Friday Stuff (updates)

This is a picture of former Supreme Court Associate Justice Harry Blackmun. He was nominated to the High Court under President Richard Nixon as a conservative in 1970, but over time, he became more liberal, which was reflected in his rulings.

He turned in this direction mainly because Blackmun authored the majority opinion in the Roe v. Wade decision, which was handed down in 1973, invalidating a Texas statute that banned abortion except when a pregnant woman's life was in danger. The Court's judgment in the companion case of Doe v. Bolton held a less restrictive Georgia law to be unconstitutional as well. Roe was based on the right to privacy announced in Griswold v. Connecticut (1965), and it established a constitutional right to abortion in the United States. Blackmun's opinion in Roe made him a target for criticism by opponents of abortion, and he received voluminous negative mail and death threats because of it (you can read about all of this and more from here). Blackmun labored intensively to find a justification for his ruling that respected both the law and women’s bodily autonomy, and again, built on the right to privacy stated in Griswold (which was also used as a precedent in the Obergefell ruling establishing the right to same sex marriage).

I’m telling you this to try and provide a bit of perspective on the staggering loss we just suffered in this country as noted here. And it’s true that we were warned this would happen. Hell, the Mississippi case that made its way to the insane SCOTUS of Hangin’ Judge JR was specifically targeted to overturn Roe now that Gorsuch, “I Like Beer” Kavanaugh and “The Christian Handmaiden” have been installed for that singular purpose. And I’m going to go out on a very short limb and predict that, now, we’re not going to hear a word out of anyone who specifically leaked the opinion weeks earlier (as far as I’m concerned, it was a conservative activist, probably Ginni Thomas, who couldn’t wait to take a victory lap).

So now, Harry Blackmun’s crowning achievement has been relegated to the legal dust bin, and it is likely that the lives of an untold number of women will now be utterly destroyed.

I’m reading people online now more or less “congratulating” everybody who blew off voting for Hillary Clinton in 2016, as well as anybody who supported these Republican lunatics who are chiefly responsible for this atrocity. Yeah, I think that fits.

And as noted above, don’t even imagine that this is the end with this fanatical High Court. They’re coming for Obergefell, Griswold...the whole shooting match (unless of course, our utterly supine and useless Democratic Party finds a way to pack the court, and I’m personally not holding out any hope on that).

Update 1: Uh, yep.

Update 2: Jumping Judas H. Priest On A Freaking Pogo Stick, Democrats! IS PERFORMATIVE BULLSHIT all you have to offer at a time like this (here)?

Do I need to remind you of what the other side would be doing right now if they were in a similar position? They would be fanned out ALL OVER THE PLACE on wingnut media screaming their heads off! And of course, if we were talking about a national political party that ACTUALLY KNEW HOW TO STRATEGIZE AT TIMES LIKE THIS, there would be about half a dozen bills in the House and the Senate codifying a woman’s right to an abortion coming out of committees as we speak!

Yeah, just sing in unison as we continue our descent into a fascist “Judeo Christian” corpocracy! Meanwhile, the other side will continue burning to the ground about 246 years of hard-earned progress!

Update 3: OK, fair enough, but it was still rotten timing (here).

Update 6/26/22: I don’t know what the hell Biden plans to do/not do in the matter of expanding the court (and this is a great column on this subject). Likewise, I don’t know what the hell he’s planning to do/not do when it comes to declassifying pot as a Schedule 1 drug. I also don’t know what the hell he plans to do/not do about student debt relief.

What I DO know is that this ridiculous indecision of his is ABSOLUTELY KILLING any momentum the Dems could try to generate for the mid-terms. I don’t know what it’s going to take for the “D” party to realize that running on a platform of “vote for me because I’m not a crazy Republican” JUST ISN’T GODDAMN GOOD ENOUGH!

Update 6/29/22: Banging my head against a wall as I read this (nothing against Karoli...if it turns out to be not true, I'll note that ASAP)...

Update 10/27/22: A terrific related post by Joan McCarter here...

Well, with that out of the way, I now give you this from Rachel Maddow, who tels us about the testimony of Greg Jacob before the 1/6 Committee in the U.S. House; Jacob was apparently the lawyer for Mike Pence, with Jacob recounting John Eastman’s hair brained and treasonous scheme to overturn the 2020 election for you-know-who – another Repug lawyer, Eric Herschmann, is also interviewed...I know this clip is a few days old, but it’s definitely still important...



...and sticking with lunatic Trumpism, some Repug wingnut in Michigan named Steve Carra wants to make 1/6 a holiday because of resistance to a tyrannical government, or something...just once I’d like to see one of these cowardly a-holes actually GO LIVE in a country with an ACTUAL tyrannical government and then tell us what it’s like – God forbid anything comes between them and their privilege...



...and Caroline Johnson of Rebel HQ discusses the ways that the wingnuts are typically hypocritical on the whole bit about someone trying to assassinate “I Like Beer” Kavanaugh, especially against a guy who turned himself in, versus the murderous Roy Den Hollander insanity as Johnson points out, and yeah, I don’t remember hearing much from the wingnuts about THAT one (yes, violence against anyone is wrong...I feel like I’ve said this a zillion times...blah blah blah)...



...and with today’s awful Roe news, it’s tempting to forget that the SCOTUS just struck down a New York state law against concealed carry (and good job by Sam to link this abomination to Heller...really fed up with being in a position where all we can do is wait for the next body blow from the wingnuts on the SCOTUS and their sycophants in Congress...and of course, this leads back to “Strip Search Sammy” Alito and Almost Silent Clarence Thomas, who of course said “yes, dear” while his wife plotted an insurrection against this country...and Thomas says, “this doesn’t matter,” huh? Then why the hell can’t anybody just bring any gun they want inside the Supreme Court during deliberations? What’s the point of metal detectors, then? Hey, someone is bound to create a “ghost gun” one of these days of plastic that can escape detection, so let’s just stop screening for weapons altogether then. Why not? And no, I’m not serious on that.)...



...and I know the national “right to life” coalition is just thrilled about today’s SCOTUS atrocity...well, it also looks like they’re trying to find ways to imprison people under RICO statues for even mentioning abortion, and not just the women seeking the procedure...just keep telling me that “The Handmaid’s Tale” is fiction...yeah, right...



…and RIP James Rado, co-creator of the musical Hair – this tune was performed by The Cowsills of course, another family band with a troubled history, including a founding family member who died in Hurricane Katrina (learned about the group from another great documentary on the Showtime cable channel)…I believe other members have kept the act going, to their credit.

Wednesday Stuff

I probably didn’t do myself or anyone else any favors yesterday with my comments about the 1/6 Committee Hearings...yes, I did say we should watch, but I probably downgraded their importance a bit, and I’ll chastise myself for that since they’re VERY important, in particular the testimony yesterday from Shaye Moss and her mom, who did nothing except carry out their civic duty admirably and had their lives completely turned upside down for it...Joy Reid talks with Errin Haines and Claire McCaskill...



...and once more, I know The Lincoln Project is just a group of yesterday’s Republicans, but they’re right...



...and Beau gives us his take on the hearings...I think he’s typically spot-on when he says that the Committee needs to find a way to lay all of this out to the people of this country (don’t know if the hearing transcripts will be published or not, but maybe they should be, a la The Mueller Report)...



...and yet again, I give you an example of the foul, fetid, seamy underbelly of Trumpism at work – yep, demonize “the other” at any cost to try and build/consolidate/hang onto power, which is the very definition of fascism (this guy Mark Burns in South Carolina is a straight-up lunatic who deserves a rubber room...David Pakman tells us more)...



...and I’m not sure who Sam was talking with here on The Majority Report, but the theme seems to be that the rest of the world is apparently shocked by the 1/6 Committee revelations, while too damn many people in this country say, “meh...how much is baby formula and the price of gas...and did you hear that Biden fell off his bike?”...



...and for a bit of much-needed comic relief, I give you Jim Acosta and Oliver Darcy of CNN discussing the recent escapade on Capitol Hill with some folks from the Stephen Colbert show and Triumph The Insult Comic Dog...



...and here is a short follow-up clip from People with Colbert’s response...



...and happy belated 75th birthday to Joey Molland, a surviving member of the band Badfinger.

Tuesday Stuff

This Reuters report tells us about Apple workers at a store in Towson, MD who voted to unionize as part of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers as noted here; even though this definitely is positive news, there is much further to go in this process, but for now, kudos...



...and in another triumph of people power, leftist Gustavo Petro was recently elected president of the traditionally conservative South American nation of Colombia, echoing what has taken place in Chile, Peru and Honduras, as David Doel tells us (gee, wouldn't it be a good thing if the political party in this country that often, but not always, represents the will of the majority of the U.S. voters expresed solidarity with these results? Don't hold your breath waiting for that to happen, though)...

@DNC @DCCC @DSCC @harrisonjaime



Update 6/22/22: And as long as I’m trying to contact the alleged Democratic Party “brain trust,” I feel like I have to ask the following:

Why is it that this political party overall continues to be SO BAD when it comes to social media engagement?

I mean, there are exceptions, such as U.S. House Dem Bill Pascrell, who, to his credit IMO, continues to remind people about legislation to help the vast majority of this country that continues to be almost universally opposed by the “party of Lincoln.” And actually, Nancy Pelosi, believe it or not, does not too bad of a job of reminding people what the Dems have done and why they deserve our support (I have other issues with Pelosi, but it’s no contest when it comes to her vs. Chuck Schumer, for example, on this stuff). AOC is probably the best of everyone on the “D” team in this department, and she also understands what kind of game the Repugs are playing in this arena.

On the other side, though, whenever any Repug politician is cutting a blue ribbon somewhere or giving an award to a boy scout troop, or even bloviating about their own legislation, there is usually a YouTube video or a tweet about it. But when it comes to finding something similar to that regarding legislation supported by congressional Democrats...well, good luck trying to find that (and yes, I’ve tried).

One of the reasons why Dems lose in the midterms is because they wait entirely too damn long to engage the voters they need to turn out on Election Day. You need CONSTANT ONLINE ENGAGEMENT. If you wait until a few months before the election...well, that’s just too damn late. The other side has had plenty of time to cement their utterly BS narratives in the minds of the voters by then.

I know this is “tilting at windmills” once again, but every so often, I feel like I have to engage in this exercise anyway.

...and John and Francesca of The Damage Report discuss that totally bonkers Eric Greitens RINO ad...I just had the Meidas Touch video from the conservative who’s telling everybody with ears to hear that the wingnuts are getting lied to and ginned up to vote against their own interests, and an ad like this is Exhibit A – I’d much rather spend my time at this site, to be honest, dealing with content closer to the first two videos, but we need to pay attention to the utter lunacy from the other side I realize – that’s one of the reasons why I admit that I’m not keeping up with the 1/6 Commission hearings; I’m not saying they’re not important and the Dems along with Cheney and Kinzinger aren’t doing great work (they are) and we shouldn’t pay attention (we should), but other people with keener insight on that stuff than I have can comment on it in a better way than I can...



...and this clip from More Perfect Union tells us that the land of Ron #DeathSantis saw a 29% increase in rent since the beginning of ’22, though, to their credit, there has been a people-powered movement on this issue in Miami-Dade...somebody should ask Johnny Harris if he actually has anything to say about that since it’s in a red state and doesn’t give him the chance to bitch about libs (here)...



...and sticking with The Sunshine State, Farron Cousins (based in FLA) tells us that the Log Cabin Republicans (I can’t think of a more abused political organization in this country, and they continually bring it upon themselves) were recently thrown out of another event (and I’m sure you’ll never guess that this happened in “the land of the yellow rose,” right?)...



...and I have some belated birthdays to get to, and here’s a big one; we just celebrated Sir Paul’s 80th, and I’d like to wish the same for Brian Wilson who recently hit the same milestone.

Monday Stuff

This Meidas Touch clip features a guy who bought into conservative dogma, but has since “come into the light” (yes, “they all lied” indeed...mildly NSFW/H)...



...and The Lincoln Project presents the following for the Juneteenth holiday...



...and this Now This clip tells us about “pockets of towns” founded by African Americans, particularly after emancipation following The Civil War...



...and I should note that I checked out on “Real Time With Bill Maher” awhile back, but to her great credit, Krystal Ball brought some “truth bombs” to the discussion with Maher and this wingnut nematode named James Kirchick recently (yeah, pretty unbelievable all right that this alleged politics expert like Maher somehow didn’t know about the market crash of March 2020 as noted here...and Maher is such a tool for talking over Ball the way he did...and to think of all the time I once wasted paying attention to his program...NSFW/H)...



...and I know I’ve fallen behind a bit on my Second Thought videos, so I now present this one about how the E.U. has created “The world’s deadliest border,” namely the Mediterranean Sea...I have to admit that I’d never heard of Frontex (“The whole of the E.U. stands behind...”) and Fabrice Leggeri or the controversy surrounding the company – I’d also never heard of the “Schengen Area”...and I’m a little surprised that he didn’t find a way to mention climate change as something that encourages mass migration of people often seeking to leave third-world countries, but that’s a little tangential to his main point I know – good point at the end that, aside for reasons of basic human decency, we need to support emigres and not have them taken advantage of for financial reasons out of our own economic self-interest also...



...and Ana and Cenk of TYT tell us about the corrupt health care industry in this country continuing to rake in huge amounts of $$ out of 100 million people in medical debt...God almighty (Cenk lays into Pelosi and Biden on this issue, and I have to admit that I’m there for it...yep, definitely points out why we need a public option at a minimum)...



...and speaking of health care, I now give you the latest installment of “The Day In Doomsy History” from 6/20/17...like you I’m sure, I’m reading and hearing a lot of people predicting a Republican takeover of Congress this fall, which would be awful though I still think there’s time to prevent that of course and there’s something all of us can do, and I have to admit that I don’t know what the latest numbers are...to me, it all comes down to independent voters, who, for my money, are uninformed idiots for the most part, which doesn’t fill me with confidence...anyway, this clip from Kyle Kulinski (someone else I haven’t paid much attention to for awhile because I think his takes are mostly trash anymore) tells us what happened the last time the “party of Lincoln” called the shots on Capitol Hill and they tried to pass an utter joke of a “health care” bill...we would do well to keep this in mind for the fall elections (NSFW/H)...



...and this took place 55 years ago last Saturday.