• Menu
  • Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Before Header

  • About Us
  • Lexicon
  • Contact Us
  • Our Store
  • ↑
  • ↓
  • ←
  • →

Balloon Juice

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

White supremacy is terrorism.

DeSantis transforms Florida into 1930s Germany with gators and theme parks.

Happy indictment week to all who celebrate!

… riddled with inexplicable and elementary errors of law and fact

Republicans want to make it harder to vote and easier for them to cheat.

If senate republicans had any shame, they’d die of it.

Is it negotiation when the other party actually wants to shoot the hostage?

Fani Willis claps back at Trump chihuahua, Jim Jordan.

No Justins, No Peace

🎶 Those boots were made for mockin’ 🎵

Republicans do not pay their debts.

“Cheese and Kraken paired together for the appetizer trial.”

Some judge needs to shut this circus down soon.

Republican obstruction dressed up as bipartisanship. Again.

Let us savor the impending downfall of lawless scoundrels who richly deserve the trouble barreling their way.

You come for women, you’re gonna get your ass kicked.

They were going to turn on one another at some point. It was inevitable.

Putin must be throwing ketchup at the walls.

Take hopelessness and turn it into resilience.

No one could have predicted…

“woke” is the new caravan.

Ron DeSantis, the grand wizard, oops, governor of FL

Nothing worth doing is easy.

Perhaps you mistook them for somebody who gives a damn.

Mobile Menu

  • Winnable House Races
  • Donate with Venmo, Zelle & PayPal
  • Site Feedback
  • War in Ukraine
  • Submit Photos to On the Road
  • Politics
  • On The Road
  • Open Threads
  • Topics
  • Balloon Juice 2023 Pet Calendar (coming soon)
  • COVID-19 Coronavirus
  • Authors
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Lexicon
  • Our Store
  • Politics
  • Open Threads
  • War in Ukraine
  • Garden Chats
  • On The Road
  • 2021-22 Fundraising!
You are here: Home / Politics / Activist Judges! / It Wasn’t a Leak, It Was A Provocation and a Feint!

It Wasn’t a Leak, It Was A Provocation and a Feint!

by Adam L Silverman|  May 6, 20224:55 pm| 194 Comments

This post is in: Activist Judges!, America, Civil Rights, Crazification Factor, Domestic Politics, Healthcare, LGBTQ Rights, LGBTQ Rights Are Human Rights, Open Threads, Politics, Racial Justice, Silverman on Security, The War On Women, Women's Rights, Women's Rights Are Human Rights

FacebookTweetEmail

By now everyone has developed their own pet theory on who leaked the draft opinion in Dobbs V Mississippi, why it was leaked, etc. And a lot of really smart and good people are trying to get the news media gatekeepers – The NY Times for the mainstream, whatever mainstream actually means in 2022, and Fox News for the conservatives, whatever conservative actually means in 2022 too – to focus on the real issue, which is that at least five Republican Federalist Society backed appointees to the Supreme Court are prepared to and will overturn Roe and Casey and do so in a way that is intended to set up pretty much everything else back the Civil War amendments to also be overturned. Obergefell, Griswold, Loving, Brown, the Civil Rights Act, whatever’s left of the Voting Rights Act, everything pertaining to the New Deal, and then gutting the Civil War amendments. That’s the substantive story. Flat stop. Don’t pass go.

Up to this point the news media has failed to focus on the substantive, real story.

And that’s because their was a strategy in the leak. It wasn’t a leak, it was a feint and a provocation!

On the night that the draft decision leaked and the next day I was texting about it with TaMara, BettyC, and Tom Levenson. One of the points I made was this was done by the conservative majority on the Supreme Court – an idea that has now become something of common wisdom. But it was done so as part of a defined strategy. That strategy has four lines of effort:

  1. Make it harder, if not impossible, for Chief Justice Roberts to peel off Kavanaugh and maybe one of the other junior justices for his compromise that allows the Mississippi fifteen week limit to go into effect, but also keeps Roe and Casey intact.
  2. Set the narrative for the news media locking it into focusing on the leak, the damage the leak does to the court, and the danger to the justices and the Constitution as a result of the leak. This is just an extension of the normal conservative sore winner, we just got what we wanted, but we’re still the real victims and being victimized schtick they’ve been working for decades.
  3. Kick off the response early. By getting everyone rightly outraged now it sets the conditions for the outrage to subside by the time the actual ruling comes out in four to six weeks, let alone by the time the midterm elections roll around in November. It is hard to sustain that level of anger and willingness to protest en masse over a sustained period of time. Think of this as normalization by exhaustion and demoralization. You can’t stop it. The Democrats don’t appear to have a strategy, let alone a tactic that will do anything but look like a failed stunt. So by November what should drive up Democratic turnout and turnout by Independents for Democrats actually doesn’t happen because everyone who was rightly outraged is now just exhausted and demoralized.
  4. Set the conditions, as part of the narrative setting in the second part of the strategy, for someone who can be tied to the Democrats or the groups and movements that support them, to do something stupid, reckless, and downright dangerously violent in order to create an astroturfed backlash to the legitimate backlash. Here’s Yahoo News republishing Fox News reporting about how liberal groups have published the conservative justices home addresses as part of promoting their followers to go protest in front of their homes. If you keyword search “liberal groups publish justices addresses roe leak” all the reporting hits, other than the Yahoo republication, return for conservative outlets like Fox and National Review.

Just briefly, lets focus on line of effort 3. Yesterday we learned the following:

Wait a minute. Dems think they have a shot at passing a bipartisan bill that codifies Roe. But they don't want to bring it up for a vote?! https://t.co/yQ5vtI33Yk

— Noah Shachtman (@NoahShachtman) May 6, 2022

And from Josh Marshall unpacking Politico‘s reporting (emphasis mine):

Last night, Politico Nightly had a somewhat ungenerous read on Democratic efforts to codify Roe. Congress Editor Elana Schor noted that Democrats are resisting efforts to join a bipartisan effort that is backed by pro-choice Senators Collins and Murkowski. That seems odd. Why wouldn’t they add those votes? The Collins and Murkowski option wouldn’t provide as fulsome protections for abortion access. But it would like get more than 50 votes rather than a vote in the high 40s. It makes the Democrats sound more interested in purity than results. So why not do that? Sen Mazie Hirono explains: since getting to 50 votes actually has no practical impact on passing the law, why not vote on a law you can enthusiastically get behind rather than a more watered down one?

That’s a pretty good logic.

But this logic illustrates the broader dead end the Democrats are walking into. These votes are often called “symbolic” votes. But that’s not an accurate description. Votes like these are test votes to frame electoral choices. You either force the opposition to make unpopular votes with the intention of campaigning on those votes in an election or — more directly — you use the votes to frame a clear electoral choice. So you tell voters, this is what is at stake in this election. Elect us and we will do this thing. As I’ve argued, in this case that means something like, give us two more Democratic senators and the House and we will codify Roe on the first day of the new Congress.

But at least so far that’s not what they’re doing. Congressional Democrats are essentially telling abortion rights supporters that they’re on their side but won’t actually be able to do anything about it regardless of the outcome of the election. They may get some benefit in reminding voters that Roe is about to be overturned because of Republicans. But since the results of the election won’t change anything there’s simply no way that can galvanize the electorate around Roe as Democrats seem (rightly) to want to do.

It’s just basic electoral physics. You can’t galvanize the election around an issue if you’re saying the results of the election will have no impact on the issue. Again, this is really obvious! You can’t both elevate an issue to extreme importance and also say there’s nothing that can be done about it — regardless of the outcome of the election. This is basic electoral physics.

More at the link!

Based on what Josh Marshall is reporting and his analysis, do you feel confident and/or enthused that the Democrats in the Senate have this? Of course you don’t because you’re not stupid. Do y0u feel confident that the failure to be able to rectify the coming injustice is going to motivate people to realize the Democrats need to keep the House majority and add two to four senators to their Senate majority so they can then fix it next January? Of course you don’t because you’re not stupid.

Now how do I know this was a coordinated provocation with a fixed strategy? Because by the time the leak occurred everyone working at Fox News, everyone appearing on Fox News to comment on the leak, every other conservative movement official or leader, conservative movement commentator or social media personality, and every Republican official all had the same talking points. There is only one person in the conservative movement who is in the senior leadership of a conservative movement group that meets to create and circulate comprehensive talking points on a regular basis to all of those listed above, who is plugged into almost every other conservative movement group in DC, and who is also tied directly to a member of the conservative wing of the Supreme Court. Her name is Ginni Thomas and the group that does the coordinated talking points is called Groundswell. Ginni Thomas also coordinates her husband’s current and former clerks through several different private electronic communication channels.

We know what the strategy is. So far they’ve succeeded with the second line of effort; they’ve locked in their preferred framing that the news is the leak, not that women’s right to bodily autonomy and therefore full citizenship is being taken away. While it’ll take a while to see if they succeed with lines of effort one and three, they’ve gotten lucky in that as of right now the Democrats don’t seem to have a strategy, tactic, or plan to actually effectively respond to what is happening and what will be happening. Finally, while we do not yet have violence directed at a justice or one of their family members, we do have the publishing of their home addresses, which will be spun as a call for it. I really do not want to have to watch what happens if someone so much as says “boo” to Alito while he’s out to dinner.

I don’t have many answers here for what to do. But I would suggest one thing. Specifically, the Democrats and the groups and movements that support them need to learn the lesson of what is being directed at Madison Cawthorn. Cawthorn is being politically killed in a slow death of a thousand cuts employing open sourced opposition research (oppo) as the knife that inflicts the wounds. There are people with the knowledge, skills, abilities, experience, and expertise who could and would do this type of work for the Democrats. Justice Thomas, Justice Kavanaugh, Justice Alito, Justice Barrett, Chief Justice Roberts (especially if the long whispered rumors are true), Senators McConnell, Graham, Cotton, (especially if the long whispered rumors are true), other GOP senators hiding equally shocking secrets, Congressman Gym Jordan (you think the showers were a one off type of thing, that this isn’t part of a pattern of behavior he’s so far been able to cover up?), Congressman Gaetz, Congresswomen Greene and Boebert, etc, etc, etc, etc. How about Pete Hegseth and his white supremacist and neo-NAZI tatoos? The rest of the staff at Fox News. Leonard Leo? There’s no way someone that creepy isn’t actually creepy, especially given the disgraced, sexually deviant Opus Dei leader who mentored him. Same Opus Dei priest by the way that is or was close to the Thomases, Alito, Scalia, Barr, etc within the DC Federalist Society and traditionalist Catholic community. Conservative movement leaders and commenters and pundits. All of them could and should be getting the Madison Cawthorn treatment right now and every day between now and November. And remember, this is all because Cawthorn publicly discussed that the GOP members of the House and Senate have drug fueled sex parties/orgies. This strategy that the GOP is employing to bring him down was not the result of his idolizing Hitler, being a scofflaw and menace to society, being poorly educated and clearly brain damaged as a result of the accident that put him the wheelchair. This strategy is being employed because he publicly talked about GOP members of the House and Senate hosting and participating in drug fueled sex parties/orgies. This tells us he was telling the truth. There’s plenty of oppo out there. All open sourced. It just has to be dug out and used.

Sure they’ll scream foul. Sure, they’ll try to target Democrats. What are they going to discover, that Congressman Raskin really needs a better shampoo and conditioner combo?

Our democratic-republic and self government is on the line. It is time to act like it.

Open thread!

FacebookTweetEmail
Previous Post: « A Moment’s Respite
Next Post: Friday Evening Open Thread: All the Trump Minions Now In ‘Can You Top This?’ Mode »

Reader Interactions

194Comments

  1. 1.

    Matt Smith

    May 6, 2022 at 5:06 pm

    Wait, what are the long-whispered rumors about Roberts? I thought I was paying attention…

  2. 2.

    Omnes Omnibus

    May 6, 2022 at 5:08 pm

    I disagree that they have succeeded in making it about the leak.  That’s not what’s driving the outrage, the marches, and the fund raising.  People see it for what it is and are up in arms about it.  That’s what I am seeing.

  3. 3.

    Calouste

    May 6, 2022 at 5:08 pm

    “news media locking it into focusing on the leak, ”

    Not particularly hard to achieve that. News media will go for gossip over policy every time. The latter requires thinking, and that’s hard work.

  4. 4.

    Barbara

    May 6, 2022 at 5:09 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus: It’s sometimes too easy to overthink things.

  5. 5.

    Old School

    May 6, 2022 at 5:10 pm

    I must be missing something in Marshall’s analysis.

    But at least so far that’s not what they’re doing. Congressional Democrats are essentially telling abortion rights supporters that they’re on their side but won’t actually be able to do anything about it regardless of the outcome of the election.

    How are Democrats saying that nothing can be done even if the Democrats gain a larger majority?

  6. 6.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    May 6, 2022 at 5:14 pm

    People were saying it was Gini Thomas from day one.

    I thought the give away was Robert’s words about “a sacred trust was broken” he wouldn’t have been saying that if he though it was a liberal court member who had done it.

  7. 7.

    JoyceH

    May 6, 2022 at 5:22 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    I disagree that they have succeeded in making it about the leak.

    Same here. The vast, vast majority of the coverage has been on what an incredible attack this is on women, how adversely it will effect women and girls, and how extremely out of touch this opinion is with the vast majority of public opinion.

    When the leak is mentioned, it’s mainly in the context that Republicans are trying to change the subject, and hey, why AREN’T they popping the champagne corks at this pending Great Victory they’ve sought for so long?  (Rhetorical question – we KNOW it’s because they understand how toxic this is, and how they were never really wanting it to pass, it was just a carrot to keep the evangelicals come out to vote for them.)

    And yes, oppo, oppo, oppo. There’s a motherlode against Kavanaugh, just waiting for someone to be the new Ronan Farrow. Someone still needs to dig into the true story of what hastened Justice Kennedy into retirement. And hey, how many of these smug, preachy, anti-abortion public officials have abortion payments in their past? It’s really a target-rich environment. Raining soup and the Dems are sitting there with forks…

  8. 8.

    Kay

    May 6, 2022 at 5:23 pm

    Chuck Schumer is terrible. Sorry, but he is. There’s no planning, no strategy, he just careens from crisis to crisis with no apparent goals at all. They don’t follow him because he’s a really weak leader.

    Leak or no leak they knew this opinion was coming out in June or July. They’re just now throwing together a response to it? WTF?

  9. 9.

    AM in NC

    May 6, 2022 at 5:23 pm

    I am with you, Adam.  No more “going high”.  I’m ready to metaphorically punch these motherfuckers in the junk. Repeatedly.  Aaaaaalllllllllllllllllll the skeletons out of the closet and in front of the voters.

    Josh Marshall was right all the way back in 2004 with his unfortunately named (and subsequently re-thought) “Bitch-Slap Theory of Politics”.  When they hit us, we need to hit back twice as hard.  It knocks them back and shows bystanders that we are serious about fighting for what we believe in.

  10. 10.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    May 6, 2022 at 5:24 pm

    I wouldn’t count Madison Cawthorn out yet, I mean a poorly educated, brain damaged, Hitler idolizing scofflaw and menace to society is plus with the MAGA hats. him being a cousin fucking, drunken drag queen adds to the fun. I mean there is a video of Cawthron punching a tree to death and that didn’t hurt him. They want total assholes.

  11. 11.

    Ksmiami

    May 6, 2022 at 5:25 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus: agreed.. I actually think the timing helps give more room to strategize and grow our outrage… I definitely think Alito was the source -now let’s bury the Repukes… Adam you’re very smart but this is going to galvanize women

  12. 12.

    eversor

    May 6, 2022 at 5:26 pm

    It was Ginni Thomas in the basement with the photocopier!

  13. 13.

    bbleh

    May 6, 2022 at 5:26 pm

    I’d love to see it, but alas I fear that the Dem political leadership is simply too compromised.  For the most part, they — and especially their leadership — are from a socioeconomic class and milieu that leans Establishment, and vicious partisan warfare directed at the plutocracy and its agents would <i>work against their personal interests.</i>

    Don’t ask the Senator from Wall Street not to represent Wall Street.  He has too many friends (and donors) there to do that.

  14. 14.

    Ksmiami

    May 6, 2022 at 5:26 pm

    @Kay: ignore Schumer and build the response from the grassroots- Warren and Gillibrand and our governors are starting to fill the void

  15. 15.

    divF

    May 6, 2022 at 5:27 pm

    @AM in NC: Has the name been changed to “The Chicago Way” theory of politics?

  16. 16.

    Kay

    May 6, 2022 at 5:28 pm

    Given that they knew that one of two opinions would issue in June or July – either overturning Roe or narrowing Roe- is it too much to ask that the senate leader have a political plan for each of those possibiities in May? I don’t think it is.

  17. 17.

    West of the Rockies

    May 6, 2022 at 5:29 pm

    @Enhanced Voting Techniques:

    He really did give it to that rotting sapling, didn’t he?  At least until after 15 seconds of punching when he ran out of gas and turned it into a one-way slap fight.

  18. 18.

    Omnes Omnibus

    May 6, 2022 at 5:29 pm

    @Ksmiami: If we agree, it is possibly a sign of the apocalypse.

  19. 19.

    Kay

    May 6, 2022 at 5:31 pm

    @Ksmiami:

    Agreed. If the cavalry is coming, it ain’t gonna be Chuck Schumer. Not politically and not in any practical sense.

    The AG of Michigan is doing a good job. Her GOP opponent is an unqualified Trump lawyer and she got video from one of his events where he said there didn’t need to be an exception for the life of the mother because giving birth is never life threatening.

  20. 20.

    karensky

    May 6, 2022 at 5:31 pm

    @Old School: I have removed my subscription toTalking Points Memo because Marshall always has a preachy opinion about everything and to me he sounds more and more like Politico, etc.

    I will instead spend that money and time on Pennsylvania races as I live there.

  21. 21.

    taumaturgo

    May 6, 2022 at 5:32 pm

    In the meanwhile, from the real world of shitty jobs, low wages and no healthcare, truly ominous news for the conservative-corporate control party.

    Republicans lead Democrats on generic Congressional ballot among parents with children under 18: 60% GOP; 39% Democrats; and with Latino voters: 52% GOP; 39% Democrats

    https://maristpoll.marist.edu/polls/npr-pbs-newshour-marist-national-poll-the-2022-midterm-elections-bidens-job-performance-april-2022/

  22. 22.

    Ksmiami

    May 6, 2022 at 5:33 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus: and 1000 unicorns cried out..

  23. 23.

    Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony

    May 6, 2022 at 5:34 pm

    @bbleh: What does the plutocracy have to do with abortion laws and attacks on women’s rights? Nothing. You’re just changing the subject to bash Dems because reasons. If you aren’t going to be helpful, you could at least try not to undermine the effort.

  24. 24.

    New Deal democrat

    May 6, 2022 at 5:35 pm

    There is a post up right now at LGM (correctly imo) talking about how the hero worship of RBG has led to a disastrous end.

    I just wanted to point out that her hubris was not the only such arrogance of a black robed princeling that has got us to this point. St. Thurgood Marshall refused to resign during Jimmy Carter’s term, because he wasn’t liberal enough, and Marshall decided to wait for a better President. And thus was enrobed Clarence Thomas.*

    Take those two acts of supreme ego out of the equation, and the Rule of Law in the US is light years more progressive.
    —-
    *The Left got lucky when Douglas was replaced by Stevens, and Brennan, who made the same decision as Marshall, was replaced by Souter.

    But alas, luck runs out.

    This is absolutely an insane way to roll the dice on the Law of the Land.

  25. 25.

    la caterina

    May 6, 2022 at 5:35 pm

    My female relatives in NC are spitting mad.  Especially my young adult nieces. Two of them recently moved out of red(der) states back to NC. They’ve never been into politics before, but this got their attention in a big way.

  26. 26.

    Ksmiami

    May 6, 2022 at 5:36 pm

    @Kay: I met with a Dem pol here in TX… we are going to start pooling resources here for winnable states and new messaging – time to fight

  27. 27.

    eversor

    May 6, 2022 at 5:37 pm

    @Old School:

    They won’t gain a filibuster proof majority, and they will not give up the filibuster.   Sinemanchin aren’t the only ones who don’t want to give it up, they are just the ones taking the hit in public so others don’t have to.   If we gained three more seats to have the votes, three more people would find they don’t want to give it up.  Not because they want abortion to be illegal, but because they don’t want to risk increases in domestic spending.

    Our hope lies in hot shot lawyers and angry groups suing over the establishment of religion.   It also lies in giving mega corporations an earful, and also any economic things they want, to threaten the states they operate in or to boycot them entirely.   Our hope is not in politics.   It also requires being as personally hostile as they are to conservatives, Repulicans, and Christians at every single chance and if they say “well I don’t support it” pointing out “it doesn’t matter you support the organizations that do”.

    We have to fight our way out of this, we aren’t voting out way out of it.  Sure vote as well.   But the fight is going to be state level lawsuits, corporate pressure, and making social life and interactions very uncomortable for anoyone associated with any of the groups involved with this.

  28. 28.

    Kay

    May 6, 2022 at 5:37 pm

    @taumaturgo:

    You posted it exactly like the political director of the GOP senate races posted it on Twitter- without the difference in the total number, which is R +3. Every member of political media then repeated her misleading post.

    “BREAKING!” Come on. It’s an R +3 generic ballot poll.

  29. 29.

    SiubhanDuinne

    May 6, 2022 at 5:40 pm

    deleted

  30. 30.

    Dopey-o

    May 6, 2022 at 5:40 pm

    @JoyceH: And yes, oppo, oppo, oppo. There’s a motherlode against Kavanaugh, just waiting for someone to be the new Ronan Farrow. Someone still needs to dig into the true story of what hastened Justice Kennedy into retirement. And hey, how many of these smug, preachy, anti-abortion public officials have abortion payments in their past? It’s really a target-rich environment.

    Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse has been following the dark money behind judicial appointments, but we need a much more granular examination. I for one would like to know if Ginni Thomas and her Opus Dei Handmaids have any rubles in their bank accounts and funding streams.

  31. 31.

    Kay

    May 6, 2022 at 5:40 pm

    @Ksmiami:

    Oh, good for you. I think it can be very powerful for state races, especially in “hold D” states like Michigan and Pennsylvania.

  32. 32.

    SiubhanDuinne

    May 6, 2022 at 5:42 pm

    @JoyceH:
    <blockquote> Someone still needs to dig into the true story of what hastened Justice Kennedy into retirement.</blockquote>
    And exactly what it was that TFG said to him that caused him (Kennedy) to come to a dead halt, with a horrified look on his face. That moment has gnawed at me since the night it happened.

  33. 33.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    May 6, 2022 at 5:43 pm

    @Kay:

    Yes, but don’t Dems usually have to outperform by a certain margin?

  34. 34.

    hueyplong

    May 6, 2022 at 5:43 pm

    The thing was leaked to Politico.  What Dem would pick Politico?

  35. 35.

    kalakal

    May 6, 2022 at 5:46 pm

    I’m with you on this Adam.  Republicans love to hurl unfounded smears at everyone else. Responding  with accusations that can be backed up puts them on the back foot. Let them become the narrative.

  36. 36.

    Kay

    May 6, 2022 at 5:47 pm

    @taumaturgo:

    What’s your point anyway? Bodily autonomy and agency for women is not “real world”? Is this “the Lefts” position or just your own? Good to know your commitment to basic rights shifts with “the Marist poll”.

  37. 37.

    debbie

    May 6, 2022 at 5:49 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    Maybe not here, maybe not with women, but out in the great hinterlands?

    I’ve held grudges for decades, I have no worries about not being this angry in November.

  38. 38.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    May 6, 2022 at 5:49 pm

    @Kay:

    From the link, Tomato posted:

    • Independents break 45% for the Republican candidate and 38% for the Democratic candidate on the generic congressional ballot. A notable 10% are unsure.

     

    • Pluralities of Americans perceive the Republican Party to be the party who can better deal with the issues of national security (43%), the economy (42%), controlling inflation (41%), gun policy (41%), and crime (39%). The Democratic base is fractured on these issues. Notable proportions of Democrats think the Republicans, both parties, or neither party would be better able to handle these issues.

     

    • The Democratic Party is perceived by pluralities of Americans as stronger on handling the issues of LGBTQ rights (48%), climate change (45%), abortion (41%), voting rights (41%), education (38%), and coronavirus (37%). The Republican base is weakest on the issues of LGBTQ rights, climate change, and coronavirus.

     

    • There is less consensus among Americans about whether the Democratic or Republican Party would do a better job handling immigration (37% Republicans to 34% Democrats) and election security (33% Democrats to 29% Republicans).

     

    • President Joe Biden’s job approval rating stands at 41%, inched up from 39% in late March. By more than two-to-one, Americans are still more likely to strongly disapprove (37%) than strongly approve (16%) of Biden’s performance. Biden’s favorable rating is down from his March 2021 high of 52%. It now stands at 42%. His favorability is just slightly higher than that of former President Donald Trump (39%).

     

    “The road to the midterms has the GOP in the driver’s seat,” says Lee M. Miringoff, Director of the Marist College Institute for Public Opinion. “If the Democrats can’t boost their credibility on the economy, they will need to hone a message about what a Congress controlled by Republicans will mean for the composition of the Supreme Court and the issues Americans look to Democrats to protect or advance.”

  39. 39.

    schrodingers_cat

    May 6, 2022 at 5:49 pm

    My advice to men. Kindly STFU we are in no mood for your hot takes.

  40. 40.

    schrodingers_cat

    May 6, 2022 at 5:50 pm

    @Kay: Tomato is a troll.

  41. 41.

    Kay

    May 6, 2022 at 5:50 pm

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):

    yes. It’s a bad number for Dems. It means they’re back at least 5 in real terms. It’s not catastrophically bad just “bad”. What it isn’t is 60/40 Republicans, which is how Right wing political operatives described that poll. And Maggie Haberman, who eagerly retweeted the misleading take along with the rest of the lemmings.

  42. 42.

    Kay

    May 6, 2022 at 5:50 pm

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):

    yes. It’s a bad number for Dems. It means they’re back at least 5 in real terms. It’s not catastrophically bad just “bad”. What it isn’t is 60/40 Republicans, which is how Right wing political operatives described that poll. And Maggie Haberman, who eagerly retweeted the misleading take along with the rest of the lemmings.

  43. 43.

    Omnes Omnibus

    May 6, 2022 at 5:50 pm

    @debbie: marches and rallies all over WI.  Not just Madison and Milwaukee.  It’s weird; there seem to be women everywhere.

  44. 44.

    germy

    May 6, 2022 at 5:54 pm

    What happens when reporters like Peter Alexander and Ed O’Keefe keep asking top Republicans how the investigation into the “leak” is going?

    Republicans wanted the leak (and not the substance of the decision) to be the focus.  Okay.  How do they address the leak?

  45. 45.

    Omnes Omnibus

    May 6, 2022 at 5:55 pm

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): If you want to look for a reason to be panicked, you will always be able to find one.

  46. 46.

    Kay

    May 6, 2022 at 5:55 pm

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):

    I just indicated I read it. You want me to read it again? My question was very simple. I asked him why he didn’t post the “top line” number. He didn’t post it because it’s R +3 which is not “shocking” or “terrifying”, and he wanted to shock.

    I cannot assure you everything will be okay. No one can. You are going to have to live with uncertainty.

    It’s R +3. Do with that what you will.

  47. 47.

    Joe Falco

    May 6, 2022 at 5:55 pm

    @Enhanced Voting Techniques:

    I thought the give away was Robert’s words about “a sacred trust was broken”

    Shorter version of what he was saying: “Bros before hoes.”

  48. 48.

    Villago Delenda Est

    May 6, 2022 at 5:56 pm

    These reactionary motherfuckers are going to inadvertently usher in an era of change that will make the New Deal look like a picnic.  This time, no FDR to save the millionaires from pitchforks and torches.

  49. 49.

    debbie

    May 6, 2022 at 5:57 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    And plenty of trigger bills are waiting in the wings.

    Someone needs to expose Ginni Thomas for the monster she is before the decision comes down.

  50. 50.

    eversor

    May 6, 2022 at 5:58 pm

    @germy:

    Lack of evidence of Democratic crimes just means the Democrats are criming all the time and never get caught.  Everyone knows that, that’s why they couldn’t Stop The Steal!

  51. 51.

    germy

    May 6, 2022 at 5:58 pm

    @Kay:  he wanted to shock

    It’s often helpful to point a flashlight up at one’s chin while reporting these polls.

  52. 52.

    Hoodie

    May 6, 2022 at 5:59 pm

    Not sure (1) is true.   From what I understand, there were multiple leaks about the deliberations. One was that 5 justices agreed to overrule Roe, but we don’t know if they bought into the full monte of Alito’s opinion.  Leaking the opinion might give cover to the liberals to sign on to Robert’s “compromise” that lets the MS statute- which, for example, does not include rape or incest exceptions- stand.  This provides cover through making the compromise seem more acceptable when compared to Alito’s dreck, but that opinion is so bad I wonder if 5 justices really would sign on to it considering how it would mobilize the opposition.  The leak could be from Roberts or a Roberts ally in that scenario, or even from a liberal (not likely). If it were Robert’s, (2) is just about creating distance for Roberts from the leak, not to distract from the substance of Alito’s opinion. The ruse relies on the outrageous nature of it, e.g. the implied threat to other lines of cases like Obergefell.

  53. 53.

    germy

    May 6, 2022 at 5:59 pm

    @eversor:

    “Aliens erase your memory so if you’ve never seen a UFO that means you probably see them all the time.”
    – Father Sarduci

  54. 54.

    SpaceUnit

    May 6, 2022 at 6:00 pm

    Is this the thread where we just shout random things?

  55. 55.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    May 6, 2022 at 6:01 pm

    @Kay:

    @Kay:

    I guess that doesn’t sound catastrophically bad, but he did highlight the fact that a majority of Hispanic voters favor the GOP, which should concern us, especially since one of the NV Senate seats is up this year

  56. 56.

    Robin Goodfellow

    May 6, 2022 at 6:01 pm

    It is hard to sustain that level of anger and willingness to protest en masse over a sustained period of time. Think of this as normalization by exhaustion and demoralization.

     

    Maybe so but the tide has shifted, the spear chuckers are now the spear catchers, we were lied to. People don’t forget that, especially the single issue voters. A lot of people on the right weren’t exhausted or demoralized, now they won. They don’t have to hold their nose and vote for their issue, it is now or soon to be moot,

    A lot of people on the left who thought this issue was settled are not going to forget this betrayal. There’s  a reason why the pushback was so vigorous on the right, they play this game better, they know what is at stake. This is a disaster in the making for them.

  57. 57.

    Kay

    May 6, 2022 at 6:01 pm

    I too believe it will be a conservative leaker, because I think all of the available evidence points in that direction- namely that they have been leaking where the justices are on these decisions for several years now. Not a whole draft opinion! That’s true! But apparently this is just what the Right does now- they have a select group of Righties who get information on upcoming decisions and do things like write op eds in the WSJ.

    That’s pretty strong in one direction. Prior offenses. Pattern. There’s nothing close to that strong on the “liberals did it” side.

  58. 58.

    Bill Arnold

    May 6, 2022 at 6:03 pm

    @taumaturgo:
    Much more sane to look at polling aggregates, e.g.:
    https://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/other/2022-generic-congressional-vote-7361.html
    Remember, margin of error is about 100*sqrt(poll size)/(poll size) percent. (And sometimes poll questions are only asked of a subset of those polled, like 1/2.)
    Also, polling can shift quickly, e.g. with a run of emotionally intense news cycles.

  59. 59.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    May 6, 2022 at 6:04 pm

    On top of all this, Marjorie Taylor Greene fucking beat the rap. She’s still going to be on the ballot this fall

  60. 60.

    Splitting Image

    May 6, 2022 at 6:05 pm

    @New Deal democrat:

    here is a post up right now at LGM (correctly imo) talking about how the hero worship of RBG has led to a disastrous end.

    I just wanted to point out that her hubris was not the only such arrogance of a black robed princeling that has got us to this point. St. Thurgood Marshall refused to resign during Jimmy Carter’s term, because he wasn’t liberal enough, and Marshall decided to wait for a better President. And thus was enrobed Clarence Thomas.*

    Take those two acts of supreme ego out of the equation, and the Rule of Law in the US is light years more progressive.

    Bullshit. The only thing Ginsburg could have achieved by retiring in time to be replaced by Obama was preventing Amy Coathanger from getting on the court. All that would have done was make Roberts the deciding vote and ensure that he was able to craft a more professional-looking end to Roe.

    Leftist voters had the chance to replace Scalia with a liberal by showing up in enough numbers to elect Clinton in 2016, and they didn’t take it. Clinton wasn’t good enough for them.

    The biggest trouble with leftists in general is that they have always been satisfied that nothing too terrible will happen to them as long as the Democrats (who they do not support) control one choke point and enough power to keep the troglodytes in check. As long as Kennedy was the swing vote, Trump winning the White House wasn’t going to be too big of a disaster. Not to Susan Sarandon, anyway. Now that one of Trump’s appointees is the swing vote, bad things could happen to them and it’s got to be somebody’s fault. In this case: Ginsburg’s.

    Also, Erik Loomis is an arrogant, insufferable asshole.

  61. 61.

    Kay

    May 6, 2022 at 6:06 pm

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):

    Biden and Democrats are down with every group-every group– outside of people over 75. That sort of lends creedance not to “a problem with Latinos” but more to the idea that it is things like gas prices and inflation. I don’t know if I believe that, but a drop among ALL groups would lead one to think that way.

  62. 62.

    New Deal democrat

    May 6, 2022 at 6:07 pm

    @Splitting Image: Go away troll.

    ETA: a liberal replacement for Thurgood Marshall + a liberal replacement for Ginsberg is a 5 vote liberal majority on the Supreme Court. All of the 5-4 decisions of the past decade come out the opposite way.

    But instead abortion, contraception, the Civil Rights Act, gay marriage, and even the right of gays to exist without being criminals go POOF!

  63. 63.

    Ksmiami

    May 6, 2022 at 6:07 pm

    @eversor: and a new media focus. I’m writing to the nyt and Washington Post condemning their coverage

  64. 64.

    Bigredwookie

    May 6, 2022 at 6:08 pm

    @eversor: I keep hearing people say that, meaning that it’s more than Manchin, and Sinema who oppose it, do you have any sources for that opinion. I’ve seen that “some journalists have stated they heard from others”, but has anyone else gone on record as saying that.

  65. 65.

    Splitting Image

    May 6, 2022 at 6:09 pm

    @New Deal democrat:

    Right back at you, fucker.

  66. 66.

    Bill Arnold

    May 6, 2022 at 6:11 pm

    @Splitting Image:

    Leftist voters had the chance to replace Scalia with a liberal by showing up in enough numbers to elect Clinton in 2016, and they didn’t take it. Clinton wasn’t good enough for them.

    Yep. The death of Scalia was a fucking gift on a silver platter, and a (as filtered by the electoral college) majority of voters (including purity voters/non-voters) rejected it.

  67. 67.

    Hoodie

    May 6, 2022 at 6:11 pm

    @Kay: There’s also no reason for a liberal to leak it. If the furious five went this way in the final ruling without the leak, it would be better timed for a backlash in the fall. I smell a rat and I think it’s in the Roberts/McConnell camp. They want to soften the impact when the Court actually just lets the MS statute stand as an “adjustment “ of Roe, “see, all those Dems were just hyperventilating about nothing!”

  68. 68.

    Bill Hicks

    May 6, 2022 at 6:12 pm

    Sorry, I am suffering through a cold, but I can’t make heads or tails of this post. If I understand it correctly repubs are jedi ninja shogun masters of zen buddha and the metaverse ergo get active?

  69. 69.

    Old Man Shadow

    May 6, 2022 at 6:12 pm

    I don’t really give a fuck what fox news will say. Every one of these fuckers should never have a moment of peace outside their houses.

    Anti-abortion trogoldytes have spent decades terrorizing women and doctors and nurses. It is time they got the same treatment.

  70. 70.

    Bigredwookie

    May 6, 2022 at 6:12 pm

    @eversor: I keep hearing people say that, meaning that it’s more than Manchin, and Sinema who oppose it, do you have any sources for that opinion. I’ve seen that “some journalists have stated they heard from others”, but has anyone else gone on record as saying that.

  71. 71.

    Kay

    May 6, 2022 at 6:13 pm

    @New Deal democrat:

    Something like 65% of the country now wants to enact term limits on them. One of two things will happen- they will recognize they have a credibility problem that they have brought about themselves, or they won’t. It would be wiser to recognize it and start self-policing, but I doubt they will.

    72%. That’s the poll on whether they should have to follow an ethics code like every other judge.

  72. 72.

    Ksmiami

    May 6, 2022 at 6:13 pm

    @Kay: the only support tx Dems will get from our fledgling group is Cisneros and Allred- the rest goes to oh, az, WI, PA NH mi,

  73. 73.

    Cacti

    May 6, 2022 at 6:14 pm

    If you live in a blue state, it’s important that the free states fortify their laws protecting the right to choose.  To that end, contact your State representative and senator, and demand they support legislation that includes the following:

    -No warrant for arrest will issue for a person fleeing the anti-abortion laws of a caveman state

    -No extradition requests will be honored for a person fleeing such laws

    -No state assistance will provided in apprehending a person fleeing such laws

    -Attempted apprehension within the state of a person fleeing such laws will be punishable under the statute for kidnapping and/or false imprisonment

    It’s time to take the gloves off.

  74. 74.

    Ksmiami

    May 6, 2022 at 6:14 pm

    @Old Man Shadow: that’s the plan

  75. 75.

    New Deal democrat

    May 6, 2022 at 6:14 pm

    @Splitting Image: >>fucker<<

    Under the circumstances, I feel supremely complimented.

  76. 76.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    May 6, 2022 at 6:16 pm

    @Kay:

    “a problem with Latinos”

    I didn’t say that, though?

    but more to the idea that it is things like gas prices and inflation. I don’t know if I believe that, but a drop among ALL groups would lead one to think that way.

    And that’s been my fear for months now, and I was dismissed every time I brought inflation up. I knew inflation was going to threaten the economy and Dems’ chances for the midterms

  77. 77.

    Kay

    May 6, 2022 at 6:16 pm

    @Hoodie:

    That is a real risk- rat fucking- but I don’t see any way anyone could have gamed that out. We can ony do so much. We’re not inside their heads. “They will LEAK the radical draft so don’t respond at all ….”

    Voters pay almost no attention. If they hear that Roe has been overturned for 2 weeks they’ll believe it forever.

  78. 78.

    zhena gogolia

    May 6, 2022 at 6:17 pm

    @Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony: Thank you! You are always on point. I really appreciate your presence here.

  79. 79.

    New Deal democrat

    May 6, 2022 at 6:18 pm

    @Kay: “Something like 65% of the country now wants to enact term limits on them”

    I know that right now Term limits don’t have a chance in hell,of being enacted, because it will take a Constitutional Amendment. But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t start loudly clamoring for them. Someday, we will win.

  80. 80.

    Starfish

    May 6, 2022 at 6:18 pm

    @Ksmiami: In a circular firing squad against other women… Let’s rehash second-wave v third-wave feminism. Won’t it be fun? Not.

  81. 81.

    trollhattan

    May 6, 2022 at 6:18 pm

    @Splitting Image:

    The idea that Ginsburg stayed on the court because some people revered her is absurd on its face. Did she stay on too long? I’d say so, given the outcome, but of no value to keep litigating. I will bet she was as surprised as anybody that Trump won.

  82. 82.

    Kay

    May 6, 2022 at 6:18 pm

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):

    That’s fine. I think that’s the conventional wisdom- that it’s “a bad environment”.

  83. 83.

    SpaceUnit

    May 6, 2022 at 6:18 pm

    @Bill Hicks:

    I too am confused.

     

    This thread is like the BJ hive mind on LSD.

  84. 84.

    Cacti

    May 6, 2022 at 6:19 pm

    As far as the Justices being harassed outside their homes, I say good!  More of it.  If we don’t have a right to privacy, Sam Alito doesn’t either.

    We’re dealing with people who forced their way into the Capitol to try and overthrow an election they lost fair and square, shit on the floors, and then smeared it on the walls.

    Republican politicians have paid zero price for this (thanks Merrick Garland!).

    The GOP is attempting a coup by judicial fiat.  Respectability politics isn’t going to defeat it.

  85. 85.

    zhena gogolia

    May 6, 2022 at 6:19 pm

    @SpaceUnit: Looks like.

  86. 86.

    Starfish

    May 6, 2022 at 6:19 pm

    @Ksmiami: That is not the future of the party either. That is too focused on the northeast.

  87. 87.

    Bill Arnold

    May 6, 2022 at 6:20 pm

    @Bill Hicks:
    Adam didn’t say that he believes that they have a good plan, just detailed the (possible) plan and how it looks so far. It is all in play; plans often/usually fail when they make contact with reality.
    In particular, the outrage will be sustained and even grow IMO, if the court does indeed reverse Roe, or issues any opinion close to a reversal. And if they do not, then they (the Republicans including the partisan SCOTUS majority) have big trouble from their own camp.

  88. 88.

    Cacti

    May 6, 2022 at 6:20 pm

    @trollhattan: Ginsburg became the epitome of the “indispensable person” who now occupies a cemetery.

  89. 89.

    SpaceUnit

    May 6, 2022 at 6:22 pm

    @zhena gogolia:

    I think Ballon Juice might be broken.

    Gonna restart my computer and see if that fixes it.

  90. 90.

    Mike in NC

    May 6, 2022 at 6:22 pm

    Will under no circumstances pay to read former SECDEF Mark Esper’s book, but a couple of new gems I caught online today: (1) Fat Orange Clown — who couldn’t stand a hint of criticism — wanted to recall retired generals and admirals to active duty just so he could punish them with court martials, and (2) Fat Orange Clown suggested going after Mexican cartel drug labs by indiscriminately launching Patriot missiles over the border and watching things blow up. [Apparently nobody bothered to tell him that the Patriot missile is strictly surface-to-air.] How Putinesque of him!

  91. 91.

    West of the Rockies

    May 6, 2022 at 6:23 pm

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): 

    Let’s see what the 1/6 Committee has to reveal first… she may be in a world of hurt by ejection time.

  92. 92.

    Barbara

    May 6, 2022 at 6:23 pm

    @karensky: AMEN! Like X 1000. I like Josh but the endless hand wringing is just not constructive.

  93. 93.

    Kay

    May 6, 2022 at 6:24 pm

    @trollhattan:

    I think we should get away from the idea that the seats belong to them and they can choose a replacement. This dance that we’re doing with these people is ridiculous- does Breyer want a JOB IN FRANCE? Would that work?

    I think (some) lawyers have done a real disservice to the public by elevating them to this extent. It hasn’t served anyone well, including them. Just take em down a notch. In a weird way I think a “correction” was overdue. This is the correction. They were over-valued and now they’re coming back to right-size.

  94. 94.

    Starfish

    May 6, 2022 at 6:24 pm

    @New Deal democrat: Did they talk about how her black law clerks could be counted on one finger?

  95. 95.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    May 6, 2022 at 6:24 pm

    @Kay:

    It’s not fine. It would be fine in say, anytime in the 20th century, but not now. These are not the Republicans of the mid-to-late 20th century, they’re radical fascists who are threatening the very social fabric of this country and the broader West.

    We don’t have 50 years to stop these people because of climate change. There’s no time left. I don’t trust these people with the nuclear arsenal and I don’t trust these people to make good policy decisions for the US.

    One of my fears is they’ll use voting records to round their opponents up

  96. 96.

    SiubhanDuinne

    May 6, 2022 at 6:25 pm

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):

    Tomato

    *Giggle*

  97. 97.

    Ladyracterinok

    May 6, 2022 at 6:27 pm

    @ever

    Aren’t some GOP led states planning to pass laws against businesses/corporations that support abortion rights? With high fines etc?I think I read something  about that.

    And aren’t some GOP led states planning to criminalize those mailing abortion pills with punishments up to 10 years in prison?

  98. 98.

    debbie

    May 6, 2022 at 6:28 pm

    @Old Man Shadow:

    Well, then, in that spirit:

    Jeanine Pirro announced on Fox that there are “63 million abortions in America every year”, a ludicrous lie. She later issued a correction, admitting, “I meant to say there are 63 million bottles of mini-bar vodka in my purse” pic.twitter.com/7e4Dfk8IPG
    — Paul Rudnick (@PaulRudnickNY) May 6, 2022

  99. 99.

    pat

    May 6, 2022 at 6:30 pm

    I just got here and haven’t read the comments, but isn’t it obvious that NO ONE in the Democratic party wants to come out as supporting (ew) ABORTION?  It is a loaded word.

    I don’t know how to change that.

    BTW, before anyone objects, I am a full supporter of ABORTION.

  100. 100.

    eversor

    May 6, 2022 at 6:30 pm

    @Bigredwookie:

    I’m from VA and I know Warner doesn’t want the filibuster gone either.   Democrats here are the wealthy six figure types and the majority of them don’t want to pay for stuff.   GOP in the pocket books Democrats in the bedroom.

    The problem of being the party of the professional class is that the professional class is as economically ruthless as the rich.

  101. 101.

    Starfish

    May 6, 2022 at 6:31 pm

    @SpaceUnit: LOOK A SQUIRREL!

  102. 102.

    eversor

    May 6, 2022 at 6:31 pm

    @Ladyracterinok:

    Wait till those businesses fight back.   Also we can’t stop people from mailing illegal drugs in the mail.  You can order anything you want already and it’s extremely safe.  You think they can stop abortion pills?

  103. 103.

    Cacti

    May 6, 2022 at 6:32 pm

    Time to get some buzzwords into the public consciousness also:

    Birthing slaves.

     

    That’s what the GOP wants American women to be.

  104. 104.

    Bill Hicks

    May 6, 2022 at 6:32 pm

    Thank you Space Unit for a literal lol and Bill Arnold for a good summary.

  105. 105.

    Kay

    May 6, 2022 at 6:36 pm

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):

    One of my fears is they’ll use voting records to round their opponents up

    Ok, we’re done :)

    You could stop thinking about fear all the time Goku. You’re not required to ponder the round ups. You don’t have take it all the way out. Are you that good a predictor anyway? I’m not. Let’s just stick to the midterms.

  106. 106.

    Starfish

    May 6, 2022 at 6:37 pm

    @Kay: The inability of people to find childcare at any price, the evictions, and the housing prices that have gone vertical in the places where there are any jobs, are a problem.

  107. 107.

    eversor

    May 6, 2022 at 6:37 pm

    @trollhattan:

    And yet tons of people were sounding the warning alarm early on that 1.)  Clinton was a terrible candidate and people were fed up with the Clintons as well as political dynasties in general.   2.) People were utterly furious at the status quo and willing to blow shit up and burn it all down with them inside rather than continue to be boiled slowly.  3.) Tons of people were still realing from the recession and the Democrats were in power over a bail out the rich screw everyone else followed by even more income inequality.

    It was predictable if you could read the room.   And it was sheer hubris to run a primary like that, to nominate Clinton, and then to go around bragging that all the rich areas vote for you and the status quo was OK!

    I voted for her, but I know the entire thing was an own goal of epic proportions with people cheering like crazy as the ball went in only to freak out when they realized that meant a loss.

  108. 108.

    Starfish

    May 6, 2022 at 6:39 pm

    @Bill Hicks: Republicans did it, so they can blame Democrats, and hope Democrats cannot uphold a rage fest until an election day that is six months away.

  109. 109.

    eversor

    May 6, 2022 at 6:39 pm

    @Kay:

    It’s not that hard to track people who go to places where Democrats volunteer, planned parent hood, or LGBTQ+ organizations now that we all have smart phones though.  Worry about the lone wolves.

  110. 110.

    zhena gogolia

    May 6, 2022 at 6:41 pm

    “I voted for her”

    Wow that’s big of you

  111. 111.

    Kay

    May 6, 2022 at 6:43 pm

    @eversor:

    I know people say this and they are probably right- I’m afraid of some things- I’m just not afraid of them. I can’t plan for things like that so I just don’t.

    You’ll be “ready” and I, sadly, will be “unready” and also dead :)

  112. 112.

    Starfish

    May 6, 2022 at 6:43 pm

    @Mike in NC: One of my favorite former Baltimore Sun journalists replied to the desire to launch a Patriot missile and blame it on someone else with something like “Did anyone explain to him that a missile is not like a fart?”

  113. 113.

    Josie

    May 6, 2022 at 6:44 pm

    @Bill Arnold: 
    ” plans often/usually fail when they make contact with reality.” Lol–Reminds me of Mike Tyson’s quote about having a plan. Let’s hope the RW justices get the response they deserve.

  114. 114.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    May 6, 2022 at 6:45 pm

    @eversor:

    Do you honestly think Sanders would’ve won against Trump in 2016?

  115. 115.

    Starfish

    May 6, 2022 at 6:46 pm

    @Cacti: This treats the institution that was American slavery too lightly.

    What was unique about American chattel slavery was that the children of slaves were born into bondage. Slave owners were raping their slaves and selling their own children for profit. The magnitude of that horror is really hard to fathom.

  116. 116.

    EarthWind&Fire (formerly bluegirlfromwyo)

    May 6, 2022 at 6:46 pm

    @Kay: Taken in April. Before any leak came to light. We need better trolls.

  117. 117.

    Cacti

    May 6, 2022 at 6:49 pm

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): Do you honestly think Sanders would’ve won against Trump in 2016?

    Remember when Bernie supported an anti-choice candidate for Mayor of Omaha, because “that’s what we need to do to be a 50 state party”?

    Pepperidge Farms remembers.

  118. 118.

    Cacti

    May 6, 2022 at 6:50 pm

    @Starfish: This treats the institution that was American slavery too lightly.

    Horseshit.

    In Sam Alito’s new America, women’s wombs in red states become the property of the state, under penalty of law.

    Does that sound like a free person to you?

  119. 119.

    SmallAxe

    May 6, 2022 at 6:51 pm

    This is so spot on Adam, I hope they listen and do it

  120. 120.

    Kay

    May 6, 2022 at 6:53 pm

    @EarthWind&Fire (formerly bluegirlfromwyo):

    “Real world”. Ugh. 

    Researchers also know that 75% of women who obtain abortions are low-income, with nearly half living below the federal poverty level.

    The federal poverty level for an individual is $13,500. Real world.

  121. 121.

    Shalimar

    May 6, 2022 at 6:54 pm

    @New Deal democrat: A liberal replacement for Marshall during the Carter administration wouldn’t still be on the court.  Their replacement would probably be half likely to retire or die during G.W. Bush’s administration, half during Clinton or Obama.  It would depend on the age and health of whoever had gotten the job.

  122. 122.

    SiubhanDuinne

    May 6, 2022 at 6:54 pm

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):

    You’re not really surprised, though, are you?

    My recent move brought me into GA’s newly-configured 7th district. Two excellent Dem incumbents are running against each other — Carolyn Bourdeaux, currently representing the 7th CD, for whom I worked hard in 2028 and 3020; and Lucy McBath, who  currently represents the 6th.

    Now when the new district lines were announced, Lucy looked at her options and figured she could do better, electorally, in the new 7th. A lot of people, with some justification, thought it was a bit churlish of her to challenge another incumbent on her home turf, but that’s where we are.

    I like Lucy McBath. A lot. I like and admire Carolyn Bourdeaux, too, but I admit she’s less exciting and has a lower profile than LMcB. I feel as though Lucy, with a higher national name recognition, may get things done in a way CB simply can’t (not for want of trying).

    Also, Lucy is a woman of colour — and I think it’s important that this particular cohort get all the representation it possibly can.

    But I’m torn as to whom to vote for in the upcoming primary. I’m leaning ever so slightly towards McBath, but if I vote for her I feel I’m betraying Bourdeaux, for whom I worked so hard in the last two cycles. So, Jackaltariat  — is there a magic formula to help me decide?

    It goes without saying, I hope, that I’ll work hard in the general for whichever of them wins the primary on May 24th.

    (Lightly edited.)

  123. 123.

    eversor

    May 6, 2022 at 6:55 pm

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):

    I think he had a much better chance.   But the larger issue was that we only had two candidates in the 2016 primary to start with because it was a coronation and Sanders was just running as a protest.   Not only were both candidates massively flawed and silly to run but it had other issues as well.   We missed the chance to have actual internal debates and sus out issues rather they were ignored till we got crushed even though they were obvious.  We lost the chance to showcase the next generation of leaders and get national exposure for them along with hear of other Democratic visions for the future.   Lastly anybody who wasn’t blind could see the entire situation was a farce.

    The entire thing sucked and was stupid and everyone involved should live by “the primary was bad, and you should feell bad /Zoidberg”.   On the other hand the 2008 and 2020 primaries were much better run and really set some ground and moved the party forward.

  124. 124.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    May 6, 2022 at 6:56 pm

    @Kay:

    All I know is that my gut instincts have been right more often than wrong and you can always rely on the GOP to become more extreme. I’ve personally watched it happen for the past 12 years.

    I’m more terrified now than I was during the Trump years because I’ve realized there is no bottom for Republicans and there’s nothing really holding them back now. If that’s the case then there is no limit to their evil. And I don’t want to live in Russia

    On top of that I don’t personally feel financially secure. THAT adds to my anxiety and I know damn well the Republicans won’t do a thing to help me; they’ll make it impossible for me to move up and surviv

    The only people that matter in a Republican’s world are the rich and powerful

  125. 125.

    Citizen Alan

    May 6, 2022 at 6:59 pm

    @eversor:  Having seen Dr. Strange last night, I would give anything to be able to visit a world where Bernie Sanders won in 2016, just to see what President Trump would have done with a filibuster proof majority in the Senate after the Bernie Bros utterly destroyed the Dem party in hopes of bringing about the Glorious Revolution. And also what excuses people like you would make for such a catastrophic loss. I imagine it would somehow still be Hillary’s fault.

  126. 126.

    zhena gogolia

    May 6, 2022 at 6:59 pm

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): Don’t be terrified.

  127. 127.

    Mike in Pasadena

    May 6, 2022 at 7:00 pm

    @Kay: Whaaat??? Giving birth is never life threatening? If I had to use belly muscles to persuade a bowling ball to leave my body through a small orifice, it would most definitely be life threatening. Every painkiller in the world would not be enough.  That guy is an ass. What kind of man would make such an ignorant claim?

  128. 128.

    Ladyracterinok

    May 6, 2022 at 7:00 pm

    @eversor:

    I just found an interesting article at slate posted on May 5th. It’s about how Benjamin Franklin added an abortion recipe to his math textbook

    The author uses this to show that abortion was quite common and quite accepted in colonial times Another argument against the draft’s reference to Matthew Hale’s views

  129. 129.

    eversor

    May 6, 2022 at 7:01 pm

    @Josie:

    The military one is “no plan survives first contact with reality” the Tyson one I recall is “everyone has a plan till they get punched in the face”

  130. 130.

    eversor

    May 6, 2022 at 7:03 pm

    @Citizen Alan:

    That still doesn’t touch on the fact that a two person primary set up deliberately to get one person elected rather than a large and robust one was not only an act of hubris but so utterly stupid everyone involved in that mess is part of the reason Trump won.

  131. 131.

    eversor

    May 6, 2022 at 7:07 pm

    @Ladyracterinok:

    Abortion has always been common with Romans and Greeks publishing recipies to do it along with Jews having their own ways.  For all their ranting about “Western Civilization” and “Judeau” abortion was really common, no big deal, and often required!

    But they want Churchistan and they want it now.

  132. 132.

    NotMax

    May 6, 2022 at 7:08 pm

    OT.

    Losing loser’s losing streak lengthens.

  133. 133.

    Starfish

    May 6, 2022 at 7:14 pm

    @eversor:

    Islam does better as well.

  134. 134.

    schrodingers_cat

    May 6, 2022 at 7:14 pm

    Before modern medicine what was the rate of maternal mortality?

  135. 135.

    bbleh

    May 6, 2022 at 7:14 pm

    @Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony:  to really work for women’s rights — not to mention voting rights, which would seem to be about as existential an issue as it comes, both for democracy and for Democrats  — would mean seriously rocking the boat.  It likely would require setting aside filibuster rules, which in turn would mean twisting some arms very hard; it would mean incurring costs, and possibly even losing nevertheless.  It would require taking risks.

    And they won’t do that.  Republicans will — eg (to name a few) McConnell on the Garland nomination (he won), the House Republicans on repealing ACA (they lost, again and again), and the entire Sedition Caucus on January 6 (they lost too, but only barely, and only this time).  Republicans play to win; Dems play it safe.  And a BIG reason for that is the innate Establishmentarianism of their political leadership.

    You bet I’m bashing.  “Undermining the effort”?  Excepting the hard work of a few dedicated Senators, other than a few meeping press conferences, what effort?

    I’ll donate to pressure groups that I know are effective.  I won’t donate a dime to a Dem Senator.

  136. 136.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    May 6, 2022 at 7:17 pm

    What do you guys think of this Rick Newman guy’s piece on Yahoo! Finance?:

    This Week in Bidenomics: Upheaval

  137. 137.

    Mike in Pasadena

    May 6, 2022 at 7:20 pm

    @SiubhanDuinne: Can you please give us a hint where that look can be seen? When did it happen? Any context? I guess I’m totally out of it.  Missed it entirely.

  138. 138.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    May 6, 2022 at 7:21 pm

    @zhena gogolia:

    I appreciate you trying to make feel better

    : )

  139. 139.

    oclib

    May 6, 2022 at 7:21 pm

    WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report)—In a public appeal for help, Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh has asked if “anyone has seen” a briefcase he accidentally left at a bar late last week.

    A satirist extraordinaire

  140. 140.

    Miss Bee

    May 6, 2022 at 7:22 pm

    @Matt Smith: I want to know these rumors, too.  Someone help please!

  141. 141.

    NotMax

    May 6, 2022 at 7:26 pm

    @SiubhanDuinne

    Wouldn’t the absence of a stunned, horrified look following a chat with Dolt 45 be more the exception?

    //

  142. 142.

    trollhattan

    May 6, 2022 at 7:26 pm

    @eversor: Who the hell would have beat Trump? Clinton was as good a candidate as any Dem who ran in the primary–we simply didn’t believe America was ready to vote for a corpulent, braying, ignorant, racist, failed husband and businessman-rapist.

    And yet.

    Also, Russia.

  143. 143.

    trollhattan

    May 6, 2022 at 7:27 pm

    @oclib: ​
     Heh. Borowitz.

  144. 144.

    piratedan

    May 6, 2022 at 7:28 pm

    I guess the hardest part to accept in all of this for me is coming to terms of Ginni Thomas, criminal mastermind…. else she’s wonderfully placed to take any possible fall.

    fucking over women, racial equality, LGBT rights, Democracy, the republic itself and resetting the social justice clock back at least 100 years in such as fashion as to even allowing those who would see her current marriage as not just an abomination but illegitimate, if the dominos were to fall to a somewhat logical conclusion.

  145. 145.

    eversor

    May 6, 2022 at 7:29 pm

    @bbleh:

    Remember during the whole BLM/George Floyd time “era” during Trump what happened?   The Democratic leadership, the gerontocracy, all wore Kente cloths and took a knee in the capitol for the exact time George Floyd had a knee on his neck.  And then didn’t really do anything and now folded on voting rights.

    This is who they are.  This is what the party is and stands for.   It’s has no more substance than Amazon saying Black Lives Matter and then stopping mostly black warehouse workers from unionizing.

    Stuff that gets accomplished gets accomplished despite politics.  The labor movement got it’s share through a staggering amount of violence and getting so out of hand a communist revolution was a real threat.   MLK preached non violence sure, but was also quick to point out that there were violent movements so they had better deal with him or there would be violence.  The gay rights movement humanized themselves to the entire nation and pulled them to their side and even then the Democrats had to be dragged over the line kicking and screaming after the fact.

    When Republicans do something good, like just handing out COVID checks or upping unemployment they just do it.   When Democrats do it they means test it into the ground and turn it into a beaurcratic boondoogle while consultants get rich.

    People aren’t stupid they sell all this and wonder what the hell is wrong with the party.

  146. 146.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    May 6, 2022 at 7:35 pm

    your daily schadenfreude

    Mediaite @Mediaite

    Meghan McCain’s New Memoir ‘Bad Republican’ Flops With Fewer Than 300 Copies Sold

    and not only that, but America’s Sweetheart Overgrown Spoiled Brat took the bait

    Meghan McCain @MeghanMcCain 
    My book Bad Republican was released @audible_com seven months ago and both I and @audible_com have been thrilled with the response and sales.
    The hard copy was just soft released meant simply as a collectible for people who have already downloaded and consumed it.

  147. 147.

    Ohio Mom

    May 6, 2022 at 7:35 pm

    @schrodingers_cat: I don’t think anyone was gathering that sort of statistic back then.

    Certainly old cemetaries are full of headstones of young women, babies and young children. And families have stories: Ohio Dad’s grandfather was the son of the second wife because great grandfather’s first wife died in either pregnancy or childbirth (exact details lost over time).

    Of course, even with modern medicine, the U.S. managed to have a lot of maternal deaths.

  148. 148.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    May 6, 2022 at 7:36 pm

    @trollhattan: I think the theory that Martin O’Malley could have beat trump is belied by the fact that no one seems to remember he ran in the ’16 primary.

  149. 149.

    AM in NC

    May 6, 2022 at 7:36 pm

    @Old Man Shadow: Yep. Turnabout is fair play assholes.

  150. 150.

    prostratedragon

    May 6, 2022 at 7:37 pm

    Cribbed from a Wonkette comment: Russian Victory Day parade 2022​

  151. 151.

    LAO

    May 6, 2022 at 7:42 pm

    I can’t remember who to import a tweet but Molly Jong-Fast just tweeted the RSCC post-Wade talking points.

    Republicans know overturning Roe isn’t popular pic.twitter.com/KJNh9kLPgd— Molly Jong-Fast (@MollyJongFast) May 6, 2022

  152. 152.

    LAO

    May 6, 2022 at 7:45 pm

    @LAO: Look at that.  I did it.  Also, interesting insight into their polling,

  153. 153.

    Noname

    May 6, 2022 at 7:50 pm

    @Mike in Pasadena: Good pictures here; what you think of the analysis is up to you…

    https://www.bodylanguagesuccess.com/2018/10/body-language-analysis-no-4351-donald_12.html

  154. 154.

    Starfish

    May 6, 2022 at 7:51 pm

    Sure, they’re increasingly racist, authoritarian, and violent, but the RW caricatured a left slogan, so Dems have no choice but to dump more unaccountable money on them. https://t.co/1OmmrVLQci
    — David Roberts (@drvolts) May 6, 2022

  155. 155.

    Bill Arnold

    May 6, 2022 at 7:56 pm

    @eversor:

    When Republicans do something good, like just handing out COVID checks or upping unemployment they just do it. When Democrats do it they means test it into the ground and turn it into a beaurcratic boondoogle while consultants get rich.

    That is an very dishonest characterization of the politics surrounding those bills.

  156. 156.

    debbie

    May 6, 2022 at 7:57 pm

    @LAO:

    Republicans need to speak with Texas about that last bullet point.

  157. 157.

    SiubhanDuinne

    May 6, 2022 at 7:57 pm

    @Mike in Pasadena:

    Unfortunately, I can no longer find the video clip. But it was at the WH, I think the night TFG officially announced Kennedy’s retirement from SCOTUS (but, I believe, prior to the Kavanaugh announcement).

    After the brief event in the ¿Rose Garden? TFG and Justice Kennedy walked back into the WH. There was a camera on them but no audio. Just as they neared the end of one corridor and were about to turn left into another, TFG said SOMETHING that made Kennedy come to a screeching halt. He stopped dead in his tracks, and you could almost hear/see him say “What the actual fuck, Mr President dude, are you fucking serious?” Then after a few seconds they turned the corner and out of sight.

    It was weird, to say the least. Grateful to anyone who can track down that video clip.

  158. 158.

    Another Scott

    May 6, 2022 at 8:00 pm

    @New Deal democrat: I blame John Murray.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  159. 159.

    kalakal

    May 6, 2022 at 8:01 pm

    @schrodingers_cat: in 19th Cent. Finland and Sweden it was between 800 & 900 maternal deaths per 100,000 births.

  160. 160.

    LAO

    May 6, 2022 at 8:02 pm

    @debbie: Well, they’re just “talking points” not “doing points.” I certainly expect we’re going to see an major ramp up of the criminalization of abortion in the red states and then, of course, a federal ban.

  161. 161.

    evodevo

    May 6, 2022 at 8:04 pm

    @schrodingers_cat: ​
    Pretty high, actually…eclampsia, post-partum hemorrhage and infection, and complications of gestational diabetes, not to mention what happens when you have a pelvis deformed by rickets or the birth is breech… ~1200 deaths per 100k births a couple hundred years ago, before doctors figured out that being sanitary might save lives…https://slate.com/technology/2013/09/death-in-childbirth-doctors-increased-maternal-mortality-in-the-20th-century-are-midwives-better.html

  162. 162.

    sdhays

    May 6, 2022 at 8:04 pm

    @Hoodie: The one reason I can see for a liberal to leak is that this draft is just so awful that they wanted people to experience the real “thinking” going on before it got toned down before it was released.
    I’m not saying that happened, just that that’s the only scenario where it’s a liberal would make some sense.

  163. 163.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    May 6, 2022 at 8:11 pm

    @LAO:

    Do you think the backlash in Ireland that led to that country’s reversal of their abortion ban could happen here?

  164. 164.

    Another Scott

    May 6, 2022 at 8:14 pm

    @eversor:

    Warner.senate.gov:

    Statement from U.S. Sen. Mark R. Warner on Voting Rights
    Dec 14 2021
    U.S. Sen. Mark R. Warner (D-VA) issued the following statement on the status of voting rights legislation in Congress:

    “When it comes to voting rights, when it comes to that basic right to exercise and participate in democracy, the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act would ensure we uphold what makes our democracy strong. Across the country, in states like Georgia and Texas, the rights of all Americans, but especially minority and young Americans are being attacked, and the basic tenets of our democracy are under siege. These changes to voting laws are un-American, like saying you can’t give water to someone who is waiting in line to vote, or in states like Texas where they’re saying a local government can overturn the results of a local election — that is not democracy. The Senate has shown it cannot do its basic duty, and find 60 Senators to support basic voting rights, so I support changing the rules around the filibuster for voting rights legislation. We must pass the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act to ensure that our democracy remains strong and in line with our values as Americans.”

    So, he supports a carve-out on some issues. I assume that he would support a carve-out on abortion if it came to that. (I think he should be forthright about that, since he has a long record of saying he supports abortion rights.)

    We’ll see.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  165. 165.

    Mr. Pigg

    May 6, 2022 at 8:15 pm

    Regarding 3:  The Democratic Response

    Is there even a way to get 50 votes for a rules change necessary to pass any of the “federal codification of (some) abortion rights” proposals being discussed?

     

    I see the Dems Manchin, Sinema and Casey ranging from definite no to probably no

    and Murkowski and Collins… I doubt if they’d go for a filibuster carve out for Collins’ Roe-codification-lite bill, they’d be jettisoned from their caucus

    is there really a viable path 50 votes for the rules change and the Roe codification (or some other abortion rights guarantee)?

     

    I say no so it’s time to mobilize in the states. Every state. Get ready for dueling ballot initiatives,  underhanded maneuvers by GOP legislatures, quorum denials, and getting familiar with your state reps in a way that you haven’t in a very long time.

  166. 166.

    LAO

    May 6, 2022 at 8:16 pm

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): Short answer no, not in my opinion

     

    ETA: I’m a Jewish American — not a Catholic Church or Irish expert.  But I think that the central position the Catholic Church played in Irish life and politics just isn’t present in the US (yet).

  167. 167.

    Starfish

    May 6, 2022 at 8:16 pm

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): When people start dying, it can happen.

    People wanted to save babies, not see their sisters and cousins hemorrhage on the floor.

    Instead of discussing Roe, I would like Democrats to work on repealing Hyde. So long as Hyde is in place, women will not be able to get full medical benefits under any Medicare for All type plan. People should be looking to a future where medical care is not tied to employment.

  168. 168.

    Ella in New Mexico

    May 6, 2022 at 8:18 pm

    There is only one person in the conservative movement who is in the senior leadership of a conservative movement group that meets to create and circulate comprehensive talking points on a regular basis to all of those listed above, who is plugged into almost every other conservative movement group in DC, and who is also tied directly to a member of the conservative wing of the Supreme Court. Her name is Ginni Thomas…

    I literally called this the other day. Totally it had to be her whether in cooperation with Clarence or while he wasn’t looking she dumped the files on his computer.

  169. 169.

    Birdie

    May 6, 2022 at 8:23 pm

    @eversor: I forget, did “Republicans just handed out COVID checks and upped unemployment” actually happen or is that just your fever dream? 

    Just went and checked the voting records – nope, that was mostly Democrats with a minority of Republican support. But it’s clearly still Democrats’ fault that you forgot, because they didn’t “message” it appropriately, right?

    What I think you’re telling me is, if Dems do something good we should ignore it, and if they don’t (and they often don’t!) that just shows how useless they are.

    Scintillating analysis, a round of applause and a doff of the hat to you.

  170. 170.

    MomSense

    May 6, 2022 at 8:35 pm

    I wouldn’t want to be Chuck Schumer right now.  He holds a vote on codifying Roe and it fails.  Then we get non stop criticism that Dems failed women, etc.  He doesn’t call for a vote and we get non stop criticism that Dems failed women.

  171. 171.

    Steeplejack

    May 6, 2022 at 8:36 pm

    @Matt Smith, @Miss Bee:
    There are two things that I have heard about Chief Justice John Roberts. I don’t know if these are the things Adam alludes to. I don’t consider myself “connected,” but I do know a few people that I do consider connected, and I trust the (separate) sources for these two things.

    • Roberts and his wife have two adopted children, a boy and a girl, now in their early 20s. They were both born in Ireland (not related to each other) but adopted through a “private adoption” from Latin America. The long-standing rumor in the “adoption community” (for lack of a better term) is that the children were “laundered” through South America to evade Ireland’s laws against adoptions by non-residents of Ireland.
    • The other rumor is that before he was married Roberts was accused of domestic violence by a girlfriend but the case was buried.

    Neither of these is earth-shattering, perhaps, but also neither is a good look for someone aspiring to high judicial office.​

  172. 172.

    Mike in Pasadena

    May 6, 2022 at 8:44 pm

    @Noname: thanks for the pics. I had not seen them.

  173. 173.

    Kay

    May 6, 2022 at 8:48 pm

    @MomSense:

    Yeah, well, maybe he should have had a coordinated political plan in place, given that he knew this was going to happen for a year in June or July and it is now May and given that he knows he has 48 D senators so can’t pass anything.

    They watched state after state restrict rights, knowing this was coming. Do they do any coordination or planning at all? They’re all just free lancing, individually, based on what’s on the front page that day? Can they all at least say the same thing for 5 consecutive days? Come up with a 9 word sentence that all agree on and say that.

  174. 174.

    Kathleen

    May 6, 2022 at 8:53 pm

    @MomSense: Yes. I’ve noticed that the How The Dems Disappointed Me Today Club is holding a convention here this week. Every week.

  175. 175.

    MomSense

    May 6, 2022 at 9:30 pm

    @Kay:

    Haven’t we all known this was going to happen since 1985?  By 2000 I was hair on fire about it.  Jesus we tried to warn everyone in 2016 that the situation was critical.  I’ve heard nothing but blaming Democrats for this but I’m sorry this is on voters.  I’m fucking sick of it.

  176. 176.

    sab

    May 6, 2022 at 9:34 pm

    OT Totally off ever conceivable topic.My husband is watching leftover (reruns)  tv downstairs and chortling a lot. His laughter makes my heart sing.  Just saying.

  177. 177.

    sab

    May 6, 2022 at 9:37 pm

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): No! We have the Electoral College which reverses every good intention we ever have.

  178. 178.

    Jackie

    May 6, 2022 at 10:20 pm

    @Starfish: Since the  day TFG was elected, Democrats held a rage fest into the 2018 midterms AND continued to hold that rage for the 2020 elections.

    I think we can hold out for six months!

  179. 179.

    dww44

    May 6, 2022 at 10:25 pm

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): that was always going to happen here. There was no way that Raffensperger could be seen as throwing her off the ballot when he s in a primary race against  Trump endorsed David Perdue.  And the Administrative judge who said she should stay on the ballot was appointed by a Republican governor.  She was always gonna be allowed to stay on the ballot.  

    Once again justice will only be served if the voters throw her out or if it comes to light in the Jan 6 hearings that her role in fomenting the assault was larger than she has admitted.

  180. 180.

    SiubhanDuinne

    May 6, 2022 at 10:26 pm

    @sab:

    That’s really nice. A Good Thing. Thanks.

  181. 181.

    stinger

    May 6, 2022 at 10:48 pm

    @SiubhanDuinne: That! I have replayed that video several times recently. Wish I could lip read.

  182. 182.

    Brendan in NC

    May 6, 2022 at 10:54 pm

    @Enhanced Voting Techniques: Cawthorn is in deep trouble. I live a few hours away from his old/new district. He tried to move to a newly drawn, higher R rated district, after they tried to MTG him out of the race. That failed because the people who filed the complaint lived outside the newly drawn district lines. And Senator Tillis is leading the charge to oust him. If he wins; it’ll be due to divine intervention.

  183. 183.

    Brachiator

    May 6, 2022 at 11:00 pm

    @eversor:

    Stuff that gets accomplished gets accomplished despite politics.

    Probably the single dumbest thing I have read on the Internet. And factually untrue.

    But I also know many people who believe this. They have never been politically engaged, typically do not vote and insist that all social change is minuscule and only happens because the people in charge agree to it.

  184. 184.

    eddie blake

    May 6, 2022 at 11:02 pm

    @eversor:  there were SIX candidates for president during the 2016 democratic primaries.

    SIX.

    it wasn’t a coronation. no one was fucking crowned.

  185. 185.

    dww44

    May 6, 2022 at 11:04 pm

    @Ohio Mom: On the paternal side my grandfather was the 13th child of his Mom who had a total of 16 babies before she herself died, likely from having too many babies. On the maternal side my grandfather was one of 4 brothers whose Mother died we know not why since that was more than a hundred years ago. Great grandfather then married again and fathered 10 more children.  Women were indeed barefoot and pregnant and many died  far too young, just from having too many babies too close together. And many of those babies died in early childhood.

    I don’t believe women will tolerate the loss of control of their own bodies.

  186. 186.

    MisterDancer

    May 6, 2022 at 11:16 pm

    @eversor: MLK preached non violence sure, but was also quick to point out that there were violent movements so they had better deal with him or there would be violence.

    That’s a pretty inaccurate way to define what the man said about those movements:

    What is the attitude of this second, radical, group to the problem of violence? In a word, I think it is mixed. There are young radicals today who are pacifists, and there are many armchair revolutionaries who insist on the political and psychological need for violence. These young theorists of violence elaborately scorn the process of dialogue in favor of the tactic of confrontation. They glorify the guerrilla movement, and especially its new martyr, Che Guevara. But across the spectrum of attitudes toward violence that can be found among the radicals is there a unifying thread? Whether they read Gandhi or Fanon, all the radicals understand the need for action—direct, self-transforming and structure-transforming action. This may be their most creative collective insight.

    King never hid behind those other movements, in public or (in this case) semi-private. And he was even willing to discuss common cause, even as he would, in this and other statements, underline he and his movements stood four-square to engage non-violently:

    I must oppose still any attempt to gain our freedom by methods of malice, hate and violence, by the methods that have characterized our oppressors. Hate is just as injurious to the hater as it is to the hated. Like an unchecked cancer, hate corrodes the personality and eats away its vital unity. It has no boundary lines. I was talking just last evening with some of the young men who have decided to boycott the Olympics. One of the things that frustrated them more than anything else was the fact that they decided to make their announcement at a black conference in Los Angeles, and they arrived at this meeting only to discover that black people were beating and threatening to murder other black people simply because they wanted to raise some unpopular questions. I said to myself, as I listened, that this more than anything else reveals to me that hate has no limits. I refuse to hate. I have seen hate expressed on the countenances of too many Mississippi and Alabama sheriffs to advise the Negro to sink to this miserable level. Hate is too great a burden to bear.
  187. 187.

    dww44

    May 6, 2022 at 11:27 pm

    @Brendan in NC: That’s interesting. Any insight into why Tillis is leading the charge to oust Cawthorn? Given that the former is such a lily white blemish free politician himself?

  188. 188.

    Gretchen

    May 7, 2022 at 12:01 am

    What are the whispered rumors about Roberts and Cotton?

  189. 189.

    janesays

    May 7, 2022 at 12:41 am

    Democrats must run on a pledge to abolish the filibuster and enact legislation protecting abortion rights.

    If they do not run on that, they will not win in November, period.

    Abolition of the filibuster is actually the more critical thing, because people know that Democrats can’t get a whole lot accomplished while it is still in place, and they also know that there is a 0.00% chance that the Democrats can realistically enter the next Congress with a 60 seat Senate majority. Since people know that getting to 60 in November is an impossible goal, they know that the only way anything gets done between 2023-2025 is if the filibuster gets launched into the sun.

    Schumer needs to promise filibuster abolition. And if he can’t or won’t promise it, he needs to get really OK with being called Senate Minority Leader Schumer next January, because that is what is going to happen, full stop.

  190. 190.

    burnspbesq

    May 7, 2022 at 1:57 am

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):

    On top of all this, Marjorie Taylor Greene fucking beat the rap. She’s still going to be on the ballot this fall

    That shouldn’t surprise you, in light of the lack of (in the words of Section 5 of the 14th Amendment) “appropriate legislation” enforcing Section 3. It was always a long shot.

  191. 191.

    Sally

    May 7, 2022 at 4:02 am

    @LAO: So now they want to take away mammograms!!

    (every denial is a confession)

  192. 192.

    lowtechcyclist

    May 7, 2022 at 6:07 am

    From the header, Adam, I figured this would be about the (leaked?) claims that U.S. intel had been used to kill Russian generals and sink the Moskva. That would have been interesting. A feint and a provocation, you say? Tell us more!

    Who and why the SCOTUS leak is meaningless next to the apparent ruling itself. Why are we still talking about it?

  193. 193.

    EarthWind&Fire (formerly bluegirlfromwyo)

    May 7, 2022 at 8:28 am

    Long dead thread but my two cents anyway. I think this analysis leaves out one very important event: 1/6.

    This draft opinion is the hard right’s wet dream and they’ve now scared the hell out of the rest of the GOP. That you can’t be on SCOTUS anymore if a Proud Boy kills you may very well cross their minds and the ruling stands.

    We know that wouldn’t enter Fox News’s calculations; they still think they can control what they’ve unleashed. But Justice Boof may catch on. He seems to have a keen sense of self-preservation.

  194. 194.

    allie

    May 7, 2022 at 7:15 pm

    @Barbara: rarely, in collective politics.

Comments are closed.

Primary Sidebar

Recent Comments

  • Hoppie on Excellent / Horrifying Read: The Patriot — How General Mark Milley protected the Constitution from Donald Trump (Sep 21, 2023 @ 11:55pm)
  • Scout211 on Excellent / Horrifying Read: The Patriot — How General Mark Milley protected the Constitution from Donald Trump (Sep 21, 2023 @ 11:55pm)
  • Omnes Omnibus on Excellent / Horrifying Read: The Patriot — How General Mark Milley protected the Constitution from Donald Trump (Sep 21, 2023 @ 11:53pm)
  • Urza on Excellent / Horrifying Read: The Patriot — How General Mark Milley protected the Constitution from Donald Trump (Sep 21, 2023 @ 11:50pm)
  • piratedan on Excellent / Horrifying Read: The Patriot — How General Mark Milley protected the Constitution from Donald Trump (Sep 21, 2023 @ 11:50pm)

🎈Keep Balloon Juice Ad Free

Become a Balloon Juice Patreon
Donate with Venmo, Zelle or PayPal

Balloon Juice Posts

View by Topic
View by Author
View by Month & Year
View by Past Author

Featuring

Medium Cool
Artists in Our Midst
Authors in Our Midst
We All Need A Little Kindness
What Has Biden Done for You Lately?

Balloon Juice Meetups!

All Meetups
Talk of Meetups – Meetup Planning

Fundraising 2023-24

Wis*Dems Supreme Court + SD-8

Calling All Jackals

Site Feedback
Nominate a Rotating Tag
Submit Photos to On the Road
Balloon Juice Mailing List Signup
Balloon Juice Anniversary (All Links)
Balloon Juice Anniversary (All Posts)

Twitter / Spoutible

Balloon Juice (Spoutible)
WaterGirl (Spoutible)
TaMara (Spoutible)
John Cole
DougJ (aka NYT Pitchbot)
Betty Cracker
Tom Levenson
TaMara
David Anderson
Major Major Major Major
ActualCitizensUnited

Join the Fight!

Join the Fight Signup Form
All Join the Fight Posts

Balloon Juice for Ukraine

Donate

Cole & Friends Learn Español

Introductory Post
Cole & Friends Learn Español

Site Footer

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

  • Facebook
  • RSS
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • Comment Policy
  • Our Authors
  • Blogroll
  • Our Artists
  • Privacy Policy

Copyright © 2023 Dev Balloon Juice · All Rights Reserved · Powered by BizBudding Inc

Share this ArticleLike this article? Email it to a friend!

Email sent!