Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

This isn’t Democrats spending madly. This is government catching up.

There are no moderate republicans – only extremists and cowards.

They fucked up the fucking up of the fuckup!

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

Let’s delete this post and never speak of this again.

It’s the corruption, stupid.

… pundit janitors mopping up after the gop

The cruelty is the point; the law be damned.

President Biden is doing good where he can, and getting it done.

The choice is between normal and crazy.

Too often we confuse noise with substance. too often we confuse setbacks with defeat.

We are aware of all internet traditions.

Despite his magical powers, I don’t think Trump is thinking this through, to be honest.

Of course you can have champagne before noon. That’s why orange juice was invented.

When you’re a Republican, they let you do it.

He seems like a smart guy, but JFC, what a dick!

The fundamental promise of conservatism all over the world is a return to an idealized past that never existed.

Nancy smash is sick of your bullshit.

He imagines himself as The Big Bad, Who Is Universally Feared… instead of The Big Jagoff, Who Is Universally Mocked.

Republicans would impeach Biden if he bit into a whole Kit Kat rather than breaking the sections apart.

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

Days Since JD Vance Insulted Women Across America: Zero

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

The truth is, these are not very bright guys, and things got out of hand.

You are here: Home / Politics / Activist Judges! / I’m Fucking Done

I’m Fucking Done

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It’s time to break this rogue court.

I'm Fucking Done

With apologies to the lawyers in the Jackaltariat, there’s nothing left to save in the current court. Its majority, in place barring radical legislative change I don’t see coming anytime soon, is a corrupt, wholly owned, claque of elite religious fanatics.  Or perhaps, more accurately, a coalition of lease-to-own hacks and true believers.

Its decisions are a parody of judicial reasoning.  They constitute a radical power grab–a judicial coup–which has been running in a slow rolling way since at least 2000 with Bush v. Gore.

Whether by enlargement or an express legislative limitation of the court’s review powers, it’s time to end this antidemocratic attack on our society.

I’m just fucking done. Past done.

And yeah–I know nothing can happen until/unless we retake the House and extend control of the Senate beyond the Manchinema roadblock.

One more thing: this could have been avoided if not that many people had chosen not to piss away votes on “principle” in 2000 and 2016.  Spilt milk and all that. But if anyone needed a reminder (no one here) 2024 is the next most important election of our lives.

Open goddamn thread.

PS: Don’t get me started on the willed scientific illiteracy of the majority, contaminating their rulings on anything involving technical issues and regulation. Intercourse them orthogonally with oxidized farm implements.

Image: after William Hogarth, The Bench, engraving by William Dent, roughly 1790s.

Reader Interactions

255Comments

  1. 1.

    John S.

    If anything, this should fire up the youth vote — as long as they remember it was Republicans who actively did this to them, and not Democratic passivity that is to blame.

  3. 3.

    Tom Levenson

    @John S.: It is my hope.

    But we/Ds/BIden-Harris have to offer them some path towards youth goals, and not just point to the folks who are screwing them sideways.

    I do believe Joe gets this necessity much more clearly than many of his predecessors. Here’s hoping anyway.

  4. 4.

    Sister Golden Bear

    A dark day in our country’s history thanks to the Corrupt Six, in a ruling that not only legalizes businesses being able to discriminate against LGBTQ+ people, but also opens to the door to allow them to discriminate against other minority groups, as well as opens the door to gut civil rights more broadly.

    “The thing that sucks most about the 303 Creative decision is that Smith’s case is entirely a fiction. The entire question is based on a business she doesn’t have being asked to do something they weren’t.” It turns out the “gay man” who supposedly asked her to create a wedding site 1) never never a request, and 2) is straight and was married to a woman at the time. But the case was pushed by a Christofascist hate group that invents businesses “to redefine civil rights protections for LGBTQ people as a form of religious discrimination against Christians.”

    Plus their shitty ruling, also today, blocking the Biden administration from forgiving $430 billion in student loans.

    Reactionary activist judges, accountable to no one, legislating from the bench. Definitely to break this rogue court.

  5. 5.

    Rusty

    The press has really underplayed the 303 Creative case.  It’s a very broad decision, every form of bigotry is now constitutionally protected in the provision of public services.  It’s actually quite breath-taking, we are in many ways back to pre-1964.  Looking back it will be seen as a case that changed the face of America.  After almost 60 years of progress, the reactionaries on the court have dragged us all back into overt racism, antisemitism, homophobia and every other form of bigotry.  It’s beyond shameful.  It will have real consequences, denial of all kinds of services including healthcare and more.  Just sweeping and ugly.  Shameful.

  6. 6.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Tom Levenson: ​
    Copied from below:

    Kyle Griffin
    @kylegriffin1
    ·
    35m
    Reuters: BIDEN WILL ANNOUNCE NEW ACTIONS TO PROTECT STUDENT LOAN BORROWERS -WHITE HOUSE SOURCE

    No link since Twitter is borked musked.

  7. 7.

    Rugosa

    They’re not even trying anymore – just blatantly deciding for the ultra-religious and ultra-conservative.  And ultra-wealthy.

  8. 8.

    Baud

    @Rusty:

    I don’t want to underplay it, but this

    It’s a very broad decision, every form of bigotry is now constitutionally protected in the provision of public services.

    is simply not true.

  10. 10.

    Edmund dantes

    I’m assuming we will see obergefell “reversed” in the next 5 years.

    well reversed if Roberts doesn’t join the other 5, but eviscerated and left an empty shell if Roberts gets to write the opinion in a 6-3 ruling.

  11. 11.

    prostratedragon

    Hogarth’s time has truly come. Good to see President not merely shrinking away.

  13. 13.

    artem1s

    Funny how it’s OK with Roberts that every SCOTUS appointment’s up until Marshall and Conners was based on race (white) and sex (penis). And every appointment graduated from a handful of universities (all Yale or Harvard) up until Barrett. Time for all their low quality affirmative action hires to stop too.

  14. 14.

    brendancalling

    I’m almost as excited to be back in endless debt as I am for my transgender child to be a second class citizen when he visits the US. This is a very exciting day.

    One thing  think needs to be revisited is the Bankruptcy Reform law of 2005, which I bitterly opposed because it made certain debts—including student loans—nondischargeable. That shit needs to change.

  15. 15.

    Tom Levenson

    @Sister Golden Bear: I share that hope.

    There are plenty of contrasts to draw for next year, aren’t there?

    But even if these radical usurpations help us electorally, the price is still way too fucking high.

    Sorry about the language; I’m just so mad. Enraged.

  16. 16.

    JPL

    @Baud: As long as they say that it is an artistic endeavor, they have the right to discriminate.  Chefs create so restaurants can refuse service.

  19. 19.

    rikyrah

    Please remember that the President’s Plan would have eliminated ALL STUDENT LOAN DEBT FOR ALMOST 50% OF ALL BORROWERS.

  20. 20.

    H.E.Wolf

    I’m less interested in expressions of rage and more interested in small, concrete actions we can take to make a difference.

    http://PostcardsToVoters.org is inviting people to write 3 quick, easy sentences to Democratic voters in Ohio before the Aug. 8 election, to defeat a right-wing-sponsored constitutional amendment.

    Text JOIN to Abby the Address Bot at 484-275-2229,

    or email [email protected]

    and buy your postcard stamps before July 9, when the rates go up, and you’ll save 3 cents a stamp. :)

  21. 21.

    prostratedragon

    @Sister Golden Bear:  We know what this bunch will do (fuck-all), but to the lawyers out there, would a court have a right to withdraw a ruling based on a ficitious or mendacious case?

  24. 24.

    Sister Golden Bear

    FYI, a reminder that while Pride Month ends today, Wrath Month begins tomorrow and this year we’re inviting not just LGBTQ+ people, but anyone else harmed by the SCOTUS decisions to join us.

  25. 25.

    Rusty

    @Baud: Read the dissent.  If you can cast the provision of services are any form of personal expression that qualifies as free speech, then you are free to withhold those services.  There are very few guard rails.  I see nothing that would prevent a restaurant from excluding people of color base on the argument that the food prep and service are personal and expressive.

  26. 26.

    brendancalling

    @Sister Golden Bear: ​
    @Sister Golden Bear: ​
     

    Considering the original plan was a pittance—$20K isn’t that much when, like a lot of us, you owe close to $100K despite years of payments; or when you’ve been paying on a income-based plan and your servicer loses all the loan history, as has been documented—I’m not holding my breath for whatever comes next.

    I’ll say it again: reform the bankruptcy bill so people like me can declare bankruptcy from those fucking loans.

  30. 30.

    Baud

    @Rusty: I did.  But the decision doesn’t reach those cases.  Maybe the next decision will extend it more widely, but it hasn’t happened yet.

  31. 31.

    SFAW

    @Tom Levenson:

    But we/Ds/BIden-Harris have to offer them some path towards youth goals, and not just point to the folks who are screwing them sideways.

    I hope I’m misinterpreting this.

    It reminds me of 2016: “Yeah, Trump is a liar, and a racist, and will try to send us back to the Dark Ages, but … I’m concerned about Hillary’s support for the TPP, so I just don’t know.”

    Consonant with that is the NPR interviewee — allegedly a Dem — who said “Tell me why I should vote for Hillary, but without mentioning Trump or the Supreme Court.”

    But that’s just me.

  32. 32.

    catothedog

    Welcome home to the fact that the America is a racist country.  Crushing debt or lack of medical care, or poverty is not going to change who privileged people vote for.

    White racism is here to stay. The vast majority in the center – including the center left -,  will not give up white racism. The choice alway has been between gentle white racism of the liberals or brute white racism of the conservatives.

    Everything else – third party fckers  and Berniebros included – is just a symptom of that.  For all of them it’s just a game. Wine or lose, it does not affect them at all.  It’s the minorities that get trampled under their games, and they don’t give a $hit about it. White privilege at it’s finest.

    Never, anywhere on earth has a ruling group given up power through democracy. Never.

  35. 35.

    Suzanne

    @brendancalling: :::fist bump:::

    $10K is honestly like using a squirt gun to try to put out a forest fire, in my case. But it’s a positive move for a lot of others.

    Whatever. I’ll be dead soon enough, I guess.

    America, fuck yeah.

  38. 38.

    Almost Retired

    @Sister Golden Bear:   Wrath Month (decade..?) is brilliant.  I would ordinarily kick off wrath month with a full-out assault on 303 Creative: – yelp reviews, social media posts, organized boycotts, picketing, etc.

    BUT IT’S NOT EVEN A FUCKING REAL BUSINESS!!

    Sorry to shout.

  39. 39.

    MisterForkbeard

    @John S.: You might think so.

    The usual suspects are out blaming Biden for both this and the Supreme Court shooting down debt relief because it thinks the Department of Education doesn’t have powers that it clearly and explicitly was granted by congress unless congress gives it that power. Which is obvious nonsense.

    But I saw Nina Turner just yesterday screaming about how no one should vote for Biden and you can’t let anyone force you to do that. Hopefully no one listens to her.

  43. 43.

    MisterForkbeard

    @rikyrah: The really dumb thing is that you can totally refuse to do work for someone! You just can’t (couldn’t, because now you can) refuse someone because they’re a protected category.

    So even in this fictional use case, all she would have had to do is say “I’m sorry, I don’t want to take your case” and leave it at that. But no, she’s the victim.

  44. 44.

    Dangerman

    @rikyrah:Please remember that the President’s Plan would have eliminated ALL STUDENT LOAN DEBT FOR ALMOST 50% OF ALL BORROWERS.

    I would be in that 50%.

    Oh well. Court probably wouldn’t want to goose the economy so close to the election. Unless it’s a tax cut for the 1%, of course.

    Put me down for stacking the Court. In effect, that is what they did; time to play hard ball. Which is kinda like orthogonal intercourse, I suppose (I’m not sure what Right Angles has to do with anything but, then again, a flying Philadelphia fuck has nothing to do with airplanes or geography).

  45. 45.

    EriktheRed

    Welp, now Twitter has made it so no one without an active account can even read tweets on there, let alone engage with them. No more hate-reading Melon Husks’s hellsite anymore, I guess. I’m sure I’ll survive.

  46. 46.

    Rusty

    @Baud: I have to disagree.  The basis of the case is compelled speech.  Any kind of compelled speech, not just that based on religious belief (at oral arguments it was made very clear this was strictly a first amended free speech case).  That would apply to any form of compelled speech.  Providing services to a mixed race couple could be compelled speech under the exact same analysis of as providing those services to a same sex couple.  Or a mixed religion couple.  And it isn’t of course limited to just couples.

  47. 47.

    MisterForkbeard

    @brendancalling: Calling $20k a pittance is… wrong.

    When was the last time the government gave $20k to a ton of people? It’s a lot of money, even if it isn’t anywhere near the total cost of some people’s debt

  48. 48.

    Lyrebird

    @John S.:  I like “Sleazy Six” too, especially because they’re such sanctimonious ___s.  Hmm, that would be an insult to a useful body part.  But yes, sleazy is a good epithet.  And…

     

    @Sister Golden Bear: “Wrath Month” is effing genius.  Sign Me Up.

    I am not surprised by all this, but I  am disgusted, and wrath is in order.  I hope and pray that in the intel discovered unpacking Trump’s national security crimes, that  enough evidence is found to show the corrupt ones – “justices” yah right – the door.

  49. 49.

    Matt McIrvin

    As I said in the other thread, a large part of the problem here is that because of the filibuster paralysis in the Senate, combined with close to 50-50 polarization, Congress has effectively abdicated as a governing body on most matters of substance. Even when our side is nominally in control of both houses, it can’t do much.

    That creates a power vacuum that the executive and judiciary have moved into. The executive’s power is rightfully limited (but those limits have been eroded worryingly as a result of all this) and the judiciary has a bunch of reactionaries at the top. A lot of the most infuriating court decisions come down to “you can’t do this because Congress needs to pass/fix some law”, and Congress could easily fix the situation if it could pass laws, but Congress can’t/won’t pass laws. Things like wording glitches in the ACA just stand for years because a minority that wants the ACA to die has veto power over correcting them.

  50. 50.

    Tom Levenson

    @SFAW: Not my meaning. Basically–I just mean that Biden has to respond to this with another action, which he’s doing, apparently, and that the Ds more generally have to drop any vestigial deference to the court, as they seem to be doing as well.

    We can’t promise results…but we can damn sure begin the fight to  achieve some, and be seen to do so.

  51. 51.

    Suzanne

    Hmmmm. Let’s use the Rise of the NONES to our advantage. Anyone know if there is a directory of businesses that discriminate? Let’s boycott and drive them out of business.

  52. 52.

    Martin

    Which GOP donor and property owner will bring the case where their low income properties are an expression of their Christianity and renting to LGBTQ+ tenants is a violation of their first amendment rights?

    Gotta give the GOP credit for starting this religious liberty bullshit in the 70s to protect segregation in colleges and leveraging abortion for that fight and 50 years later finally getting their payoff. The first amendment protection against the government discriminating has turned into an individual right to discriminate. Quite the originalist take there. Pat Robertson, founding father.

  53. 53.

    oatler

    At least those 18th-Century poltroons were soon to die early of Gout, Gluttony, and and an excess of Venery hastened by the French Disease. These 20th-Century fonzaloons never fucking die.

  56. 56.

    catclub

    @Rusty: Any kind of compelled speech, not just that based on religious belief

     

    Except doctors could be compelled  to describe the effects of abortion on a fetus.

  57. 57.

    John S.

    @MisterForkbeard:

    The nonsense coming from some of these so-called leftists should have a warning label: “Listening to Nina Turner can be hazardous to your health.”

  60. 60.

    Martin

    @Suzanne: They’re fabricating cases like this because they already are going out of business. They seem to think this will reverse that trend. It’ll just make it worse.

  61. 61.

    scav

    @rikyrah: Eating the Rich!  I KNEW there was a part of my traditional religious practice I was forgetting! Must remember to pass along my thanks to him for the timely reminder.

  64. 64.

    Sure Lurkalot

    @Almost Retired:

    BUT IT’S NOT EVEN A FUCKING REAL BUSINESS!!

    Hypothetical businesses have rights too! Though how and where they can spend their hypothetical revenue, I have no idea, but I’m sure the Sycophantic Six will find a way.

  65. 65.

    John S.

    @Martin:

    Why stop there?

    It’s only a matter of time until one of these Nazi groups forms a religion, and then claims that anyone pushing back against their discrimination of non-whites is a violation of their religious freedom.

  66. 66.

    Chief Oshkosh

    @H.E.Wolf:

    I’m less interested in expressions of rage and more interested in small, concrete actions we can take to make a difference.

    That’s great. No need for you to rage. But rage and being enraged are motivating. They should not be downplayed; we need to motivate the citizenry to act and to vote.

  67. 67.

    rikyrah

    @brendancalling:

    Considering the original plan was a pittance—$20K isn’t that much when, like a lot of us, you owe close to $100K despite years of payments;

     

    A pittance?

    The President’s plan would have eliminated ALL debt for nearly 50% of ALL STUDENT LOAN BORROWERS.

     

    ONE out of every TWO borrowers would have seen that debt eliminated.

    A pittance?

  68. 68.

    Martin

    @Baud: Given that the incident the ruling is based on never happened, I don’t see why this court wouldn’t consider whatever they wanted to be compelled speech.

    Let’s hope the ‘I don’t give judgements on hypotheticals’ line gets some serious pushback in future confirmation hearings, because we’re now getting actual legal rulings on hypotheticals.

  72. 72.

    tobie

    @brendancalling: I’ll add to reforming the bankruptcy bill. We need to turn off the tap of aid that flows from GDP-generating metro America to GDP-sucking rural America. Maybe folks will learn fast who are the biggest recipients of federal largesse.

  73. 73.

    Geminid

    I saw that Nancy Pelosi hosted an on-line fundraiser last night for Arizona Senate candidate Ruben Gallego. This was reported by Grace Segers, who noted that Rep. Pelosi typically does not do individual fundraisers.

  74. 74.

    SFAW

    @Tom Levenson: ​
     
    I more-or-less assumed that. But it just gave me a non-fun flashback to ’16.
    But I agree that the President will (try to) come up with something. Let’s hope the MSM will stop sucking up to the RWMFs, and actually report positively on all the things Biden and the Dems have done (and will do) FOR America, not TO America.

  76. 76.

    Baud

    @Martin:

    I don’t make predictions about what the court will decide in future cases.  Right now, not everything is compelled speech and I support the attorneys who will argue in future cases that the government can prohibit discrimination in commercial activity in other cases.

  77. 77.

    Suzanne

    @rikyrah: Honestly, for me personally, $10K (I didn’t get Pell grants so I would only get $10K, not $20K) would literally have made zero difference. I’ll reach the 20-year end of the payments first. And that is the situation for almost everyone I know with student loans: people who went to graduate school without parental assistance.

    Mr. Suzanne is still waiting to hear about his PSLF, so that is a big issue.

  79. 79.

    Deputinize Eurasia from the Kuriles to St Petersburg

    “Don’t you dare try to blackmail me into voting for her because of the Supreme Court! My vote must be earned!”

  81. 81.

    Ruckus

    Add another vote here to review, remodel, restructure, add additional members, possibly some concept of a balance of political structure, burn the place down, because this is not a court of legal scholars, judges, it is a crappy club house of mostly 5 yr olds playing law games and they are shitty actors and grownups.

  84. 84.

    rikyrah

    David Austin Walsh (@DavidAstinWalsh) tweeted at 9:17 AM on Fri, Jun 30, 2023:
    This is bad for a whole host of reasons, but one of the most significant is that it now places the courts in the position of adjudicating what is and what is not “sincerely held” religious beliefs.

     

    David Austin Walsh (@DavidAstinWalsh) tweeted at 9:20 AM on Fri, Jun 30, 2023:
    We’re already seen Reform Judaism dismissed by some right-wing law professors on the grounds that, because Reform Judaism does not regard halakha as binding, Reform Jews cannot legally claim religious exemptions for, for instance, restrictive abortion laws https://t.co/jY4bH9RarD
    (https://twitter.com/DavidAstinWalsh/status/1674784978671140870?t=JXWccEYWGQjD2M6xq3sWww&s=03)

  85. 85.

    rikyrah

    Laura Chapin (@LauraChapin) tweeted at 1:32 PM on Thu, Jun 29, 2023:
    Sometimes the best questions are the most obvious. The fact that no one in journalism – not the Washington Post, not the New York Times, not NPR, not any national legal reporter – bothered to ask whether the plaintiff in ‘303 Creative’ actually existed is frankly shocking.

    It undermines the entire premise of the case.
    We knew Alliance Defending Freedom was fundamentally dishonest.
    But taking a fake plaintiff to SCOTUS is whole new level of mendacity.

    Okay, the ‘plaintiff’ was Lorie Smith. Who apparently made up the gay couple who asked her for a website.
    The entire case should have been laughed out of court long ago.

    There were interviews with Windsor and Obergefell.
    But absolutely no one thought to call the gay ‘couple’ in this case.
    Who apparently don’t exist.

  86. 86.

    Geminid

    @John S.:

     

    @MisterForkbeard: I was thinking this morning about how Democrats dodged a bullet when Shontelle Brown beat Turner in the 2021 special election to fill Marcia Fudge’s seat. Turner would have been a disrupter in a caucus that had a slim, 5 vote majority, and that House seat would have been a good platform for ratfucking. Instead, Turner is pretty much marginalized now.

  91. 91.

    Baud

    @Geminid: Yes! Thanks to those voters for seeing through the scam. And frankly, a bad look for the members of the progressive caucus who endorsed her.

  92. 92.

    The Moar You Know

    The Dildo of Consequences from the 2016 elections has, again, arrived unlubed, as it does every year.

  95. 95.

    Ruckus

    @Brachiator:

    Not sure you’ve given them enough credit. Not in any way arguing direction, only that is that far enough back? Should maybe you subtract a century from your date of what they really want?

  96. 96.

    ArchTeryx

    $20K lost? It wouldn’t have eliminated my loans… not by half. But it would.have helped, goddamit. I’m done in a whole different way when payment on those loans resume.

    I’m fucked. So are a whole lot of other people, but as I said, you may all go down together when the ship sinks, but you drown alone.

  99. 99.

    The Truffle

    I’m in the same boat.

    More importantly, I think the country passed a breaking point in 2016. Lately I have been thinking a national divorce is inevitable. It wouldn’t even be with it to move out of the country. (I would love to but my partner won’t leave.) I’ve been thinking this marriage just can’t be saved.

    And no, I don’t believe we’re all in this together either.

  100. 100.

    Baud

    @Sister Golden Bear:

    “Anger is an energy” and a huge motivator for action.

    Which is why there are a lot of bad faith actors trying to direct that anger in the wrong direction.  That’s the problem we have to deal with.

  101. 101.

    Ghost of Joe Liebling’s Dog

    @EriktheRed: If you edit the URL to replace  elon_s_evil_empire.com with nitter.net, problem solved.  (Plus several additional benefits – check out nitter.net for more info.)

    If you’re on an Android device, there is a free utility (Twitter2Nitter – available from F-droid; I doubt it’s in the Google Play store) that will update the URL almost automagically; I think there’s a browser extension for Firefox that will do the same.

  102. 102.

    Ruckus

    @Geminid:

    I’d change this a bit.

    Rep. Pelosi typically does did not do individual fundraisers. She’s no longer in the position she was in for a very long time. I believe she made that decision to do exactly what she’s doing now.

  103. 103.

    tobie

    So as all this shit is going on I just learned that my father’s union-secured Medicare Advantage plan dropped  my mother from coverage as soon as my father died. She’s no longer eligible for COBRA. Man, this stuff is complicated.

  104. 104.

    Geminid

    @Baud: I suspect that many of the Progressive Caucus members who endorsed Turner were relieved when she lost. Turner impersonated a cheerful team player for most of the campaign, but when she lost her lead towards the end Turner got really snarly.

    Very few Progressive Caucus members endorsed Turner again in last year’s rematch with Brown.

  107. 107.

    H.E.Wolf

    @Chief Oshkosh: ​
     My viewpoint is that if possible, we might channel some of our energy into taking concrete action; and I provided one suggestion for same. All rage and no action is less useful, and the right-wing sure hopes we’ll forget that.

    Back to proofreading postcards. If only 1 of every 10 recipients votes against the OH disenfranchisement amendment, then 3 more people will vote. It’s a start. :)

  108. 108.

    trollhattan

    @Baud: Hence RFK Jr. who’s mad about a thing, told to us in a voice that sounds like he was kicked in the throat by a 220-pound drag queen during story time.

  110. 110.

    Geminid

    @Ruckus: I’m just passing on what Grace Segers said about Pelosi’s practices. I guess we’ll see over the next year.

  113. 113.

    H.E.Wolf

    @Sister Golden Bear:@H.E.Wolf: “Anger is an energy” and a huge motivator for action.
     It sure as hell motivates me. I move in silence though. :) My own energy levels aren’t sufficient both to express my rage and work to defeat our foes, so I have to pick one.

  114. 114.

    laura

    What a way to go skidding into our weekend of celebration for independence. I have less bodily autonomy than last year. I have no hope of any law school loan forgiveness- save 5 more years of payment and I didn’t qualify for PSLF despite my career in 501c3 unions solely representing public sector workers. I am witnessing the remantling of apartheid America. My fellow Americans who are not white or male are relegated to less than except as cannon fodder and grist for the for-profit carcereal state. I may day drink today and I wish the entirety of the court’s majority to die In a grease fire.

    These motherfuckers and their fellow travellers-

  116. 116.

    Geminid

    @Baud: Well, Jaime Raskin and the others certainly screwed up. But I think it was a lesson learned, and fortunately not the hard way.

  118. 118.

    Martin

    @rikyrah: If the Affirmative Action case guides us, exactly one black person didn’t get a fair trial, and you can’t prove otherwise.

  119. 119.

    Ruckus

    @wombat probabilty cloud:

    One of the ground rules of conservative politics is to construct a system where no one can do anything to help certain groups of people. To that end there they do not believe there has to be harm, only that someone they don’t like is getting something that they don’t want them to have. That to conservatives IS harm. That is what they are taking away. I believe that they don’t think they can get away with returning slavery but that they can do a lot to get back to when there was an in class and an out class. Equality is NOT something they think is proper. We are seeing the not all that slow return of the concept of levels of society based upon color, gender, politics, that equality is absolutely not a rational political argument. They are trying to turn back time, to make life shittier for those they don’t like, to remove equality from the concept of our government. Because they are not and never were equal, they need hate, racism, monetary structure, political structure that makes them powerful. This is politics from prior to 1950.

  121. 121.

    Ksmiami

    Ps. To Omnes wherever you are, still think we can preserve the rights of millions with this joke of a Court? Violence is not the ideal solution but sometimes the system fucking fails.

  122. 122.

    sdhays

    What is Magical Pony President supposed to do if 6 members of the Supreme Court think forgiving student loans is akin to the French Revolution? Is it just more calls for telling the Supreme Court to go fuck itself and do it anyway?

    The quote, “If you come at the king, you best not miss” gets thrown around a lot, but fucking with the Supreme Court is another one of those things. You had better be ready to cut off some figurative heads before you actually go all in on making a move. And pulling an Andrew Jackson isn’t really the answer, although I’ll confess to privately wanting to see that sometimes.

    The Court MUST be reformed, but it’s going to take more of the Court debasing itself in public and people getting angry and disgusted and voting on that before it can happen.

  126. 126.

    Kelly

    @The Truffle: Lately I have been thinking a national divorce is inevitable

    Yep, we can draw 3 of 26 homes in my little rural Oregon neighborhood into blue Oregon whilst the rest happily abide in red Oregon.

  127. 127.

    FelonyGovt

    OK I hadn’t seen the latest ruling. I was annoyed enough at the student loan thing. But THIS one?? I’m ready to go to war.

  128. 128.

    Betty Cracker

    @trollhattan: Michelle Goldberg in The Times has a column about RFK Jr. and the wankers his campaign is attracting. Basically a multigenerational mosaic of conspiracy theory nutters. That small-dollar donor list would be pure gold in the scam marketing economy. Here’s hoping it’s hacked and widely distributed on the dark web. The less money those idiots have to sling around, the better!

  129. 129.

    narya

    Thank you all for being here and expressing all of this [waves arms around]. I am beyond exhausted by all of it, and knowing I can come here and read the words of others who are on the same pages as I am is a tiny bit of balm. It also recommits me to writing postcards–a concrete Thing I Can Do. Thank you to infinity.

  130. 130.

    Steeplejack

    @Ghost of Joe Liebling’s Dog:

    Holy shnikeys, this works! Huzzah! I manually replaced “Twitter.com” with “Nitter.net” on a couple of links, both on my Android phone and my Win11 computer, and I got through.

    I haven’t investigated the extensions yet, but for now I’m mostly okay with manually editing URLs. I usually have one tab open for Twitter and manually change, say, “twitter.com/MollyJongFast” to “twitter.com/Zeddary,” etc., to surf around.

    I highly recommend going to the Nitter settings and changing the theme to “Twitter”—or anything other than the awful white text on black background that is the default.

    Sample link to get you started: @NYCSouthpaw.

  131. 131.

    Dr. Jakyll and Miss Deride

    @rikyrah: In response to the tweeter, I’m not sure why the court has to adjudicate whether a religious belief is sincerely held.  And if it does, why wouldn’t be enough to prove sincerity that you were willing to sacrifice income by turning away a prospective customer or tenant?

    I sometimes get the feeling that people on liberal blogs have never considered the obvious right-wing retorts to the arguments we find so convincing.  For instance, taking 303 Creative in its broadest possible sense, a right-winger could say:  “The First Amendment’s sacred freedom of association allows me to refuse you service for any reason.  If you think I did it because I’m a bigot, the First Amendment’s sacred freedom of speech allows you to tell the world that.  If enough people agree with you and care about it enough, the sacred free market will force me to change my ways or shut down my business.  This is the only rule that honors the sanctity of the First Amendment and the free market.”  In the context of our current politics, why is this argument not a winner?  (Never mind whether things ever actually work that way.)

  132. 132.

    H.E.Wolf

    I’ll put in a plug for the Thurgood Marshall College Fund: a 501(c)(3) non-profit with 4-star rating (96 out of 100 points) from Charity Navigator. https://www.tmcf.org/

    TMCF supports students at Historically Black Colleges and Universities and Predominantly Black Institutions.

    The mere name of Justice Marshall is a poke in the eye to the 6 right-wingers on the current court. I’d probably donate on that basis alone.

  133. 133.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Ksmiami: I sure as fuck don’t think that replacing our government with a left-wing dictator as you have suggested in the past is the solution.

  134. 134.

    MomSense

    Wonder if the Bernie Bros are finally experiencing the realization that we weren’t fear mongering when we warned that SCOTUS was on the ballot in 2016. They’ll probably respond to this like they did with Dobbs.  Why won’t democrats fight or some other childish nonsense.

    I’m furious about SCOTUS but the lesson is that Republicans are more committed. They’ve been voting every fucking election for over 50 years to get these results.  No one had to chase them, call, stalk, and visit multiple times to get them to go to the polls.

    I am just as angry with the people who didn’t vote for Democrats as I am with the INjustices and GOP.  The courts were ours to lose and we forfeited the game.

  135. 135.

    H.E.Wolf

    @narya: ​
    We two are a multitude. :) I bet Mousebumples is out there somewhere, too; and MazeDancer…

    ETA: and a bunch of other jackals whose names begin with letters of the alphabet other than M.

  136. 136.

    brendancalling

    @ArchTeryx: Oh, I’m totally fucked. And, thanks to the 2005 Congress, you can’t discharge those loans through bankruptcy.

  138. 138.

    Alison Rose

    @Ksmiami:

    Violence is not the ideal solution

    I’m as enraged about the Court as anyone else, and of course about putin too, but I gotta say, coming from you this phrase is downright hilarious.

  140. 140.

    Ghost of Joe Liebling’s Dog

    @Steeplejack: I think you’re the one who wised me to the curly-quotes apostrophe so that I could fix my nym … if so, I’m doubly glad this worked!

  141. 141.

    Elizabelle

    I think the Supreme Court just caught the car.  I hope they have moved into FAFO territory.

  145. 145.

    James E Powell

    @H.E.Wolf:

    I’m less interested in expressions of rage and more interested in small, concrete actions we can take to make a difference.

    Preach!

  148. 148.

    trollhattan

    @laura: Yeah, and they’ll spend the entire Fourth “weekend” bitching like the sore winners they are. Their money men, however, will break out the good-good Cubans. They’ve cleared the table.

  149. 149.

    H.E.Wolf

    @narya:”…writing postcards–a concrete Thing I Can Do.​”

     OK. I’m going to imagine that this Saturday evening is a Balloon Juice postcard party, and I plan to write 5 postcards, and I’m further going to imagine that all of the postcard-writing jackals are doing the same.
    Remember that well-known graphic of all the little fish forming into the shape of a Big Fish? That’s us.​

  150. 150.

    James E Powell

    @Geminid:

    While it is true that Turner would have been no loyal ally had she been elected, I am reluctant to characterize having the better candidate & running the better campaign as dodging a bullet. I would rather say that Ohio Democrats showed that when we do what needs to be done, we win.

  153. 153.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Ksmiami: Whatever.  I am not interested in having a discussion with someone whose solution to any of our problems is “Burn it down.”  On a day like today, there is a lot of anger and frustration and that’s fine, but the calls for violence are your stock in trade.  I am not buying what you are selling.

  154. 154.

    Anyway

    @Baud:

    I agree with that.  Still, it’s a black mark.

    D00d, bygones —  Nina Turner is not worth our energy after being stomped twice.

  155. 155.

    James E Powell

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    I sure as fuck don’t think that replacing our government with a left-wing dictator as you have suggested in the past is the solution.

    Even I, pretty much a lefty my whole life, never felt that we should have a dictator. I’d be happy to have four or five lefty senators.

  156. 156.

    Old Man Shadow

    Abortion was always the “socially acceptable” backdoor to getting judges in that would undo the Civil Rights movement and desegregation.

    And here we are.

  157. 157.

    H.E.Wolf

    @James E Powell:”I would rather say that Ohio Democrats showed that when we do what needs to be done, we win.”
     I’m writing postcards for all y’all in Ohio! Want to join my virtual postcard party tomorrow evening?

  163. 163.

    Jeffg166

    Will people be able to deny christian’s request for service if one does not agree with them?

  164. 164.

    narya

    @H.E.Wolf: Administrative question: I signed up with them for the WI Supreme Court. How do I get onto the OH thing? Sign up again?

  167. 167.

    Geminid

    @James E Powell: I  did not say, “I think we can all agree that we dodged a bullet…” You are entitled to your own framing.

    I’ll stand by my framing though. The best candidate with the best campaign doesn’t always win even if they should. Turner led until the last few weeks, and Brown did not get separation from the 3-4 other candidates until then.

    I was sweating that one out until a couple hours after the polls closed. When I saw that Brown had a lead and it was expected to hold up, I thought, “We sure dodged a bullet this time!” I still think so.

  168. 168.

    randy khan

    @Edmund dantes:

    I’m assuming we will see obergefell “reversed” in the next 5 years.

    well reversed if Roberts doesn’t join the other 5, but eviscerated and left an empty shell if Roberts gets to write the opinion in a 6-3 ruling.

    They’re coming for everything, but this one will be a little harder than some of the others since Congress passed the federal law protecting same-sex marriage last year.  I’m not saying it can’t be done, or that people won’t try, but there is an important additional hurdle there.

  169. 169.

    eclare

    I saw a tweet from Joe that he will speak this afternoon, but no time noted.  I googled and nothing.  Does anyone know?

  171. 171.

    New Deal democrat

    Just in case people haven’t drawn the next obvious line: there will be plenty of people declaring that they have a sincere religious belief that there should be no race-mixing, and therefore they have the right to refuse to serve anyone who isn’t White.

  172. 172.

    Tony Jay

    Now that the Sinister Six have finally moved to protect the rights of fictional Americans, how long until they take up the seminal case of John Barron, the rightful Presidenter for Life of all America?

    He’s the real victim in all this. Ask him, he’ll bloody well tell you at great length.

  173. 173.

    leeleeFL

    IANAL, or a school admin, BUT, I think maybe I have a work around for the college admissions mess.

    All the application gets is a transcript, with attached SAT scores. Nameless, faceless, race-less, gender-less, faith neutral, rootless.  No location, no school names, any letters from teachers unsigned. If that student makes the first cut, other stages can proceed.  But that first acceptance letter is based on achievement only.  Also, time to cut the umbilical cord, no legacy BS.  Trump’s brats and GWB proved that particular crap is just that, crap.  You’re on your own, just like the kids from Recida or inner-city Chicago.

    What think you, Jackeltariat!?

  174. 174.

    different-church-lady

    @SFAW:

    “Tell me why I should vote for Hillary, but without mentioning Trump or the Supreme Court.”

    “So you can prove you’re not a FUCKIN’ MORON is why.”

  175. 175.

    H.E.Wolf

    @narya:@H.E.Wolf: Administrative question: I signed up with them for the WI Supreme Court. How do I get onto the OH thing? Sign up again?”​
     If you were writing with PostcardsToVoters.org, I’d use the same method by which you requested addresses for the WI Supreme Court election, and just substitute “Ohio Constitutional Amendment”. If you need a campaign #, it’s 324. (I use the PTV email address bot: [email protected])

    If you were writing with one of the other groups, you could get in touch with them and ask if they have addresses/talking points for OH.

  178. 178.

    H.E.Wolf

    @James E Powell:”@H.E.Wolf: Yes. I no longer live there, but I will be happy to drop a line.” 
    That would be great! Feel free to choose your piscine avatar. Elizabelle is leaning toward Team Shark. I am more of a small fry. :)

  180. 180.

    trollhattan

    @Tony Jay: ​John Barron, the rightful Presidenter for Life of all America

    Excellent. Survey says, he will go bigly and make it Presidenter of All the Americurrs. Watch out, Paraguay, there’s a Trump Tower headed your way.

  182. 182.

    FelonyGovt

    @MomSense:

    @H.E.Wolf:

    I am also writing postcards to Ohio with my local angry old lady postcard group. They’re getting mailed today since they need to get there from California.

    But I do agree with MomSense. While I’m writing the postcards, I start wondering who these people ARE, who need to be pleaded with and cajoled to getting off their asses to vote to protect their interests.

  183. 183.

    Bupalos

    @Brachiator: just because this is now a reflex with me….

    No they aren’t. They’re going to a completely new and different place, and we need to understand that and say that. Saying we’re going back to the 50’s is boosting Republican false advertizing. It’s a service to them and a disservice to us.

  184. 184.

    lowtechcyclist

    One more thing: this could have been avoided if not that many people had chosen not to piss away votes on “principle” in 2000 and 2016.

    2000, yes.  Hard disagree over 2016: Mitch had already said he was going to block the Dems’ SCOTUS nominees. And would have blocked pretty much everything else too, had Hillary eked out a win.

    Midterms normally go against the party in the White House, no reason to see why 2018 would have been an exception.

    The GOP would have made a major issue of the 30,000 or so Covid deaths we would have had in 2020, and the MSM would have amplified that.  We’d have a Rethug President and Congress right now, and a 6-3 conservative SCOTUS majority.

    No fucking way I’d trade this timeline for the one we’d have gotten if all those Jill Stein voters had actually voted for Hillary.

  185. 185.

    Eolirin

    @Ksmiami: That would be the Russians, the Saudis, and the US right wing billionaire network. Which is more a matter for the DOD and DOJ. But having the Courts on their side makes taking on the latter much harder. There is a reason they made it nearly impossible to convict anyone on political bribery charges.

  186. 186.

    H.E.Wolf

    @FelonyGovt:”I start wondering who these people ARE, who need to be pleaded with and cajoled to getting off their asses to vote to protect their interests.”​

    I like the cut of your postcard group’s jib. :) Hooray for angry old ladies.

    Maybe it’s not so much that the recipients need cajoling, so much as they need a reminder that they’re not alone in a hellscape. I’d think it might be a breath of fresh air to hear from a like-minded someone from halfway across the country!​​​

  187. 187.

    Ruckus

    @Tom Levenson:

    Does humanity ever work in any way but 3 steps forward, 2 steps back?

    It hasn’t for my lifetime and I’m in the middle of my 7th decade. Some humans are great, amazing, actual human beings. Some have their brains, such as they are, located in their asses and use the lower outlet for their speech. (IOW they are full of shit) It has always been this way and while we’ve made progress, those who believe that nothing reasonable or positive has happened in the last 300 yrs and that we MUST go bassackwards to return to a time that they think they want to live in because it’s the only way they have any power, which they think they need BECAUSE! We humans have moved forward before, we will again, because hate and bullshit only move the needle in one direction. Bassackwards. We will win because we have more people on our side, more people who really, really do not want to move bassackwards. (Yes, that is a hard word to pronounce. It’s also a not normal, shitty direction)  But we are dealing with humanity, an often not at all rational group of animals. We outnumber the shitheads. We will move forward again. Until then being extremely pissed off is going to be the normal concept of life.

  188. 188.

    Ksmiami

    @Eolirin: send the IRS crawling all over them, executive orders to tax billionaires, hack their accounts and send the money elsewhere.

  190. 190.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Ruckus: ​
     

    We outnumber the shitheads. We will move forward again. Until then being extremely pissed off is going to be the normal concept of life.

    QFT

  192. 192.

    H.E.Wolf

    @Kathleen:”@H.E.Wolf: I’m going to Hamilton County Democratic Headquarters to pick mine up today! Thanks for promoting this.”​
     
    Awesome! Go Hamilton County Dems!!

  193. 193.

    sab

    @rikyrah: I cannot understand why they think lying for Jesus is a good look. Also too there is commandment against bearing false witness. Oh well.

  194. 194.

    Martin

    @leeleeFL: You then delegate the discrimination to state legislatures, school funding models, and school districts. And there’s a lot of systemic discrimination there as it is.

    I’ll give a local example from my otherwise pretty good school district. One high school had a terrible reputation from those of us that worked with admissions and we let them know regularly. They were also the high school most of the kids of our faculty went to. Because of desire to chase rankings and appease cranky parents, they had a very clearly segregated school. They had the most AP course offerings of any of the high schools in the district (they offered every AP) but by and large only the white and asian kids had access to AP classes, and the latino and black kids had access to none of them.

    The schools rationale was that the former group were the cranky group, and the former group were most likely to go to prominent colleges, which combined with how the rankings operated, lumping a subset of the students into all of the AP courses ranked them the highest in most rankings. And they were for a while the 4th highest ranked school in the state.

    After I and a few others helped push for some of the rankings to change how they work to focus on overall access to APs (how many students were they serving) which is how the other HSs in the district worked, they dropped to 37 in the state in one year, just due to that. The fact that I reamed them out in a curriculum development exercise in front of the superintendent and school board probably didn’t help.

    They changed how they put students in AP the following year.

    The school didn’t have the attitude that the brown students were less deserving, but the faculty parents were almost all white and asian – at least the loudest ones, and the ranking encouraged them to discriminate, so they took the path of least resistance. Our admissions processes were designed to directly counter those efforts. You take that way, things will get WAY worse.

  195. 195.

    wombat probabilty cloud

    @Ruckus: I agree with you. What I was asking, in my usual inarticulate fashion, is how there were grounds for a legal case if there was no gay couple asking for a website? Litigated to the SC purely based on a theoretical?

  196. 196.

    H.E.Wolf

    @Chief Oshkosh:”But I agree with “do something constructive” and I appreciate your suggestions and links!”​

    Just now saw this and wanted to say thank you for your kind words.

    Hubert Humphrey didn’t have a monopoly on happy warriorhood! We can all fight the good fight in our several ways.

  199. 199.

    Roger Moore

    @Bupalos:

    They’re going to a completely new and different place, and we need to understand that and say that. Saying we’re going back to the 50’s is boosting Republican false advertizing.

    This is a good point.  They’re promising to bring us back to the 1950s, but that’s just advertising to attract people who pine for the good old days.  There are plenty of things that were good in the 1950s (high union membership, high tax rates on the 1%, heavy government investment in infrastructure) that they have no interest in bringing back.  What they really want to do more than anything is to let the ultra-rich dodge taxes and big corporations to do whatever they want with no regulations.

  200. 200.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @H.E.Wolf: ​
      Long-term sustained rage is not really my MO either. There are things that need to get done, so we had better keep doing them.

  204. 204.

    Ohio Mom

    @Betty Cracker:

    tobie

    I was just going to suggest the same thing. David Anderson’s advice got Ohio Family out of a pickle several years ago.

    Another good source would be AARP. Google — they may have already written on this, or find an AARP number to call.

    Finally, Tobie can try her local Council on Aging, they may have someone on staff who can help.

    The one thing I would absolutely NOT do is speak to someone who sells Advantage plans. Be warned, their businesses often hide behind benign-sounding names.

  205. 205.

    Geminid

    @New Deal democrat: Another one: an organization that says they are exempt from a sex-discrimination lawsuit by a woman denied a merited promotion,  because they follow the “Biblical” doctrine that a woman shall not have authority over men.

  206. 206.

    Ohio Mom

    @James E Powell: Let’s wait until after the August election*
    to see if we Ohio Democrats can really get things done when we need to — don’t jinx us!

    * For the non-Buckeyes: the Gerrymandered Republican statehouse is putting up for a vote whether we can continue to change the state constitution with votes of 50% plus 1 or if we will need 60% of all votes cast; this is to make the November issue adding reproductive choice to the state constitution unwinnable. Of course they are having this vote in low-turn-out August, and it’s costing the state $$$$, being the fiscal conservatives they are./s

  208. 208.

    Scout211

    @tobie: She can call her local Medicare Assistance Program.  They will help her sign up for a new plan.  When life circumstances like this change, you can switch plans mid-year.  Hopefully, they can help her find a similar plan with similar doctors.

    This link will take you to the national program and you can find her state program contact information from the home page:  State Health Insurance Assistance Program

  209. 209.

    Zzyzx

    @MomSense: They are. All of my leftist friends are equating the Democrats with kayfabe or talking about blowing shit up or – in one awful case – explaining that Biden is secretly working with the Pope since he’s Catholic.

  213. 213.

    MomSense

    @lowtechcyclist:

    I’d like to add 2010 and 2014 to the list.  2010 resulted in redistricting that still haunt us.

    2014 was a shitshow.

    McConnell wouldn’t have been able to steal a seat if Democrats had bothered to vote.

  216. 216.

    Ruckus

    @wombat probabilty cloud:

    It helps to understand the shithead mind. First they are at the head of the pack, just ask them. Second, if they don’t discriminate they very likely feel that they are being discriminated against. (I don’t make the rules – and neither should they, but there it is, they don’t get their way the world is out to shit on them and them alone, therefore they have to shit upon everyone else first) They really don’t like being equal to the people that they think are beneath them, who they don’t actually think of as humans. I don’t understand their logic or lack thereof but they are full of the lack thereof. Their concept of them being superior is all a made up world of bullshit and hate, and if someone could come up with a way to teach them even a smidge of humanity, they would win the Nobel prize.

  218. 218.

    Another Scott

    @Dr. Jakyll and Miss Deride:

    In the context of our current politics, why is this argument not a winner?

    I would answer your hypothetical as follows:

    Why? Because fundamental rights shouldn’t be subject to the whims of small noisy factions of the day? Because real people’s lives depend on their actual bodily freedom and equality under the law and should not be subject to the whims of people who don’t listen to us anyway?

    Regulation of business is part of a modern, and yes, free society. Businesses want protection from roving mobs, want to know that their contracts to rent their space or hire people or own their stuff has the force of law backing it up. And they want the security of knowing that if their business fails that they will not personally be hounded for all eternity, or thrown in debtors prison, to pay back those debts incurred by the business. In return for those rights and protections, businesses have to treat protected classes, and anyone else who walks through the door, in certain ways.

    Nobody forces someone to open a business and obey the rules that society imposes on businesses. People cannot change their parents or their skin color or who they are.

    But beyond all that, folks that want to debate the propriety of taking away people’s hard-fought rights never seem to ask themselves why we have the 14th Amendment, and Title IX, and all the rest of that the first place. We already tried it their way, and it was a disaster for human progress. That’s why we changed the laws and the rules.

    My $0.02.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  220. 220.

    Ruckus

    @Steeplejack:

    Damnit, I wish you’d quit reminding me! I’m just getting used to the 7th decade and you always remind me that it’s the eighth. Oh well at least I’m still here to complain…..

  221. 221.

    Captain C

    @MomSense:

    Why won’t democrats fight or some other childish nonsense.

    Us reasonable* people to such people:  “Well, what are you doing to help?”

    CRwTFs*:  “WE’RE YELLING AT DEMOCRATS, THE TRUE ENEMIES!!!”

    *Compared to the “blackmailing me by reminding me SCOTUS matters” crowd from 2016, us Jackals are quite reasonable, indeed.

    **Cosplay Revolutionaries with Trust Funds.

  222. 222.

    H.E.Wolf

    @Omnes Omnibus:”Long-term sustained rage is not really my MO either. There are things that need to get done, so we had better keep doing them.”

    Indeed. [rolls up sleeves] Honored to be on the work team with you.

  225. 225.

    TheTruffle

    @Kelly: Maybe we can relocate people so they can live in places where they don’t have to worry about their rights being ripped away, before a national divorce goes into effect?

    Just a thought.

    I’m serious. I think enough people in the US want a national divorce to ensure it will happen.

  226. 226.

    Captain C

    @Elizabelle:

    I hope they have moved into FAFO territory.

    I hope the Thomases and Alitos (at minimum) are 86’d from every remotely decent restaurant within 100 miles of D.C..

    (edited to add quote box)

  229. 229.

    TheTruffle

    @Captain C: I think they are nearly in FAFO territory. I think a lot of things are going to backfire on the GOP.

    Meanwhile, does Biden have a workaround for student loan relief?

  231. 231.

    BellyCat

    @Baud: One could argue that a craftsman, or any creator, could claim that *craft* is their belief system (i.e. religion) and refuse to provide or sell their product ( or charge them double) to those they feel have compromised creative endeavors such as, let’s say… all Republicans. Mais oui?

    Asking for a friend…

  232. 232.

    Martin

    @TheTruffle: Just to be perfectly clear a ‘national divorce’ is a civil war. States do not have the authority to secede. Democrats will not agree to that.

  233. 233.

    Dan B

    News that my life may be more constrained but also being pushed out of college for being gay means I don’t have student debt.  So it’s a neutral day for me. /s

    We had friends for dinner, an interracial couple who lived in Memphis for a while.  They visited the town in Arkansas where  lived.  I was surprised that there were black and white people dining together.  Black people were never seen downtown when we lived there.

  238. 238.

    TheTruffle

    @Martin: Texas’ GOP has secession in their platform. Texas is a rock-solid, ruby-red Republican state. That’s at least one state where the GOP party wants to leave the union.

  239. 239.

    EarthWindFire

    @rikyrah: I share her stroke of a pen sentiment but Congress did just fine on this one. This is all on the bogus SCOTUS, all of it.

  240. 240.

    Chris Johnson

    @sdhays: The supreme court is not a superior branch of government. It’s a co-equal branch of government. It’s not designed to command more respect than the other branches, just to move slower.

    Sounds like checks are in order. Such as those in hockey :)

  241. 241.

    mvr

    @rikyrah: One of the origianl reasons offered in support of 1st amendment separation language was to protect religions themselves from the influence of government as when governments rule on what is and what is not part of a religion or being religious.

  243. 243.

    Odie Hugh Manatee

    Tom: “Intercourse them orthogonally with oxidized farm implements.”

    Insert “Vigorously” in this sentence and I’m on board. Fuck this court, fuck Roberts and royally fuck Alito. The supreme court has been broken and most of the people in our country are going to suffer because of it.

    Fuck the Supreme Court and fuck the reactionary radical Christians who are rewriting our laws to better fit their biblical views. Fuck them all.

  244. 244.

    hotshoe

    @Steeplejack:

    Thanks for the info.

    Sadly, your link results in a strange error message, and so does going directly to nitter and trying to link that way.

    I wonder if they’re having overload problems while every person on the planet tries to find a workaround for tweets.

  245. 245.

    Steeplejack

    @hotshoe:

    No, apparently Twitter changed their API to specifically nuke Nitter. That’s where things stand, at least until somebody figures out another workaround.

  247. 247.

    Ruckus

    @Kathleen:

    Mister!

    I feel offended, just because I AM an old fart shouldn’t mean that I have to feel like one. But OK, now that you mention it, I guess that I actually do feel like an old fart. Decades ago I was wondering if I’d ever arrive at old fart. And now I have. Mister indeed!

  249. 249.

    Citizen Scientist

    Bravo Tom! I thought this was a John Cole joint at first, but then I saw the PS and knew it was your post.  Anyway, just started reading The Hunt for Vulcan and really enjoying it.

  250. 250.

    SW

    This is always how it was going to play out.  The changes in demographics was destined to create a meltdown in the psyche of the white power structure,  As their ability to attract a majority of the electorate evaporates it is inevitable that they would become desperate,  Resorting to stealing elections, extreme Gerrymandering and finally making a last stand in the least democratic branch of government, The Supreme Court.  You could have written this script forty years ago just looking at the projected changes in the racial make-up of the electorate.  The only consolation is that this is a temporary condition.  They can hold onto power with their cold dead hands causing mischief for years and perhaps decades.  But ultimately it will be untenable.  And when they are finally gone they will be seen by the majority to be as morally bankrupt as the apartheid regime in South Africa.

  253. 253.

    Cthulhu

    @brendancalling:

    Let’s call Student “Loans” what they are, Usury.  We used to have laws against this shit.

    And all those Repukes in office cheering this decision had their FULL PPE loans cancelled.

  255. 255.

    The Truffle

    @SW: I don’t think it will be decades, myself. Even at my most “down” moments, I don’t see them lasting forever.

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