Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Democrats are back in array!

Conservatism: there are people the law protects but does not bind and others who the law binds but does not protect.

Not all heroes wear capes.

Their freedom requires your slavery.

So many bastards, so little time.

Let’s not be the monsters we hate.

And now I have baud making fun of me. this day can’t get worse.

“I never thought they’d lock HIM up,” sobbed a distraught member of the Lock Her Up Party.

Every day Vance writes another chapter in the book called “Worst VP Pick Ever”.

“Can i answer the question? No you can not!”

Boeing: repeatedly making the case for high speed rail.

Everybody saw this coming.

They are lying in pursuit of an agenda.

The republican caucus is covering themselves with something, and it’s not glory.

Give the craziest people you know everything they want and hope they don’t ask for more? Great plan.

Stop using mental illness to avoid talking about armed white supremacy.

“The difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits.”

“They not like us!” (that’s for sure!)

I’m starting to think Jesus may have made a mistake saving people with no questions asked.

Meanwhile over at truth Social, the former president is busy confessing to crimes.

We are builders in a constant struggle with destroyers. let’s win this.

Insiders who complain to politico: please report to the white house office of shut the fuck up.

One of our two political parties is a cult whose leader admires Vladimir Putin.

New McCarthy, same old McCarthyism.

You are here: Home / Politics / Activist Judges! / Barrett Hearings (Open Thread)

Barrett Hearings (Open Thread)

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It’s the third and final day of the Judiciary Committee portion of the charade. Here’s a livestream for those who want to watch it:

I’m looking forward to Senator Whitehouse’s follow-up to yesterday’s presentation, in which he detailed how phony wingnut “civic” organizations and dark money outfits create a conveyor belt that deposits ideologues on the federal bench:

Through an amazing series of coincidences, the titans of independent legal analysis the Federalist Society barfs up deliver rulings that dovetail with donor wishes 100% of the time! I mean, what are the chances?

But according to a Stanford anthropology professor who studies charismatic evangelical Christianity (writing for The Atlantic), Barrett might surprise us because Jesus:

More profoundly, these communities inhabit a world charged with divine meaning, which their members must interpret in order to know God’s will. Every decision—what to eat for dinner, where to go to school, even what to wear—is an invitation to think about what God wants. Members may feel a strong sense of having been called out by God to do their jobs.

And these calls involve a process of discovery, as members’ sense of self is always emerging out of their own growing, changing understanding of God. A skeptic will say that such a sense of God’s purpose is entirely determined by their community. But charismatic evangelicals say that God feels more real when he startles them—when he tells them to do something surprising that they would never have chosen on their own. What makes Barrett unpredictable is the possibility that she will interpret God as speaking in ways that she, and the broader conservative world, might not have anticipated.

With all due respect to the professor, it’s far more likely that Barrett’s interpretation of God’s will also just happens to dovetail with the Federalist Society donor wish list. Open thread.

Reader Interactions

231Comments

  1. 1.

    dr. bloor

    More profoundly, these communities inhabit a world charged with divine meaning, which their members must interpret in order to know God’s will. Every decision—what to eat for dinner, where to go to school, even what to wear—is an invitation to think about what God wants. Members may feel a strong sense of having been called out by God to do their jobs.

    That’s a lot of words for “superstition-driven loons.”

  2. 2.

    bbleh

    Yabbut perhaps she’ll be only ninety-five percent plutocratically-inclined superstitious medieval nutbag, so we should all soberly take great comfort in that.

  5. 5.

    Ian

    Well that is a huge sigh of relief.  She might not vote the way the federalist society wants because the voices in her head tell her not too.  Dodged a real bullet on that one.

    Real smooth take T.M. Luhrmann, whomever you may be at Stanford.

  6. 6.

    Baud

    @bbleh:

    That’s exactly right.  We’ll win a few just like the worst hitters in baseball will hit a few home runs.  But we won’t win overall. We have to keep the political pressure on the court for a long time now, and maintain control of all the elected branches as much as possible.

  7. 7.

    Jeffro

    He’s claiming Barrett has a “growing, changing interpretation of God”?  Wow.  I’ll take ‘naive to the point of being dangerous’ for $400, Alex.  She thinks Scalia was a wuss, for pete’s sake.

    On another note, I don’t know if anyone caught this yesterday but despite having a pretty clear-eyed view of just how dangerous and demented trumpov is, this still sent a chill down my spine:

    trumpov mocks virus as he launches super-spreader events for re-election:

    trumpov’s mockery of his own government’s recommendations — his rallies are almost the only mass participation events taking place in the world right now — came amid fast darkening warnings about the months ahead..
    …New research on Monday exposed the President’s misinformation and showed in staggering clarity how the US has done far worse than many other industrialized nations in saving lives during the pandemic. After May 10, the US had more deaths per 100,000 people than other high mortality countries featured in a study published in the medical journal JAMA.
    Countries including South Korea, Japan and Australia recorded fewer than five deaths per 100,000 people. If the US had comparable death rates to Australia since the beginning of the pandemic, it would have had 187,661 fewer deaths

    American exceptionalism!

  8. 8.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    Every decision—what to eat for dinner, where to go to school, even what to wear—is an invitation to think about what God wants. Members may feel a strong sense of having been called out by God to do their jobs

    Indeed, and what God wants just what happens to be what that Christian in question wants at that very moment.  That’s why so many Evangelicals are so cool with Trump rape habit; if Jesus didn’t want Trump to rape teenage girl’s then Jesus would have stopped Trump.

  11. 11.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @Baud: They sold out for that sweet Wingnut Billionaire funding and announced Social Justice Warriors and Feminist are the true menace to society. Like Sargon of Arkkade ran for parliament in England for the Loony Party.

  12. 12.

    germy

    Today Sheldon Whitehouse will be asking her questions.

    I enjoyed his testimony yesterday. She sat looking horrified while he spoke.

    I’d like to see how she addresses his questions today.

  13. 13.

    germy

    The Kremlin has rejected assertions by the Trump administration that the US and Russia had come to a "gentlemen's agreement" on extending a key arms control agreement and dismissed the idea that a deal would be reached before the US presidential election https://t.co/5kSf662fg6

    — CNN International (@cnni) October 14, 2020

  15. 15.

    danielx

    But according to a Stanford anthropology professor who studies charismatic evangelical Christianity (writing for The Atlantic) Barrett might surprise us because Jesus:

    But most likely not.

  16. 16.

    lowtechcyclist

    Every decision—what to eat for dinner, where to go to school, even what to wear—is an invitation to think about what God wants.

    I’m a born-again Christian; I’ve known the Lord for >50 years.  I briefly went through a phase like that a few years after coming to know the Lord.  Not only is it basically going down a rabbit hole, but it’s also tremendously exhausting, and it’ll drive you nuts if you stay with it very long.

    Anyhow, I would expect any surprises from ACB in the way of SCOTUS decisions and votes on account of her faith to be occasional events at best.  America’s conservative Christians – Protestant, Catholic, Mormon, whatever – have consistently done next to nothing to challenge the rule of our corporate overlords, and most Supreme Court decisions relate to that rule in one way or another.  There’s no reason to expect ACB to be any different.

  17. 17.

    germy

    Isn’t Lindsey giving away the game here?

    Admitting Barrett wants to “change things” in the supreme court?

  18. 18.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    What makes Barrett unpredictable is the possibility that she will interpret God as speaking in ways that she, and the broader conservative world, might not have anticipated.

    Reminds me of Roseann DeMoro predicting that trump would embrace single-payer because he’s a businessman and his wife is European.

    How long do these hearings go on for?

  19. 19.

    danielx

    What makes Barrett unpredictable is the possibility that she will interpret God as speaking in ways that she, and the broader conservative world, might not have anticipated.

    So it’s all between her and the voices in her noggin.

    Well, that settles that – I’m totes reassured.

  20. 20.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    I’d ask baby-girl voice about what role her hubs and her father will play in her decisionmaking, given her organizational affiliations.

  21. 21.

    eric

    The answer to this rubbish is “no.” Barrett (and Scalia) and the like, are the way they are as judges and as religious people because they read the key texts the same way. The treat texts as unchanging in meaning because it creates a more ordered/stable world.

  22. 22.

    boatboy_srq

    What makes Barrett unpredictable is the possibility that she will interpret God as speaking in ways that she, and the broader conservative world, might not have anticipated.

    Sounds more like a treatable condition than a justifiable philosophical principle or religious conviction.

  25. 25.

    KirkwoodATL

    @Enhanced Voting Techniques: 

    Exactly! My parents are right-wing evangelicals and it never ceases to amaze me how God always tells them to do exactly what they want to do. This is of course, after claiming days of prayer and “seeking God’s will.”

  26. 26.

    JWR

    Geez, how long have those kids been sitting there, especially the younger ones? Looks like torture to me. Then again, they might be accustomed to behaving on cue. “Stand up! Sit down! Worship God, dammit!”

    BTW, is it okay to call the (semi) official U.S. Covid policy Herd Immunity?

  27. 27.

    satby

    And don’t forget, her little cult group People of Praise believes in speaking in tongues. So much so that if you don’t or can’t you’re viewed as deficient in your godliness.

  29. 29.

    Leto

    @JWR: shouldn’t they be in school? Virtual or super spreading? They can watch mommy not answer anything on the DVR after homework.

  30. 30.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Betty Cracker: thanks

    @JWR: it’s a damn shame– I’m sure there are some people, like my one crazy rosary-jockey aunt, who gazed lovingly at the brood as proof of a good sister in the One True Holy Roman Catholic and Apostolic Church (though at some point she probably said to herself, “I had eight without cheating”), but even she has long since gone back to her sewing. Unless she’s packing for another cross-country bus trip to see the apparition of the Blessed Virgin in the window of a high-rise in downtown Atlanta (true story).

  31. 31.

    germy

    These Supreme Court nomination proceedings are depressing because a minority faction will ram through an arch-reactionary to try to impose an extremely unpopular policy agenda on the country. But they’re also depressing because they’re saturated with bullshit. There are various forms. The careerist elite liberal rushing to assure the public that the latest witless mediocrity barfed up by the Federalist Society Industrial Complex is a towering legal mind and wonderful human being evenifyoumightsometimesdisagreewiththeirrulings. The conservative scholar trying to pretend that “originalism” means something other than “whatever is most consistent with the most recent Republican platform.” The gullible, intellectually underpowered journalist who can be convinced that any ultra-reactionary who can write prose more measured than an Andrew McCarthy blog post is a reasonable moderate who will not let politics drive his jurisprudence like Ruth Bader Ginsburg did. Etc. Etc.

  32. 32.

    L85NJGT

    Wishful thinking by Trumpland got us here. They are desperate to “Hillary” Kamala. But Trump means only low quality hires need apply, so they’re stuck pretending this weirdo is representative of middle American women.

  33. 33.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    OT: In media news: NBC is getting dragged to hell and back again for giving trump a town hall as a reward for dropping out of the debate, and MAGA Haberman is trending on twitter after she uncritically pimped Rudi’s crackpot attempt at an “October surprise”

  34. 34.

    Betty Cracker

    @satby: In college, I took some advanced religion courses, one of which required students to attend a variety of religious services as an observer. I’ll never forget the kind bystander at temple who took a book written in Hebrew out of my hands, turned it right-side up and handed it back! :)

    The only service that really creeped me out was at a Holiness church where people started speaking in tongues. Made the hair stand up on the back of my neck!

    I’m an atheist who tries not to be reductive about others’ religious beliefs. I know lots of wonderful liberal Christians, and it raises my hackles when people conflate all of Christianity with fundamentalist evangelical Christianity. But I’ll admit the charismatic traditions kinda freak me out.

  35. 35.

    Immanentize

    Barrett’s religious philosophy summed up:

    Fire and Ice
    BY ROBERT FROST

    Some say the world will end in fire,
    Some say in ice.
    From what I’ve tasted of desire
    I hold with those who favor fire.
    But if it had to perish twice,
    I think I know enough of hate
    To say that for destruction ice
    Is also great
    And would suffice.

    Except Barrett may have only imagined desire. So she may be an “ice” person.

  38. 38.

    germy

    @Immanentize:

    Diane Feinstein is again thrilled to see the kids.

     

    Meanwhile, they’re probably thinking “Who is that icky Satan lady grinning at us?  Mommy says she’s a democrat.”

  40. 40.

    Immanentize

    @germy: Kids rebel.  They are pondering either future therapy, drugs, sex or tell-all book advances.  Just one ponders the possibility of their father’s death so that Mom will be able to marry him.

  42. 42.

    Leto

    @Immanentize: oh, something I haven’t seen (because I’m not really paying visual attention): does she swap out her each day? I think she has enough to have a new set, or three, each day.

  44. 44.

    Xavier

    With all due respect to the professor, I know which way I’m betting. And I’m pretty sure Mitch McConnell is betting the same way.

  45. 45.

    Baud

    This almost certainly won’t happen, but if God gets Barrett to have a John Cole style conversion, I will laugh and laugh and laugh….

  46. 46.

    TS (the original)

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    MAGA Haberman is trending on twitter after she uncritically pimped Rudi’s crackpot attempt at an “October surprise”

    She really is a MAGA with that tweet (not that it was ever in doubt) – quoting Biden Secret Emails (omg – but his emails!!) from the nypost.

    I hope the Biden administration refuses to have anything to do with her – zero zilch nothing.

  47. 47.

    bystander

    IOW Kooky Amy could do the exact opposite of everything she has done to date.  tRump could become Presidential this afternoon, too.

    It’s a hundred years since I took Con Law, but I don’t recall classifications of rights as The Kookster detailed yesterday.  Is that some new “Originalist” fevered reading, like the “unitary theory” of the executive?

  48. 48.

    germy

    @Baud:  This almost certainly won’t happen, but if God gets Barrett to have a John Cole style conversion, I will laugh and laugh and laugh….

    I found myself daydreaming about that during the Democrats’ testimony and questions.  She listens to their stories and she never knew their viewpoint before because she’s spent decades in her conservative bubble.

    She’s shaken by what she’s heard from Democrats, and leaves the hearing determined to keep Trump out of office, the ACA improved, and Roe preserved.

    Like I said, it was a daydream.

  50. 50.

    PsiFighter37

    Did Graham actually reference the good old days of segregation? Seeing that he may have done so on Twitter…

  51. 51.

    Immanentize

    OK. I gotta step in here with all the speaking in tongues concerns.

    My Aunt was a very liberal feminist Catholic who was also a charismatic.  She had “mirror parties” in the early seventies.  She fought tirelessly for women’s equality in society and in the church.  She was phenomenal.  She also spoke in tongues.

    When my Dad was in the hospital with his eventually fatal pancreatic cancer, she came to him and asked if she could pray over him.  My Dad, also a Catholic who always thought my Aunt was “kooky”, invited her to do so.  As my Dad later said, “She made with the mumbo jumbo.”

    But that moment sustained him until his death at home about a month later.  And she lived another 15 years and always told me what a gift he had given her accepting her in that moment.

    PS. Glossolalia (speaking in tongues) is a learned behavior, research tells us.  I wonder if Barrett is going to insist on pouring out the holy spirit at every SCOTUS conference before it starts.

  53. 53.

    Betty Cracker

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: I read that Post piece this morning and laughed my ass off. It’s truly funny because, even if you ignore the sea of red flags and flashing neon “crackpots desperately activate conspiracy theory” signs, Trump has so openly debased the country that no one will give a shit, even if it’s true!

  54. 54.

    geg6

    @germy:

    Hmmm, throwing his puppet under the bus?  I wish I could remember where and when I saw it, but saw a report on tv that had the Russians saying that they weren’t going to bother negotiating with him on the extension because he was too unreasonable to negotiate with and that they were waiting to see if Biden would win because they trusted him to make and keep they deal.  It stuck in my head because it seemed to also be throwing Mango Mussolini under the bus.

  58. 58.

    Soprano2

    I can’t listen to this because I can’t stand the lying. For God’s sake, she acted like she didn’t know there was a law against voter intimidation! She wouldn’t agree that the president cannot change the date of the election. She wouldn’t agree that the Constitution guarantees a peaceful transfer of power. Those things should have been the headline about yesterday, but instead it was all “Democrats were unable to fluster Ms. Barrett”, as if that’s what it’s all about, making her lose her temper. The whole thing is so dishonest in the extreme.

  61. 61.

    trnc

    @Ian: She might not vote the way the federalist society wants because the voices in her head tell her not too.

    Not to mention that among the fundies, Satan is generally understood to have mad skillz. Mimicry may well be one of them.

  62. 62.

    geg6

    @Immanentize:

    My mom was a liberal feminist Catholic (extremely devout).  She had nothing but disdain for charismatic Catholics.  Considered them as no better than the Jimmy Swaggart/Jim Bakker Protestants.  She went once to a meeting of a few as a reporter and was just appalled at the ignorance.  Now, I’m sure your aunt wasn’t as ignorant as the rubes my mom saw at that meeting, but I’ll never understand how anyone with two brain cells to rub together can believe in that charismatic stuff.  Of course, I feel the same way about all religions, so take that with a grain of salt.

  65. 65.

    Patricia Kayden

    The republicans stole a Supreme Court seat from President Obama in order to install Gorsuch. They are again corrupting the process in order to install Barrett. Expanding the court to right those wrongs wouldn't be court-packing, it would be justice.— Mary L Trump (@MaryLTrump) October 11, 2020

  67. 67.

    Jinchi

    charismatic evangelicals say that God feels more real when he startles them

    When is the last time you saw a charismatic evangelical doing anything in the least bit surprising? Some might think their unflinching support for a lying godless womanizer should count, but like everything else they do, that was completely self-serving.

  68. 68.

    Patricia Kayden

    @Soprano2: It feels like a waste of time to watch because we know Republicans will push her confirmation through. It’s like watching a coronation.

  69. 69.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Baud: The really militant atheists turned into alt-right Men’s Rights activists. They regard abortion rights as oppressing them because if they get a woman pregnant, she can abort the fetus but they can’t.

  71. 71.

    Immanentize

    @germy: Hmmmm.  Whether to answer?  It was a fad for a bit for women to get together and inspect themselves – perhaps for the first time? – and get acquainted with their lady parts.  Enough info?

  72. 72.

    trnc

    But charismatic evangelicals say that God feels more real when he startles them—when he tells them to do something surprising that they would never have chosen on their own. What makes Barrett unpredictable is the possibility that she will interpret God as speaking in ways that she, and the broader conservative world, might not have anticipated.

    This nonsense wouldn’t matter if she were actually ruling based on the constitution and law rather than her religious preference.

    By the way, I’d love to hear a senator work in the phrase “religious preference.”

  74. 74.

    sdhays

    @Jeffro: By my calculations, we’re conservatively on track for about 235k official deaths due to COVID-19 by Nov 3rd.  Dump desperately wants to break a quarter of a million before then.

  77. 77.

    pluky

    @schrodingers_cat: Literally “annointed”, as with the Spirit of God. Like in my father’s family’s church (1st Baptist), during service someone would invariably “get happy” and start dancing in the aisle until she (almost invariably) would just fall out. The scriptural root is the story of Pentacost where the gathered Apostles were gifted with tongues so that they might better spread the gospel.

  78. 78.

    germy

    “Cy Vance, Jr. today filed charges against AMY COOPER, 40, in NY County Criminal Court … charged with Falsely Reporting an Incident in the Third Degree, a misdemeanor, for falsely reporting an assault in the Central Park Ramble on May 25, 2020.” https://t.co/qwe033O23F

    — southpaw (@nycsouthpaw) October 14, 2020

    Remember her? Feels like a decade ago.

  79. 79.

    trnc

    @Patricia Kayden: Expanding the court shouldn’t be particularly controversial anyway, notwithstanding the politics of any given member. More US citizens > more representatives > more legal challenges for courts to consider. Republicans have called for court expansion in the past. Why is SCOTUS expansion off limits?

  82. 82.

    sdhays

    @Soprano2: It’s easy not to get flustered when you’re convinced that nothing you say matters regarding the outcome. Kavanaugh was in real danger of not being confirmed – if Susan Collins had made a different political calculation, he would not be on the Court today.

    A majority of Senators are already on record as saying that they would vote for the Devil himself if Dump nominated him. She could spend the time Democrats ask her questions just flipping through her phone and it wouldn’t matter. She could have sent a mannequin to sit there and not answer questions and gone to a spa instead. So why would she get flustered?

  84. 84.

    Gin & Tonic

    Anybody know what happened with the VA voter registration yesterday? Was the deadline extended?

  85. 85.

    Searcher

    @Baud: The militant atheists were put off by the existence of chill, low-key atheists telling them to just, like, calm down and relax, and in retaliation all became born-again Christians who now talk about how they used to be godless atheists but were SAVED by JESUS CHRIST.

  86. 86.

    Leto

    @trnc: because godless, commie, illegal Democrats could potentially fill the seats. Democrats could potentially have a say in how this government functions, and we can’t have that now can we? No we can’t, precious! *gollum gollum

  87. 87.

    mali muso

    @Gin & Tonic: I haven’t heard yet.  Did see a news report that voting rights orgs were suing (?) to make that happen.  Hard to imagine they won’t extend the deadline given the circumstances.

  88. 88.

    Betty Cracker

    Did Durbin just tell Barrett she has an “orange cloud” over her nomination?!? Hahahaha!

  89. 89.

    Chyron HR

    But according to a Stanford anthropology professor who studies charismatic evangelical Christianity (writing for The Atlantic), Barrett might surprise us because Jesus.

    Okay, then Republicans can put her on the court but if she hands down three abhorrent rulings that go against the will and rights of the American people in exactly the way Democrats predicted she would, she’ll step down and every ruling from the Barrett court is nullified. is that fair?

  90. 90.

    Jinchi

    @germy: “Mommy says she’s a democrat.”

    The first four letters of “Demon” are the same four letters at the start of “Democrat”

    Coincidence?

    I think not.

  91. 91.

    germy

    @Searcher:

    Some of the high profile professional atheists were in Jeffrey Epstein’s orbit.  Maybe that’s why they’ve been quiet lately?

    Virginia is too excellent a person to say this so I will. Brockman and his pedo-funded circle jerk society ritually dunked on and scorned and shunned Virginia for having the audacity to write about a topic that didn’t fit their Dawkins-racist-atheist mold. She’s awesome
    — Xeni Jardin (@xeni) October 14, 2020

  92. 92.

    cope

    @Searcher:  I believe some militant atheists wore out their welcome by being rabid Muslim haters as well as some others developing “me too” issues. PZ Myers documents a lot of these shenanigans at his blog.

  96. 96.

    Gin & Tonic

    Great summary of the pathetic Rudy story

    This is, I swear, the actual claim in the New York Post story:1) Someone dropped off a computer to an unidentified shop owner.2) The shop owner then started browsing their hard drive, watching their videos, and reading their emails. …— Mark Sumner (@Devilstower) October 14, 2020

  97. 97.

    schrodingers_cat

    @pluky: Thanks for the anecdote, I appreciate it. There are times when I feel like a stranger in a strange land whose customs I don’t always understand.

    I have seen women act like they are possessed in temples and such. It used to be pretty scary as a child to witness that.

  98. 98.

    Aleta

    “Has anyone advised, suggested or suggested that you avoid specifics in answering questions from us about how you interpret ?   Or that you answer such questions by saying ‘I can’t apply the law to a hypothetical set of facts.’ “

  101. 101.

    Betty Cracker

    @Leto: She is getting a bit snippy.

    ETA: I’ve watched several SCOTUS confirmation hearings, and IMO, the nominee who was the best sport about the whole process was Justice Sotomayor. She was patient and unfailingly good humored, no matter how dumb the questions from Republicans.

  102. 102.

    sdhays

    @schrodingers_cat: I was born and raised here and I still feel like that sometimes. I didn’t realize that “charismatic” had specific meaning when combined with “evangelical”.

  103. 103.

    Leto

    @germy: @sdhays: I can’t remember who, but a Dem senator yesterday brought that up to her. I can’t remember who or how she answered, but I know it was brought up.

  104. 104.

    randy khan

    @dr. bloor:

    Inherent in that analysis is that Barrett’s usual legal analysis is driven by her religious beliefs, either the ones she understands as orthodox or those bolts from the blue.  That would seem to me to be entirely disqualifying because she’s supposed to be judging based on the laws of men and women, not the laws of God.

  105. 105.

    Elizabelle

    @Gin & Tonic:   Yes.  Thank dog for Judge Gibney.

    Richmond Times Dispatch:

    A federal judge Wednesday extended the deadline for registering to vote until 11:59 p.m. Thursday in light of a construction accident that shut down the online voter registration system for several hours Tuesday.

    “What we have here is a case where somebody forgot to call Ms. Utility in Chesterfield County,” said U.S. District Judge John A. Gibney Jr. during a brief hearing. Gibney orders is for both online and in-person voter registration, both disrupted Tuesday when a Verizon cable was accidentally struck by equipment at a sewer project outside the Virginia Information Technologies Agency.

  108. 108.

    germy

    ACB is an insanely impressive person. The only people who don’t recognize this are blinded either by deranged partisanship or by envy and resentment. It’s great that people are changing their minds and more will do so after they see her at the hearings. Also, it’s clear from this that people enjoy seeing competent, successful women, so this isn’t a massively sexist country, like some seem to insist.
    ACB should be a feminist icon. We should see shelves of children’s books dedicated to her. And we will once we awaken from this temporary insanity that we are experiencing.

    Checkmate, Libs.

  109. 109.

    artem1s

    What makes Barrett unpredictable is the possibility that she will interpret God as speaking about money and grifting in ways that she, and the broader conservative world, might not have anticipated.

    Funny how evangelicals always move on from their petty bigotries and ‘see the light’ when they figure out their next target of ostracism will bring them even higher piles of money from the dumb rubes.

    The only upside to this sham of an appointment is that John Roberts (worst CJ since Roger Taney) has to live with this idiot for the rest of his tenure. He still had enough pals in the Senate to keep Harriet Myers off the court but his deal with the devil Bush Crime Family has finally come back to bite him in the ass.  Covid Amy is the judicial equivalent of the GOP picking Sarah Palin to bring in more votes from women.  It’s going to backfire. I predict nice polite white suburban Republican women will be screaming for Biden and the Dems to pack the court once they realize this Federalist Society Whore’s decisions will mean they will have to live in her New Gilead hellscape with the rest of us.

  112. 112.

    There go two miscreants

    @Baud: militant atheists

    I wasn’t one (was an atheist, but tried to be polite about it) but lately I am getting more militant by the day.

  115. 115.

    PPCLI

    @schrodingers_cat: The word draws on the original meaning of “charisma” (Χάρισμα) as a gift of divine grace.

    The difference between charismatics and other fundamentalists turns largely on their interpretation of certain passages in the New Testament that refer to “gifts of the holy spirit”, such as the ability to speak and understand foreign languages and heal when under divine inspiration.

  118. 118.

    Another Scott

    And these calls involve a process of discovery, as members’ sense of self is always emerging out of their own growing, changing understanding of God.

    The fact that these “evangelical” groups flipped on a dime about abortion once Viguerie and Weyrich and Falwell joined forces to use it to split the Democratic vote shows that this is nonsense. The vast majority of these vociferous “evangelicals” who are involved in politics speak from the same playbook, and it’s all about using whatever script their leaders find that can increase their political power.

    Grr…

    tl;dr – People personally wrestling to figure out their religion is fine. That’s not what Amy Covid Barrett and her people do.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  120. 120.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Leto:

    We know a couple of them attend school, because there were reports of Covid-19 outbreaks among teachers and fellow students a few days after Superspreader Saturday at the White House.

  121. 121.

    Immanentize

    @germy: She really just isn’t that smart.  She misdescribed legislative history as legislative intent.  It’s a small thing, but no serious con law scholar would fuck that up.

  122. 122.

    Original Lee

    • @Enhanced Voting Techniques: A fellow resident of my college dorm was a charismatic Catholic. She firmly believed in prayers before decisions. The problem was, the decisions she was asking for help with were often the endpoints of flawed previously made decisions (that apparentmy she didn’t pray about). For instance, if she was squished for time to go to lunch, she would pray about what to do for lunch, and the answer apparently invariably was to raid the floor pantry fridge and steal someone else’s lunch or dinner. She saw nothing wrong with this at all.
  124. 124.

    Aleta

    Lee acting like he’s thoughtfully following and deeply impressed by her answer to his first question,  which he practiced religiously from a script delivered to him.  (He also looks sick. )

  127. 127.

    Booger

    @satby: LOL always makes me think of the former charismatic evangelical who escaped, and told of feeling so bad the spirit wasn’t talking through him that he faked it til ya make it, and I quote: “BOTTAHONDACUDDABOTTATOYOTA! BOTTAHONDACUDDABOTTATOYOTA!” while thrashing about on the chapel floor…

  129. 129.

    Jeffro

    @trnc: yeah, sure, someone’s likely to wear a mask to a rally for a guy who likes to make fun of mask-wearing.

    thats a bad take of hers

  130. 130.

    The Moar You Know

    I don’t trust overtly religious zealots who are eager to foist their beliefs on others no matter what religion they belong to.

    @schrodingers_cat:

    Your family is from India and mine is from Alabama. I wonder why we both have the exact same, word for word, mindset regarding religious bigots?

    lol I don’t wonder at all, just glad we escaped fundie hell (at least I never had to live in Alabama, but the whole family is from there, I was first one born “outside”, and yes, that’s the word they use to describe me)

  132. 132.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Immanentize: It’s a small thing, but no serious con law scholar would fuck that up.

    It’s not a small thing IMO.  For one thing, legislative history is reasonably easy to determine, but legislative intent is not.

  133. 133.

    Jinchi

    @germy: ACB is an insanely impressive person.

    I originally read that as “ACB is an impressively insane person”.

    Is that a sign of mild dyslexia, or do I simply have an autocorrect setting in my brain?

  134. 134.

    cain

    @germy: 

    Admitting Barrett wants to “change things” in the supreme court?

    I thought we didn’t like activist judges! Whocoodanode, that’s IOKIYAR!

  135. 135.

    Bluegirlfromwyo

    @germy: These people are the sorest winners ever. It’s really maddening. You got your crazy girl on SCOTUS and we not only have to accept it, we have to like her or we’re the crazy ones. You won. Why do you care what I think about it?

  136. 136.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @germy: An idiot.  I have to join again in the chorus of asking why you think her “musings” are worth anyone’s time.

  138. 138.

    Jeffro

    @sdhays: sad

    this was the issue raised right off the bat at the VP debate, and it caught Pence cold.  He just had no answer

    ”why are our numbers so much worse than the rest of the world?”

    indeed

  139. 139.

    geg6

    @schrodingers_cat:

    She is not a regular Catholic.  She is from a tiny, insane group among the extremely, radically conservative Catholics who talk and act just like Protestant charismatic evangelicals.  So you probably would never have come across nutballs like her.  Certainly no nuns are involved in this stuff.  As mentioned above, my mom was a very devout Catholic and even she had never come across these crazy people until she was assigned a story on them as a newspaper reporter.

  144. 144.

    Soprano2

    @Patricia Kayden: @Soprano2: It feels like a waste of time to watch because we know Republicans will push her confirmation through. It’s like watching a coronation.

    I feel like what’s the point of her dissembling and lying, we all know she’s going to be confirmed no matter what she says so maybe she should just answer the questions rather than lying over and over. Saying she had no idea Trump wanted to appoint a judge who would over turn the ACA is one of her most transparent lies.

  145. 145.

    Immanentize

    @Omnes Omnibus: exactly. And legislative intent can be (and is) manufactured.  She said Scalia didn’t approve of legislative history.  Wrong — it was the leg. intent arguments he didn’t like.  But she made an argument that framer intent was important so she had to conflate the two.  Well, actually, I don’t think she is smart enough to do so purposefully.  But odd for her to misunderstand St. Scalia.

  148. 148.

    Soprano2

    @sdhays:A majority of Senators are already on record as saying that they would vote for the Devil himself if Dump nominated him. She could spend the time Democrats ask her questions just flipping through her phone and it wouldn’t matter. She could have sent a mannequin to sit there and not answer questions and gone to a spa instead. So why would she get flustered?

    The people on NPR seemed to believe this was one of the major wins for her, that she didn’t get flustered or upset in the face of hostile questioning by Democrats.

  150. 150.

    geg6

    @The Moar You Know:

    Until he got COVID, my friend who is a dietician said she estimated he was probably around 300 pounds.  Said it was hard to tell with the ungodly bad, baggy suits he wears and the male Spanx she suspects he wears, but she said definitely north of 275.  I am not a person who likes to shit on overweight people but his refusal to accept it makes me insane.  Instead of him just saying, hey, I’m over 70 yo, don’t exercise and eat trash food and too bad if you don’t like it (which would be the brave, “manly” thing to do), he covers it up with long ties, baggy suits and Spanx like the little bitch he is.

  152. 152.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Matt McIrvin: Do Pentecostals consider themselves evangelicals?  Used to be a big rift between Southern Baptists, who didn’t believe in speaking in tongues and the like, and Pentecostals, who did.

    I’m sure their shared politics has mostly healed that rift, just the way a rift of similar pedigree between evangelicals and conservative Catholics (who the former didn’t used to regard as Christians, period) has been similarly healed.

    But I’d still expect Pentecostals to regard themselves as a separate deal from their non-glossalalian brethren and sistern.

  154. 154.

    Jinchi

    @geg6: She is not a regular Catholic.

    I really get annoyed at all the rightwingers complaining that she’s being persecuted because she’s Catholic, as though that is an obscure religious faction, rather than a group of 70,000,000 Americans who span the political spectrum.

    She doesn’t hold her reprehensible views because she’s Catholic.

  155. 155.

    geg6

    @lowtechcyclist:

    a rift of similar pedigree between evangelicals and conservative Catholics (who the former didn’t used to regard as Christians, period) has been similarly healed

    To be fair, Catholics don’t consider evangelicals or other Protestants to be Christians either.

  156. 156.

    Leto

    @geg6: It’s not just his refusal to accept it, it’s the fact he got other people to lie about it. It’s the fact that other people didn’t have the integrity to tell the truth, and in turn denigrated their own offices in the eyes of the public. He’s fucking corrosive to everything. Their lack of character/integrity continues to enable him and fuck us all.

  157. 157.

    sdhays

    @Soprano2: The willful stupidity of the people paid to “analyze” politics on NPR is why I haven’t listened to it for almost 10 years, even though I used to love them. I would get so angry, yet I used to love listening to Morning Edition when I was growing up. They ruined it for me.

  158. 158.

    West of the Rockies

    @geg6:

    Anytime you think your life is bad, just remember that somewhere is a person whose job it is to launder Trump’s Spanx and socks and tighty-whities at the end of a long day.  And another who scrubs the golden royal toidy.

  162. 162.

    Jinchi

    @Bluegirlfromwyo: You won. Why do you care what I think about it?

    Because they want to be seen as legitimate. They don’t want people to start asking whether the court has become corrupted.

  164. 164.

    StringOnAStick

    @Betty Cracker: The charismatic traditions freak me out too.  One of my half sisters is one, and her desire to grift off anyone and everyone she can is only limited by the fact that she’s dumber than a post and therefore not very good at it.

    My other half sister is southern Baptist who for years proclaimed that all gays “should be lined up and shot” ; I haven’t heard her say that since her remaining living son came out and left church.  I avoid her though; she thinks the fact that I married a Jew AND did not convert him to Christianity is a dark, hell destined blot on both our souls.

    I have zero tolerance for RW political religion.  Personal experience tells me their religious affiliation was chosen because it allowed them to continue hating who they already hated, they just like having some God-gloss on it.  Plus they rate high on the  authoritarian scale, because of course they do.

  165. 165.

    TriassicSands

    But charismatic evangelicals say that God feels more real when he startles them—when he tells them to do something surprising that they would never have chosen on their own.

    Hmm, God talking to people. That sounds suspiciously like mental illness.

    @StringOnAStick: Plus they rate high on the  authoritarian scale, because of course they do.

    “God” is the ultimate authoritarian. He is all-knowing, all-powerful and never wrong.

  166. 166.

    Leto

    Sen Whitehouse pointing out how conservative dark money groups are corrupting the judicial process via campaigns to reverse all sorts of important decisions conservatives hate by flooding the judiciary with bogus lawsuits that are being ruled upon by hand picked conservative judges.

    Sen Snotbag responds by showing “left wing” conservative groups… putting up posters outside of Congress calling a few senators names (insults).

    Both sides are the same.

  167. 167.

    Kay

    Sam Spital
    @SamSpital
    ·12h
    I’m shaken to learn that Judge Barrett served on the Bd of Trustees of a group of private schools that barred children from attending their schools simply because their parents were unmarried. In the year 2017.

    Pretty mean-spirited if you ask me!

  168. 168.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @germy: ACB is an insanely impressive person.

    Indeed, for a woman her age and with that many children, she has a very impressive body,…of work. Positively top heavy, one might be forgiven for saying.  In fact one might be forgiven for saying ACB’s top heavy credentials are the sole thing on the minds of those middle age white men who are going to vote for her.

  169. 169.

    Aleta

    @Jinchi: What better way to whip up the Trump-doubting Protestant evangelicals once again, than to deliver someone who’ll focus their belief not on Trump but on their conviction that U.S. Christians are being persecuted.  Who’ll act on the problem at the highest level.  Truly a gift from the guy above, Trump just the flawed vessel.

  170. 170.

    lowtechcyclist

    @geg6:

    To be fair, Catholics don’t consider evangelicals or other Protestants to be Christians either.

    I know they didn’t used to, but I thought they’d progressed to “OK, some of you are Christians, but you’re still doing it all wrong.”

  171. 171.

    narya

    @Original Lee: I once overheard a neighbor (in my old apt. bldg.) telling a friend she needed to consult w/ her deity about whether to rent a parking space. I nearly laughed out loud.

    I’m a third-generation atheist, so don’t tend to get too exercised about most things–until folks start imposing their deities’ beliefs on me, and/or judging my behavior based on the freedom from deities in my life. I’m also not a fan of the tax-avoidance scam, as it costs the rest of us to pay for that water, sewer, road, etc. services.

    A friend whose wife at the time was Adventist was visiting her family. they were apparently going on about how one of their number had (gasp) married a catholic. He finally said, but I thought you were all christians? Subject was changed IMMEDIATELY.

    Ed: some typos

  172. 172.

    randy khan

    @Soprano2:

    Saying she had no idea Trump wanted to appoint a judge who would over turn the ACA is one of her most transparent lies.

    If she didn’t know, she’s too stupid to be a justice of the peace, let alone a Supreme Court Justice.

  175. 175.

    Another Scott

    @The Moar You Know: His ill-fitting suits make him look huge.  When he’s in his golf tights, or getting pancakes at Xanadu, he doesn’t look so huge.  Maybe 275, especially since he’s at most 6′ given his well-documented lifts.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  176. 176.

    Angela (@Toocananj)

    @germy: I was raised in one of these communities in the alte ’60’s early ’70’s. One’s perception of God invades every part of ones life and decision making. My folks are still true believers. I imagine Barrett was horrified because she doesn’t believe what Whitehouse clearly showed her, and she is horrified that he could believe what he said was true. I have little doubt that she is not aware of the true forces underneath her appointment. She thinks it was God. That makes her very dangerous.

  177. 177.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @lowtechcyclist: I was raised Catholic– but went to public schools, which according to some of my cousins was heresy– and I never heard the term “schismatic” until I was in my thirties, and it was EJ Dionne using it as a joke. My dad, born in 1929 to hard core Irish Catholics, said he used to hear it from time to time.

    OTOH, in 1989 a  college acquaintance from Alabama told me that he was a Christian, with a pronunciation  and facial expression that suggested that, as a Yankee and a Mackerel Snapper, I might not understand what that term meant.

  185. 185.

    brantl

    @Immanentize:  George Carlin once said that religion is like a lift in your shoes; if you need it, great, but don’t go nailing lifts on the natives’ feet.  I would only add that I wouldn’t nail them on anyones’ feet, nor count on them to help anyone reach a higher shelf……..

  186. 186.

    Jeffro

    @SiubhanDuinne: we should never forget that he was the GOP runner-up in 2016.  Still kind of blows my mind.

    So…same results on tax cuts and judges, probably wouldn’t have fucked up Covid like trumpov has, but my god…we would have been listening to Ted Fucking Cruz for the past four years!

  188. 188.

    Geminid

    @narya: My late friend Chris took his Christian faith seriously, but he would make fun of people who were always talking about how they would pray over a problem, and then god would tell them what to do. Chris pointed out that Moses lived to be a hundred twenty, and god only spoke to him twice!

  189. 189.

    Gravenstone

    @danielx:But according to a Stanford anthropology professor who studies charismatic evangelical Christianity (writing for The Atlantic) Barrett might surprise appall us because Jesus:

    More accurate.

  190. 190.

    mad citizen

    @germy: Just stopped in this thread to say thanks germy for this link to LGM.  On Bullshit by Harry G Frankfurt is one of my holy books.  It is almost always relevant in our modern world, especially for one of the political parties.

    Two, although I am strangely not outraged but not watching the hearings (knowing the court can expand), I did watch a couple minutes of Barrett speaking and was not impressed.  There are loads of smart people around our nation, so I’m glad she isn’t Ivy League, but Notre Dame is not a solution to that issue.  We need people from all over.  She just didn’t seem that bright to me; backed up by one of the jackals entries about her not knowing or commenting on the simplest things.

  193. 193.

    Mary G

    I am still not listening or even reading about Amy Covid. In her world she is a handmaid who is required to do whatever her husband tells her, so he should be getting grilled instead.

  197. 197.

    James E Powell

    Until yesterday I hadn’t really seen Barrett. I was struck by her resemblance to Michelle Bachman – the same crazy eyes, as Charles Pierce used to say. Is it the religious fanaticism or the burning hatred of less people that gives them that look?

  201. 201.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @Amir Khalid: Do these people ever stop to wonder if God really is as small-minded and exclusionary about people’s religious affiliation as they are?

    Even speaking as a hard core atheist this always struck me as most absurd part of their beliefs; the all powerful creator of the universe, who transcends space and time, is just some old white dude. That’s up there with Bullshod Crumond’s claim that “Heaven is just like England on a Sunday afternoon”.

  205. 205.

    Immanentize

    @Jeffro: I think Cruz might have been better on Judges because he really thinks he is the smartest guy in the room and he would not have allowed many of the clear idiots Trump nominated because it would make him look bad.  Trump doesn’t care about that.

  207. 207.

    Ohio Mom

    Schrodingers Cat: Like germy, I sometimes hate read Clarrissa. She is an Ukrainian immigrant and a Spanish professor at a small state school in downstate Illinois, across the river from St. Louis (she appears to be a language savant).

    She was a Berniebot until the Kavanaugh hearings — she thought he was treated shabbily and that triggered her into becoming a Fox News convert.

    To be clear, she is completely ignorant of American history and civics, and also of science (she once opined that breast cancer was the result of a women’s deep-seated hostile feelings toward her gender).

    I read her as a short cut to keeping up what those people are hearing and repeating. Her posts tend to be short and punchy (she’s a good writer who writes garbage).

  208. 208.

    MisterForkbeard

    @Kay: I don’t think this has even gotten any real attention yet. There’s just too much other shit flying around.

    It’s telling that their go-to defense for this is “she didn’t attend meetings where we know we specifically talked about it”. Because clearly she just wouldn’t know because that’s the policy or because perhaps other board members may have spoken about it, etc.

  212. 212.

    Immanentize

    Hooray!  My son, the Immp, just posted a pic of him. With his voting machine finger condom, and his “I voted” sticker.  His first Presidential election.  He’s helping to turn Texas blue.

  219. 219.

    Bluegirlfromwyo

    @Jinchi: They really think that horse hasn’t left the barn yet? I can see that. This is the make our own reality crowd we’re talking about.

  224. 224.

    schrodingers_cat

    @Ohio Mom: This woman reminds me of Laura Wood who blogs as the thinking housewife. I used to read Wood to figure out what the fringe right thought.

  225. 225.

    Mrs. D. Ranged in AZ

    I’m sure someone else here has said this already, but I don’t have time to read all 220+ comments…..The Senate will have to pardon me if I don’t want to subject my rights to the vagaries of someone else’s fanatical personal and religious revelations. That’s not how any of this is supposed to work.

  226. 226.

    LuciaMia

    @Geminid: 

    Moses lived to be a hundred twenty, and god only spoke to him twice!

    And was denied entrance into the Promised Land after leading his people there.

  227. 227.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @Immanentize:  I rang a change on that one when I was actively writing verse something more than a generation ago, starting from a then-recent conjecture that the first self-reproducing molecules were assembled in the interstices of clay minerals. To wit:

    Some hold that life began in water;
    Some say clay.
    The testimony of vein and artery
    Suggest that genesis was watery,
    But the calloused soles the dead display
    Contend that clay
    Will carry the day.

    (A small thing, but mine own…)

  228. 228.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: So what arrant nonsense is America’s Goombah peddling these days?

    I look forward to the day, probably some months from now after Crudy Ghouliani has gone missing for a couple of weeks, when the NYPD lifts a vintage Coupe de Ville out of the muck of the East River and pops the trunk to discover…

  230. 230.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @lowtechcyclist: I’m a born-again Christian; I’ve known the Lord for >50 years.

    Good to know. This atheist will take that into consideration going forward.

    As with all persons of faith, I respect and (to the degree I can) understand that this is what you believe and what engenders and informs your posts here. And I grant that your beliefs are honestly held (unless and until proven otherwise – lot of scoundrels out there).

    But there is no reason at all for me to respect what it is you believe. Nor do I have any interest (other than a vague anthropoligical curiosity) in why you believe it.

    If you can afford me (and the many other Jackals who believe in one god less than you do) the same consideration, we’ll get along just fine…until and unless you post something I disagree with. Then, we argue. But at least we know where we’re both starting from.

  231. 231.

    J R in WV

    I think most of the freedoms in the First Amendment would be abhorrent to Amy…

    Freedom of Religion? No, No, No NO NO! You have to believe in MY RELIGION she thinks.

    Freedom of Speech? Oh, so many NOs. You have to speak as my husband wishes you to speak!

    Freedom of the Press? Big NOPE, you can’t publish anything that contradicts what JEEESUS SAYS.

    Freedom to Assemble? Only in CHURCH, you unbelievers!!

    Freedom to petition the government? Only if you are doing that within the first four Not Freedoms listed above!

    I trust I’ve covered this adequately now. No wonder she didn’t know, she disbelieves in all this freedom!

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