New SCOTUS Judge II: The Wrath of Kavanaugh

[The Big Dog]

Yep,
Trump, Kavanaugh and the entire GOP are indefensible.

See post 2499.

 

[Elagabalus]

Say, another post that does not condemn the indefensible.

Learning so much about our fellow posters today.

Nice try. Dude, some of us grew up with siblings. And what you're playing here kind of goes under the banner of Sibling Rivalry 101. It's just a little too predictable. YMMV

 

[The Big Dog]

Nice try. Dude, some of us grew up with siblings. And what you're playing here kind of goes under the banner of Sibling Rivalry 101. It's just a little too predictable. YMMV

Advocating attacking Kacanaugh’s children goes into the category of sibling rivalry.

Wow

 

[Elagabalus]

Advocating attacking Kacanaugh’s children goes into the category of sibling rivalry.

Wow

Keep it up.

 

[sylvan8798]

I care about Kavanaugh’s children exactly as much as he cares about mine. Surely you believe that’s a LOT, right? So what’s the problem?

 

[Slings and Arrows]

I am disgusted at this step back, appointing a sexist, conspiracy theorist to the SCOTUS. And I have no doubt that man is a sexist frat boy who still has a drinking problem.

CT believers have become mainstream. Doesn't that concern you?

"Oh, it’s going to get so much worse for you. Two more octogenarians in the SCOTUS bullpen and Republicans are going to crush the midterms. Take a nap."

-- James Woods (Oct 6, 2018)

 

[Elagabalus]

"Oh, it’s going to get so much worse for you. Two more octogenarians in the SCOTUS bullpen and Republicans are going to crush the midterms. Take a nap."

-- James Woods (Oct 6, 2018)

What happened to the Jimmy Woods I fell in love with in Salvador? He's dead to me, now.

 

[The Great Zaganza]

"Oh, it’s going to get so much worse for you. Two more octogenarians in the SCOTUS bullpen and Republicans are going to crush the midterms. Take a nap."

-- James Woods (Oct 6, 2018)

I'm doubting the wisdom of grabbing all the political power without similar levels of popular support.

 

[Minoosh]

Conservatives in some states have shut down Planned Parenthood clinics or made it hard for them to function. They don't all want to see contraception easy to obtain. They want anyone not married to suffer consequences for having sex. They want abstinence only. Gawd knows why.

I'm convinced those folks are a minority, but a larger one than I'd like. Contraception ought to be as close to free as possible and widely available.

 

[luchog]

I think you're exaggerating. And that doesn't help discussion if we claim, say, that the Republicans are going to make it so that we have to eat babies.

I'm not sayin they won't make decisions that will hurt minorities and women. I'm sure they will. I just think we shouldn't exaggerate the claims beyond what we can expect.

God I wish I was exaggerating, but right now I'm just extrapolating from existing trends and legislation. Remember, we've seen one city pass a sweeping anti-transgender bill, multiple others attempt to do so, and a Supreme Court that has upheld the rights of people to discriminate based on "deeply held religious principles", had supported the ability of megacorporations to buy elections, has indirectly upheld bans on immigration for people of certain religions, repeatedly ruled against workers' rights to engage in class-action lawsuits against abusive employers, and so on and so on. We have states who are working very hard to make it impossible for people to exercise their reproductive rights, somewhat successfully. We have a federal government taking the children of asylum seekers, separating them from their parents for months at a time, and locking them in cages for weeks or months (over a hundred of whom still have not been returned to their parents, and it's increasingly obviously that many of those cannot be, that they have been effectively orphaned by our government). Look at the immigrants in concentration camps, legal immigrants being picked up and treated as illegal, and the explosion of immigrant slave labour via for-profit prisons (the escalation of immigration enforcement has resulted in a flood of inmates into for-profit prisons, which are the primary detention facilities for ICE arrests).

And there is a distinct lack of an effective opposition, and no indication that what little opposition does exist will grow and become more effective. People have very short attention spans and the outrage fades quickly and the travesties become business as usual.

Even though your lead in to this sub-topic was hyperbolic, I don't think we should underestimate the multi-generation setback to liberal principles this right-wing court can cause.

I have little doubt that Roe will be eroded into effective non-existence. Unlike Meadmaker, I think it's a big deal to take away rights. And I don't expect these religious whack jobs to stop there.

And that's the problem. What's happening now did not occur in a vacuum, nor was it due to some coup that happened out of the blue. This has been in the works as far back as Nixon and the Southern Strategy, and certainly been actively pursued since Reagan. Everything that is happening now is the end result of literal decades of concerted effort by the Religious Right and far-right factions to acquire and wield power. When I was a child in the '70s, the Evangelical Christian church was little more than a fringe faction, the like of Pat Robertson, James Dobson, Jimmy Swaggart, Kenneth Copeland, and the Prosperity Gospel, "Name It And Claim It", Positive Confession theology were still fringe, little known outside their own community. The '80s and particularly '90s saw the rise of the megachurches, and the figure of the televangelist went from one of public ridicule, to one of great public influence as they built up their power bases. Now the Evangelicals, particularly white Evangelicals, are now one of the most powerful demographics in the nation. They are the biggest faction of Trump supporters and a huge force behind his election.

Meanwhile the Democratic party is fragmenting, as the Progressive wing and the Centrist wing increasingly alienate each other, particularly the Centrists attempting to marginalize the Progressives as they move farther to the right and become Republican-lite (which camp Hillary Clinton was unfortunately in).

Despite the assertions in this thread, we're really not seeing that soft of fragmentation in the Republican party. There's been some noise made along those lines, but when push comes to shove, the GOP and conservative-leaning swing voters have shown a great willingness to toe the party line as long as it means that they can hold onto power. They will spew some rhetoric to mollify the less extremist demographics in their constituency, but inevitably they fall in behind the leadership and don't really deviate to any significant degree. Just look at Congress and their support for Trump. These are people who during the election were unafraid to vent their animosity for him, and are now effectively bunkered down in support of him against any and all attacks from "liberal" and "the left". They consistently put party before country.

And while Trump is unlikely to hold onto power himself, the GOP is doing all they can to capitalize on his current popularity and the upsurge in the far-right. They're using this as an opportunity to take over entire institutions and drive out non-conservatives, as we're currently seeing with the pushing of a profoundly unqualified partisan like Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court, giving them a degree of power they have not had in my lifetime, and they will not happily let go of any opportunity to take and hold more power.

 

[thaiboxerken]

Doesn't take much to blow you away then.

Did you forget 'rough him up'? Your President mocks the disabled, women, gold star families, regularly encourages violence by his supporters, threatens journalists, ask Russians to hack emails, called Mexicans, rapists, locked innocent children in cages and separated them from their families and you still expect civilify? Reap what you have sown.

Only Republicans are allowed to go low, use dirty tricks, cheat, steal and lie. If a Democrat does it, it's a foul. If a Republican does it, they're just trying to win.

 

[thaiboxerken]

What happened to the Jimmy Woods I fell in love with in Salvador? He's dead to me, now.

Strange how Republicans don't care for what celebrities say..........except for when they do.

 

[Aridas]

I never thought I would see the day that rather than condemning arguments in favor of attacking a politician family, we instead see “they started it” and whataboutism.

The left has humiliated themselves in ways I could not have believed possible.

Celebrating how far down the Right has dragged the US?

 

[The Great Zaganza]

WASHINGTON—Decrying the tactics as a smear campaign against an exemplary judge, Republicans blasted Brett Kavanaugh Friday for destroying the sterling reputation of a good man. “It’s despicable that this individual waited until the 11th hour to engage in offensive, partisan attacks in an attempt to discredit a decent and upstanding man,” said Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA), noting that Kavanaugh’s recriminations had repeatedly made a mockery of the entire confirmation process. “We’re talking about a devoted husband and father who was the top of his class at Yale and received accolades from the American Bar Association. And now his life has been destroyed by a completely non-credible individual bent on revenge. He has cast a cloud over this esteemed man and he should be deeply ashamed of the damage he has done to his family and the country as a whole.” Grassley added that he was confident the nomination of a morally upright man who had served his country for decades would not be derailed by the ravings of an inveterate liar like Kavanaugh.

-The Onion

 

[luchog]

I give the rich credit. They pulled off a masterful plan. But it helps when you have deep pockets and can buy politicians. The powerful will only continue to accumulate power gerrymandering every district they can. They will get away with purging voter rolls and more and more voter suppression. Democracy is dying and justice is only for those who can afford it.

RIP America.

It's not just the obvious purging of rolls and gerrymandering of districts. Many GOP-controlled jurisdictions are also making other efforts, like closing polling stations in minority and traditionally Democratic-voting districts, claiming bugetary restrictions as the reason, which adamantly opposing mail-in ballots and other measures that make voting easier, again claiming lack of ability to fund such measures.

Then there's voter ID laws, with requirements so stringent that again, minorities and poor people are disproportionately impacted and effectively prevented from voting.

Some right-wing organizations are working hard to overturn legislation prohibiting campaigning at polling places on the grounds of "free speech". The Supreme Court has narrowly upheld such legislation in the past, but now that it's firmly conservative, that is likely to swing the other way now.

And that's just the legal tactics being used, there are far less legal ones that are being let slide. In many districts in the last election, voter misinformation and intimidation campaigns were flatly ignored by GOP-controlled governments. In several examples, far-right organizations engaged in disinformation campaigns which consisted of calling and mailing minority and other "blue" voters to provide fallacious polling locations and hours, with no charges being lodged against said organizations.

There are a myriad of ways that voter suppression can occur, and the GOP and their supporters are implementing or allowing them to the full extent that they are able to get away with doing.

 

[luchog]

In 2000, the majority of Americans grudgingly respected the Supreme Court's deciding to hand the Presidency to Bush.

If we get into a similarly tight race in 2020, the Supreme Court won't have the credibility necessary to support a Republican over a Democratic win.

Just curious as to what you think could possibly be done about it if they do in fact do just that?

 

[luchog]

The other important factor in this is that the current Administration has not given any indication that there is any behavior or policy or law that they think is out of bounds.

"Better a paedophile in office than a liberal."

 

[The Great Zaganza]

Just curious as to what you think could possibly be done about it if they do in fact do just that?

The rich blue states could threaten to secede, leaving the poorer Red states that depend on their money high and dry.

 

[acbytesla]

What happened to the Jimmy Woods I fell in love with in Salvador? He's dead to me, now.

Keep in mind he's an actor and he's playing a role. The guy played some serious cretins too like Byron De La Beckwith, H.R. Haldemann and Donald Trump's mentor Roy Cohn.

But I liked him too. Diggstown, True Believer, Onion Field, Best Seller.

 

[luchog]

All this should mean a huge Democrat turnout for the mid-terms.

Unfortunately, according to what I've been hearing on NPR, it's also resulting in a similarly huge Republican voter turnout for the mid-terms. The attacks against Kavanaugh have mobilized conservative voters into even more strident opposition to the Democrats. This is not going to be anything like a shoe-in for the Dems, especially if they keep suppressing progressive candidates in favour of GOP-lite politicians like Manchin. They alienated a large chunk of them during the 2016 elections, and all signs point to that split continuing to grow.