Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Beware of advice from anyone for whom Democrats are “they” and not “we.”

Teach a man to fish, and he’ll sit in a boat all day drinking beer.

In after Baud. Damn.

Since when do we limit our critiques to things we could do better ourselves?

My right to basic bodily autonomy is not on the table. that’s the new deal.

Roe is not about choice. It is about freedom.

If rights aren’t universal, they are privilege, not rights.

Usually wrong but never in doubt

“Facilitate” is an active verb, not a weasel word.

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

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

Imperialist aggressors must be defeated, or the whole world loses.

Hey Washington Post, “Democracy Dies in Darkness” was supposed to be a warning, not a mission statement.

Let there be snark.

You are either for trump or for democracy. Pick one.

A fool as well as an oath-breaker.

We will not go back.

“In the future, this lab will be a museum. do not touch it.”

Tick tock motherfuckers!

The media handbook says “controversial” is the most negative description that can be used for a Republican.

All hail the time of the bunny!

Human rights are not a matter of opinion!

Marge, god is saying you’re stupid.

Stop using mental illness to avoid talking about armed white supremacy.

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Tuesday Open Thread

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I couldn’t take another day of the media’s freakout about Biden’s age so I did a no news day today. Checked no newspapers, barely glanced at twitter, etc. I just can’t with the age stuff- not only did they do the same fucking thing to Hillary in 2016 when she got a cold, but Biden is fucking 81. This didn’t sneak up on us. We had 81 years notice. The notion that is NOW a couple weeks before the election something that should surprise and worry us is infuriating and transparent in its goals.

***

Had a dentists appointment today, and all is well. Some mild gum issues, but I was assured completely normal and age related. I asked her “Do you think my teeth will last another thirty years?” and she looked at me funny and said they should, and I told her we shouldn’t have a problem then because I won’t.

Had an eye doctor appointment and need new computer glasses and everyday glasses, but that will have to wait until the fall when I start getting paid again. Kinda miffed about it because for once the ones I have are not too terribly beat up.

I don’t really have anything to say that hasn’t been said better either here or elsewhere, so that is about it for me. This is going to be the first 4th of July where fireworks will not be upsetting my dogs. Well, I won’t be around them, at any rate.

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Tuesday Evening Open Thread: Eyes on the Prize: Repro Rights

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Tuesday Evening Open Thread: Eyes on the Prize: Repro Rights

(Mike Luckovich via GoComics.com)

Been meaning to share this, when there was a break in the news firehose:

When the decision was handed down two years ago today, it was a shock but not a surprise, given the leak several weeks earlier. We were left with an open question of how it might impact the 2022 elections. The first answer would come 39 days later, from Kansas of all places.

I wasn’t shocked by the result, again, polls showed it close. But I was surprised that the margin was seemingly so large for the pro-abortion rights side that Wasserman could call it so quickly. I immediately set out to understand how this transpired.

Looking at new voter registrations in KS between the Dobbs decision and the primary registration deadline, I found a stat that I assumed I had miscalculated. So I ran it again and again. The same thing every time. Almost 70% of Kansans registering to vote were women.

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The Myth of the Apolitical Supremes

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Another History Lesson

The guy on the left is Abe Fortas, who LBJ nominated to the Supreme Court in 1965 and nominated for Chief Justice in June, 1968.  While Fortas was an Associate Justice, he regularly met with Johnson in the White House, advised LBJ on judicial nominations, revealed details of Supreme Court deliberations and even edited LBJ’s 1966 State of the Union address.

None of those things did him in — instead, in 1966, he had accepted a $20,000 annual recurring payment from a Wall Street financier who was under investigation for insider training.  That payment would have been made to Fortas’ widow on his death.  Fortas returned the money, but newly-elected President Richard Nixon directed his corrupt AG, John Mitchell, to investigate Fortas as a lever to get him to resign from the court, which Fortas did in 1969.  Part of the reason Fortas resigned was to protect his wife from possible prosecution.  He also did it to protect William O. Douglas, another Supreme Court justice who was accepting money from a casino magnate’s foundation.

I wonder how much tax Clarence Thomas paid on his various bribes, as well as the bribes paid to Ginny?  I sure don’t expect Biden to tell Garland to investigate Thomas, but maybe Biden’s next AG will do it.

I’m no expert on the history of Supreme Court nominations, but the history of Harry Truman’s appointment of Tom Clark, Truman’s friend who was widely considered a political hack, is another example of how the Court was a political tool then and now.

My point is simply that Democrats should put the court front-and-center in our current campaign, and banish any silly talk about the apolitical nature of this political institution.  AOC’s move to impeach some of the justices is a good start.

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Tuesday Morning Open Thread: Still Standing, Still Fighting Back

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I second this proposal:

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On The Road – PaulB – The Cascade Loop, Part 3

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PaulB

Welcome to stage 3 of “Washington’s Ultimate Road Trip,” the Cascade Loop. Today, you’ll be joining me on the road from Leavenworth to Wenatchee. The actual distance from Leavenworth to Wenatchee isn’t much, but there is a lot to see. I was still a bit battered, bruised, and burned from the hikes a couple of days earlier, so I used this time to relax and didn’t do much.

Note: You can see full-size versions of these photos here.

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On The Road - PaulB - The Cascade Loop, Part 3 7
Wenatchee, WAMay 12, 2024

A view of the Cascades from the road.

Late Night Open Thread: The SC(R)OTUS Immunity Clause

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Since Chief Justice Roberts is said to be a strongly traditionalist Catholic and a reader of Constitutional history, I assume he has decided in favor of pursuing his studies at the feet of Justice Taney in the afterlife. Mr. Charles P. Pierce, at Esquire — “The Supreme Court’s Immunity Ruling Is a Recipe for Utter Chaos”:

Mr. Roberts has made his decision. Now let him enforce it. Goddamn this Supreme Court. It’s got me quoting the apocrypha of that genocidal madman Andrew Jackson. The carefully manufactured conservative majority on the Court, by a 6–3 margin, ruled that presidents—specifically, Donald J. Trump, because if you think this decision will apply to Democratic presidents, please tell me where you buy your mushrooms—have something called “presumptive immunity” for “official acts” they took while in office.

This is specifically designed to hamstring Jack Smith’s prosecutions regarding the insurrection of January 6, 2021, especially in combination with the Court’s earlier decision in Fischer v. U.S. that disallowed the use of an obstruction-of-justice statute under which a number of the rioters had already been charged and/or convicted. On top of that we have Chief Justice John Roberts’s ancillary ruling, which will make a complete hash of the discovery process in any prosecution of the former president*. Roberts wrote:

Testimony or private records of the President or his advisers probing such conduct may not be admitted as evidence at trial.

In the short run, of course, this whole case, on which the Court never should have granted cert in the first place, was directly aimed at delaying the prosecution of the former president* until after the November election and thence, likely, to the Twelfth of Never. It certainly has accomplished that goal. It’s going to take months, if not years, for lower courts to distinguish between “official” and “unnofficial” acts, and every attempt will be appealed, and then appealed again. The former president*’s go-to legal strategy, the one he used to put glaziers and gardeners on the rack until they ran out of money, now has the blessing of the country’s highest court. Jack Smith is just another New Jersey subcontractor who never sees a dime…

The carefully manufactured conservative majority on the Supreme Court is done with its work deforming democracy until October. One thing on which we can all agree is that it has been worth every dime that Leonard Leo, and Harlan Crow, and Paul Singer paid for it.

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