Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

They want us to be overwhelmed and exhausted. Focus. Resist. Oppose.

Republicans in disarray!

Polls are now a reliable indicator of what corporate Republicans want us to think.

Tide comes in. Tide goes out. You can’t explain that.

It’s always darkest before the other shoe drops.

Thanks to your bullshit, we are now under siege.

Peak wingnut was a lie.

You don’t get rid of your umbrella while it’s still raining.

Republicans choose power over democracy, every day.

The real work of an opposition party is to oppose.

They fucked up the fucking up of the fuckup!

When I decide to be condescending, you won’t have to dream up a fantasy about it.

How stupid are these people?

I like political parties that aren’t owned by foreign adversaries.

Jack be nimble, jack be quick, hurry up and indict this prick.

You know it’s bad when the Project 2025 people have to create training videos on “How To Be Normal”.

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

This chaos was totally avoidable.

I see no possible difficulties whatsoever with this fool-proof plan.

Wake up. Grow up. Get in the fight.

Fundamental belief of white supremacy: white people are presumed innocent, minorities are presumed guilty.

A sufficient plurality of insane, greedy people can tank any democratic system ever devised, apparently.

Red lights blinking on democracy’s dashboard

There are a lot more evil idiots than evil geniuses.

You are here: Home / Politics / Biden Administration in Action / TGIFriday Morning Open Thread: Almost At the Weekend

TGIFriday Morning Open Thread: Almost At the Weekend

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Concerning our failed SC(R)OTUS:


Can’t read the cartoonist’s name (dammit), but Justice Ketanji is thinking I might be overdressed…

TGIFriday Morning Open Thread:

Reader Interactions

74Comments

  1. 1.

    Baud

    There is no cause for alarm in any of this… as long as Joe Biden is re-elected

    Nominated!

  2. 2.

    brendancalling

    Fucking CHRIST.

    I spent the day and the night suffering from food poisoning—20 hours—and I wake up to this shit, which makes me want to puke all over again.

    Thanks, Balloon Juice.

  3. 3.

    Betty Cracker

    Kudos to Mr. Raskin for telling it like it is. Prior to the start of the hearing, it seems like most informed observers expected even this epically corrupt and partisan court to make short work of Trump’s monarchical aspirations. Sadly no!

  4. 4.

    JPL

    Raise your hand if you too dreamt that the supremes attended a dinner in their honor to thank them for helping to reelect trump.

    Last night was one where I wished I hadn’t slept.

  5. 5.

    smith

    The thinking of the Dirty Six on this underpins everything Rightwingers do — the serene confidence that Democrats won’t abuse their power, and that Republicans will.

  6. 6.

    frosty

    I may have to stay away from the news today. What am I going to do with my extra three* hours?

    * or four, or five.

  7. 7.

    Ksmiami

    @smith: we need to be as ruthless as possible. And why tf is Trump still polling high against Biden? This country is a disaster

  8. 8.

    narya

    Trying to help my mom deal with the lawyer to settle my dad’s stuff. What is in place is not what they thought they were putting in place; she called yesterday in a tizzy because she got the lawyer’s letter. It’s mostly boilerplate, but a long letter from a lawyer, with substantial fees listed, gave her a jolt. I told her it’s like eating an elephant*–we’ll do it one bite at a time. I think I’m gonna make up a bunch of elephant ears (the pastry) and send them to her.

    Meanwhile, not long after I moved here, the city cut down the tree right outside my sunroom window (it was leaning a lot) and planted a new one. This year it’s tall enough so I can watch the birds sit in it and chat with each other. Not sure I’ll get an actual nest, but I’m enjoying it.

    *No elephants are, will be, or should be eaten.

  9. 9.

    Baud

    @Ksmiami:

    Never underestimate the threat that a successful Democrat poses to entrenched financial and social interests.

    ETA: If we lose, this will be the reason.

  10. 10.

    Soprano2

    Was going to put this in the last thread, but it’s pretty much dead. Here’s a link to the only recorded performance of one of the works my choir is performing this weekend – “Out of this Darkness: The Normandy Cantata” by John Wykoff. (It’s a YouTube link) I think it’ll come up where I paused it. There’s also a performance of the Faure Requiem on there, you’d have to back it up to hear that. The man conducting it is our choir conductor Cameron LaBarr. Last night at rehearsal he said the composer is coming for our performance, so that’s not nerve-wracking at all. LOL Our performance will be the North American premier of the work. It’s a great piece. I think the first movement is a love song to the Earth. The rest is mostly about war and peace, there’s a line in there about how we must wage peace like we wage war

    Oh, and we may be washed away in the flood if it keeps raining like it is right now. *sigh* This isn’t fun for our department.

  11. 11.

    hrprogressive

    Biden seems way too institutionalist to actually take advantage of unlimited power, should the Fascist SCOTUS rule as such.

    That said, if they do end up saying “lol presidents are kings without recourse” essentially, he literally has to take extraordinary steps under such powers…otherwise there won’t be any republic left to defend.

    Fire all the Justices.
    Remove all the shitty Trump judges.
    Cancel all student debt immediately
    Send every piece of armament we can afford to do so to Ukraine
    Restore Roe and then some.

    Basically just decree everything, and be done with it.

    I understand that would be “a dangerous precedent” but if my choices boil down to “Joe Biden runs amok for the citizens” or “Trump subjugates and destroys the country” option A is much more preferential.

  12. 12.

    Gin & Tonic

    Re-posted from late in the downstairs thread – 38 years ago today was the nuclear accident at Chornobyl, arguably one of the catalysts in the collapse of the USSR.

  13. 13.

    narya

    @Baud: On some level I knew that to be true (my grandfather was an anarchist, after all), but the display of the last couple of decades is truly an impressive lesson.

  14. 14.

    hrprogressive

    @hrprogressive:

     

    Obviously I mean “Fire the Fascist 6” but honestly Kagan and Sotomayor probably should be replaced by two women half their age and twice as liberal just to help undo the damage the Fascists have done to this country.

  17. 17.

    TBone

    @brendancalling: oh dear. The BRAT diet might help (bananas, rice, applesauce, toast).  If you can stand any of it. Plus clear broth. Plus not watching the Supremacist Court embarrass and befoul themselves repeatedly.

  18. 18.

    stinger

    @smith: Yes. In arguing for presidential immunity, Trump and his lawyers are implicitly relying on the basic decency of Joe Biden, who, if Trump wins this argument, could immediately have his political rival taken out. Seal Team 6, it’s Joe on line 1!

  19. 19.

    Glidwrith

    I think I just discovered why most normies don’t pay attention to politics: people that can utterly destroy your life, you have very little power in the matter and any justice is served very cold indeed. Terrifying, so the only way to live is to ignore it.

  20. 20.

    TBone

    They should fear Dark Brandon.  But that would require them not having their heads up their own asses so far that they feel they should make arguments about every possibility except the case IN FRONT OF THEM.  I’ll repeat what I said yesterday: this is the stupidest hearing we’ve ever had.

  21. 21.

    Harrison Wesley

    @Ksmiami: It’s not just here.  There are a whole lot of people around the world who want somebody to tell them what to do and how to live.  Sometimes I think about the scene in Becket, in which (if IIRC) the king looks down at one of the nobles lying at his feet and says, “Tell me, do you ever think?”  The horrified noble responds, “Never, my lord!”

  22. 22.

    comrade scotts agenda of rage

    @Manyakitty:

    The documentary?  If it’s the same one I’m thinking of, yes, gripping and terrifying.

    IIRC, two of the guys who went in early, they were suited up but it was anybody’s guess if they would live because plenty of others eventually got sick and died, were alive all these years later.

  24. 24.

    Anonymous At Work

    I know why they didn’t but one of hte liberal Justices should have asked about the President ordering the kidnapping and rendition of Supreme Court justices to foreign black sites.  Very much an “official act”, so it’d be legal?

  26. 26.

    Kay

    I really wish this trial were televised. I just hate reading “live blogging” – it’s always infused with opinion.

  28. 28.

    Soprano2

    @Anonymous At Work: I agree, one of them should have asked “Could he have us assassinated and claim it was an official act?” just to give the other pause on what they might be unleashing.

  31. 31.

    Soprano2

    @narya: Too bad no one asked “Could Joe Biden summarily replace all of us on the court and be immune from prosecution for it?” LOL It sure does seem like Alito wants to make TFG a king, doesn’t it?

  32. 32.

    Soprano2

    @Kay: I feel the same way because I think a lot more people would pay attention to it if it were, but it would also turn into a shitshow of epic proportions if it was on TV. Can you imagine how TFG would act if he knew the cameras were on him?

  33. 33.

    Elizabelle

    TGIF, jackals.

    One bright spot:  When re-elected, I truly think Biden will expand the Supreme Court, and get rolling on reforming it (term limits!) and other federal judiciary.

    You just cannot work so hard, have your voters put faith in you, and your political colleagues and administration do everything they can, to the best of ability, and have it all undermined by an illegitimate and corrupt court system.

  34. 34.

    Ken

    @Soprano2: The questions reeked of “but of course this would never affect me so we’ll play with the idea.”

    Generally in the horror movies that’s the lead-in to waking up in a cell where a taped voice announces “We’re making the game real.”

  36. 36.

    Sherparick

    There is a context to this in that every Republican President since Nixon has committed crimes in office for which they could have been prosecuted for (hence why Ford issued a pardon to Nixon as the Watergate Special Prosecutor had already drafted the indictment). Reagan could have been prosecuted for Iran-Contra, as could have George W. Bush, and that is one of the reasons Barr had Bush sign a bunch of pardons before he left office, & Clinton, preferring not to mess with this particular skunk, basically turned the page, as Obama did on possible war crime and torture investigations into the Bush II Administration. I am pretty sure Biden & Garland wanted to turn the page Trump, and would have if Trump had walked away & not have continued to commit more crimes while planning to run for Presidency again with a promise he will make it a lifetime appointment. So the SCOTUS Six really do have concerns with holding presidents to account, since Republican Presidents like to abuse their office and commit crimes in the pursuit of power. So they want to protect them in that pursuit and establish an oligarchic de facto monarchy,  which this picture would be a perfect portrait of if it included Trump. https://www.progressive-charlestown.com/2023/05/how-did-we-end-up-with-such-corrupt.html

  37. 37.

    Omnes Omnibus

    I would offer a couple of caveats about yesterday’s Court hearing. One, you can’t always tell how a case is going to turn out from the oral arguments. Two, most hot takes, even those of experts, are crap.

  38. 38.

    catclub

    @Elizabelle: When re-elected, I truly think Biden will expand the Supreme Court, and get rolling on reforming it (term limits!) and other federal judiciary.

     

    Yes, sure,  if he has 70 senators and 350 House Reps.

  40. 40.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Elizabelle:

    One bright spot:  When re-elected, I truly think Biden will expand the Supreme Court, and get rolling on reforming it (term limits!) and other federal judiciary.

    I hate to be a wet blanket, but he would need 50 votes in the Senate to exempt these changes from being filibustered.

  41. 41.

    Steeplejack

    @Baud:

    That was a great line from O’Donnell last night, after a great setup line from Rachel Maddow (basically something like “Talk us off the ledge”). The whole segment is worth watching.

  42. 42.

    Baud

    @catclub:

    Agreed. The best we can hope for is moving the ball forward.

    I hope the Supreme Court’s behavior convinces Dem Senators to abolish the filibuster.  Whatever “stability” to the status quo and promotion of consensus the filibuster theoretically provides goes out the window when the Republican Justices are rewriting and striking down laws and regulations and overruling established precedents. Dems need to be able to respond quickly through legislation if they control the political branches.

  44. 44.

    EZSmirkzz

    Those of us that remember Iran Contra are obligated to point out to the youngsters this CIA paper;

    U.S. District Court Judge June L. Green has ordered the CIA to make public 15 classified documents dealing with the origins and planning of the Reagan administration’s program supporting rebels in Nicaragua.

    In a decision made Tuesday and released yesterday, Green said administration officials had publicly acknowledged the officially secret program in ways that “are sufficiently ‘deliberate’ and ‘conscious’ to bring the requested information into the public domain.”

    The Central Intelligence Agency, which had argued that disclosure would reveal the program, will be permitted to withhold CIA employes’ names and titles in the documents, the ruling said.

    More here, at Task and Purpose and a pdf summary is here at ratical,

    This conception of guerrilla warfare as political war turns
    Psychological Operations into the decisive factor of the results. The target,
    then, is the minds of the population, all the population: our troops, the
    enemy troops and the civilian population.

    This book is a manual for the training of guerrillas in psychological
    operations, and its application to the concrete case of the Christian and
    democratic crusade being waged in Nicaragua by the Freedom Commandos.

    You have to understand your enemies, not their true believer followers.

  47. 47.

    sdhays

    @Baud: This is my hope as well. If they mess around with such an important – AND SIMPLE! – question to the explicit benefit of Donald Trump, I hope it finally becomes clear to the Mark Warners and your Angus Kings that these people aren’t ok and need an intervention.

  48. 48.

    WV Blondie

    I have a stupid question about yesterday’s epic stupid hearing: If the Stupid Six try to create immunity for a president for “official acts,” does that immunity extend to the worker bees tasked with carrying it out? I thought there was a question yesterday about a president ordering the military to carry out a coup but the military refusing the order because it was unlawful.

    Alternatively, if a president ordered the assassination of a rival, presumably he’s not going to carry it out himself, he’ll delegate to an underling. Can that underling be prosecuted, or are they covered by presidential immunity, or are they relying on a pardon?

    What mishegoss!

  49. 49.

    Soprano2

    @Omnes Omnibus: I think it’s a pretty sure bet that Alito and Thomas would rule for Republican presidents to have full immunity from prosecution for anything they ever did if they thought they could get away with it.

  51. 51.

    UncleEbeneezer

    There are valid questions and complexities of Presidential Immunity that really do need to be resolved by SCOTUS but…they don’t have to be resolved right now since 1.) they mostly don’t apply to Trump’s case/charges and 2.) having the trial move forward before the election is more important.  There is a path for SCOTUS to issue a narrow ruling that will allow the trial to go forward

    Topic: How the Supreme Court could rule in a way that gets the January 6 trial on track in short order. I am basically in agreement with Rick Pildes on the wisdom of his theory here.

    but I doubt there’s a snowball’s chance of that happening with this court.  When January 6th happened (and the MAL Documents crimes too) I always felt it would be unlikely that Trump would be tried before the election and this possibility was always one of the biggest factors.  It’s one of the reasons I always felt like all the bashing of Garland was so damn silly and pointless.  SCOTUS was always gonna have the opportunity to kick the trial past the election.  That die was sadly cast by voters in 2016, not by Merrick Garland or anyone else at DOJ.  Now we get to see if people who cared so much about holding Trump accountable are willing to unflinchingly work to re-elect Biden and say it with their full chest, or if they will instead spend their time bashing Biden and defending BothSides rationales for not voting.  If Trump gets re-elected, he will never face justice for 1/6 and MAL Documents. Plain and simple.  It can still happen, but it’s really up to us.

  53. 53.

    RevRick

    @Betty Cracker: The Supreme Court has reverted to the shitty, reactionary institution it’s been throughout most of its history. Think Dred Scott or Plessy v. Ferguson or Lochner or the internment of Japanese citizens.

  54. 54.

    Soprano2

    @Omnes Omnibus: True, they just made it more explicit with the questions yesterday, at least Alito did. He’s done with democracy and wants to install a Republican king.

  56. 56.

    Another Scott

    @RevRick: +1

    I saw something a while ago that said that in the history of the country the SCOTUS was only arguably “liberal” between Brown v BoE (May 17, 1954) and the installation of Berger (June 23, 1969) – 15 years, 1 month, 6 days.

    It’s long past time that reactionaries stopped having their boot on neck on the pace of progress in these United States.

    Grr…,
    Scott.

  57. 57.

    artem1s

    Biden wouldn’t have to get too extreme to undermine all this immunity bullshit. And he doesn’t have to summarily ‘fire’ any Supremes. If the Robert’s court tries the ‘selective’ immunity shit (TIFG yes, Dem POTUS no) then it’s open season on trying the Supremes and potentially any other previous POTUS or VPOTUS. Let’s start with W and Darth and former AG Gonzalez for war crimes. If you want to get extreme, that’s where you want to start. Have the NSC and Homeland haul the whole W administration asses down to Gitmo (especially the FEMA jackass for felony murder) and let them sit in the dock until Roberts gets the message. He may well believe TIFG problem will go away come November, but when it’s his ass and he believes he may have to rely on a compulsive liar or a Democrat for a pardon, I’m betting he’ll rethink his position on this really quickly.

  64. 64.

    Another Scott

    @schrodingers_cat: Respectfully disagree (at least in emphasis).

    If the are 6 unelected, effectively unaccountable people who are willing to lie and break their oaths, throw out “settled law”, and refuse to be bound by the legal and norms limits of their positions to decide to act as a super legislature, then it effectively doesn’t really matter what the citizenry and their elected representatives want.  Those six are breaking the system.

    The USA has always had a government with a minority of monsters.  The militias and Proud Boys and all the rest, and their supporters in power, are not unique to our times.  But the system was mostly populated by people who recognized that they were dangerous kooks and who took their oaths seriously.

    Yes, the SCOTUS itself now is a big problem.  Not the only problem, but a big problem.

    tl;dr – Calvinball government is a problem created by Calvin, not the voters. We can’t let them off the hook, even as we convince voters to do better.

    My $0.02.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  66. 66.

    artem1s

    @WV Blondie

    If the Stupid Six try to create immunity for a president for “official acts,” does that immunity extend to the worker bees tasked with carrying it out?

    Here’s a better way to frame the ‘worker bee’ question. Will VP Pence be immune as well? Does the immunity extend to the whole Executive Branch? What happens if TIFG decides to have him tried and executed or flat out assassinated by the Proud Boys or some other MAGAt Brownshirt decides he should pay for his treason on J6? After all he did help Dems ‘steal’ an election.

  67. 67.

    RevRick

    @Another Scott: The greatest act of holding a ruler to account in recent Anglo-American history was when Calvinist Puritans separated Charles 1’s head from his shoulders. In his Institutes Calvin wrote an extensive preface saying he didn’t mean that the people could overthrow a tyrannical government. A century later his descendants refused to shy away from the implications of his theology.

  68. 68.

    Jeffro

    @smith:The thinking of the Dirty Six on this underpins everything Rightwingers do — the serene confidence that Democrats won’t abuse their power, and that Republicans will.

    I like that – “the Dirty Six”.  Cuts right to the chase.

  69. 69.

    artem1s

    @Another Scott:

    I saw something a while ago that said that in the history of the country the SCOTUS was only arguably “liberal” between Brown v BoE (May 17, 1954) and the installation of Berger (June 23, 1969) – 15 years, 1 month, 6 days.

    I would add that it’s only been ‘secular’ and mildly “separation of church and state” curious because of the “Pope as President’ scare when Kennedy was running for POTUS. Once the Catholic was out of office and Fundies took over the GQP (thanks Turdblossom), all bets were off as far as extending religious freedom to anyone other than xtians.

  70. 70.

    Jeffro

    @Elizabelle:When re-elected, I truly think Biden will expand the Supreme Court, and get rolling on reforming it (term limits!) and other federal judiciary.

    THIS

    It will definitely be “go for broke” time in Biden II…Court expansion, House expansion, and taking the snooze media to the woodshed, repeatedly and publicly.

  71. 71.

    Citizen Alan

    @Another Scott: Just a reminder: Warren Berger only became chief justice after republicans blocked LBJ’s appointment of abe fortis and eventually hounded Fortis off the court over a matter of $20k in speaking fees, which was an outrageous lapse of judicial ethics in 1968.

    Also, it appears my phone is now possessed by the devil or something. Because while I was typing the preceding paragraph with voice to text, my phone also decided to generate the following gibberish:

     I am I am I am your Eric. You should merely hurt your uncle.

    WTF.

  72. 72.

    Another Scott

    @Citizen Alan: Sounds like Foreigner lyrics to me.

    Hehe.

    But, yeah, too many times in the past we were bitten by monsters while trying to do the right thing at the wrong time…  :-/

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  74. 74.

    SomeRandomFellow

    “Dear SCOTUS:
    “If the President is immune to consequences for his actions while in office, what is to keep him from literally murdering you in your sleep if he wants to create some openings?

    “Just asking – don’t get all het up over a mere hypothetical, asked at your bedside.

    “So, here’s a nice sedative, which will help you forget all about this visit in the middle of the night. Just lie down, and go… back… (quietly) to sleep…”

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