP does nothing to replace it. That will happen whether he wins or loses.
“Useful idiot” is all he has been for the last four years and he still hasn’t figured that out.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud: If he is, this could end very badly and very painfully.
germy
Kamala!
She just mentioned the safety of the janitorial staff, something no republican here has ever even thought of.
trnc
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: What would be the basis for impeachment, and how would it get 67 votes to impeach?
Bart would also be a long shot, but there are clearly financial improprieties to investigate. Still, republicans are shameless, so I say quit screwing around and expand the court. It really should be larger at this point anyway.
sdhays
@J R in WV: Now that I’m a parent myself, I understand parents who shake their babies. It’s terrible and tragic, but the combination of sleep deprivation and feelings of helplessness can lead one to make one awful mistake. We never got to that point, thank goodness, but I now understand. It was a terrifying realization to make.
I will never, ever understand how anyone can beat a child. Just the thought is monstrous.
Kay
@The Moar You Know:
He decided to run on “black people are all criminals” rather than the economy or health care. The geniuses at Fox advised him. It’s actually the second time Republicans have done this. They ran on “terrifying brown people in caravans” in ’18 rather than health care or the economy.
geg6
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
Was John Cole giving him advice? Sounds totally like a Cole move.
A Ghost to Most
I would rather be eaten by pigs than watch that christian fascist piece of shit lie.
trnc
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: As Josh Marshall points out, “court packing” is a loaded and pejorative term. There are legitimate reasons to expand the court and McConnell’s actions during the last 10 years can be Exhibit 1.
laura
@Jerzy Russian: just gonna leave this here: https://youtu.be/cnfClJTA3Xc
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@trnc:
The easy part is the basis because presumably the Senate could find anything to hang their hat on. The real reason for impeachment would be the process we’re witnessing in real time.
Getting to 67 votes would be impossible, that is true.
catclub
@Betty Cracker: also acetone
trnc
If by “shock of his life,” you mean “counting on it,” I agree.
My snark meter may need adjustment, though.
germy
Kamala Harris has a RBG “I Dissent” poster behind her as she speaks.
Kay
These are great numbers and make it more likely Biden leads nationally by double digits rather than the 7 or 8 he had led by.
We need a big number to protect voters from the Trump judges. Keep the Trump judges away from voters or they’ll give it to Trump.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@trnc:
Agreed that “court packing” is the right wing framing of the issue and of course the Beltway Media Corpse is using it.
Mandarama
I called MarshaMarshaMarsha! Blackburn’s office and left a message saying that I sure would like to know what this healthcare Trump keeps talkin’ about is gonna look like, because I have family on Obamacare and if they get rid of it I need to know what this better plan will be like. I *went* to Sen. Blackburn’s webpage already, but I just couldn’t find a thing explaining what insurance might be like. And this is why a lot of my friends and neighbors are thinkin’ of voting for the other side.
I have a light, high voice with a Mississippi accent. I am a bad person. Now it’s time to call Lamar and be disingenuous all over again.
KithKanan
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: While I agree “the Senate could find anything to hang their hat on”, I’m not sure that would look less legitimate than court expansion (unless you manage to get the 67 votes to convict and in that case we’re already in a different world)
catclub
The ruling won’t come until sometme after april. I was hoping you were writing about a taser.
germy
@Mandarama:
Trump says he’ll have it ready for you in two weeks.
Brachiator
@laura:
Right wing government.
Lots of people hate Facebook and Google, for reasons valid and not so valid. But some governments have been going after these tech companies and others to prevent encryption from being used on various devices. And police forces have been aching for more access to information on smartphones and computers. A right leaning court will tip the scales in favor of government.
Employers want more control over workers, especially those working at home. And businesses want to be able to get information on employees to determine what benefits they may give or deny them.
The possibilities are endless if people cannot assert a right to privacy.
sdhays
@Kay: You’re surely not suggesting that the bobble-heads at Fox are mistaken about what real Americans care about?
trnc
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: Perhaps the dem response to every court packing question could be, “Do you mean expansion of the court for the first time in 150 years or the court packing practiced by the republican senate for the last 10?”
MisterForkbeard
NPR just posted the most infuriating article I’ve ever seen:
The fix is in. Democrats aren’t allowed to talk about the nominee’s beliefs, her experiences, her past history or what she’ll vote on when installed. What the utter fuck are they thinking?
Baud
@Kay: Wisconsin was supposed to be a problem for Biden, but now he’s leading by more than in Michigan? That’s great.
MisterForkbeard
@catclub: If Biden’s get the Senate and the House maybe they can short-circuit this whole clusterfuck of a legal argument by instituting a $0.01 penalty for the mandate.
Ugh. I hate that we have to play games like this in order to keep people healthy.
patrick II
The term Democrats use when describing what is at stake, “Losing access to Healthcare”, is too abstract. What that means in the actual world is that people die unnecessarily, about 832 out of 100,000 according to a study of a state that did not expand Medicaid compared to one that did. That means, with 23,000,000 people with access to healthcare through ACA or expanded Medicare, nearly 200,000 lives yearly. Not unlike another number of deaths Republicans are willing to put up with rather than have responsible government. Other people live in needless pain or fear: fear of a heart attack, or fear of diabetic shock. With the ACA, bankruptcies due to medical costs went down by half and so there were fewer divorces, fewer children without food or adequate living space.
“Lack of access to health insurance” covers many unnamed real-world harms. Name them. People die, feel loss and pain. Someone on the judicial committee should stop worrying about being impolite or hurting Republican feelings and describe the actual costs in terms of lost lives, pain, and suffering, not just the loss of an insurance policy.
Chyron HR
Has the Bernievolution praised Trump for running to the left of
HillaryBiden yet?Kay
@sdhays:
I’m relieved. We aren’t going to have a country left if these people remain in power. The level of corruption alone is nation-destroying and we only know probably 1% of what they have stolen and traded and pissed away.
I was pleased that the Trump Administration corruption scandal that the NYTimes uncovered was on the local radio news today. It was their lead story. I’m grateful to the NYTimes for doing it.
geg6
@trnc:
Yes, this. It’s simple and easy to understand. Very little explanation needed.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Pundits aren’t the obstacle. Dianne Feinstein is, probably King and Manchin too. Barbara Bollier was a Republican this time two years ago. I don’t see Steve Bullock as a likely big change agent, nor Mark Kelly or John Hickenlooper. New polling shows a shrinking lead for Gary Peters in Michigan, one point today in a poll that shows Biden up 8 there.
At the risk of being the skunk at the picnic, let’s get some chickens hatched before we start fantasizing about Chuck Schumer’s transformational Senate.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@MisterForkbeard:
Reason #1,456 why people should never give money to public radio nor listen to it. Well, at least never listen to their “news” programs.
Kay
@Baud:
It is great. He’s doing better than I thought he would and I thought he would win those states. It’s also nice for Biden personally because his approval rating keeps going up. It isn’t just anti-Trump. The more they see of Biden the more they like him.
Baud
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Ugh. Michigan.
PJ
@laura: The Christianist right benefits.
frosty
I have never gotten anything but voicemail when calling Toomey (spit!). I’ve slacked off since it appears to be useless, but I’ll try calling again today as Klobuchar suggested.
germy
Kay
@The Moar You Know:
YOU must feel pretty vindicated as Balloon Juice’s most loyal Biden supporter, huh? :)
The Moar You Know
@trnc: Impeachment is not a remedy available to either party in the Not Very United States either now or in the foreseeable future and it is annoying and ridiculous that posters here, who should know far more than the average bear about how shit works in this country, keep positing that it could be. I doubt anyone could get 67 votes for a miracle cure for coronavirus, even one that included a tax-free way to eliminate the deficit, if one was found tomorrow.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
I will grant you that that is an oxymoron. Or is that oxymoran?
Bill Arnold
@SiubhanDuinne:
Deliberate, perhaps?
Baud
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Chances are we’ll have to keep the issue alive for a couple of years and hope we have a good 2022 instead of the typical backlash.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@The Moar You Know: thank you, barring some extraordinary revelations, no SC Justice is going to be impeached, much less removed. And future openings on the court are more likely to come from Kavanaugh’s documented fondness for beer and red-faced rages, and I’ll speculatively add cheeseburgers, fries and sitting on the couch.
Steeplejack
I haven’t allowed myself to watch the hearing; my rage gland would be overloaded. I’m getting exercised enough just reading Twitter and comments here.
I wonder how much of this filters down to the “not massively on-line” population. People who barely look at the “evening news” on the traditional networks and/or just check cable news once in a while. I keep thinking of the stories about people hearing of the Republicans’ actual policies and flat out not believing it.
brantl
Who is the asshole up right now? I have never heard a voice that screamed “shit-kicker cracker” quite so loud as this ass-clown. Jeez, Martha Blackburn looks like shit.
germy
Safety first, unless you’re a republican.
Searcher
@Betty Cracker:
You know, that might be the benefit of trying to impeach/investigate Kavanaugh.
Even if there is a 0% chance of it resulting in a removal, he should have his feet held to the fire again about the shadier aspects of his personal and professional life.
germy
@brantl:
Kennedy.
frosty
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Nope, he’s doing it wrong. Gorilla glue for zippers. Or, he can use the universal DIY Guidance for Men:
If it sticks and it shouldn’t, WD-40.
If it doesn’t stick and it should, Duct Tape
(sorry for hijacking the thread)
Steeplejack
@Jeffro:
Who said this?
jonas
Republicans: We need people with strong conservative religious convictions on the court so that their faith can lead them in making the right decisions.
Also Republicans: How dare Democrats bring up our nominee’s religious beliefs! Those have nothing to do with the position!
Sab
My Catholic husband is feeling very insulted that the Senate is holding hearings on Columbus day, when their staff should be off since it’s a federal holiday.//
Uncle Cosmo
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: @trnc:
You Jackals pride yourselves on your alleged intelligence –
So why do so many of you continue to routinely confuse impeachment – which is the responsibility of the House of Representatives, sitting as the equivalent of a grand jury, delivering the equivalent of an indictment by a simple majority – with a subsequent trial by the full US Senate and eventual conviction and removal from office upon a vote by 2/3 of that body?
It’s been less than 10 months since we last went through this process, fer dogsake!
germy
@frosty:
I tried using gorilla glue once. Added water first, following instructions, and it foamed up like a volcano science class project.
Kay
They don’t like Mike Pence either. Can you imagine? Mike Pence is the charismatic member of the Trump Administration. He’s who they haul out when they really have to turn on the ol charm.
No one ever, in the world, thought that prior to Donald Trump and apparently they still don’t.
brantl
This woman has literally no record, and you’d think she was Jesus, in drag. And if I hear “texualism” one more time, I am going to vomit.
Immanentize
@The Moar You Know: They won’t rule on the ACA until next June. They are just hearing arguments in November.
Brachiator
@The Moar You Know:
This is why McConnell is so hot to get Barrett onto the Supreme Court. The elimination of the ACA will be a Republican victory no matter what happens to Trump in the election.
Republicans believe that they will be safely isolated from any negative consequences by the wealth of their plutocrat masters. This is also why neither they nor Trump have ever offered an alternative to the ACA, and never will.
We have also seen that the GOP will never try to replace the ACA because they fundamentally believe that people who cannot afford to buy health insurance do not deserve it, and do not deserve any help in getting it. And they fundamentally believe that insurance companies have a right to make as much money as possible, in any way they wish, without interference from or regulation by government.
And Trump wants to kill the ACA because Obama got it passed and enacted. And if, by some foul misdeeds, he is re-elected, he will through some meager health care vouchers or credits and people and go play golf.
Steeplejack
@comrade scotts agenda of rage:
Impeach Kavanaugh as well, based on his murky finances and his lying during his confirmation hearing. To put the frosting on the cake, make Merrick Garland one of the replacements.
The Moar You Know
@laura: There is no legal right to privacy now. Roe and Griswold endorse a legal assumption of privacy in certain areas of our lives, but not a “right” to privacy as such a right does not not exist.
If it did, police and intelligence agencies that work the domestic side of things (FBI, NSA, CIA, etc) would not exist in the manner in which we know them today.
Amir Khalid
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
Is crazy glue a brand of cyanoacrylate glue? If so I suggest having some acetone handy.
gene108
@comrade scotts agenda of rage:
Koch charities are happy to fill in the fundraising shortfalls.
There has to be a way for NPR to understand their political news programming usually sucks.
Winston
If I was Amy, I’d be pissed about Republicans harping on my religion and family all the time.
Baud
Once Roe and Griswold are overruled, I for one look forward to the laws forcing everyone to wear masks — including after everyone gets a vaccine.
neldob
@MisterForkbeard: I hope you commented on it and/or wrote NPR a letter. Squeaky wheel and all that.
What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us?
@narya: I say impeach all 3 Trump SCOTUS justices, maybe even go as far as impeaching all the lower court ones too on the grounds that we can’t have a criminal appointing judges.
germy
@Winston: She’d probably rather than than her judicial record and writings.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@The Moar You Know: If it could cut the capital gains tax rate too, they might. //
Mandarama
@germy: Well, since Marsha is one of his BFF’s, maybe she can give me a hint?
Yeah, probably not. I remember pestering the shit out of her office during the ACA discussions, when she was a Rep and I had the misfortune of being gerrymandered into her district. Her staff was clueless as hell.
She has NO real positions; only contrarianism. Everything is “the left, the left.” I was hoping that Stein Mart going into bankruptcy might help her die of a broken heart, but I imagine she’s upgrading now that she’s getting fancy Senator lobbying gifts.
MomSense
Did anyone else LOL when Kennedy was speaking?
Patricia Kayden
Steeplejack
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
I hope he’s not wearing the pants.
Betty Cracker
@Kay: Yep, credit where it’s due, The Times did a helluva job.
Uncle Cosmo
@Baud: It’s great…except that those polls don’t factor in the obstacles to voting that will be thrown in the way of Democrats, especially those who are POC. I wish the pollsters had some way to correct for that.
IIRC Hillary lost WI by ~22,000 votes when ~90,000 voters in heavily Democratic areas were disenfranchised by Snotty Walker and his goons. Snotty may be gone but IIUC the Thugs still dominate the WI legislature.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@frosty: Mr DAW is a engineer and has repeated that WD-40/Duct Tape advice to me. I look forward to seeing what happens when he tries to wear the pants.
Kay
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
I don’t know if it’s true but Michigan Democrats say Peters always looks vulnerable but never really is. He is a weirdly under the radar senator but that seems to have worked for him his whole career.
Baud
@Uncle Cosmo: Agree. But the suppression is built in regardless of what the polls say, so it’s still good that Biden’s numbers are where they are.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Amir Khalid: I don’t know the chemical. It’s also called super glue.
Kay
@Betty Cracker:
It’s great work. You know I think corruption is a huge problem and I know you do too. I keep hoping Warren was just a woman before her time and it becomes a top tier issue.
I want it cleaned up. It’s gross and they’re out of control. I want a crackdown.
Winston
I have to admit I had to look up Kennedy’s party affiliation. I always thought he was GOP. And so he is. But his soliloquy was about half fair.
brantl
Lindsey is pontificating on that he “has to go to work”, when will he start? And apparently, even though he is supposed to be a navy lawyer, he can’t pronounce latin terms.
Baud
@Betty Cracker:
The NYT isn’t garbage because of a lack of journalistic capability, but because of many of its journalistic choices.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Amir Khalid:
just the other day I had an unfortunate incident with Gorilla Glue, and had to go buy some nail polish remover. I was next in line at target when I looked down at the bottle and learned there is such a thing as non-acetone nail polish remover, but the acetone kind does come in handy individual wipes. For next time.
Baud
@Winston: I think he was once a Dem, so maybe he has a residual glow.
The Moar You Know
@Kay: Not really. I made my choice early on, it is true, but everyone else had to get there as well. It all boiled down to two things: who had the numbers and who had the character. Biden was always the only Dem candidate who had the numbers against Trump, and personally, I think he has a unique combination of humility and backbone that this country desperately needs in these times.
Jinchi
The line probably sounded smart in his head, but what does he think the subject is exactly?
Democrats are warning that Republicans are rushing the Barrett nomination because they hope to have her in place to rule on ending the health care law, which oddly was scheduled for a week after the election and which Republicans have explicitly admitted is their goal.
Delk
@Dorothy A. Winsor: I hope the zipper didn’t break because the pants were too tight.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud: Mandatory masks, but pants is a bridge too far!
brantl
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Acetone does liver damage.
Jager
@SiubhanDuinne: Was Mr. DAW wearing them at the time of repair?
Somebody beat me to the question.
MisterForkbeard
@germy: Preach. There is literally a COVID positive senator there without a mask. Still in the infectious stage, almost certainly.
Baud
@?BillinGlendaleCA: My (lower half of my) body, my choice.
frosty
@Dorothy A. Winsor: @Amir Khalid: Yes, crazy glue and super glue are cyanoacrilates. They’re excellent for gluing your fingers together!
Bill Arnold
@catclub:
Or nail polish remover. (More often found in a house.)
neldob
@Kay: Me too. It doesn’t get enough headlines. and corruption destroys a democracy just as well as Republicans. Maybe they are the same thing, or at least equivalent. That’s part of what I like about Dems, the anti-corruption aspect.
Betty Cracker
@Patricia Kayden: To be fair, lots of so-called conservative women have no idea what feminism is. Ronna McDaniel, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, Kellyanne Conway, etc., routinely demand that feminists defend them from suffering the consequences of serving a sexist nightmare president (such as comped cheese plates and a polite request to vacate the premises of a privately owned business).
Aleta
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Sitcom episode in 15 words.
MisterForkbeard
@neldob: Absolutely commented on it. I’m usually somewhat supportive of NPR aside from their need to use weasel words to describe actual Republican lies, but in this case the comment started off as “Oh Fuck OFF NPR” before actually explaining what their problem was.
My wife and I mostly stopped donating to NPR years ago. They’re not trash but they have really horrible judgment. I used to listen for their political news and shows, and now I have to actively avoid it.
Jager
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
Get him a couple of pairs of underwear with no fly, then have him wear them with his sealed up pants.
WhatsMyNym
@MisterForkbeard:
“Nice Polite Republicans” – they have been garbage since…always.
Hoodie
@Brachiator: You’re probably right that Trump is just acting out of animus towards Obama, but I think the GOP leadership (McConnell) believes that invalidating the ACA at this particular time (e.g, in the first year of a Biden admin) will give them political leverage, while avoiding having to actually propose any alternative. The GOP just wants to be able to say no to whatever the Democrats come up with and put the Democrats into a position of having to defend whatever new version of the ACA they come up with for the next election cycle. He also wants to force a repeat of the internecine fight in the Democratic Party over single-payer, Medicare-for-all, etc.
Assuming Biden wins, that approach is particularly attractive for McConnell if he can hold on to the Senate, as he will effectively have a veto over whatever legislation passes in the House. He will stall and blame everything on the House and/or Biden. It’s less ideal if he loses the Senate, but he still would be in the position of having the Democrats having to decide whether to just technically tinker with the ACA enough to render the current SC case moot or go forward with more progressive alternatives like M4A. Either way, he gets to ratfuck Dem unity.
Bill Arnold
@comrade scotts agenda of rage:
It’s not even the right word. “Packing” is how one describes [packing] 30 pounds of (Right Wing!) cloths in a carry-on bag.
Right-sizing, perhaps, is a good word for expanding the court to make it better able to hear cases. E.g. there are 13 circuit courts, so maybe one Supreme Court judge per circuit court?
Nicole
@Kay:
You and me both. As someone who has had a couple of bouts of cancer, I have come to the belief that the GOP is a cancer, and every so often the US voters perform surgery by voting them out of power. Problem is, the Democrats don’t use their time in power to do any follow-up treatment, and so the GOP cancer metastasizes and comes back stronger and more aggressive each time (see: Watergate to Iran Contra to Iraq to Trump). We are in desperate need of some follow-up treatment, and if some corrupt Democrats get taken down in the government investigatory version of chemo, that’s fine. It’s the only reason I can think of for why the Democrats repeatedly refuse to do any aggressive follow-up on GOP lawbreaking- that some of their own will go down, too, but at this point, man, we’ve got to.
The Moar You Know
@Amir Khalid: Yes. TBH I’ve always been a bit surprised that you can buy it just anywhere, the stuff is dangerous in a variety of ways that the vast majority of people who use it would never think of.
I had a couple of coworkers in my guitar building days who developed a pretty nasty allergy to the stuff. I won’t work with it indoors. It is very, very bad for your lungs and eyes.
Amir Khalid
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
Then it is a cyanoacrylate glue. Nail polish remover is made of acetone, do you have that in the house?
James E Powell
@Baud:
I’ve always thought Michigan would be a bigger problem, for Biden and Peters. Outside of urban areas, Michigan is a nightmare of right-wing insanity.
MisterForkbeard
@Jinchi: Right. I used to think Kay was overly concerned about the con job R’s are pushing on Barrett, but it’s even worse than she thought it was.
We can’t discuss anything about her. It’s not allowed. Talking about her stated, written views isn’t okay – that’s attacking her religion. Oh, and her religion is also supposed to guide her morally as a judge, except where it isn’t. And she won’t answer questions about her future rulings. She’s hidden information about her views from the public AND the Senate, and we’re not allowed to care or mention that either. And we’re not allowed to talk about the utter ridiculousness of her nomination, the fact that she’s in a currently stolen seat, or how her open statements on how she wants the Supreme Court to rule would impact millions of Americans. Nope – not acceptable to our media overlords.
What’s left: She’s a Christian lady with a lot of kids who’s been personally nice to her networking opportunities. Nice to know that’s the minimum requirement for a Supreme Court Justice.
Chief Oshkosh
@MisterForkbeard: Who is Covid-positive and is that Senator actually in the room and not masked? Seems like that Senator needs to be moved to sit right between Grassley and McConnell.
And then somebody needs to sprinkle some pepper around…
Winston
JASPER, COME IN. (do they even have internet down there?)
geg6
@Chief Oshkosh:
Mike Lee of UT, I believe.
germy
Well that settles that.
Yutsano
@geg6: I’m not watching, but from what I understand Mike Lee (R-UT) is the asshole spilling virii like mad all over the hearing room.
brantl
I find this Amy Covid Barrett just as smarmy as all of the other Republican’ts I have seen everywhere. I also here that I can’t stand the way these people smack their lips when they speak.
BruceFromOhio
@James E Powell: You can substitute “Ohio” for “Michigan” there, and still be accurate.
germy
“Republicans finally realized that the ACA is too popular to repeal in Congress, so now they are trying to bypass the will of the voters, and have the Supreme Court do their dirty work.”
(Kamala Harris)
PsiFighter37
@James E Powell: That’s true of Pennsylvania as well, and pretty much any area outside of the West Coast and the Northeast (to a lesser extent), IMO.
BruceFromOhio
@brantl:
It’s the anticipation of the cruelty resulting from conservative policy yet to come.
James E Powell
I don’t think anything will make any difference to Republicans. I think the almost certain likelihood of Trump’s defeat only reinforces their determination to put this right-wing religious fanatic on the court.
That said, calls are okay, but nothing has impact like letters. It shows a really determined voter with a sure to be long memory who will make the effort.
I think TV ads that hammer the points made by Senator Whitehouse might be effective in states where a Republican senator is running for re-election.
clay
@The Moar You Know: I was on board the Biden train fairly early. (I was waffling between him and Harris and once she dropped out…)
For me, it was experience and temperament, yes, but also who he surrounded himself with. He put together the best campaign team BY FAR among the Democratic field, and I took that as a reasonably good sign of how he’d approach governing.
cain
@The Moar You Know:
Sure. I wonder what his return fire is going to be? He still has the MAGA munchkins. That’s a lot of fire power. He’ll probably burn the party to the ground, start a new party and make sure they don’t vote republican. OK, I can dream can’t I?
Betty Cracker
Good news! When Barrett takes away your healthcare access and reproductive rights, she’ll consider it as if she were ripping her own children’s healthcare/reproductive rights away. (Hypothetical, of course, as her children’s healthcare access/reproductive rights won’t ever be at risk.)
Splitting Image
@J R in WV:
Just wanted to point out that the non-wingnut consensus among Bible scholars is that the rod referred to here is a shepherd’s crook, in keeping with the many other metaphors in the books comparing the Lord to a shepherd.
Shepherds don’t use the crook to beat lambs. They use it to pull them back towards the flock when they stray off by themselves. As always, the fundamentalist reading of the passage is built on the fact that they look for passages in the books to justify whatever it is they want to do already.
In this case, they quote this verse over and over because they want to beat their kids and need something to justify it.
Jinchi
@Chief Oshkosh:
Is the congressional physician a partisan? Why would any doctor give the green-light for Mike Lee to attend and tell Graham that there is no need to test people attending the hearings?
James E Powell
@BruceFromOhio:
@PsiFighter37:
Agreed re Ohio. I think what’s happened with my beloved home state is that the cities have shrunk/not grown at the same rate as the nation while the overwhelmingly white, fundamentalist christian, ex-urban and rural areas have held on.
I don’t know anything about Peters in Michigan. Why would he be in danger? Is he the target of the hatred that they feel for Whitmer?
Wolf
Republican Healthcare Plan:
Nothing!
sukabi
@Dorothy A. Winsor: lol…well it was crazy glue or duct tape…soooo….?????
sukabi
@Betty Cracker: isn’t he a bit old for a circumcision?
Splitting Image
@Splitting Image:
To add to my previous comment, it is reasonable to assume that Barrett will treat the constitution and existing law the exact same way she treats the Bible. A willingness to distort “scripture” to obtain a pre-determined outcome would seem relevant to her competence as a judge.
Winston
WTF?
danielx
@germy:
And if there’s a source you can trust…with forthright views like that I’m surprised he doesn’t have a Fox News gig.
ETA: he might even appeal to a younger demographic!
Tim C.
@The Moar You Know: Would the decision come in November or in the Spring?
Kay
@MisterForkbeard:
And wildly exaggerating the “brilliance” of writing things like this “courts can’t solve all the problems”
It’s low level political punditry. She can put it in her opening statement if she wants to but I hope she doesn’t think she came up with this brilliant insight “correcting” something literally no one believes.
Why can’t she just be portrayed as smart? Why do we have to turn these people into oracles? She’s a smart, ambitious lawyer with a lot of academic experience and almost no practical experience either working as a lawyer or in a courtroom. There are a lot of them. Some of them end up on the Supreme Court.
chopper
@Kay:
come on, kay. obviously, having a really great employer health care plan as a federal employee that covers her whole family with or without the ACA clearly means that she’ll vote to hold on, i’ll come in again
Betty
@laura: Yes, lgbtq rights depend on it too.
Betty Cracker
So, that’s a wrap until tomorrow. I’m not favorably disposed toward Barrett since she’s a dishonest fanatic who wants to send us back to the dark ages. But now that she’s spoken in public, I’m happy to see she doesn’t come across as a more sympathetic character. Her fellow fanatics and the donor class sold her to Trump on the basis of “central casting.” That works on some people. But she’s not a good enough actress to really sell the sympathetic mom disguise, IMO.
Yutsano
@Tim C.: The hearing itself is in November. The decision itself will come down in the spring.
Personal prediction: Barrett will get on the court and take a stiletto to Kavanaugh’s head for his abject stupidity.
Amir Khalid
@germy:
I take Johnny Rotten’s political opinions about as seriously as I do Kanye’s.
chopper
@Wolf:
“not even help with the 20,000 dollar ER bill from your kid’s broken arm, which i would appreciate if you would put up personally”
germy
@Amir Khalid:
Someone in the thread called the sex pistols the Punk Monkees.
chopper
@germy:
do it for anarchy!
catclub
@MisterForkbeard: 1. there was some talk that by including modifications to the ACA in the emergency covid support bill, the Congress and the president have implicitly accepted the present ACA.
2.The fixes need to be much more expansive. based on the first Roberts equl dignitude of the states and medicaid ruling. a standalone medicaid expansion is change #1.
Kay
@chopper:
Not be a rabble rouser, but her work experience is not in any way, shape or form the norm in this country. It’s true of a lot of higher level judges and I think it’s a problem. They don’t have enough direct experience with how people actually live and it gets worse the longer they stay on the bench.
Go read Kennedy’s opinion on voter ID. It’s a fucking fantasy world he lives in. For one thing he seems to imagine that everyone uses air travel, which is so profoundly dumb you wonder if he’s ventured outside his palatial estate in the last 50 years. You know who understands the problems poor people have with ID? Municipal court judges. They’re the people who accept the folded up, wear-torn birth certificate because they don’t have anything else.
brantl
@Kay: Much as she doesn’t like Roberts, she’s following his guidelines for her confirmation (just call “balls and strikes”), which is how we got the monstrosity that is Roberts.
catclub
Joe Morgan has died.
Kay
@brantl:
I turned on her one minute into the Rose Garden speech. “I never imagined I would be here today”
Why start with a lie? I like ambitious people. Why blow smoke up my ass unless you’re arrogant and think I’m an idiot?
Omnes Omnibus
@Baud: Chickens hatching and all that, but I’ve been pushing back at the WI doomers for a long time. I am not surprised at the polls in the state.
Delk
@Amir Khalid: he’s pretty vacant.
Ruckus
@Betty Cracker:
Scissors? Being of the same persuasion as Mr. DAW I can truthfully state that scissors in that vicinity would be very nerve racking. VERY. Now also if I were him I might trust her with them, but I’d have to ask, is that trust always valid……
Gvg
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: the non acetone stuff seems to work almost as well. Try it.
Amir Khalid
@germy:
A very astute someone.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Amir Khalid: I have nail polish remover. Will await developments.
JPL
Senator Peters’ wife needed an emergency abortion, or she could have died. link We need to fund raise for him, because of his courage to share.
Nicole
@germy:
Ha! Although that’s a bit of an insult to the Monkees. They may have been a fake band, but 2 of them were pretty accomplished musicians (Nesmith and Tork).
VeniceRiley
I’m for making DC and PR into states and impeaching every single judge and justice appointed by trump EN MASSE under the logic that he stole the election with the help of Vlad. So all consequences that flowed from that are poison apples.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@brantl:
It’s a job requirement to be in the modern GOP.
Splitting Image
@germy:
That’s actually an insult to the Monkees.
A better comparison might be the Spice Girls, and that would probably be an insult to them too.
JustRuss
@patrick II: This. Republicans know how framing works, and Democrats get too caught up in nuance and detail. The media is partly to blame, if the Democrats pointed out that the leopards were eating people’s faces our media would say “while it’s true that the leopards have consumed many people’s noses and other anatomical bits, they’ve never been known to eat an eyebrow, so we give this three Pinnochios.”
oatler.
https://crooksandliars.com/2020/10/nurse-who-spoke-at-rnc-arrested
James E Powell
@Nicole:
David Jones and Mickey Dolenz were also pretty good singers, the Monkees did some pretty good songs, and the TV show was entertaining in its own way.
germy
@Splitting Image:
I always despised the sex pistols and never understood friends who thought they were worth listening to. The group was a complete put on from the beginning, with their manager handing them a list of possible words for titles and lyrics.
JustRuss
@Nicole: And Dolenz and Jones were reasonably cromulent singers.
PJ
@Kay:
@Kay:
In the past 20 years, there have been two paths that most appointees have followed: 1) Ivy League college, Yale or Harvard for law school, S. Ct. or federal law clerk, law professor, federal judge; or 2) Ivy League college, Yale or Harvard for law school, S. Ct. or federal law clerk, party hack, federal judge. Sotomayor and Roberts have actual experience in private practice, and Roberts, Sotomayor, Breyer, Alito and Thomas worked as prosecutors, and as far as I know, Gorsuch and Kagan have not worked as actual lawyers. But the gap between the life experience of the Justices and what most people in this country go through is huge.
That needs to change. I am hopeful that non-Ivy grad Joe Biden will consider some non-Ivy law school grads with different life experiences for the Court.
Yutsano
@JPL: We can turn this around on John James as well. “In your opposition to abortion, would you have left both Senator Peters lose both his wife and his child because you wouldn’t have allowed her to remove her doomed fœtus?” Have him either say yes, no, or equivocate. Any answer dooms him. Peters is both brave and brilliant here.
germy
I thought Kamala Harris’s statement was good, and I look forward to her questions.
Yutsano
@Nicole: All four of them were irritated because they weren’t taken seriously as musicians. Instead most people in the music industry treated them as a novelty act. I think if they had more control over their music that would have helped their image. But at least they are remembered for their music as much as the show
Miss Bianca
@Nicole: Actually, all of them were. Davy Jones was a child stage star (I think he was the Artful Dodger in the West End’s original run of Oliver!), and Mickey Dolenz, also a child actor of the Hollywood persuasion, has a pretty fantastic set of pipes as well – and for a singer, he’s not a bad drummer. ; )
ETA: I see others have got there before me. Which indicates to me that either there are other Monkees fans out there in the jackaltariat, or that Amy Covid Barrett is so desperately unappealing as a topic that we’re *all* jumping on the Monkees trivia bandwagon.
Gravenstone
Acetone (nail polish remover). You don’t want scissors near the tender bits.
Kay
The Never Trumpers realizing that Republicans suppress the votes of AA people is a beautiful thing.
Because it isn’t new. They just never saw it.
oldgold
Reading this, I was not sure if I should laugh or cry.
Senator Susan Collins has doubts. “At this time I’m not certain that Judge Amy Cony Barrett is the right person to replace Justice Ginsburg. I hope that my colleagues in the Judiciary Committee will be able to alleviate my doubts.”
?BillinGlendaleCA
@PJ: Kagan was Solicitor General.
BlueDWarrior
@Miss Bianca: for me, I came across my Monkees knowledge from various documentaries on pop music. The show itself was before my time the first go around, but I’ve seen episodes as a kid in syndication.
Nickelodeon did a lot to keep the flame alive in the 80s, as did MTV. And then episodes kept floating around as I grew up in the 90s.
Hoodie
@Kay: Yes, the striking thing about so many of these lab-grown conservative nominees is their relatively thin resumes, but it shows one of the many negative aspects of legal careerism. Very little or no experience as district court judges, practicing attorneys or some commensurate experience in the political sphere. Barrett is pretty much like any first in her class graduate that 1st and 2nd tier law schools now crank out like widgets — short clerkship, mostly legal academia, a few years on the circuit court of appeals, etc. Very ivory tower, very top 1%. Compared with justices like Marshall, Ginsburg, etc., they’re complete hothouse flowers. It’s ridiculous to have just 9 people with these limited backgrounds making the kind of weighty decisions that the Court faces. They have more power than some politicians and they’ll be around forever precisely because they’re just legal careerists. It’s the legal analog of the MBA Disease.
Miss Bianca
@Kay: My God, what’s next? Will Tom Nichols suddenly come to the realization that his idol Ronald Reagan was just as rotten in his way as Trump?
Immanentize
@Miss Bianca: Best Monkees trivia to me — Steven Stills auditioned to be a Monkee, but his teeth looked bad so the network suits ditched him. Although he did do session work on some of their songs.
Kay
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
Right. Which I think would be really valuable experience. They don’t have to work in a toothpaste factory. I just think they should have some actual work experience.
What about a criminal defense attorney? THAT would be a new perspective, huh?
Yutsano
@Kay:
Oh Wilson knew and knows. He had to. He’s been way too involved in Georgia politics to not know that’s exactly what his party did and is doing. It’s just in his interest now to “have the scales fall from his eyes” as it were. It’s too cute by half and this is me not buying it. Remember: enemy of my enemy is ally of convenience.
Miss Bianca
@Immanentize: Ha ha, I knew Stills had auditioned, but I’d never heard the teeth story as a reason for his being turned down!
Wasn’t he the one who encouraged Peter Tork to try out?
Kay
@Hoodie:
And, again, if the nominee returns again and again to her experience raising 7 children then she accepts our argument. She believes herself that experience informs work. Of course it does. It completely devalues peoples work and lives to say it doesn’t. If we’re not freaking learning anything then what is the point? If I know no more now than I did the day they swore me in then what was I doing this whole time?
MisterForkbeard
@oldgold: Aw. I see Collins has backed off her demand that no one should have this seat before the next President gets to nominate someone.
Or rather, she wants to have it both ways: She’s going to make noises about it, vote to pass her out of committee and the uselessly vote ‘no’ in the confirmation vote.
chopper
@oldgold:
“preferably in the form of a bag with a dollar sign on it”
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Kay: Once upon a time they even appointed a governor to the Court.
Immanentize
And look at the Monkees songwriters — Carole King, Neil Diamond, Neil Sedaka, Paul Williams, Harry Nilsson…. I think even Jack Nicholson has a song writer credit (Ditty Diego)
Nicole
I was a HUGE Monkees fan in the 1980s when MTV sparked their comeback, so I promise, I’m very familiar with their backgrounds (Micky Dolenz was a child star in Circus Boy! I know that, even though I’ve never seen it. Also he was billed as Micky Braddock in it). But in terms of who came into the show as already decently skilled instrumentalists, I think it was just Michael Nesmith and Peter Tork. Dolenz learned drums for the Headquarters album, reasoning, quite correctly, that it wasn’t brain surgery. I think they just kept Davy Jones on tambourine.
I remember reading somewhere one of the studio heads analyzing each of their voices, saying Dolenz had the best voice for rock, Jones was a Broadway singer, Nesmith could do country and Tork couldn’t sing at all. Having heard “Shades of Gray,” many times… the guy wasn’t all that wrong. ;)
I went to see them on the first big reunion tour in the 1980s. Was lucky enough to go before Herman’s Hermits had dropped out in disgust at being reduced to an opening act for a band that had far fewer hits than they did. I absolutely loved Herman’s Hermits. And I still do, today.
JPL
@Immanentize: A little bit of trivia.
Immanentize
@?BillinGlendaleCA: or an ex President? I am actually a fan of Taft on the court. He understood markets, international jurisdiction, statutory regulation of dangerous products, etc. at the perfect moment when the US was coming into its own in the world after WWI.
A Ghost to Most
@germy: I always thought I was a rock-‘n’-roll heretic because of my complete lack of interest in the sex pistols.
PST
@Baud:
That may not be the case. The kids will be okay — as long as they remain minors — while Mom is a federal judge and Dad has a good position in private practice. But what happens after that. Their parents have prosperous white-collar jobs that ensure that the family will always have decent health insurance, but without the ACA the kids have no long-term protection for pre-existing conditions after they age out from their parents’ policies; moreover, without the ACA, that could happen well before they reach the age of 26. It wouldn’t matter much if the family were filthy rich, but even upper middle-class families can be bankrupted by the severe illness of a relative without insurance protection. I have often worried at the expense I could face (or refuse to face) if my child or another family member had no coverage and needed it. Until he hit Medicare age, I especially worried about my unemployed, uninsured, Trump-voting brother, who lived in a state where he was ineligible for Medicaid notwithstanding his low income. Without the ACA, even the most prudent and fortunate among us are still potential hostages to the health of those we love. The ACA is for everyone.
germy
@Nicole: I used to read the Village Voice back in the early 1980s, and Peter Tork advertised in the back of the paper. Every week he had a small ad. He was giving music lessons.
Brachiator
@Hoodie:
The Republicans have opposed the ACA from the very beginning, and they have never opposed any alternative from the time the ACA was first proposed until now. Trump has sniped at the ACA since his election and has never proposed any alternative. The GOP, however, had plenty of time for tax cuts.
This is pretty simple. It’s not about deep political in-fighting. The GOP want to give the insurance companies whatever they want.
Also, do you remember when GOP Congress people ran away from their own constituents at town hall meetings who wanted improvements in the ACA or even Medicaid expansion?
Again, it’s simple. The GOP has never, I repeat, never drafted an alternative to the ACA. Because they do not care about an alternative. They just want to see the ACA done away with.
The GOP rejects the idea of using tax revenue or raising taxes to pay for health insurance, because this means recognizing the need for the federal government to help its citizens.
Similarly, the GOP wants to kill Social Security. Their alternative would be to encourage people to let banks and investment institutions play with, uh, I mean “invest” (wink, wink) their money.
If the GOP gets to ratfuck Democratic Party unity, that’s just icing on the cake.
The only good news is that if the Democratic Party can take the House and the Senate, they can possibly blunt the impact of the Supreme Court decision.
But your comments do raise a key point. If the Democrats can get control of Congress and want to revive the ACA, they will have to fight off progressive assholes who will be trying to ride to the rescue on their goddam purity ponies.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Immanentize: John Stewart wrote ‘Daydream Believer’.
germy
@PST: The religious organization she belongs to will help them. Apparently, members all help each other. It’s like a big socialist commune.
Nicole
@germy: He was my FAVORITE Monkee. I would have lost my mind, had I known that. Probably demanded to move to nearby so I could take lessons with him.
I think I would have been a grave disappointment as a student.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Immanentize: I was going to include Taft in an ETA, he also championed the building of a separate Supreme Court building, they used to meet in various chambers in the Capitol. He didn’t, however, live to see its completion.
aliasofwestgate
@JPL: I helped vote Peters in when Levin retired a few years back. I think he’s good to get back in, but any help to keep that seat will not go unnoticed. *grins*
I’m now learning my way around Wisconsin’s state setup, since i moved here earlier this year. Going to vote absentee in person next week with my roomie, next week. Looking over the ballot and spoke the local Dem party office to get an idea of who i’m to vote for.
germy
@Nicole: I remember hearing a radio interview, and he choked up when he talked about his prison experience. He had a small amount of marijuana and for some reason the judge decided he should be incarcerated. Maybe to make him a lesson, I don’t know.
James E Powell
@Nicole:
I think the only bands that had more Top 40 hits in the 60s than Herman’s Hermits were The Beatles and The Beach Boys. Herman’s Hermits had like a three-year run that few have accomplished. Not my particular taste, but much respect for pop song excellence.
Kay
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
One of Barrett’s character references was her friend of twenty years. She wrote an op ed about how great she is. Ok, I’m glad they’re friends but WTF does this have to do with anything? Why would anyone imagine that this comes into a job interview and what does it say about the person bringing it in? It’s like this weird, irrelevant resume padding.
Hoodie
@Kay: Of course. I guess the thing that makes me wonder is whether anyone can have the level of experience really needed to be a SC justice in the current way that job is constituted and the increasingly pluralistic nature of our society. If we are stuck with a SC (I think we are), we really should have 31 or more justices so we can get enough of a spectrum of age, life experience, political philosophy, etc. to force the justices to form coalitions outside of their own narrow bands. The question should not be whether we should expand the Court by why the hell has it taken so long to figure out we needed to do so? That’s why I’m not impressed by slippery slope arguments against court expansion; let it seek its own level.
Nicole
@James E Powell: Herman’s Hermits were absolutely bubblegum pop, but really good bubblegum pop. I think “No Milk Today” still stands up as a really good (and underrated) song.
Citizen Alan
@Kay: To be fair, most transparently unqualified people might find it unimaginable that they would get a SCOTUS nomination after just 2-3 years on the bench.
Immanentize
@Miss Bianca: I think he was. Peter Tork had the perfect look.
Nicole
@germy: That’s right! I also remember reading he got the Monkees because his friend Stephen Stills recommended him (Stills auditioned, but his teeth were not good enough for TV) and later, when Tork went bankrupt, Stills bought his house.
Kay
The photographs are what is changing peoples minds. They had to see it.
Immanentize
@A Ghost to Most: I loved the Sex Pistols. And The Damned. Stranglers. Iggy. Clash. Loud furious and pissed off. More.
Immanentize
@?BillinGlendaleCA: We had Kingston Trio albums in the house when I was growing up. How else would I know all the words to “He’ll Never Return?” John Stewart had a good voice.
WaterGirl
@Kay: As long as undecideds are that high – 8% in WI and 12% in MI, I don’t think we are on any kind of safe ground.
Quinerly
NICOLE, I saw Hendrix open for the Monkees in Greensboro, NC in 1967. I was 6. Still have the program. I was totally in love with Micky. Saw the reunion tour show in 1986. Just didn’t have the same feel. ?
realbtl
All right, Monkees trivia from memory. The Last Train to Clarksville was a studio train ride from LA to Del Mar which was about 20 south of where I grew up. My 71 yo self wishes I would have gone but I probably wasn’t cynical enough to appreciate the weirdness.
Betty Cracker
@Immanentize: Same. I also loved the Dead Kennedys. Some of this stuff still makes it onto the occasional playlist, much to my husband’s annoyance! :)
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Brachiator: I think you are overthinking the Republican Brach – they oppose ACA, masks, and Social Security, want endless tax cuts and a flat earth because those are tribal markers as a conservative, that’s it. There is no deeper policy to it, it’s all just Herd Mentality.
schrodingers_cat
@Betty Cracker: She looks like a God bothering Karen.
Nicole
@Immanentize: My Boomer father put the Kingston Trio on all of his 8-track mixtapes and this Gen-Xer still adores them unabashedly. I have “Bad Man’s Blunder” on my running mix.
J R in WV
@The Moar You Know:
Actually, both the NSA and the CIA are forbidden from any activity within the USA. They are strictly required to work on international ground only. The FBI covers domestic crime, AND to an extent international criminal activity as well.
Of course, whether the NSA and CIA are obeying those laws that limit their activity inside the nation, that’s a very different question, and a question we will never know the answer to. Never, ever!
James E Powell
@Nicole:
I was gonna say that No Milk Today was one of my favorites. In fact, right after I wrote that comment, I listened to it. It only made it to #35 in the US because it was only released as the b side of A Kind of Hush. No Milk Today was written by Graham Gouldman of 10cc. He also wrote hits for the Yardbirds and the Hollies.
Kay
@Citizen Alan:
I think this whole thing has been completely political and the judge has not been honest. Donald Trump told us he was saving Ginsburg’s seat for her. This has been in the works for almost 4 years, at least. Why does she feel the need to lie to us and tell us she never dreamed this would happen?
It’s cynical, and that’s exactly the opposite of how she has presented herself. I don’t mind ambitious Right wingers running really slick political campaigns but don’t blow smoke up my ass and pretend it isn’t happening. I run into this a lot with fundamentalist religious. They have some fucked up notion that they’re allowed to deceive non-believers if they have some higher calling. It’s appalling.
Nicole
@Quinerly: OH MY GOD. That is awesome! I recall reading that Hendrix quit the tour early- The Monkees absolutely worshiped him, but he was a little advanced for their teenybopper audience.
AAAAAHH! You saw them both!!!!
raven
@realbtl: I went to boot camp at Ft Campbell, Clarksville TN in November 66 just when it hit. They say it had nothing to do with Ft Campbell but you’ll never convince me.
\
Immanentize
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
Bill Brennan was a State Supreme Court Judge (New Jersey) before he went in the Court. Earl Warren was a Governor. Marshall was a real lawyer who went to — horrors! — Howard Univ. Etc. You can see why the $$$ elites prefer the current crop and the current version of credentialing.
raven
Monkees member Micky Dolenz complicated things with a 2016 interview with Rolling Stone. He said, “It’s about a guy going off to war. Frankly, it’s an anti-war song. It’s about a guy going to Clarksville, Tennessee, which is an Army base if I’m not mistaken. He’s obviously been drafted and he says to his girlfriend, ‘I don’t know if I’m ever coming home.’
Immanentize
@Betty Cracker: The DKs! Mission of Burma, Butthole Surfers, Black Flag …
Nicole
@James E Powell: I should add “No Milk Today” to my run mix.
There was a really funny campaign for milk in Europe some years back that used that song as a backdrop to athletic disasters.
AliceBlue
@Nicole: Peter Noone has a show on Sirius XM’s 60’s on 6 channel. He plays his favorite tunes, talks about the group’s early days, and has some fascinating stories about the British pop scene in general. It’s interesting and frequently hilarious.
J R in WV
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
It is cyanoacrylate — IIRC actually developed as a surgical glue replacing stiches. My joint replacement surgeries were closed up with a similar glue called dermabond, same for wife’s knee replacements. It worked great!
Seanly
@laura:
INAL, but you’re right – Griswold is the true target. The conservatives hate, hate, hate that it introduced a right to privacy not specifically enumerated in the Constitution. Overturning ACA, Obergefell, and Roe are icing on the cake on the way to overturning Griswold. https://www.salon.com/2018/06/29/its-not-just-about-abortion-without-kennedy-birth-control-could-be-next/
And they’re welcome to go fuck themselves.
Quinerly
@Nicole: 7 shows I think. Most in Florida and NC. I think I remember reading last show in NY state. My cousin who was a musician around 17 years old drove another cousin (who was 7) and me to Greensboro for the show. My first concert experience. ? Saw Michael Nesmith solo a few years back in small venue here in St. Louis. I carried my program from the ’67 show with me. He laughed and autographed it.
Nicole
@AliceBlue: Cool! Next time I’m in a car with Sirius I’ll definitely check it out. Thank you for telling me.
I’m a Gen-Xer, but since my dad controlled the music on car trips I have a great love for a lot of 60’s music.
That 1987 Monkees concert also featured Gary Puckett and the Union Gap and The Grass Roots. I remember I thought GP was okay, but I really liked The Grass Roots.
James E Powell
@WaterGirl:
There is no safe ground and there won’t be any for three more election cycles at a minimum.
The remainders aren’t all undecideds. In MI the poll shows 8% “don’t know/refused” and in WI 5% “don’t know/refused” with the remainder going to the libertarian Jorgenson.
Interesting note: the WI poll shows 15% of “non-white” voters answered “don’t know/refused” – do we think they haven’t decided or that they just didn’t feel like telling a stranger?
Nicole
@Quinerly: That’s neat about Mike Nesmith signing your old program.
laura
@Immanentize: of the 2 regrets I have in life the first is not calling in sick from my grocery store bagger job and going to Winterland with my brothers for what turned out to be the last Sex Pistols show. It changed their lives. In turns, they packed up and moved to LA. Decades later they have worked with any/every band from jazz to Rock to punk to pop to Americana. The stories – my God, the stories!
I’m so proud of their careers and their reputations in the music industry – all because of the Sex Pistols. They figured that if the shambling excuse for a band could be successful, they could too and then went out and proved it.
J R in WV
@Splitting Image:
I am aware of the discussion regarding shepherd’s crooks, but remain unaware of how it is used to “chasteneth” your son.
Otherwise I think we’re pretty much in agreement.
Fundy theocratic nut jobs really enjoy beating their children, especially because “Jesus wants them to!” — that’s why so many of their kids flee asap when they reach their majority.
Quinerly
@Nicole: It would have been even better if he had signed it with Liquid Paper. ?
Seanly
Should add that the ‘right to privacy’ from Griswold is more about respect of privacy in the marital affairs between 2 people. So it’s not what most of us would consider a true right to privacy.
And once you say that one class of citizens (married persons) enjoy a right, the equal protection clause means it ends up applied to all citizens. But again, I’m not a lawyer so my layperson understanding probably over-simplifies things.
And for anyone who wants to say ‘poppycock, they’ll respect Griswold,’ in 2012 presidential primaries Romney & Santorum both complained about Griswold.
raven
@laura: I missed the Stones in Nov 69 at the U of I to go on a fucking field trip for a class!
Quinerly
@raven: I saw them in 1997. Bridges to Babylon Tour. The staging was fantastic.
raven
@Quinerly: I saw them in Chicago in 65!
AxelFoley
This.
ALL OF THIS.
J R in WV
@germy:
Fixed that description for you. Nothing Socialist about their organization. Fascist from the get-go!
Ksmiami
@laura: true story – my birth dad was a lead singer with the Nuns – they opened for the Sex Pistols at the Winterland concert…
Quinerly
@raven: a little early for me. I was 4 in 1965.
I did see Jeff Beck about 5 years ago. One of the best shows I’ve seen. Also, saw The Who around the same time. Ringo’s son on drums.
evodevo
@sdhays: they are probably adhering to the teachings of Bill Gothard..tightly-controlled, regimented, authoritarian talibangelical families tend to produce Stepford children…
https://gawker.com/hobby-lobby-funded-the-duggars-allegedly-sex-abusing-cu-1599083411
Brachiator
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
I disagree, but it doesn’t much matter. The end result is the same. Disaster for a lot of people.
Does this also mean that liberals don’t have any real ideas, but just their own tribal markers?
Uncle Cosmo
FTFY as far as I could, since “britches” hath no singular.
(Fun fact: The Czech word for “door,” dveře, also has no singular. Which makes even less sense – at least britches have two legs…)
Nicole
@Quinerly: Ha! I understand that reference re: Nesmith. :)
Quinerly
@Nicole: ?
laura
@Ksmiami: it’s a small world after all.
SiubhanDuinne
@oldgold:
Susan Collins long ago became a parody of herself.
Ksmiami
@laura: and getting smaller seeing as we are locked in this country with a bunch of anti science lunatics. If I had wanted to live in an asylum, I would have moved to South Carolina
Uncle Cosmo
Enthusiastic second! I think I still have the (somewhat the worse for wear) 45 floating around here…
(For decades I never understood the line “Just two up two down” – then I discovered it’s a style of small row house common in British industrial towns.)
(Side note: I wish my future self had sent someone persuasive back to 1966 or so to tell me to take care of those 45s & above all put all the sleeves in a small safe while still in pristine condition – could’ve been worth a lot of $$$ as collectibles…)
Ivan X
@Betty Cracker: the DK’s were great. I never got to see them live but I saw Jello’s subsequent spoken word gigs when I was a teen in LA. Great.
2liberal
@Dorothy A. Winsor: re crazy glue pants repair : especially if he’s wearing them!
Raven Onthill
Having had COVID, with its uncertain sequelae, will be a pre-existing condition.
I suspect that part of the reason Barret’s nomination is being rushed through is that, like the nomination of Brett Kavanaugh, her nomination would not stand up to a thorough investigation. She is secretive, but I wonder what a look at her finances would reveal. And – did her adopted Black children come of the Haitian restavek system?
tam1MI
So did I! :)