Caligula only appointed one of his horses to the Senate. The GOP Death Cult is about to give Trump his third ‘LOL, because we can’ SCOTUS seat…
The first amendment seems like one of the pretty important ones to know. https://t.co/JQy10VjeSP
— The Hoarse Whisperer (@TheRealHoarse) October 14, 2020
ask yourself which is more likely…a sitting appeals court justice not knowing what's in the first amendment or a craven politician knowing her vain, fickle, power-mad boss wants to jail, beat and kill protesters at will.
— Zeddy (@Zeddary) October 14, 2020
Amy Coney Barrett would be the third(!) sitting justice, alongside Brett Kavanaugh and John Roberts, who worked on the Republican side of Bush v. Gore. https://t.co/46nIRSB3Kc
— Charles P. Pierce (@CharlesPPierce) October 14, 2020
Amy Coney Barrett is asked if she can show the notes she's referring to while answering senators' questions. She holds up a blank notebook.
Sen. John Cornyn: "Is there anything on it?"
Barrett: "The letterhead that says 'United States Senate.'" https://t.co/NN41m59TpP pic.twitter.com/XwcS5nSqEO
— CBS News (@CBSNews) October 13, 2020
She’s there to demonstrate her total, unblinking fealty to the GOP Death Cult, not to know anything about the law:
I'm sure she (and her Libertarian funders) imagine that she has an "open mind", but she just comes off as having a fundamentally incurious empty mind.https://t.co/0gXtSCt0rW
— Simon Porter (@AscendingNode) October 14, 2020
Given the impossible odds against them, the Democrats have done noble work getting her (and her fellow Repub cultists’) soulless dishonesty on the record…
Q: Will you commit to uphold the Constitution?
A: Well, kinda depends… https://t.co/UJmg6S27sv
— Dana Houle (@DanaHoule) October 13, 2020
WATCH: Senator @amyklobuchar just asked Judge Barrett whether it's illegal under federal law to intimidate voters at the polls.
Barrett refused to answer. Then Klobuchar read her the law. Astonishing. pic.twitter.com/cxoIaXTP9e
— Vanita Gupta (@vanitaguptaCR) October 13, 2020
Harris quizzes Amy Coney Barrett.
In 3 minutes. pic.twitter.com/LP6YV4v9cp
— Zach Purser Brown (@zachjourno) October 14, 2020
if you were warming up an "actually, what's wrong with separate but equal" take, please jump into a hot tub full of eels
— Gerry Doyle (@mgerrydoyle) October 13, 2020
man, she’s raising two black children https://t.co/wHzLSETmOd
— Joel D. Anderson (@byjoelanderson) October 13, 2020
the sheer amount of stupefyingly bad things we have her on camera copping to already is proof that the "boycott the hearings" proposal would have been an idiotic blunder https://t.co/KIGJEyr9Er
— local jack please ban the nazis person (@pleizar) October 13, 2020
Democratic Senator Sheldon Whitehouse used his entire allotted time during confirmation hearing for Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett to detail what he called a Republican party ‘scheme’ to deploy dark money in an effort to appoint conservative judges pic.twitter.com/5ORp0VYquF
— Reuters (@Reuters) October 13, 2020
Analysis: Amy Coney Barrett’s most telling exchange on abortion and Roe v. Wade https://t.co/6sK9Y2tapU
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) October 14, 2020
Neither does the word women and yet here we are. https://t.co/Gb4TvKUB9w
— Katie Hill (@KatieHill4CA) October 14, 2020
Lol Alliance Defending Freedom is such a joke name but basically every one of these conservative orgs gaslights on why they exist. And of course its David French's old employer.
Barrett is a comically extreme candidate. https://t.co/VwrFJtwBRR
— AdotSad (@AdotSad) October 13, 2020
the main problem is that you can't counter a leroy jenkins strategy. if mcconnell's willing to lose his senate majority to confirm her, you can't stop him. the only thing you can do is make sure that he'll lose it, and the good dems on the committee are doing their best.
— golikechildebertmachine (@golikehellmachi) October 14, 2020
also, not for nothing, but the republicans have done an absolutely abysmal job feeding her questions that make her look good to anyone but federalist society lawyer goons. they're too high on their own supply.
— golikechildebertmachine (@golikehellmachi) October 14, 2020
Jeffro
Simon Porter’s wrong: Barrett knows exactly who she is and what she believes. And so do her funders, and so do her comrades on the R side of this committee. She’s just not gonna say any of it until after she’s confirmed.
No half measures, Biden & Co. Even adding 2 justices to SCOTUS won’t alleviate this thievery by the GOP (unless Thomas croaks or retires). #GottaAddFour
MomSense
Not surprised The Contagious ACB doesn’t know the First Amendment since she only seems to know half of the Second and that’s the one she really cares about.
different-church-lady
“I dunno, man, seems like the contradictions still aren’t high enough…”
cmorenc
One tiny, temporary bright side to a newly minted Justice Barratt is that should any 2020 election disputes come before the court, she may not prove to be nearly so much “in the tank” for Trump as he presumes. If she owes any allegiance, it is to the ideological disposition for which she was selected, and not to the people who selected her. If presented with a decision on an electoral dispute, she will be presented with a golden opportunity to “prove” her independence by joining ruling(s) against Trump – which demonstration would be relatively cost-free if the overall circumstances still make it overwhelmingly likely Biden has 270+ electoral votes even if she voted to favor Trump in the particular disputes.
That said, I wouldn’t trust my prediction to be true if instead, we wind up with a bona fide hair-breadth Bush v Gore type situation where a few hundred votes decide who gets to 270. But absent that, the incentives will tend to push her to demonstrate her nominal independence from Trump before then swinging the axe at progressive government.
Anya
I’m wondering what was fake serious person Ben Sasse’s goal in asking that question. I wonder if he was trying to be cute? Also, fuck that guy.
trnc
I don’t understand. I thought republicans were all about “the republic” and giving the minority a say.
germy
zhena gogolia
These hearings have broken me. Everything goes Trump’s way. It’s as if he was never impeached. It’s as if his tax scam were never uncovered. It’s as if his wife never said fuck Christmas. It’s as if he never had Covid.
Jerzy Russian
I haven’t watched, but did the hearings establish whether Judge Barrett likes beer or other adult beverages?
Kay
Ugh. I thought she sounded incurious and like someone with a really narrow background in her attempts to deny anyone watching any information at all.
How can you be the age she is and in her profession and never have read anything on racism and criminal justice? She read nothing? Is she even slightly curious about an issue that has been central to civil rights in this country for at least a hundred years? And she’s been a law professor for 20 years? This is an expensively educated, supposedly well rounded person yet she apparently reads nothing on any of the subjects they asked her about?
Holding up the blank page is perfect.
zhena gogolia
@germy:
God, the responses to Roberts’s tweet have REALLY depressed me.
germy
Cheryl Rofer
germy
Kay
@Jerzy Russian:
She’s never seen beer and would need a definition of beer to even respond honestly to the question.
It was ludicrous. They’ve taken this to the point where they have to present this person as living in a closet for 30 years rather than expose their views to the public. She went right along with all of it, as she has for each and every part of this political campaign event.
No one knows a thing about her, and that was the goal.
germy
@Jerzy Russian:
No, but it’s obvious she doesn’t like Kamala Harris.
PPCLI
@germy: And I’m pretty confident that Booker didn’t pay someone else to take his SAT’s for him.
germy
@zhena gogolia:
Sorry.
Jeffro
@cmorenc: I think she’s completely in the tank for trumpov, or more broadly, whatever will keep corporate power and white supremacy and religious nuts in power.
Kind of scary to think that the decision here might come down to Gorsuch and Roberts siding with the 3 liberal justices, but it might. BUT…it’s much more likely that Biden/Harris win in an Election Night landslide. So let’s make that happen! :)
germy
@Anya:
Interesting, the one Barrett couldn’t remember. Protest.
PPCLI
@zhena gogolia: It’s as if his son didn’t just take the fifth to avoid questions about tax fraud and business corruption.
Jeffro
@Kay: Yup. She has no opinion on anything. Climate change? Huge mystery. President postponing the election? Huh, have to think about that one. Voter intimidation? Hmmm (stares off into space).
Some wiseass D senator should ask her, “If a driver does 75 mph on a highway with a 55 mph speed limit, is that driver breaking the law?” She’ll short-circuit, trying to figure out if that’s a metaphor for trumpov’s tax fraud or putting kids in cages or something. And then the wiseass can just go, “Ma’am…I really am only talking about highway speeding here…”
Soprano2
I’m still gobsmacked that she couldn’t or wouldn’t identify the five core freedoms guaranteed in the 1st Amendment! Seems like that’s really, really basic Constitutional knowledge for a sitting appeals court judge, but she didn’t immediately know them. This isn’t a Jay Leno Jaywalking segment, this is an audition for a lifetime appointment on the highest court in the land! I just can’t stand all the lying, it’s an overwhelming amount for a sitting judge. It’s just not credible that she has no opinions about anything.
Matt McIrvin
@different-church-lady: To the people who think that way, if the contradictions are just leading people to vote for Democrats and haven’t caused a literal Communist revolution in the United States, they’re not high enough.
MomSense
@PPCLI:
It’s as if his buddy Putin never put BOUNTIES on our troops’ heads.
But there are so many more important things to discuss like will Biden pack the courts!!
germy
I know Democrats don’t have the numbers, but I’ll admit I was disappointed sometimes with the questioning.
Sheldon Whitehouse did an excellent job the day before yesterday with his charts and graphs. He explained the dark money situation perfectly. And then yesterday, he had some good questions for her, but he didn’t ask her to comment on the organizations who put her where she is.
And I loved Kamala Harris; she got under Barrett’s skin. But yesterday Harris talked about Barrett’s record of siding with corporations against their employers 85% of the time. Harris even mentioned a few cases that sounded outrageously unfair. And then Barrett smirked, and Harris moved on. Barrett didn’t even have to reply.
I think it was because of time constraints, and Democrats wanted to make all their points. I just wish they’d had more time for Barrett to address the points they made.
eric
@Kay: could not disagree more. we know all about her. (1) she was willing to play in this farce after what happened to Garland; (2) she evasively answered questions to avoid putting her views before the people; and (3) she was willing to go maskless for Trump even though she has many, many small children (for whom no stunt is too daring). I know what I need to know. Do i know her real feelings on Heller and Roe as precedent? Not explicitly, but her actions tell me pretty darn good approximations.
Chyron HR
I know there’s no possible way for Democrats to say this in public and politically survive the fallout, but her adopted “children” are just a couple of Black servants their family effectively bought, right? I’m not just being overly cynical here?
Soprano2
It’s particularly stupid because she has the job in the bag and she knows it. She could freely express every opinion she has about every issue she was asked about and still get 51 Republican votes. I’m totally with you about this hearing, it’s ridiculous. It did make her look extremely shallow and unthoughtful, though.
Somewhere else it was pointed out that until Trump, these people had to get 60 votes, which meant they had to be circumspect and more in the middle. Only for Trump has the floor been lowered to 51 votes.
Anya
@germy: why is he obsessed with Booker? It’s such an unnoticed weird obsession.
germy
@Soprano2:
When someone is raised as a hothouse flower, they don’t need to know everything about the sun and rain.
Jerzy Russian
@PPCLI: Not to mention paying a huge settlement over a scam university….
germy
@Anya:
Black.
eric
@eric: Kay, I say that knowing that what you say is completely true. Not trying to be contrarian.
TS (the original)
@germy:
The rules are different for republicans. I will never understand why – but if it is a law they did not write – they ignore its existence.
Chyron HR
@zhena gogolia:
He plummeted in the polls in the last month. I don’t know what more you can ask for, other than for him to be literally struck down by God.
trnc
Any chance one of today’s witnesses could ask Barrett about that during their testimony? (I know, I know).
Anya
@germy: I think it’s more than that. Obviously everything starts with his racism but also he is specially resentful of smart and successful black men. Deep down he knows he can’t measure up. He can be validated by Kanye and Ice Cube I guess. But he knows they’re not in the same caliber as Obama and Booker so he gets super obsessed with them. He wanted Obama to notice him and when he didn’t pay attention to him, and the Obama team didn’t return his calls or even acknowledge his stupid suggestion for the State Dinner he started attacking him.
eric
@Chyron HR:![]()
let us pray…
PPCLI
@Jerzy Russian: Or the fact that his fake charity was shut down because of self-dealing to a staggering degree, including holding a fundraiser for a cancer, announcing beforehand when soliciting donations that the facilities would be provided for no charge, and then charging for them. Or to put it more simply: stealing from children with cancer.
Or that the same “charity” gave a “political donation” to a Florida AG who then dropped an investigation into his fake university.
SFAW
Part of me hopes that both she and Kavanaugh get impeached for perjury during their hearings. Yeah, I know there’s zero chance of conviction (unless they suddenly start professing liberal views), but a kid can dream.
The Truth and Retribution Commission can’t get here soon enough, nor go far enough
Matt McIrvin
@Chyron HR: I think a lot of these white conservatives who adopt Black children honestly do love these kids, but they’re raising them according to the theory that if they’re socialized as white conservatives and insulated from notions of racial grievance they’ll have wonderful lives. And I worry about these kids having a rude awakening sooner or later.
bluefoot
These hearings are such a farce. It’s all performative and it makes me want to rage and cry. But unfortunately, as they say, the only way out is through.
slightly OT: I hate the whole “women with crazy eyes” thing – I find it misogynistic. But every time I see Coney Barret, I keep thinking, “Woah, she really does have crazy eyes!!”
geg6
@germy:
More than just black. Black and objectively superior to him. Like Obama.
trnc
Sure hope so (and phone banking to help out). Early voting started today in NC, and my wife saw a lot of people waiting to vote. Unfortunately, they’re only letting 2 people in at a time and it takes about 10 minutes for each set of people. That kind of wait will keep some people away. Hopefully, they’ll reevaluate that decision.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
And the verdict is still out on that, see Covid.
Hildebrand
@germy: I’m guessing they realized she wasn’t going to engage with any of their questions. Why bother interrogating a witness that refuses to say anything? Better to make your points, making Barrett at least hear points she doesn’t want to hear.
Barrett is an Aunt Lydia from the Handmaid’s Tale.
geg6
@Hildebrand:
Yes! This is what my sister and I call her!
Darrin Ziliak (formerly glocksman)
@Jeffro:
Sell it as restoring the historical standard of one justice per circuit court +1, and it’ll go over better with the general public.
zhena gogolia
@Chyron HR:
Yes, I am asking for that. I am.
Quinerly
@Matt McIrvin: I had a classmate in law school who was a very Conservative Catholic. She married later and then was diagnosed with MS. Long story short, husband divorced her at the wheelchair stage. At that point she adopted a little girl from Guatemala thru Catholic Charities. From the time the child could walk, she waited on her mother hand and foot and was treated like a servant. Leigh felt she had done the child a favor by adopting her. I heard the daughter fled at 18. I baled from any connection when the daughter was about 12 and I saw in person how Leigh was treating the little girl.
waspuppet
Republican SCOTUS nominees always make being a judge sound so simple: Look up the law in a book, bang your gavel and read what it says.
I’d like for someone to ask her why there even are such things as appellate courts if it’s all so straightforward and easy. We know the real answer is “Because sometimes trial courts don’t do what conservatives want,” but it’d be fun to watch the wheels turn in her head.
Bruuuuce
I can’t watch the dog and pony show, but by all reports, there should be a knight at Barrett’s side, and after each nonanswer, he should check off another item and declaim “The candidate passes!”
November 3, then January 1 and 20 can’t come soon enough.
trnc
Good point. Also need to point out that the court hasn’t been expanded in 150 years. The nation has added many states, US citizenship has grown by almost 300 million (almost 1000%), congress has added many members and lower courts have been created. The idea that the SCOTUS count should be fixed at 9 members is preposterous.
Shakti
@Chyron HR:
She ruled in a case that calling a black person the n-word did not rise to the level of ‘hostile environment.’
So, those kids are never going to come to her about racism on the playground. And since they are over the age of five, they definitely experienced it.
Peale
@waspuppet: I think Appellate courts are there so that the well-heeled will never spend a day behind bars.
A Ghost to Most
I’ve been harassing the Cletus Army in the WaPo comments on the Hunter Biden story. I asked one,
“Show me on the laptop where Ghouliani touched you.”
Another Scott
@Jeffro: #FightFor15
“You attack me, I fight back 10 times as hard!!”
They’ve broken the norms. Our opening offer shouldn’t be our minimum acceptable outcome. Go big.
Cheers,
Scott.
Keith P.
Didn’t Republicans pull the “What notes are you using? Huh? None?!??!!?? Woah!” stunt with John Roberts, too?
mad citizen
@trnc: Why in the heck does it take 10 minutes for the voting process?
We have additional sites on Saturdays around our Indiana county, but our main one is in the county seat. They had 15-20 machines set up, and once I was at one, it takes 2 minutes max. And I asked a them a question about my ballot. My time is simply ensuring all the D boxes are checked. Add on one minute for the check-in and signature process.
Ian
Worth noting the James Madison and others in the 1780s believed the executive should not appoint members of the court, since they might one day have to rule on the actions of the executive.
Another Scott
@Kay: She lies.
All the GOP nominees lie.
And they dare the Senate to call them on it.
They’ve broken the norms. We have to fix the system and not continue to pretend that This Is Fine.
Cheers,
Scott.
Quinerly
Kamala off the campaign trail until Sun out of caution. Two people in her extended circle have tested positive. Will do virtual events.
The Thin Black Duke
@zhena gogolia: I don’t want him dead. I want Trump alive long enough to lose everything he owns. Then he can shuffle off this mortal coil and have a pineapple shoved up his ass in Hell forever.
Kay
I’m more hopeful than a lot of people on what can be accomplished even with a far Right SCOTUS.
Congress has gotten weak and flabby. They’ve deferred way too much to the executive and too much to courts and that has turned the SCOTUS into this wildly out of touch arbiter of all things. It’s not healthy.
When one branch over-reaches, as here where the far Right has captured this court and expressed their intention to overturn long standing precedent passed by a majority of federal elected officials, like Roberts did when he gutted the VRA by inventing rules that don’t exist, the elected branches should push back. Have to. That’s the job.
If they gut a voting rights law, make the next one bigger and more comprehensive and less vulnerable. Lather, rinse and repeat until you back them off.
This was a power play by Barrett and her far Right backers. If we get more people elected we have some power to wield too. Start using it. You can do that by increasing the size of the court but if you do that you are committing to the idea that the SCOTUS rightfully holds all this enormous power. I don’t think they do. I think we can go in a whole other direction, and one that is more legitimate.
mad citizen
@Another Scott: I’ve been thinking 15 SCOTUS seats as well. Didn’t know it had a hashtag.
Have to wonder, though, if all this talk won’t drive the R’s to do it (expand the court) between now and the end of the year. Can you imagine?
Chetan Murthy
@mad citizen: They can’t. They’d have to go thru Speaker Pelosi. “Never? How about never, does that work for you?”
What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us?
Off topic but…Nate Silver’s joint just turned Georgia blue. Whatever the GOP thought this charade would do for them, it’s not.
zhena gogolia
Kay
As a practitioner and not a Right wing or Left wing legal theorist, I will say this. This obtuseness she exibited in this hearing is what people hate about lawyers and courts. It frustrates and enrages them. I get it too. I sympathize. They think these people sit in judgment of them and know nothing real or relevant to their lives and can you godammned blame them? This blank face she presents looks to them like a dumb, stubborn wall, standing alone with no context and no history and no understanding or even an effort to learn or hear them or understand anything outside her narrow experience. It’s why they drag them out of courtrooms, still yelling. It feels IMPERIOUS. I feel now and will probably always feel more like the outsiders to the process than someone who is an insider. At base I’m always thinking “oh, I’m with you- this is fucking outrageous!”
hueyplong
@Chyron HR: “He plummeted in the polls in the last month. I don’t know what more you can ask for, other than for him to be literally struck down by God.”
He will be struck down by God. On Oct 30. It’s on my calendar. Either COVID will get him due to the cocktail wearing off while his body failed to produce antibodies on his own or they’ll redo the cocktail/dex combo and he’ll have a stroke.
Gin & Tonic
If WaterGirl is around, weird phenomenon this morning, desktop Chrome in Windows – the right-side arrow thingy to go to the next post doesn’t appear when loading David’s post to the left of this one.
Baud
@Kay:
Agreed.
Searcher
Man, Alito must be so jealous. Thomas even got to vote in favor of it!
As a reminder, despite purity ponies beliefs about sullying yourself with your participation (and the indirect sullying of voting for someone who sullies themselves with their participation), it only makes sense for legislators to boycott something if they can deny quorum to the majority and block it that way.
Otherwise, the smart and effective thing for legislators to do is to force the majority to spend political capital constantly. The longer this goes on, McConnell is burning more and more of both intra-party political capital (as he leans on different R’s to toe the party line while only having two or three golden tickets to give out) and the reputation of the Republican Party, such as it is, with independents and the political media, such as it is.
It probably isn’t enough to actually stop them, but it is a cost we can make them pay, while costing us so very little; it’s not like our Senators can do anything else to earn their six figure salaries but show up and be a public pain in the Republicans’ ass.
Ian R
@The Thin Black Duke: I don’t believe in Hell (unless we’re in it), so I’m hoping he lives a long, long time as a covid long-hauler in a New York prison.
Matt McIrvin
@Chyron HR: I would much like him to lose, which is a very different thing from plummeting in the polls (it requires votes to actually be made and counted and not nullified by some thievery).
Ivan X
Because of something screwed up at the NYC Absentee ballot department, and the fact that I can’t get a single person there on the phone, I am actually having to contemplate whether I get on a plane to go vote. But it looks as though I have four more days to register in CA, so maybe I can do that and vote here instead.
Searcher
@mad citizen: The #FightFor15 has been going for at least half a decade.
Squid696
Just my two cents, but I would suggest we package a number of reforms together and package it as a Federal Modernization Act to take into account the growth in population of the US. We need to increase the number of members of the House so that a representative represents fewer people. This has the effect of diminishing the influence of the small red States, not only in Congress but in the Electoral College. We expand the number of Justices on the Supreme Court by at least 4 to match the number of Circuits, as it has been in the past. We also increase the number of judges at the Circuit and District Court levels to, at least, the number that Trump was able to add to manage the increased workload. It can be marketed as a modernization of the Congress and judiciary. Add the John Lewis Voting Rights Act, DC statehood (and PR if they want it) and you have a decent start.
Baud
@Matt McIrvin:
I would like him to lose too, but that can’t happen until November, so we’ll have to settle for the polls.
Kay
@Baud:
I just want to let it sit for a bit and let people think about it carefully. You can grab the same weapon – except BIGGER!- and hit them back or you can think about the interplay between the branches and how power works.
We always stop at the arms race approach. That’s just the first impulse. It doesn’t have to be the last thing we ever look at.
gvg
@Gin & Tonic: That is because this is the first post on the main page. The right side would be going forward to a post in front of this, and there isn’t one. The left side is backwards to the post before this and it’s there.
If you go to the next post on the front page (I think it’s on the ACA) both the left and right arrows are there.
Baud
@Kay:
I’m not going to oppose judicial reforms. But we the people need to reform ourselves first. Expanding the court is meaningless if we then are blasé about keeping Republicans out of power.
ETA:
We do this a lot. The first instinct is to bet the farm on a high risk, high reward approach and we then we get in a funk when the risk turns out to be a bad one.
TS (the original)
@gvg:
The problem I get – maybe also G&T is that when in David’s post there is no arrow to get to this post. Took me awhile to discover it was here. Also chrome which has been doing weird things at many sites (for me) recently.
The Thin Black Duke
@Baud: This won’t be a problem once it becomes easier to vote. Black people love curb stomping Republicans.
RaflW
OT, but, wow: Steve Bullock’s Senate campaign says it raised a record-breaking $26.8 million for the 3rd quarter, *in Montana*.
Baud
@The Thin Black Duke: Agreed. If we get the Senate, that has to be the first priority.
@RaflW: “in” or “for” Montana? I assume much of that money came from out of state.
Ksmiami
@Kay: I agree with Jen Rubin here that Congress needs to lob off The Court’s jurisdiction and reduce both its power and the power of the Executive branch. Our dysfunctional system isn’t working anymore
Ruckus
@germy:
But she would have answered all of your questions in the same manner that she answered every democratic question.
With a non answer, with, let’s face it bullshit.
She’s not looking to be the next supreme court justice. She’s looking to be that last link in the return to rich white supremacy as the overriding law of the land. Because rich whites are the chosen ones.
satby
@Another Scott: And isn’t lying in a Congressional hearing perjury and a criminal offense? It’s time to up hold that norm, that perjury is punishable, too.
Aleta
Whitehouse is great right now.
trnc
No idea because I haven’t been in yet. Hopefully it’s just because it’s the first day and they’ll get it worked out quickly.
piratedan
@Kay: with the perjury that we suspect has been comitted, I would be less than surprised if the Biden team look to impeach Kavanaugh and Barret for their misrepresentation during their confirmation hearings. My understanding is that perjury is still a big damn deal and still a crime.
fine… then enforce it
kick their asses off the court, refer them to the state BAR for further disciplinary action, revoke their licenses. Make them go thru the walk of shame and then nominate honest jurists to replace them. tbf, I just want a judge who will be honest and fair to decide on the merits of a case, not some damn ideologue who is another chess piece in keeping score.
Lulymay
@Jerzy Russian: Yesterday, she said she had a glass of wine the night before (although that might have been part of the pre-written script). She just didn’t come across as particularly forthright when it came to some of what I liked to call those “skill-testing” questions when I was interviewing anyone for a job.
Gin & Tonic
@gvg: I was referring to David’s post, not this one. When I posted my comment, David’s post did not have the right-arrow thingy. Now it does.
I actually know how this is supposed to work.
Citizen Alan
@Hildebrand:
No, she’s Serena Joy. Aunt Lydia supported the Republic of Gilead after its creation in order to survive. Serena Joy actively worked for its creation.
Omnes Omnibus
Can you show me the GOP voters that would get us to 67?
Another Scott
@zhena gogolia:
(via nycsouthpaw)
Cheers,
Scott.
trnc
Doesn’t that require an amendment to the constitution?
Edmund Dantes
@Squid696: yep. All of this. It needs to be done. Screw all the whining and caterwauling from the media and the GOP.
bluefish
Doe in the headlights. Gal will get herself in there. Meanwhile, back at the ranch, we all got to watch. Love to watch. The degradation just don’t end. There’s always been more to being smart than being smart, Horatio. Just makes me feel sad to see but it’s gorgeous outside so frak these fancy folk.
WaterGirl
@Kay: Covid Barrett sounds like she has something to hide, and of course she does. She sounds just like the criminals who repeat “I can’t recall”. She is fooling no one.
The sad thing is, the Rs have the votes, so they don’t have to use a democratic process and they don’t have to respect the law. They disgust me.
WaterGirl
@Gin & Tonic: Does the fly-out work properly if you are IN the next post, or the previous one?
Trying to determine whether it is just that one post or if it’s a bigger issue than that.
Citizen Alan
@trnc: No. The number of Representatives is set by an Act of Congress. The Constitution is silent on the ration of citizens to Representatives. IIRC, there was supposed to have been an amendment as part of the Bill of Rights that set the ratio at 1 per 100,000, which would give us over 4000 Congresspersons today, but it didn’t get passed for technical reasons.
Edmund Dantes
@trnc: size of House of Representatives size is not laid out. It’s a simple law passed in I think the 40’s.
Edmund Dantes
@Citizen Alan: I am in favor of at the largest it should be the Wyoming rule. Wyoming gets 1. Everyone else gets 1 up to the million population gets you a second. Then the rest get passed out by proportion to Wyoming. Depending on how you treat rounding you get around 600-700 Representatives (I don’t remember the exact range from the last time I did the exercise).
snoey
@Omnes Omnibus:
If someone has the smoking gun documented truth about Kavanaugh’s “baseball tickets”, and it is more than usually embarrassing, then maybe we can get him.
Other than that they’re bulletproof.
trollhattan
@Bruuuuce:
The Dems should have that chick from Game of Thrones at her side shouting “Shame!” with every lie and non-answer.
This one is getting under my skin even more than li’l Brett, and that’s quite an accomplishment.
Your bought-and-paid-for Supreme Court.
mad citizen
@hueyplong: “He will be struck down by God. On Oct 30. It’s on my calendar. Either COVID will get him due to the cocktail wearing off while his body failed to produce antibodies on his own or they’ll redo the cocktail/dex combo and he’ll have a stroke.”
I like the way you think! I really thought the guy would see the outcome coming and resign by Labor Day. I would have lost money on that bet if I had made it. Now it’s a weird place–it would be nice to know antibody treatment is really effective, but if COVID takes him out, OK with that too. Whatever. There are enough other family members of the companies to indict and convict. October 30. “Google calendar, take a note!”
piratedan
@Omnes Omnibus: well, I suspect we may have the votes after those GOP Senators that participated in receiving assistance from Russia in coordinating their campaigns with a foreign power and foreign money may well give us the votes we need… so roughly every GOP senator that won in 2016.
Cameron
Hell, everybody knows the five freedoms in the First Amendment: person, woman, man, camera, TV
Bill Arnold
@germy:
A person who violates this section shall be fined not more than $5,000, imprisoned not more than 3 years, or both.
Law and Order!
Three years seems about right. I could be talked down to two years.
(If I’m reading it correctly)
Edmund Dantes
@Cameron: This deserves some love.
well played.
Another Scott
@Citizen Alan: WaMo has a good summary of the history:
Beyer is my Rep and is a very thoughtful, smart, and effective guy. I’m not sure that more parties in Congress is necessarily the answer (look at Israel and how it is held captive to tiny reactionary minorities), but more viewpoints is certainly important.
There are lots and lots of ways to skin the cat.
Cheers,
Scott.
Kay
@WaterGirl:
Maybe she has something to hide or maybe she just isn’t very curious about anything outside her own life and really hasn’t read anything on these topics. If it was anyone else except a SCOTUS nominee we would take them at their word that they know nothing- why not with her?
Chetan Murthy
[superfluous]
Kay
@Citizen Alan:
You and my daughter. My daughter has made it her mission to designate Barrett as the correct character, which is OBVIOUSLY Serena Joy :)
She’s like “did anyone actually read this book? The Handmaids are held in bondage by the Serena Joys! They don’t make the rules!”
Darkrose
@PPCLI: Booker was the senior president of the Stanford Class of 1991–my class. Trump couldn’t find Stanford on Google Maps, much less get in if he had to take his own SAT’s.
L85NJGT
She’s the sort of legal mediocrity that ends up stealing from her trustifarian clients. It is crystal clear that anyone with a lick of sense was a hard pass on carrying water for the White House.
Kay
@L85NJGT:
What I love to death is the absolute brazenness of her and her Party stealing the seat and then her phony dismay and furrowed brow at how contentious it is. I mean, just OWN what you are and what you’re doing. So, so sick of how dishonest they all are. They want it both ways. They want to be brass knuckle political players AND lauded for how ethical and upright and scholarly they are. You don’t get both. I actually prefer politicians who admit they’re politicians.
Gin & Tonic
@WaterGirl: It is working correctly now, as far as I can see. It was only in David’s post, and appears it was temporary. Those intermittent or temporary UI issues are the most fun to diagnose, aren’t they?
Bruuuuce
I’d go with Carol Kane as Valerie, doing “Liaaaar!” (as she did so well at the WisDems’ show and the following Q&A).
thalarctosMaritimus
@Chyron HR: Don’t tease me like that.
James E Powell
@zhena gogolia:
You can’t let it break you. It isn’t Trump. It isn’t even McConnell, although they are both evil. It’s the ~40% of the country that are ignorant, hateful bigots. Trump & McConnell succeed because of their never-wavering support.
glory b
@Soprano2: Maybe she should have brought some notes, huh?
I found that insulting to the public! Were we supposed to believe she is soooooo smart that she didn’t feel the need to take notes? The smartest lawyers I ever came in contact with had notes.
Then again, she didn’t really answer any questions, so I guess there wasn’t any need for them.
Kay
This is not true and has never been true. Whitmer is now and has always been more popular than Donald Trump in Michigan, which is one of the reasons she refuses to be bullied by him and his family.
She’s an actual Michigan person with real and long standing ties to the state, unlike the sleazy Trumps who drop in and yell a lot. The Trumps can’t tell Whitmer anything about Michigan.
Kay
Where are the sleazy Trumps from? NY? Why are they so unpopular in their own home state?
J R in WV
@Anya:
Oh, come on! Highly educated, good looking BLACK GUY from Newark????????????? Who ran into a burning building to rescue a stranger?
Trump can’t stand anyone who is better than him at anything, and Sen. Booker is better that Trump in EVERY WAY!
trollhattan
@Bruuuuce:
I was deeply smitten with Carol Kane and would probably have begged her to insult me for the sheer experience. (Susie Essman reports that strangers frequently stop her and request that she swear at them.)
James E Powell
@Chyron HR:
Well, if it’s not too much trouble . . .
Elizabelle
@Kay: WRT Trump: Every accusation a confession.
Fuck him and the idiot supporters he rode in on.
You go Gretchen. We have your back.
WaterGirl
@Kay: She has something to hide – her actual views and positions. She evades every question I have seen her be asked. Covid Barrett is despicable.
WaterGirl
@Gin & Tonic: Yes intermittent issues are the best! //
One thing that might be at play here is that scheduled posts are sometimes not actually posting at their scheduled time, so they show up as “missed schedule”. But one day last week I saw that one that was still showing as “missed schedule” was actually showing up in the fly-out. Also, if you go in and fix the missed schedule issue, it posts saying it was the original time. So if it was supposed to go up at 10:00, and you don’t catch it until 10:07, the time stamp will still be 10:00, and I can see that a post sort of being posted but not completely posted might wreak havoc with the fly-outs.
Bruuuuce
I can only imagine what Samuel L Jackson goes through in that regard!
WaterGirl
@glory b: Who needs notes when your intention is to not really answer any questions!
James E Powell
@Baud:
Assuming that “we” means “we who are not the ~40% who really like what Trump & the Republicans are doing,” the problem is that while we may agree that all that is bad, we don’t agree on what we should do about it or what we should replace it with.
Too many of that “we” seem to require a once in a lifetime politician & political moment like Obama in 2008 or disaster like Trump to get the energy to vote. The obtuseness and will ignorance of people who say “don’t try to hold me hostage with the supreme court” to justify not voting for Gore or Clinton is a disease and we have yet to find a cure.
Amir Khalid
@Chyron HR:
That might be acceptable to zhena gogolia. It certainly would be to me.
Doug R
@Jeffro:
Motor vehicle law is a good allegory for tax law. A good speed limit is set at 85% of traffic speed, and a good police officer will enforce against the most dangerous violators.
IRS should be funded and go after the worst first.
SiubhanDuinne
@glory b:
Sometime during the Mueller investigation, there was a story that Trump only liked lawyers who didn’t take notes. I think his criticism was aimed at Don McGahn, but can’t remember precisely.
Anyhow, whoever it was, Amy Covid Barrett must have taken the lesson to heart. Trump might decide to pull her nomination if she took notes!
Zinsky
@germy: I agree with you about Sheldon Whitehouse! That was the most informative, artful takedown of the insidious right-wing campaign to capture the Supreme Court that I have ever heard. Absolute dynamite. Every American should watch this video segment on YouTube.
Ridnik Chrome
@Darrin Ziliak (formerly glocksman):
I think it’s better to sell it as righting the wrong done with the Merrick Garland nomination. I would say “You can have Gorsuch, or you can have Barrett, but not both. One or the other steps down, or we expand the court.”
Bluegirlfromwyo
@Hildebrand: I’ve been calling her Justice Serena Joy!
Quiltingfool
On Twitter, HedgeMommy referred to Senator Whitehouse as “rumpled hotness.” Lol! I watched a clip of him just now – I’ll call it “when the shoe is on the other foot” warning to Republicans. Sheldon ain’t playin’.
LongHairedWeirdo
Honestly, I’d have framed that more as “they really don’t *care* about making her look good (except to federalist society goons)”, rather than “they are so high on their own supply they think this makes her look good”.
Their only concern is “please, don’t let her hearings create a headline that hurts R Senate polling!”
What makes the Republican Party evil (in my not-so-humble opinion) is that has been their only concern for (at least) the past four years: will this help or hurt our polling numbers?
The Mueller report was showing no real damage to polling numbers; impeachment was all about making sure they didn’t have to say something bad about the SCROTUS[1] which would hurt polling numbers, and, now they’re letting people die rather than standing up and saying “Trump is wrong!”
Someday, and not in the far distant future, historians will be asking with sincere puzzlement why Trump never bled support among the people who knew better, and had a positive duty to warn people, during the pandemic, no matter how dangerous his lies, no matter how many lives it cost.
Why did the right wing media, and Republican officials, just play along with his “don’t worry, be happy!”[2] narrative? Why didn’t they try to push back, gently, to try to save lives?
I’m afraid the answer that seems most likely to me is that the well-to-do have a much better chance of escaping the dangers of Covid-19, so it was all happening out of their sight, and hence, they didn’t really notice, process, or care.
[1]”self-called ruler of…” if you haven’t seen it before – it *sounds* about right, doesn’t it?
[2] I think I just realized why I *never* liked that song. I mean, I never liked “be happy, for *other people*” but it always struck me as a bit darker than that. I think it was the younger-weirdo’s memory working correctly. (A sci fi writer once said “it’s a really poor memory that only works backward”. I think my earlier self realized I would write this response, which would explain the visceral dislike I felt for the song.
ballerat
@Quinerly: How is this possible? To be wheel-chair bound with MS and no care-taker and someone thought this is a great placement for a small child? This was optional, ffs. It’s not like that lady had some religious conservative force her to give birth.
What the hell is wrong with these people?
sgrAstar
@Kay: there’s nothing illegitimate about expanding the SCOTUS. It’s an arrow in our Constitutional quiver, and we should use it. The consequences of not doing so are just too dire.
?
Matt McIrvin
@Another Scott: Remember when Lani Guinier pointed out that reforms like this might give a voice to marginalized minorities who weren’t geographically concentrated, and conservatives used it to smear her as a “quota queen” and tank her appointment to the Clinton administration? I’m still angry about that.
patrick Il
@Anya:
Blake man who us smarter than he is and not subservient. See Obama.
Ruckus
@Kay:
A great idea. Congress has, as you say gotten very flabby. They have given a lot of their power to the executive branch and that hurts when we have a nutjob in power, especially one who has no idea whatsoever about the job, or in this case in anything at all.