How long before Republican senators push to fill the vacancy? Given that Obama’s candidate was being put forward “too close to the election,” it would be perfect form for them to hypocritically demand another Justice be chosen “before the election.”
This brings tears to my eyes. RBG was an amazing woman. I had been hoping she would go into remission but stage 4 metastatic cancer of any kind is hard to recover from. I’m sad not just because I didn’t want Republicans replacing her on the Supreme Court with some swivel-eyed QAnon believer, but because she was, in her own right, an outstanding justice.
In terms of replacing her on the Supreme Court, it’s hard to rush the process. Republicans could try and skip the hearings and the blue slip process but I really don’t see them having time to do all of this before the election. And if they try to squeeze it in during the lame duck session, I think that might cause more trouble than they can handle. The lame duck is stupid. It’s not the 18th century anymore. If you’re elected you can be in DC the next day.
Be interesting to see if he nominates Barr or similar… That’d be the best move to steal the election at this point. I suspect McConnell would prefer he not do that.
She could have retired at the ripe old age of 82, letting Obama pick a replacement.
Or liberals could have held their noses and voted for Hillary Clinton instead of sitting at home and pouting because Bernie didn’t win or voting for Jill Stein to send President-elect Hillary Clinton a message.
But instead, here we are.
Hey, have you noticed Joe Biden is less than ideal? Maybe I’ll just stay home. Maybe we all should. That’ll teach those Democrats a lesson.
Ok, Senate Democrats. Time to prove you’re not useless. Pretend you’re Republicans for once and actually pull out every ruthless parliamentary trick in the book. Bring the entire Senate to a grinding halt.
And if all that fails, then in 2021, it’s court-packing time.
Even as a Canadian, it has beenfrightening to see the ease with which America has slid towards fascism, how far and how quickly Republicans have orchestrated and collaborated with this project. The complicity of much of the media ( particularly outside9 of Fox, which has been vanguard and cheerleader all along) has gone along with the process, doing toolittle to call out the malignant abnormality of so much of Trump’s behaviour. Ophelia has pointed out so many insances where soothing, conciliatory and genteel language has been used to describe and give cover to blatant lies, corruption, and illegality, and in effect normalizing them. The press has bent over so far to give him the benefit of a doubt he doesn’t deserve that it has fucked itself in the process, letting him get away with labelling truthful reporting as “fake news” and being called ” the enemy of the people.” Those are fighting words, but correct me if I’m wrong, I haven’t seen a lot of fight.
The news of Justice Ginsberg’s death and the unholy opportunity this gives to Trump and his enablers is so dispiriting. It is criminal that one evil man and his supporters can have so much influence on the course of human affairs and the health and safety of the entire planet. We are so fucked. The forces of giddy, gloating self-destruction are pushing us beyond tipping points from which recovery in a manner timely to the human enterprise is impossible. We are the asteroid, andTrump is riding it down like Slim Pickens in Dr. Strangelove.
I hope I’m wrong, and that responsible, compassionate citizens can work together to wrest the control of the American government from those who have perverted and debased it, and who seek to do more of the same. That the power of the People can redeem and restore the implicit promise embedded in the spirit of the founding principles of their country. I know that ordinary people are capable of remarkable, brave things when needed. We could use some of that remarkable bravery now.
Sorry to be such a downer, but silver linings seem far away at the moment, and I’m not very good at wishful thinking.
She’s been in and out of hospitals now for months if not years, and she could have retired to give her last years some peace and rest. You can lay any money that the only reason she didn’t retire was because she knew exactly what would happen:
Report on MSNBC: McConnell released a statement saying that the Senate will hold hearings and vote on Trump’s nominee.
Who knows how much extra time she could have had if she let herself rest. She denied herself an easeful end because she knew the importance of keeping her seat out of Republican hands. It is impossible not to respect that selfless effort.
The smart thing for Trump would be to wait until after the election to nominate anyone. So many of the forced birth crowd held their noses and voted for him precisely to pack the court; if he makes this an election issue that could happen again. And even if he loses and the gop loses the Senate, there’s still plenty of time between Election Day and the end of the year to cram someone through.
Looking at McConnell and the right’s push for a quick nomination, announced within hours of RBG’s death (!), that they have significant doubt that Trump will win a second term.
Maroon, not to be mean or anything, but if your sentence begins “The smart thing for Trump to do…” then maybe you should consider another sentence. Trump is going to do whatever gets him egoboo at the moment. He has no strategic plans. So Trump is going to tweet like a madman and have some rallies where he packs his sheeple together in pens and crows at them about how he’s going to put the most Patriotic, Straightest, Whitest Republican who ever lived on the Supreme Court and they’re going to go RAAAAA at him and he’s going to go home and go back to watching TV. And then he’ll sign whatever his people tell him he ought to and yell at them to get him more hamberders.
Holms @ 15 – yes but it’s also true that she could have retired a year or so before the end of Obama’s term, and I was hoping she would, despite not in the least wanting her to go.
It’s all very well to say RBG should have retired back when Obama was president. But the Republicans held the Senate just as they do now and if they’re capable of stealing one Supreme Court justice, they were just as capable of blocking two.
Your system is broken. It was a good system as long as everyone acted in good faith. But the two party division, not at all what the founders wanted, unbalanced the structure. And now the Republicans have decided that nothing matters anymore other than tax cuts for corporations and the rich, the entire structure is failing.
The NSDAP were a minor party in 1928, holding only 12 seats in the Reichstag (out of ~500-600, the Weimar system was a little strange). In January 1933, Hitler was made chancellor, the Reichstag passed the Enabling Act (with the support of other parties!) and by 1934, Hitler was Fuhrer.
Six years to dictatorship. In January 1933, Theodor Wolff said “It is a hopeless misjudgement to think that one could force a dictatorial regime upon the German nation.” I hope the people of the US do not make the same assumption.
So, RIP, Justice Ginsberg. The world is a little dimmer without you.
The Republicans would have stonewalled anyone Obama nominated to replace her. Don’t forget we had a 100% obstructionist party in control of the Senate at the time. Ginsburg did her grim duty by fighting to the last round.
I see now Donnie is tweeting at the GOP that he will be selecting “without delay”, so it looks like he’s hoping for additional GOP support by doing this, but I still think they are in a hurry because they doubt his reelection chances.
… so many insances where soothing, conciliatory and genteel language has been used to describe and give cover to blatant lies, corruption, and illegality, and in effect normalizing them. The press has bent over so far to give him the benefit of a doubt he doesn’t deserve that it has fucked itself in the process, letting him get away with labelling truthful reporting as “fake news” and being called ” the enemy of the people.”
Damned if you do, damned if you don’t. A press which early on “abandons “genteel language” and customary habits of neutrality in order to take a principled stand against lies, corruption, and illegality risks looking just like the other side — biased as hell and with no fixed standards. A basic strategy of “O yeah? Well YOU’RE the Enemy of the People “ could have backfired worse.
Not that you don’t have a good point. I’m just not sure there’s a good solution here.
It was a good system as long as everyone acted in good faith.
And there is the weakness in democracy; if you don’t have people acting in good faith, it’s doomed. If people don’t give a damn about anyone else, it’s doomed. If people are not willing to do the work to educate themselves on the government, what it does and how, and who wants what, it’s doomed.
It is a precarious system. Whether it is “the worst system of government except for all the rest” is, like so many things, stated without evidence. I don’t think the evidence exists at this point to tell us what the best system of government is, but at this point, the US form of democratic republic does not seem to be that. There are so many moving parts that have to be in good working order for it to work.
Not that you don’t have a good point. I’m just not sure there’s a good solution here.
The problem I see is that Republicans can be nasty unprincipled ignorant incompetents, and people love them for it. Democrats need to be intelligent, principled, highly motivated, and energetic. But the moment they are, they are hated by the right, and vilified by the left because there is something in their makeup that isn’t perfect, or because they are “out of touch with the common people”.
The Democrats both benefit and suffer from a huge tent. There is a diversity of views and lifestyles within the Democratic party that is unmatched by the Republicans, who managed to get a monolithic marching to single drummer – low taxes, big military, no social safety net, prayer in schools. Simple. Easy. The Dems must walk a tightrope within a base that includes so many diverse, and often divergent, points of view that no matter what they do they are going to lose some not insignificant portion of their base.
In short, the Democratic Party is one enormous Rube Goldberg machine. And all too often, the parts are working against each other.
Shit
How long before Republican senators push to fill the vacancy? Given that Obama’s candidate was being put forward “too close to the election,” it would be perfect form for them to hypocritically demand another Justice be chosen “before the election.”
This brings tears to my eyes. RBG was an amazing woman. I had been hoping she would go into remission but stage 4 metastatic cancer of any kind is hard to recover from. I’m sad not just because I didn’t want Republicans replacing her on the Supreme Court with some swivel-eyed QAnon believer, but because she was, in her own right, an outstanding justice.
In terms of replacing her on the Supreme Court, it’s hard to rush the process. Republicans could try and skip the hearings and the blue slip process but I really don’t see them having time to do all of this before the election. And if they try to squeeze it in during the lame duck session, I think that might cause more trouble than they can handle. The lame duck is stupid. It’s not the 18th century anymore. If you’re elected you can be in DC the next day.
They’ll manage it; they’ve had plenty of time to plan how to. The only question is if they’re planning on topping Kavanaugh.
Report on MSNBC: McConnell released a statement saying that the Senate will hold hearings and vote on Trump’s nominee.
Of course.
Don’t worry, everyone. Susan Collins will be deeply concerned, and will furrow her brows. She may even cross her arms.
Fuckers. Evil fuckers the lot of them.
A giant among us has fallen. I sat next to her more than once at the opera. She has the rare appearance of being much more than she is.
Where are all those “Second Ammendment People”?
If it was to ever have meaning, an armed blockade of The Senate would be it.
Be interesting to see if he nominates Barr or similar… That’d be the best move to steal the election at this point. I suspect McConnell would prefer he not do that.
She could have retired at the ripe old age of 82, letting Obama pick a replacement.
Or liberals could have held their noses and voted for Hillary Clinton instead of sitting at home and pouting because Bernie didn’t win or voting for Jill Stein to send President-elect Hillary Clinton a message.
But instead, here we are.
Hey, have you noticed Joe Biden is less than ideal? Maybe I’ll just stay home. Maybe we all should. That’ll teach those Democrats a lesson.
The group Bold Progressives are discussing a blockade, though not an armed one, just a wall of people.
Ok, Senate Democrats. Time to prove you’re not useless. Pretend you’re Republicans for once and actually pull out every ruthless parliamentary trick in the book. Bring the entire Senate to a grinding halt.
And if all that fails, then in 2021, it’s court-packing time.
Even as a Canadian, it has beenfrightening to see the ease with which America has slid towards fascism, how far and how quickly Republicans have orchestrated and collaborated with this project. The complicity of much of the media ( particularly outside9 of Fox, which has been vanguard and cheerleader all along) has gone along with the process, doing toolittle to call out the malignant abnormality of so much of Trump’s behaviour. Ophelia has pointed out so many insances where soothing, conciliatory and genteel language has been used to describe and give cover to blatant lies, corruption, and illegality, and in effect normalizing them. The press has bent over so far to give him the benefit of a doubt he doesn’t deserve that it has fucked itself in the process, letting him get away with labelling truthful reporting as “fake news” and being called ” the enemy of the people.” Those are fighting words, but correct me if I’m wrong, I haven’t seen a lot of fight.
The news of Justice Ginsberg’s death and the unholy opportunity this gives to Trump and his enablers is so dispiriting. It is criminal that one evil man and his supporters can have so much influence on the course of human affairs and the health and safety of the entire planet. We are so fucked. The forces of giddy, gloating self-destruction are pushing us beyond tipping points from which recovery in a manner timely to the human enterprise is impossible. We are the asteroid, andTrump is riding it down like Slim Pickens in Dr. Strangelove.
I hope I’m wrong, and that responsible, compassionate citizens can work together to wrest the control of the American government from those who have perverted and debased it, and who seek to do more of the same. That the power of the People can redeem and restore the implicit promise embedded in the spirit of the founding principles of their country. I know that ordinary people are capable of remarkable, brave things when needed. We could use some of that remarkable bravery now.
Sorry to be such a downer, but silver linings seem far away at the moment, and I’m not very good at wishful thinking.
She’s been in and out of hospitals now for months if not years, and she could have retired to give her last years some peace and rest. You can lay any money that the only reason she didn’t retire was because she knew exactly what would happen:
Who knows how much extra time she could have had if she let herself rest. She denied herself an easeful end because she knew the importance of keeping her seat out of Republican hands. It is impossible not to respect that selfless effort.
The smart thing for Trump would be to wait until after the election to nominate anyone. So many of the forced birth crowd held their noses and voted for him precisely to pack the court; if he makes this an election issue that could happen again. And even if he loses and the gop loses the Senate, there’s still plenty of time between Election Day and the end of the year to cram someone through.
Looking at McConnell and the right’s push for a quick nomination, announced within hours of RBG’s death (!), that they have significant doubt that Trump will win a second term.
Maroon, not to be mean or anything, but if your sentence begins “The smart thing for Trump to do…” then maybe you should consider another sentence. Trump is going to do whatever gets him egoboo at the moment. He has no strategic plans. So Trump is going to tweet like a madman and have some rallies where he packs his sheeple together in pens and crows at them about how he’s going to put the most Patriotic, Straightest, Whitest Republican who ever lived on the Supreme Court and they’re going to go RAAAAA at him and he’s going to go home and go back to watching TV. And then he’ll sign whatever his people tell him he ought to and yell at them to get him more hamberders.
Holms @ 15 – yes but it’s also true that she could have retired a year or so before the end of Obama’s term, and I was hoping she would, despite not in the least wanting her to go.
Papito,
Oh, I know. I never expect Trump to do the smart thing.
It’s all very well to say RBG should have retired back when Obama was president. But the Republicans held the Senate just as they do now and if they’re capable of stealing one Supreme Court justice, they were just as capable of blocking two.
Your system is broken. It was a good system as long as everyone acted in good faith. But the two party division, not at all what the founders wanted, unbalanced the structure. And now the Republicans have decided that nothing matters anymore other than tax cuts for corporations and the rich, the entire structure is failing.
The NSDAP were a minor party in 1928, holding only 12 seats in the Reichstag (out of ~500-600, the Weimar system was a little strange). In January 1933, Hitler was made chancellor, the Reichstag passed the Enabling Act (with the support of other parties!) and by 1934, Hitler was Fuhrer.
Six years to dictatorship. In January 1933, Theodor Wolff said “It is a hopeless misjudgement to think that one could force a dictatorial regime upon the German nation.” I hope the people of the US do not make the same assumption.
So, RIP, Justice Ginsberg. The world is a little dimmer without you.
The Republicans would have stonewalled anyone Obama nominated to replace her. Don’t forget we had a 100% obstructionist party in control of the Senate at the time. Ginsburg did her grim duty by fighting to the last round.
I see now Donnie is tweeting at the GOP that he will be selecting “without delay”, so it looks like he’s hoping for additional GOP support by doing this, but I still think they are in a hurry because they doubt his reelection chances.
Damn, damn, damn …
YNNB #14:
Damned if you do, damned if you don’t. A press which early on “abandons “genteel language” and customary habits of neutrality in order to take a principled stand against lies, corruption, and illegality risks looking just like the other side — biased as hell and with no fixed standards. A basic strategy of “O yeah? Well YOU’RE the Enemy of the People “ could have backfired worse.
Not that you don’t have a good point. I’m just not sure there’s a good solution here.
And there is the weakness in democracy; if you don’t have people acting in good faith, it’s doomed. If people don’t give a damn about anyone else, it’s doomed. If people are not willing to do the work to educate themselves on the government, what it does and how, and who wants what, it’s doomed.
It is a precarious system. Whether it is “the worst system of government except for all the rest” is, like so many things, stated without evidence. I don’t think the evidence exists at this point to tell us what the best system of government is, but at this point, the US form of democratic republic does not seem to be that. There are so many moving parts that have to be in good working order for it to work.
The problem I see is that Republicans can be nasty unprincipled ignorant incompetents, and people love them for it. Democrats need to be intelligent, principled, highly motivated, and energetic. But the moment they are, they are hated by the right, and vilified by the left because there is something in their makeup that isn’t perfect, or because they are “out of touch with the common people”.
The Democrats both benefit and suffer from a huge tent. There is a diversity of views and lifestyles within the Democratic party that is unmatched by the Republicans, who managed to get a monolithic marching to single drummer – low taxes, big military, no social safety net, prayer in schools. Simple. Easy. The Dems must walk a tightrope within a base that includes so many diverse, and often divergent, points of view that no matter what they do they are going to lose some not insignificant portion of their base.
In short, the Democratic Party is one enormous Rube Goldberg machine. And all too often, the parts are working against each other.