Mitch McConnell’s said this about the ACB confirmation
A lot of what we’ve done over the last four years will be undone sooner or later by the next election. They won’t be able to do much about this for a long time to come.
I was going to write about it, but I don’t think I can do better than AOC:
Republicans do this because they don’t believe Dems have the stones to play hardball like they do. And for a long time they’ve been correct. But do not let them bully the public into thinking their bulldozing is normal but a response isn’t. There is a legal process for expansion.
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) October 27, 2020
Morzer
Democrats must either find the courage to expand the court as Jefferson and Lincoln did – or just give up and crawl off into the undergrowth to die.
TS (the original)
Good to see he use the term “expand the court“. The media calls it court stacking because they see that reflecting badly on democrats.
zhena gogolia
Her smug, self-satisfied face is enraging me this morning. I didn’t think I could hate anyone more than Trump and McConnell, but she’s giving them a run for their money.
zhena gogolia
waspuppet
@zhena gogolia: Yeah when I saw the holding-up-the-notepad moment, I actually said out loud “Oh aren’t you just fucking adorable?”
No one who would take the job under these circumstances is worthy of it, and I was furious no Democrat on the committee pointed that out.
PS Is it just me, or did Mitch McConnell just admit out loud that his party is gonna get wiped out next week?
PPS Not a single mask on that balcony. “Did you not wear a mask at the Rose Garden, thus endangering your entire family, because you don’t believe in science or because you will literally not do anything to upset Donald Trump in any way, shape or form? There is no third answer” is another question I wish someone had asked.
rp
They should call it “rebalancing the courts.” (Courts plural because the district courts and appellate courts need to be expanded as well.)
germy
Albany, N.Y. — After failing for the past two years, Gov. Andrew Cuomo is prepared to call again for the legalization of adult-use recreational marijuana in New York in 2021.
According to a report at Marijuana Moment, which tracks marijuana-related issues around the country, Bernabe said the legislation the governor will introduce “will serve as a ‘model’ for other states, prioritizing social equity and economic development.”
Bernabe told Culver the governor wants the legalization included in the state’s 2021-2022 budget, which takes effect April 1. New York currently has a legal medical marijuana program, but not for recreational use.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
Well reptile man can enjoy the moment because it looks like he isn’t long for this world. I mean good lord, what a pathetic legacy this loser going to have “I packed the courts just to piss off the liberals”, they should put that on Turtle’s tomb stone.
TS (the original)
@zhena gogolia:
And the video, on the front page of wapo, quotes : Barrett honored and humbled has her with a supercilious expression of superiority on her face.
I’m with you on being enraged.
H.E.Wolf
Electoral Vote blog’s first item today: detailed options for judicial-branch rebalancing.
https://www.electoral-vote.com/evp2020/Pres/Maps/Oct27.html#item-1
GOTV. And then: justice, justice shall we pursue.
Benw
Unpack the courts
Odie Hugh Manatee
The fact that Amy Covid Barrett went along with this shows that she’s not an honorable person and is unfit for the Supreme Court.
Mousebumples
Other than judges and the tax cut, what the actual fuck have they done during the last 4 years?
With unified Dem control in 2+ months, we can repeal and replace the tax cut (billionaire tax, coming soon!) and expand all the courts – and consider term limits too!
waspuppet
@rp: They should call it “putting more seats on the Supreme Court” and stop trying to find a magical combination of words that will somehow avoid pissing off people who spend their lives being pissed off at anything Democrats do because it’s easier than trying to get a real job in the economy that conservatives created.
NickM
I think Cuomo’s trying to get out in front of New Jersey, where legal marijuana is on the ballot and certain to pass. New Jersey being the first Mid-Atlantic state to legalize will attract a lot of tax revenue that could be going to New York, and Cuomo’s not about to allow that.
Nicole
Biden has an opening, too- I read somewhere that the number of federal justices haven’t changed since the 1960s, while the population of the US is much, much bigger than that, and the courts have a corresponding increase in workload. It’s not a bad take to present it as putting the workload back to what it was in the 1960s, seeing as how an awful lot of the nation is real big on nostalgia.
Likewise, the last time the Supreme Court was expanded was, I think, to match the number of federal circuits; at the time, 9. Now, there are 13.
(I think I have this right; we are out of coffee and I am feeling the effects and too tired to do my usual google before I post. Mea culpa if I’m wrong.)
germy
@NickM:
True.
Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony
I think the first place to start if we take the Senate and the White House is term limits. 20 years on the court, period. The press will be good, because it will impact a Republican (Thomas) AND an 82 year old Democrat (Breyer) who should be stepping down with the next Democratic president anyway. Term limits lower the stakes of the court a bit, allowing for more change over time. We’d only need to expand the court by 2 justices after that. Compared to the hysterics coming out of the conservative press right now, it will seem very modest and restrained.
germy
Baud
Gotta take the Senate, and probably by a good bit. Everything else is noise.
rp
You need a constitutional amendment to term limit federal judges. That’s extremely unlikely.
@Nicole: Yes…even putting partisanship aside, the federal courts need a lot more judges to operate efficiently. It’s too small for the size of the country and the amount of litigation in this day and age.
p.a.
I had the ill fortune to see a snippet of her speech, where she used the Federalist-trope “our ‘democratic republic’…” which IIRC is code for the 13th, 14th, 15th Amendments are more suggestions than law.
Gin & Tonic
OT, but it’s an OT – do any dog people have experience with adverse digestive reactions to a Seresto flea/tick collar? The dog has had a real bad tick problem, so we bathed her carefully with a flea/tick shampoo and put on that collar. More or less since the same time, she’s had the shits really bad, including several accidents in the house. The insert doesn’t mention anything like that, but wondering if anyone has seen anything similar. It’s been several days. I’ll be calling the vet in a bit too.
Immanentize
Where are the Ellen Jamesians in our hour of need??
Wapiti
@Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony: I think term limits for the court would require a Constitutional Amendment. I think a path to that might be to legislatively expand the court by a chunk, and offer the amendment with term limits and maybe a slightly less expanded court.
zhena gogolia
Don’t watch this ad if you want to sleep tonight.
Capri
@Gin & Tonic: Diarrhea is a common side effect. See the link below. #1 – take if off and seal it up somewhere like in a ziplock bag so your dog is no longer exposed. There are tons of other good flea/tick products on the market with different ingredients.
https://961theeagle.com/flea-collar-causes-serious-reactions-in-cny-dogs/
Woodrow/asim
As rp and many others have pointed, any attempts to Term Limit judges require a Constitutional Amendment.
I also personally think it’s a band-aid on the main problem — the politicization of the court system. Term Limits just give you a chance to stuff, over and again, and push you to put even younger judges into courts they really don’t have the experience for.
That said, that Electoral Vote post mentions an alternate approach that might pass Constitutional muster. It’s worth reading, just to see all the options on the table.
geg6
@NickM:
Here in PA, Wolf has been pushing hard for legalization. We need more Dems in the state legislature to make that happen. We are hoping that will happen this year, but it’s difficult. The T outnumbers the rest of the state with legislative districts and the T is solidly red. But GOPer state legislators keep doing stupid shit (making their 5 yo smoke cigars on video and posting it to FB and Twitter, for example) , so it may be we have a chance.
lowtechcyclist
AOC totally nailed it there.
DesertFriar
The Dems should be just as ruthless as the Republicans were. Merritt Garland never withdrew his name. Obama never withdrew his name. The day after Biden’s swearing in, start the ‘advise and consent’ on Garland.
Once he is approved, say “well Mitch should have given Garland a hearing, but he didn’t. We need to work on business that was not begun during the previous session. On and since we don’t have a seat presently, we will need to expand the courts”.
Although the 1st thing the new Congress should do is impeach Trump starting Jan. 4th.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
More and more I think in terms of analogies about bombed out cities in Europe during and after WW2.
The bombs are still falling but they will stop eventually. Fairly soon in fact. When they do, we’ll come out of the shelters, we’ll assess what’s still standing and what needs to rebuild, and we’ll start clearing the wreckage and rebuilding.
They’ll wreck more things before this is over. ACB was just one more. We’ll deal with it, whatever it is. Let’s just get these bastards out of the way so we can begin.
geg6
@Gin & Tonic:
We love our Seresto collars, so can’t help. No ticks or fleas since we started using them last spring. A summer without ticks is amazing. So sorry, no help here.
Baud
germy
Nyuk nyuk nyuk.
Martin
The founders believed there should be a justice for every circuit. An originalist would note that we’ve failed to heed their judgement. We should correct that.
WaterGirl
@Gin & Tonic: Yes, that can happen with chemicals in flea products. I have seen that as a warning with flea shampoo.
I read the warning, but I didn’t truly comprehend what they meant until my dog got out of the tub after a flea bath, shook off, as dogs love to do, and liquid shit flew everywhere and covered the walls of my bathroom
edit: You’ll want to take the flea collar off immediately, put it in a plastic bag and put it in your outside garbage container.
Gin & Tonic
@Capri: Thanks. I’ll take it off and see.
p.a.
@DesertFriar: Nah, unless term limits/retirement age can pass: Gotta go younger than Garland.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
god, I am sick of the “stones” rhetoric
zhena gogolia
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Very feminist of her.
Bex
@waspuppet: That’s what stood out for me. He knows it’s over, but still thinks his sorry attempts to control the future will stay in place forever. Too much power does that to people like him.
Gin & Tonic
@geg6: We have a lot of ticks here. And we’ve taken off several even after the collar, so I’m not sure about its effectiveness.
Her regular check-up is week after next, so if I get the shits under control that will be something to ask about.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@Gin & Tonic: @WaterGirl: We have been using a monthly pill called Credelio recommended by our vet. I have no idea how a pill can prevent fleas and ticks but it seems to work.
No experience with the issue you describe, though we had an issue with involuntary urination last year as a result of one of the treatments for a heartworm attack.
Immanentize
@Martin: The founders/framers actually only created one judicial position — chief justice of the Supreme Court. (Art III) The first and second judiciary acts created some judges who then “rode circuit.” They hated it.
Baud
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I didn’t want to say anything, but since you brought it up, I hate that so often we can’t rally the troops without making a side comment casting aspersions on Dems. It’s not an AOC problem. Many ordinary people, including here, do it too.
Even if you think it’s accurate, how is it good for motivation? In what other context is a motivational to allude to past failures. It seems to be exclusively a Democratic thing.
Baud
@Immanentize: I support making the justices ride horses across the country again.
Immanentize
@Baud: agree
Gin & Tonic
@Baud:
I thought we were all extraordinary.
germy
If November 3rd is the flea bath, and Trump loses, I expect the same result.
geg6
@Gin & Tonic:
We actually have a paper road between our house and our neighbors where deer roam every night in all seasons. We have had a terrible time with ticks, on Koda especially, over the years because the deer are in our yard constantly. So much so that our vet says that even the Lyme vaccination every year may not protect her enough. All the drops never did a thing and she won’t eat any of the treat form tick treatments, so the collar was our last resort. And it seems to have worked. Not a single tick this year. But not everything works for every dog.
Immanentize
@Baud: me too. Basically that is what Congress did in 1802 after Adams sent through a bunch of Judges in the lame duck session. Including the first famous Justice Marshall.
DesertFriar
@p.a.:
Garland is the procedural opening to expand the Courts. We will still expand to 13, it just gives the knife to the back of the Republicans. Mitch could have held hearings on Garland. But he didn’t. Why? Because he wanted to try and humiliate the Democrats. But because they didn’t follow normal procedure, the new Senate “has” to do it.
And the other 3 Justices can be ~40 years old.
What goes around, comes around.
montanareddog
If the McConnell/Barr election nullification scheme fails next week, and Dems get the trifecta, then Pelosi and Schumer’s second order of business when the new congress is seated in January should be the John Lewis Voting Rights Act 2021. And the third order of business should be the Ruth Bader Ginsburg Federal Judiciary Reform Act 2021. Because without the latter, the former will quickly be dead letter. Which means the first order of business has to be the abolition of the Senate filibuster.
The DiFi/Manchin/Sinema/Coons wing have to remember they serve the American people, not the Senate, and zombie comity/bi-partisanship will not be revived. An ideologically-imbalanced federal judiciary confirmed by a reactionary Senate representing a minority of US voters, nominated by a reactionary President who lost the popular vote (twice) cannot be allowed to nullify the agenda voted for by a majority of the electorate.
If that continues, the republic is doomed
cain
@TS (the original):
We need to stop thinking about the press and completely bypass them. The press is wired for Republicans and you can imagine with us in power and being power brokers – we should not give them any access.
Let them be all buddy buddy with their Republican friends – they prefer them anyways given the guest list on sunday talk shows.
But if they don’t do the court expansion they would have turned their back on their constituents, the progress they’ve made in the past 60 years, and so on. If they can’t do that then it’s time to start an AOC based party and get rid of these clowns.
Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony
@Wapiti: Oooh! I like that.
Omnes Omnibus
@Baud: “We’ve always sucked but maybe not this time!” isn’t inspirational?
danielx
Oh, he’s going to be pissed.
Judge rejects Justice Dept. bid to short circuit defamation case brought by woman who accused Trump of rape
lapassionara
A judge has just denied the Justice Department’s request to represent Trump in the defamation suit.
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/judge-smacks-down-doj-role-in-defending-trump-from-rape-claim
A ray of hope here
ETA: I see Danielx got here first.
Jinchi
I’m all in with expanding the court as a short term solution, but the real reform should be ending life-time tenure. The entire basis of the Republican court packing strategy rests on filling the court with judges who will continue to push the ideological agenda even if they lose power for decades.
I’d also prefer a system that takes the nomination out of the hands of the political class entirely. Voters should have a way to reject judges who serve only the interests of the powerful.
geg6
@montanareddog:
Chris Coons, probably the most institutionalist senator in the whole Senate, has signaled that he is ready to do what is needed. That’s how out of control Mitch has been. He made Chris Coons into a radical.
RaflW
So what do we do if we have a 51-49 Senate, and a rotating cast of DiFi, Joe Manchin (yes, he did the right thing yesterday, that’s great, but) or, and this sort of bums me out, Kyrsten Sinema. Ideology scores are suspect, but I don’t think it’s wild to call Sinema one of the most conservative Dems. Maybe if AZ convincingly elects Mark Kelly, she’ll relax a little? One can hope.
And can Schumer whip these people?
I do not want to be defeatist. I want to know what we’re going to do. How do we effectively push the 50th and 51st vote?
New Deal democrat
Rather than make a lengthy comment here, I wrote two lengthy posts yesterday and today about the history of the judiciary in republics. Judges were arms of the executive – and sometimes the elected executives themselves – in republics up until the Glorious Revolution of 1688. The UK pioneered the independent judiciary and the US Constitution marked a radical expansion of the concept. Alexander Hamilton’s arguments as to how the Supreme Court would work, and why it would be “the least dangerous branch” have not held up historically:
Link
The Supreme Court needs to be reformed.
Betty Cracker
@Baud: Because dithering, cowardly behavior and/or reversion to norms an opponent doesn’t feel obligated to respect doesn’t always go away on its own when the people who engage in it suddenly realize it’s pointless to keep bashing their head against the wall. Sometimes it has to be called out for that epiphany to occur. It’s not always appropriate, but sometimes it is.
Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony
@Woodrow/asim:
On the Supreme Court, NOT having term limits means each side pushes for the youngest justice they can get that meets the minimum qualifications. If they can’t serve for more than 20 years, then age is less of a factor. Take Barrett, she could serve for 30+ years because she is only in her 40s. I’d prefer that any justice that is appointed to the Supreme Court be older and have served a lot longer in the Federal Courts.
Immanentize
@Immanentize: For the con law history fans:
Wiki
Patricia Kayden
Baud
@Betty Cracker:
That’s always the excuse. But I think it’s become a habit, a verbal tic divorced from any strategic consideration of its value to the immediate objective.
randy khan
@Woodrow/asim:
There are some interesting arguments about whether certain variations on term limits might be Constitutional, but the basic problem with all of them is figuring out how you convince a majority of the Supreme Court to buy those arguments. I would agree that you could, at least in theory, read Article III to allow something like giving Justices senior status or rotating them to the appeals courts, but you still have to get 5 of them to read it the same way, and I’m pretty sure they all love their life tenure.
Jinchi
I understand your point, but Merritt Garland is 67 years old and was offered as a compromise nominee by Obama to defuse the Republican fear of a liberal judge sitting on the court for decades.
Amy Coney Barrett is a 46 year old hard right ideologue.
danielx
@lapassionara:
It’s worth repeating ?
cain
@montanareddog:
No.. the first order of business is to add more democrats to the senate. Washington DC becomes a state. We need to keep the senate out of Republicans hands for a generation so we can replace the judges McConnell have been court packing.
The American public are a capricious lot – we’ve been drunkenly going from dem to repub and repub to dem where the dems spend all their time fixing shit instead of moving forward. Let’s stop the cycle. We definitely do need to do a voting and civil rights laws in place so that we can continue to expand voting as part of keeping Dems in charge however.
Baud
@Omnes Omnibus:
Cacti
Yep. We’ve reached that point.
We either use the remedies available to us through the legislative process, or the Dem party should just admit that they’re content with the country being held hostage by 6 un-elected reactionaries for the next 30 to 40 years.
randy khan
@DesertFriar:
Garland’s nomination died at the end of the Congressional session in 2016, so he would have to be renominated.
azlib
My evil dream is both Barrett and Thomas catch a severe case of Covid and die and Biden gets to nominate their replacements.
Betty Cracker
@Baud: In some instances, that’s true, but where’s the lie or gratuitous smear in what AOC said? We can quibble about her use of the word “stones,” but it’s true that the Dems have played by a different set of rules, and the time for that ends now. I think most of us feel that way. She said it. Good for her. There are Democratic lawmakers who need to hear it.
I think it’s also motivating, maybe especially for younger voters, to see someone who’s committed to playing hardball on their side as enthusiastically as Republicans play hardball for corporate interests. We’ve had soundbite generators who accomplished little or nothing on that score, like Grayson and Weiner. But AOC, Porter, Jayapal, etc., seem to be the real deal.
randy khan
@montanareddog:
My personal plan is for Congress to pass a COVID-19 relief bill and the John Lewis Voting Rights Act between January 3 and January 20, hold them until Inauguration Day, and have Biden sign them right before the traditional lunch with Congressional leaders.
Then do the courts the next week. You want the spotlight on COVID relief and voting rights for a few days.
Of course, killing the filibuster is a precondition for all of these things, but you can do that either right away or when the Senate Republicans vote to kill the COVID-19 relief bill.
DesertFriar
@randy khan:
Where in the Constitution does it say there is a time limit on Judicial nominations?
I haven’t seen any.
WaterGirl
@germy: I can’t disagree.
In my literal case, I was very glad to have tile on the walls. At least I felt like I was able to feel like it was sanitary again after i cleaned it up!
Omnes Omnibus
@Baud: It is related to the “Biden wasn’t my first choice but…” and “I don’t like Hillary but…” comments. There is a mindset on the left which wants to show that it is not mindlessly partisan, that it recognizes the faults and failings on our side, but still chooses this side. That we thought about it first and came to a considered and well thought out conclusion. Unlike the kneejerk mouthbreathers on the other side.
It’s all well and good to go through the process, but once you are in I am not sure what benefit there is suggesting ambivalence. If you come across a doubter and want to change their mind, sure. But why lead with it?
WaterGirl
@geg6: What is a paper road?
Tony Jay
I fully expect that the Democrats have people working on a step-by-step plan for doing what has to be done to modernise the Judiciary and bring its numbers in line with 21st century requirements. There’s nothing out of bounds or partisan about it, so I also expect that they’ve got other people working on the necessary framing for the public debate to come. Reconstruction 2: Electoral Fuck-You is a project big enough to fill more than one Presidency, it’s work that needs to be done, and for people with the best interests of the country in mind (Editor’s Note – He means Democrats) it should also prove to be a lot of fun. Imagine waking up each morning knowing you get to fix problems and make legions of Ameriklanists cry as their murky dreams of unconstitutional supremacy die the death of a thousand legislative cuts. Better than a bowl of muesli and a shot of carrot juice.
One thing that would be very entertaining in the long run, following the complete dissection and exposure of Trump’s corruption and treason, including but not limited to the real story behind the foreign funding that put him in the White House and a currently unknown number of Senators and Representatives in Congress, would be a well publicised campaign to ask each of his Judicial picks if they think it’s ‘honourable’ for them to remain in post given they were nominated by a proven traitor.
I wonder how many of them would do the right thing and resign? Enough to get a table-tennis match going?
Another Scott
@Nicole:
NPR from 10/22:
6 months is a good timeline for a broad investigation of the whole federal court system and to come up with recommendations.
Cheers,
Scott.
montanareddog
@cain:
We can certainly include that in the first round of actions. But I was not around when Alaska and Hawaii were added. How long does it take for a new state’s senators to be seated? Some time I imagine.
I agree entirely that the cycle has to be broken, urgently.
Baud
@Betty Cracker: I didn’t call it a gratuitous smear. My comment expressly had nothing to do with with the statement was accurate. I was talking about rhetorical habits that I see on our side (again, not at all about AOC in particular), and I find those habits to be a disservice to our goals the long run. You seem to think that it is effective here to motivate young voters, and maybe you’re right and I’m wrong. All I can say is that I see embedded self-criticism to be a distraction from the message of “let’s fight!”.
montanareddog
@randy khan: Fine with your schedule, too
WaterGirl
@danielx: Yay for that ruling!
BJ attorneys, what will the impact of the case remaining in federal court be? Does that mean that Trump could pardon himself if convicted, because it will be in federal court?
WaterGirl
@New Deal democrat: I’m sorry I didn’t get back to you on that yesterday! I haven’t had time to read it yet.
Another Scott
@rp: Dunno.
What is a senior judge?:
It’s not at all clear why SCOTUS Justices should be any different. Nor why there can’t be other ways to move oldsters off the bench and into other roles.
Cheers,
Scott.
cain
@montanareddog:
That’s fine, it needs to be done before the next mid terms. Our entire issue is that while we seem to bring in the votes for presidential elections – our weakness is the midterms – and that’s when the Republicans get us. So we need to make sure that we get some more senators in so that we have a buffer.
Baud
@WaterGirl:
It’s not a criminal case. Pardons are irrelevant.
Omnes Omnibus
@WaterGirl: He can’t pardon himself because it is not a criminal trial. I also don’t think that a president can pardon himself in any case, but that is not relevant here.
Baud
@Another Scott:
Senior judge status is voluntary. A judge doesn’t have to take it.
Eolirin
@Baud: Honestly, I think comments like that are in AOC’s personal self interest. I can’t fault her too much, as long as she continues to not hold out on purity votes and moves forward necessary legislation, despite it being imperfect.
Beating up the middle of the party keeps the activists on her side, and that’s the only real threat to her position. I think if she didn’t do that, she’d run the risk of someone doing to her what she did to her predecessor.
Immanentize
@Baud: That tic is just part of what everyone understands to be “damning with faint praise.”. If we started doing it to normal folks, they would get the point quickly.
germy
Bari Weiss is co-hosting The View today.
Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony
And we need the fairness doctrine. For too long, truckers, cooks, construction workers, etc have listened to AM radio all day and gotten more and more radicalized. That has to stop. Its eroded the labor movement and damaged rational debate. Enough.
WaterGirl
@Betty Cracker: I am totally ready for our side to play hardball.
SiubhanDuinne
@WaterGirl:
I’m not geg6, but I wondered the same thing. Never heard the term before, but Wikipedia’s definition makes sense in context:
randy khan
@DesertFriar:
Everything that’s pending dies at the end of a Congress – bills, nominations, etc. Each Congress is technically separate from the previous ones.
Another Scott
@p.a.: Not only that, but Obama picked Garland because all the GOP senators told him that he was a great choice that they would enthusiastically support.
Garland may be a great guy, but I’ll bet Obama would have picked someone else – probably someone younger – if he weren’t trying to work with the GOP.
They burned that bridge – make them lie in it. ;-)
Garland’s time has passed. Someone else should/must be the first Biden pick.
Cheers,
Scott.
cain
@Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony:
A modern telecommunications act needs to happen. I agree. As well as regulations on social media, privacy, and others. We are getting exploited by social media and that needs to stop.
Dog Mom
@Gin & Tonic: I put Seresto collars on my pups for several years. When I took my girl with liver issues down to Cornell – the world renowned liver specialist told me to keep it on her. The risks from tick bites was far worse than any risk from the collar. My dogs never had issues with the collars – digestive or otherwise. We live in tick heaven and they are the best to repel the ticks. I hope that your pup feels better soon and that it is not determined to be reaction to the collar.
cain
@Another Scott:
They’ve burned every bridge to Democrats except DiFi’s.
Baud
@Eolirin:
Just to be 100% clear, not about AOC. I can probably find example Obama and Hillary doing the same thing. It’s about learned rhetorical habits and whether we should reexamine them.
Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony
@cain:
Completely agree.
A Ghost to Most
Not the biggest AOC fan, but there is more than a grain of truth here.
Democrats are so consumed with being nice that they don’t know how to fight.
Omnes Omnibus
@WaterGirl: So am I. I am not sure how that is relevant to the point Baud was making.
geg6
@WaterGirl:
It’s what used to be a small road, no longer used or even visible (often used for coal trucks to load coal into homes for heating when that was a thing, here in my neck of the woods), but that still exists on paper.
JPL
@germy: I didn’t catch the name, but just heard her unload on Biden for not stating he would not pack the court. Glad that Sonny is taking issue with her statement.
WaterGirl
@Baud: @Omnes Omnibus:
Happy to hear that from both of you.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
We haven’t won the Senate yet, and if we do, I think the case for court reform still has to be made to a lot more American people before we start worrying about the relative testosterone levels of Joe Manchin and Krysten Sinema, to say nothing of those moderate freshman who, assuming they win, will actually make that majority. Abolishing the filibuster is far from a given, and I don’t think those moderates will share the Damn The Midterm Torpedoes attitude so many here seem to be taking for granted.
germy
@JPL:
It looks like Bari is busy pissing everyone off on that show.
JPL
I want Michelle Obama on the Supreme Court.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@germy:
/twitter Nixon voice/ My god. My god.
who the hell keeps thinking she’s a thing?
WaterGirl
@Omnes Omnibus: It wasn’t a reference back to Betty Cracker’s reply to Baud.
That was just me think that after reading Betty’s comment, and replying to Betty.
Jeffro
Use a variation of this same logic to expand the House, Dems!
WaterGirl
@geg6: So if I were standing there, would I recognize it as a path, if not a road?
Suzanne
@zhena gogolia: Boney Carrot makes me sick. SICK. That craven piece of human garbage.
I hate them all so much that I am fantasizing really fucked-up things.
Court expansion is where my progressive goals START, not end.
Betty
@zhena gogolia: My feelings exactly. I can’t stand to see any of them
JPL
My son gave me a subscription to Friendly TV, which has the weather channel. It also has Little House on the Prairie and the Hallmark Channel. If I get desperate in the next few days, I might have to make hot chocolate and watch a XMAS movie. Either that or arrange for therapy.
Suzanne
Impeachment of Squi’s Buddy and the other sexual harasser to start. Replace Thomas with Anita Hill.
Jeffro
I keep seeing ‘put Garland on SCOTUS’ and I get it, but he’s up there in years.
He can be the 4th justice added, if we’re gonna add 4. But other than that…ehhhh…
Baud
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
If the Supreme Court doesn’t intervene in the election and doesn’t throw out Obamacare, my feeling is that most people will move on to more pressing the matters like Covid and elections reform.
Eolirin
@A Ghost to Most: I think you’re confusing being responsive to their constituents with being nice. There isn’t a lot of popular support for the more extreme actions activists and really invested political watchers would like to see happen.
The Democrats aren’t insulated from the consequences of being unpopular like the right is and they don’t have control of the media like the right does.
Most of them are also capable of feeling shame.
It constrains the space we can operate in as a party.
Another Scott
@RaflW: Success breeds success. And politicians want to be re-elected.
It’s not going to be easy, and progress is always incremental. Of course there will be setbacks. But we’re not going to get there without taking steps in the right direction.
Cheers,
Scott.
Omnes Omnibus
@Baud: A second switch in time to save nine. It’s something I could live with. We can work around a conservative Court. We cannot work around a radical Right Court.
Jeffro
Agreed and well put. We should have warned the GOP: “Think about it…this is gonna cause even Chris Coons to act.”
I bet they would have hesitated.
No, never mind. This is McConnell we’re talking about here…
geg6
@WaterGirl:
I’ve lived in two homes with these paper roads. You would never even know they were there. Not paths, not roads, nothing but what looks like part of the yard. The one at my and my ex’s house was allowed to become a part of ours and the neighbors’ properties. There’s a process to do that and everyone who’s property touches it has to agree, but it’s fairly easily done. My John, who owned this house before we ever got together, never bothered (we already have almost 2 acres) and we just split the maintenance of mowing it between us and the other two neighbors who border it. One-third each is the unwritten deal.
Kay
Brilliant legal scholar Justice Kavanaugh based his whole opinion on inaccurate facts. The whole thing is nonsense because the central premise is nonsense- it’s not true. He gets his information from Fox News/Donald Trump and his clerks are either as lazy and sloppy as he is or are too subservient to him to correct him.
Maybe he shouldn’t be trouncing court decisions until he does some basic reading on how elections work. They knew more than he did. They did higher quality work.
Matt McIrvin
@Baud:
I think sometimes it’s an attempt to establish group affinity with leftists who are reluctant to support Democrats, to try to bring them on board.
Just One More Canuck
@germy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJxCdh1Ps48
A Ghost to Most
@Eolirin: No. Democrats play fair and nice. For Republicans, it’s another chance to own the libs.
Y’all are so not ready for the next 90 days.
Calouste
IANACL, but you could work around the life term appointments by a law that adds two justices to the so called Supreme Court whenever one of the current justices or injustices reaches a certain age or length of tenure and doesn’t take senior status.
trollhattan
@Odie Hugh Manatee:
But, she was owed the seat after the horrid high-tech religious lynching she endured from those mean Democrat senators on the Judiciary Committee. Has she not suffered enough?
Apt closure on this charade, having the fraud sworn in by a fraud.
Suzanne
@Jeffro: I wish so much ill on Mitch McConnell, it is terrifying.
The only way we will ever have the country we want is to respond with equal force and gamesmanship to his tactics.
And use our social/cultural power to drive Republican minions back into the trash heap where they belong.
Baud
@Matt McIrvin:
Perhaps. You also see a version of it with blue dogs who feel the need to appear respectable to conservative circles in their home districts.
Emma from FL
@cain: Actually, according to a number of her constituents, she votes reliably for the Democrats. I don’t particularly like her approach, but if the votes are there, I don’t care if she hugs Beelzebub.
WaterGirl
@geg6: Interesting!
Baud
@Calouste:
That was FDR’s original proposal.
WaterGirl
@Kay: So wouldn’t the inaccuracy of the underlying facts that Kavanaugh cited allow that ruling to be challenged in some way?
Kay
I like him for working so hard to get past the Trump justices and let people vote. Don’t give up, Gov Wolf. They’re hoping you get exhausted and give up. Don’t.
The good news is we learned the anti-voter Trump justices don’t actually know how elections work, so “advantage, voters” on that score :)
Baud
Holy crap. This is extraordinary. I didn’t realize this happened.
Gvg
@Jinchi: we can’t get a constitutional amendment through now and that’s what your idea would take.
we have judge elections and retention in some places. I am not impressed. It would not be an improvement.
Angelwhine
@Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony: I humbly disagree… expand the court to 19 or 21 and then fill it with as many progressive judges as possible. Eliminate the slacker filibuster and make a simple majority the rule of the senate; if you want to filibuster… stand and talk. Once you finished making your point, whether that is 1 hour, or 28 hours… count up the votes.
The fact that you can filibuster without any skin in the game makes me livid. No wonder one can be so unwilling to compromise. Being obstructionist in this arena is easy. Any 70 year old can filibuster every bill that comes up for debate if all anyone need do is raise their hand to object. Having to piss your pants and go hungry after 12 hours of talking may take the steam out of wanting to frivolously filibuster every bill because you don’t get your way.
geg6
@Kay:
He’s been such a great governor in the face of so much crap from our GOP legislature. I just love him.
H.E.Wolf
Y is that, do we suppose?
germy
@Suzanne:
Baud
@geg6:
I saw a clip of your AG on TV and he seemed like a good guy as well.
Nelle
A proposal. On each desk or wall, each Democratic member of Congress needs photos of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Sandra Bland. Children in cages. Families in food lines. Superfund sites. Standing Rock protests. Those are their constituents that need protection. Their own family pictures are best left at home.
WaterGirl
@Baud: Why would the DOJ do that? Perhaps someone who thought the DOJ taking over the defense was bullshit?
montanareddog
@Baud:
With a Dem congress and administration, the purported unconstitutional element can be made moot legislatively?
Matt McIrvin
@Kay: What I’m wondering is if Kavanaugh was trying to change the way elections work and portray the new standard as one that had existed since time immemorial. Kind of like the way the Senate handles judicial appointments.
WaterGirl
@H.E.Wolf: hahahahaha
Kay
@WaterGirl:
I’m wondering about another thing. The Trump justices are focusing on re-electing their President so they don’t want the votes counted. But Trump isn’t alone on the ballot. It would be fun to get a broad cross section of candidates – everyone from US House to a township trustee – and get them fired up about how these five judges have decided votes in their races can’t be counted. A lot of the races and issues don’t even have a Party affiliation and local races are often VERY close. When they protect Trump from voters they’re impacting every candidate and issue on that ballot in complicated ways that can’t be predicted. We have a sheriff’s race that will come right down to the wire. There’s the GOP candidate and then the fake “independent” who is also a Republican. The Independent candidate is counting on D and I votes. He’ll want all the votes counted.
Baud
@montanareddog:
Yes. Obamacare is easily fixable if e have the Senate.
germy
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Young conservatives always fall upwards. There’s always a producer or editor somewhere who believes their contributions are essential. (if only to ward off the “liberal media” accusation)
trollhattan
@Kay:
Lemieux has a post up showing that the paper Li’l Brett cites in his opinion says the opposite of what he purports it to conclude.
“States that require absentees to be received by election night or shortly after should move this date back.”
It literally says that and Kavanaugh would receive a D on his homework if he turned in an assignment this…shabby is the wrong word, dishonest is more on point.
Gvg
@Angelwhine: the lack of compromise in Congress came long after the modern filibuster. It coincides with ending earmarks. IMO that drove a lot of the extremism we see now, not just ideology. There is no way to reward compromise that shows a tangible benefit to a Congressman’s constituents. It will be hard to convince people especially after Trumps corruption, but we need to bring back earmarks.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@montanareddog: Baud is saying the Dem mandate will be the fix this virus mess. Just going off and court packing would likely enrage the public. The only way court packing would work would if the Conservative justices were clearly trying to stop Pandemic mitigation in the name of FREEDUMB!.
Get the virus beaten down then the public will have some trust for the Dems and things can be done about the courts.
Ksmiami
@Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony:
mark my words – this Court will either be reformed or America ceases to exist and Thomas will end up contracting Covid
JPL
@Kay: Congress has the power of impeachment, and would that be a remedy against a decision like Kavanaughs?
Kay
@Matt McIrvin:
Maybe, but there’s this persistent effort to attribute what is poor quality work from these guys to double back flip strategy when I think it’s more likely they’re just Fox-watching lazy people.
Bad work is bad work. It doesn’t matter who produced it.
WaterGirl
@Kay: I would love to see that, but I don’t know how that happens. Someone would have to organize that, right?
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@JPL: in theory: Maybe
in reality: No
Baud
(Hopefully) my last comment in the subject. This is the Hill headline on AOC’s tweet
Gin & Tonic
@Baud: NYS travel restrictions are public and well-known.
I suppose just another example of what Kay calls low-quality work.
Kay
@WaterGirl:
They would but local D’s could do the outreach, because locally you have to work with the other side, and they do work together. They know one another. Running for local office kind of sucks. You don’t get paid for it, you have your “real” job and your family- people sacrifice to do it. One of those races can absolutely turn on later absentees or provisionals- it happens all the time.
National D’s could help by repeating it constantly- when they throw out votes they’re NOT just throwing out Biden votes. They’re throwing out your school board candidate vote too, or your passionate “hell, NO” vote on the sewer levy. This high level GOP fuckery with ballots isn’t all high level. It reaches your local government, probably MORE profoundly.
Amir Khalid
@JPL:
Does Michelle Obama want Michelle Obama on the Supreme Court? I doubt she does.
Dopey-o
As Forrest Gump said, “Some days there are just not enough rocks.”
Nicole
@Jeffro:
That’s going to take more work, but hey, I’ll support the effort.
Kay
@WaterGirl:
I would LOVE to argue it too because conservatives like to think of themselves as the local government people- the lowly candlemaker running for town council in his shoes with buckles on them- oh, it would be a blast.
They’re frauds. We should feel free to steal their more appealing arguments. They’re not using them!
WaterGirl
@Kay: You have Ohio connections… could you get someone on Sherrod Brown’s staff to consider raising this issue very vocally – NOW – not waiting until the Republican’s try to actually make the play?
Jim, Foolish Literalist
MSNBC airing his remarks, if like me you’ve just given up on getting anything done for the next week
Kay
@WaterGirl:
I could try. I know one of his in-state people but it’s complicated. They have a legislative affairs side and a campaign side and they are supposed to be separate and this person is legislative end and keeps it rigorously separate. I think I will just try the OH Dems people.
taumaturgo
@Another Scott: Bipartisan commission is the purgatory of policy proposals that do nothing politicians are afraid to confront. Is kicking the can down the road, is the illusion that the process would lead to action and bold change.
Yutsano
@DesertFriar: Always been a fan of him. He’s a bit older but not bad overall.
Notavet
@Gin & Tonic: 100% not a vet but my dogs have done well on Brevecto, which is a once every 3-month oral med for flea and tick control. I suggest asking a vet about your options if you can.
J R in WV
Chyron HR
@A Ghost to Most:
Well at least we’ll be spared your sanctimonious posts once you’re in prison for assassinating Trump’s supreme court picks.
I mean, you are a brave warrior who’s willing to do what needs to be done to save the country, right?
Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony
@Angelwhine: We disagree on the court size, but not on the filibuster. It needs to go.
Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony
@J R in WV: Yes! This needs to be done, too!
RaflW
@Another Scott: Yes. I feel like one of the reasons the GOP goes after AOC so much is because, like the saying about voting, they wouldn’t resist her so much if she wasn’t doing things powerfully.
I just want us to move past the era of Steny Hoyer tapping the g-d damned brakes so often.
janesays
@TS (the original): They call it “court packing”, not “court stacking”. I don’t think I’ve seen the word “stacking” used anywhere before you just used it.
But I agree, “expand the court” needs to be the framing used by Democrats. That, or “balance the court”.
But not “pack”. That’s what McConnell has been doing to the entire federal judiciary over the last 4 years.
WaterGirl
@janesays: “The Republicans are the ones who packed the court; we want to balance it.”
different-church-lady
Am I reading this right? Is McConnell just admitting he’s planning on losing the Senate next week?
Tim in SF
Please stop calling her ACB. Call her Barrett.
WaterGirl
@Tim in SF: I totally support that effort.
The initials confer something special, and she’s certainly not.
TheTruffle
@different-church-lady: Sounds like it. Sounds like he is also counting on the Dems not being pissed enough to expand the court and pass reforms. Dream on. Time to nudge aside DiFi and put someone else on the Judiciary Committee. Also, time for a new Dem Senate leader. Any nominees? Leahy or Durbin, perhaps?