SCOTUS v. USA

 

 

 

Republicans plan to confirm Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court. When installed, she will form a 6-3 majority on the court that represents a small minority of the country. 

A Republican president hasn’t won a first term with the popular vote since 1988, but the chaotic nature of Supreme Court appointments plus the anti-democratic nature of the electoral college mean that five of those six justices were appointed by Presidents who lacked popular support.

This problem isn’t limited to the Supreme Court―lower courts are now just as skewed. And our polling shows that voters don’t like the way these arch-conservative courts have been ruling.

 

Mitch McConnell took control of the Senate in 2014, and immediately erected a blockade on judicial nominations from President Obama. Senators from red states had already been placing holds on nominees over the previous six years, leaving enormous numbers of judicial vacancies at all levels of the Courts when Trump took office in 2017―and he and McConnell went to great lengths to pack those courts full with young, unqualified conservative hard-liners.

Republican judges are positioned to strike down abortion rights, voting rights, and environmental regulations. Republicans can lose every election for the next 50 years and still enact their agenda.

 

Voters don’t approve of Republican jurisprudence. We want government to be able to regulate greenhouse gas emissions:

And voters don’t want an activist court to strike down state-issued public health measures to contain the coronavirus:

 

 www.dataforprogress.org

 

...World-at-War ... w-Trump

 

... our-world continues doing a-poor-job dealing w-this disease

... ten-months-in w-a mortality-rate-nearly 3%
... number-of-deaths continue-being our-choice

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"... flu pandemic(s) could-(will) return, doctors warn"

... this article comes from Sept 2018

... when-Trump-was already-hard-at-work dismantling & defunding those-organizations-tasked w-protecting-us from-deadly-virus-attacks

... now he wants to get more years to continue on w-his death-crusade
... many-foolishly-acting like they just want this all to go magically-away.. insanely-believing-wanting this-to-happen
.
... not only is this not-going-to-happen (that-world is-forever-gone)
... w-him it's-guaranteed-getting MUCH-MUCH-worse

.
... it-will-not-be until-we-return to-leadership having-belief-in-science
... only-then will-we-begin to-have-a-chance against-these-viruses

... bad-as-may-be-now
... it's-only-a-fraction what-would-be-like should-he-manage to-steal-another-election

... WE-CAN'T-LET-HIM

 

... Twitter finally comes around

From:    SquadVictoryFund.com <info@squadvictoryfund.com>

Reply-to:    "SquadVictoryFund.com" <info@squadvictoryfund.com>

Date:    Oct 9, 2020, 1:43 PM 

Subject:    Twitter finally comes around

 

Shortly after Donald Trump announced that he’d contracted COVID-19, Twitter announced their official policy: Anyone wishing harm or death on an individual or group would be suspended from the platform or be required to remove their content.  

That’s the correct stance, but why did it take so long?

If Twitter truly wanted to prioritize eliminating hate speech and threats of violence on their platform, why have they been ignoring the flood of death threats, racial slurs, and sexist attacks that every member of the Squad has faced for years?

Twitter has been fully aware of the problem. A quick search of Ilhan, Alexandria, Ayanna, or Rashida’s mentions shows a torrent of verbal abuse, hatred, and death threats. Yet Twitter’s officials apparently didn’t see this dangerous and disturbing content as reason enough for them to take action.

What’s the root cause of this flood of hatred and threats of violence? Everything the Squad represents and who they are: A group of powerful, progressive women of color leaders who are unafraid to speak out against injustice. If you can afford it, contribute $3 to help each member of the Squad keep speaking truth to power.

Contribute $3

We hope that Twitter will take concrete action to combat the rise of hatred on their platform. It's just too bad that it’s taken so long and that, once again, the violence and trauma experienced by BIPOC women has been discounted. Meanwhile, the continued attacks won’t cause the Squad to falter – the fight for justice is too important to let that happen.

In solidarity,

Squad Victory Fund

 

 

 

Vote them out... Vote them all out.

 Vote-them-out ... Vote-them-all-out

by David Nir, Political Director, DailyKos.com

Donald Trump could have—should have—been the very last person in the country to contract COVID-19. He had access to the most up-to-date science, limitless rapid testing, the best of modern medicine, a personal physician round-the-clock, and a miniature army devoted to nothing else but ensuring his safety.

Yet he got the disease anyway, and it’s entirely his fault, for reasons both small and monumental. On the individual level, Trump ignored, overruled, and distorted the scientific findings his own administration produced, most notoriously in his mockery of masks and his refusal to wear one. He has, of course, also engaged in multiple high-risk behaviors, like holding the indoor rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, that likely killed Herman Cain, one of Trump’s own campaign chairs, as well as frequent travel with a large entourage, including a jaunt to his New Jersey golf club for a fundraiser Thursday evening after learning that his own aide, Hope Hicks, was sick with the coronavirus.

But much more broadly, Trump’s failure to combat the pandemic has left the virus rampaging throughout the country. With a national mask mandate, smart lockdowns, a universal testing strategy, and regular stimulus checks for idled workers and shuttered businesses, the U.S. could be in the far healthier and freer situation today enjoyed by Australia or South Korea or Vietnam or our neighbor Canada. Ordinary civilians and top government officials alike would be vastly less likely to come down with COVID. Yet here we are.

The most important lesson in all this is that it’s not just Trump’s fault: Our alarming state can be laid at the feet of the entire Republican Party. 

Ask yourself this: When have GOP leaders ever criticized Trump’s response? When have Republicans in Congress ever sought to pass legislation over his veto threats? When have they simply stood up and said, “Wear a g-ddamn mask, for f-ck’s sake!”?

Sure, a few isolated Republican governors who don’t have a personal death wish have, often belatedly, taken some steps to halt the pandemic’s spread. But the party as a whole has, as ever, gone along with the menace who leads it.  

Republicans have always known Trump was a danger, never more literally so than now. But when GOP senators had the chance to remove him from office, they declined, even though they would have would up with a less embarrassing and even more conservative president instead.

This, then, is all on the GOP—everything from the mess we’re in today to Trump’s own sickness. There is only one cure: Vote them out. Vote them all out.

I’m going to propose we rip them out by the very root. Republicans have devoted decades to developing their farm system in the states by winning elections for legislatures that have produced battalions of drones who’ve zealously carried out the Trumpist agenda. That’s where Lindsey Graham got his start. Thom Tillis, Joni Ernst, and Cory Gardner, too.

Daily Kos has endorsed several dozen stalwart Democrats seeking to flip Republican seats across the country. We can not only take back a whole bunch of GOP-held chambers, we can terminate the careers of the next generation of Republican apparatchiks before they can even start. If we want to cut out the rot that’s infected this great nation, this is where we begin.

Thank you,
David Nir, Political Director
DailyKos.com

 

... For The Public-Good ... FDT & Melinia Too

Whatever Removes Donald Trump—a Miserable Bastard—From Public Life Is Good

Donald Trump has been laying waste to our Constitution, our democracy, and our very society.
by Jeffrey C. Isaac

Published on Friday, October 02, 2020 by Common Dreams

“First and foremost, I pray for a speedy recovery for President Trump and the First Lady.”

Okay. I got that out of the way.

The honest truth is that Donald Trump is a miserable bastard, and indeed a sociopath, who routinely demeans and debases others in his personal life and in his public performances.

That lead is a quote of what virtually every pundit and politician has said this morning upon learning of the COVID diagnosis of Donald and Melania Trump. Indeed, it is reasonable to think that many of those people also spoke with those quotation marks implied. They were saying what others have said, or what they think The Ideal Human Being would say, or at least what any decent human being would be expected to say under normal circumstances.

These are not normal circumstances.

One small sign: some skeptics have raised questions about whether the entire announcement is a ploy by Trump to gain sympathy and curry favor with voters. The very fact that smart people can wonder about this is a sign of how dangerously low things have fallen in this country. Anything is possible with Trump. In other words, we are all still in real danger.

It is often said that “hypocrisy is the tribute that vice pays to virtue.” One can slightly extend the notion, and fairly observe that civility is the tribute that vice often pays to virtue. It is often good to be nice even to those we despise. It is good to perform a basic decency in our interactions with others, whoever they may be, as a way of enacting integrity for oneself, and of promoting some minimal level of decency in the world.

It is also true that honesty is the tribute that virtue pays to vice.

And the honest truth is that Donald Trump is a miserable bastard, and indeed a sociopath, who routinely demeans and debases others in his personal life and in his public performances.

This was on full display in Tuesday’s so-called “Presidential debate,” when he abused Joe Biden, went out of his way to viciously attack Biden’s son, and could not even show a minimal amount of respect for Biden’s other dead son, a man who did something that no person in Trump’s family has ever done—volunteered for military duty and devoted his life to public service.

Trump’s COVID diagnosis is The News today, the major headline in every medium, including the New York Times.

But today’s Times also features these stories on its web “front page”:

“Trump Virtually Cuts Off Refugees as He Unleashes a Tirade On Immigrants.”

“In Profane Rant, Melania Trump Takes Aim At Migrant Children and Critics.”

“Wisconsin Is Frazzled By Surging Virus Cases and Growing Campaign Frenzy.”

“After Wild Fires Stop Burning, a Danger in the Drinking Water.”

“Why ‘Stand Back and Stand By’ Should Set Off Alarm Bells.”

The point is simple: as every honest person has been saying for at least months now, Donald Trump has been laying waste to our Constitution, our democracy, and our very society.
He has promoted the most cruel and vicious tendencies among us. He has deliberately lied about the pandemic and has defiantly held huge public rallies, both indoors and out, in which many thousands of people have been crammed together without masks. He has deliberately conducted business in the Oval Office in defiance of all social distancing and mask guidelines.

Donald Trump is personally responsible for the many tens of thousands of deaths that could have been prevented through an honest and serious response to the pandemic. Over 200,000 Americans have died of COVID in the past nine months. It will be at least 300,000 by the end of the year. And Trump has not cared.

Donald Trump is personally responsible for the cruel family separations and mass immigrant detentions at our border.

Donald Trump is personally responsible for deploying federal forces to assault a peaceful protest in Lafayette Square, and for deploying federal forces to kidnap people off the streets of Portland, and for encouraging police brutality, and for threatening martial law.

Donald Trump is personally responsible for inciting the violence of his right-wing, white supremacist supporters.

Donald Trump is personally responsible for repeatedly and deliberately announcing that the only legitimate election result is one where he is the winner, and that if there is another result, he will refuse to honor it.

Donald Trump’s very existence has been a disaster for the vast majority of U.S. citizens and residents not named Trump.

Donald Trump is personally responsible for more cruelty and injustice than any president, and any single American citizen, in recent memory.

Is it “cosmic justice” that he is now infected by the very disease that he has allowed to spread among us? The Plague gets the plague? Let the philosophers argue about this. One of my colleagues posted on Facebook last night that “Karma is a Bitch!” That seems about right to me.

Donald Trump is no different to me than any other stranger who is also a tyrant responsible for mass suffering. I really do not give a shit about him or his rather vile family members. If I am being honest, I will admit that, having been subjected to his Public Domestic Abuse for four years, I was not the slightest bit sorry to learn about his illness.
Why should I be sorry? It’s not like my feelings about the matter caused his illness. Indeed, his own irresponsibility caused it. And surely caused many others around him to also become ill. He is a despicable man, and he deserves nothing more than he has given to others. It is normal and legitimate for those whose lives have been disrupted and threatened by a bully or a tyrant to feel some exultation when the tyrant suffers.

Pundits are now worrying about the “national security” implications of Trump’s illness. It is true, such instability in the Presidency is always a cause for concern. But can those of us who are responsible for public commentary at least be honest:
Trump at full capacity is a malevolent, ignorant, and irresponsible man who has never taken his job or its public responsibilities seriously. Do you really think we are in greater danger now with Trump in bed than we were when Trump was sitting in front of his TV threatening war via Twitter?
Yes, the President of the U.S. is responsible for the nuclear codes. And quite honestly, I would feel safer with those codes entrusted to my neighbor’s fifteen year old daughter than to Donald Trump.

Donald Trump’s very existence has been a disaster for the vast majority of U.S. citizens and residents not named Trump.

Nothing that takes Donald Trump even the slightest bit away from public life is bad.

And, honestly, all further consideration of his illness bores me.

The only thing that matters politically is the decisive defeat of Trump next month, and his expeditious removal from office by January 20, 2021.

Nothing else matters.

Fuck Donald Trump, and Melania too.

Constitutional democracy is on the ballot next month. Defending it is the most urgent imperative of our time.

We must defeat Donald Trump and elect Joe Biden.

~Jeffrey C. Isaac

Jeffrey C. Isaac is James H. Rudy Professor of Political Science at Indiana University, Bloomington. His books include: Democracy in Dark Times (1998); The Poverty of Progressivism: The Future of American Democracy in a Time of Liberal Decline; and Arendt, Camus, and Modern Rebellion.
.

.
“Fascism's not-a way-of-life but a-murderous-mode of-deadening-reality by-smothering-it with-lies.”

 ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

 

... growing up in NY.. was two-years-older

... ​we had ​actually ​attended​ a-business-charity-event-dinner in NYC​..​ he also w​as-present​​

... those-days as now he's-always hard-to-avoid

... big-deal-news-now is how much-an a-hole he-is

... seriously.. his ENTIRE-miserable-life he's been a royal-d!ck-bastard

... screwing-everyone (near-literally) he's come-into-contact

... he's-filthiest-garbage literally

... voting-him-again in-fact s/b considered a-criminal-act

... cause-most-all-his​..​ sure-are-2-be

 

... facing most-important-election in-history - time-for some-serious-questions to-get-answers ... more2b-added... keep-returning

 ... so-who-knows ... how-why did-does it-happen.. ??

 

• ... we're-one of-the-worst-countries on-the-planet when-comes-to-inequality ... (only Chile-Mexico-Turkey have worse-income-inequality)

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

• ... we're-deeply continually-embroiled-in multiple-useless senseless-wars 

 

... January 17, 1961 ... 17yo at-the-time

... remember Ike's-farewell-address to the nation warning-of coming-power-control of-the-MIC.. (& the Generals)

 

... and on January 27th, 1973, as the Vietnam War drew to a close, Selective-Service announced there-would-be no-further-draft-calls ... (Nixon-campaign-pledge)

 

... ending-conscription & most-importantly citizens-direct-involvement in America's-future-wars

... giving-way allowing-for our-present-state of-permanent-war

 

... these are the-how ... the-why-as-always ... $$$$$$$

... wars-being-extremely-profitable for-all-those w-hands-involved

.

... neither-candidate-likely to-try-end-wars

... Biden more-likely not-to scale-up as-much

... Trump-admin wants-more-war

.

.

... from-whom do-you-get your-information

 ... name-names-of-people u-get-information-from 

... who-you-read ... who-u-listen-to ... that's how-u-think

... what are their backgrounds ... why do-you have-interest in-them

... example: one-person came-across just-recently is W.J. Astore

William J. Astore, a retired lieutenant colonel (USAF) and professor of history, has written for TomDispatch.com, Truthout, History News Network (HNN), Alternet, Salon, Antiwar.com, and Huffington Post among other sites.  He is the author or co-author of three books and numerous articles focusing on military history as well as the history of science, technology, and religion.  He earned a BS (with distinction) in mechanical engineering from Worcester Polytechnic Institute, an MA from the Johns Hopkins University (history of science and technology), and a D.Phil. (doctor of philosophy) from the University of Oxford (modern history).

... impressive individuals improve your-mind your-thinking
... finding-reading-listening to-them-enjoyable, as well-as enormously-informative

... every-so-often get-asked who-I-follow.. subscribing-to their-newsletters & such
... here's-just-a-few ... anyone-reading-my-social-media-posts should-recognize-names:

Bill Moyers - billmoyers.com
Linker - Kristain - Goldman - Weber - et al - theweek.com
Jeremy Scahill - theintercept.com
Brown - Conley - Corbett - Germanos - Queally - et al - commondreams.org
(W.J.) Astore - bracingviews.com
DeVega - Watkins - Cheung - Marcotte - et al  - salon.com
Tom Engelhart - tomdispatch.com 
Noam Chomsky - facebook.com/Noam-Chomsky-294468630182/
Henry Giroux - henryagiroux.com
Amy Goodman - democracynow.org
Robert Reich - robertreich.org
Matt Taibbi - taibbi.substack.com
Yves Smith - nakedcapitalism.com
Nomi Prins  -  nomiprins.com
Melvin Goodman -  counterpunch.org/author/ru8acub/
Hedges - Scheer - Sjursen - Cooper - Brown - Camp - Engelhardt -  scheerpost.com
Heather Cox Richardson - facebook.com/heathercoxrichardson
Robert Hunziker - counterpunch.org/author/robert-hunziker/
Hohlt - Benedikt - Bennett - &-many-more  -  slate.com
Heuvel - O’Mara - Ratner - Chávez - Nichols - et al  -  thenation.com
Anne Applebaum - Molly Jong-Fast  -  theatlantic.com
Bill McKibben - 350.org
theconversation.com

... should you really want to stop with-all the misinformation-disinformation
... reading-listening to these individuals is without doubt a very good place to begin

... they all talk about wanting a system that works ...

... one keeps adding tens-of-millions to poverty w-millions-homeless ... at-same-time ... billionaires-grab-TRILLIONS ... & controlling-government ... this-one NOT-WORKING

 

 ... that's-textbook-definition: plutocracy to tyranny

 ... two-thousand billionaires having more wealth than five-billion people on the planet

... system-needs dramatic-progressive-changes ... FAST

... following-new-progressives.. the-smart-best-play

... no-matter-what ... he's-our-guy

... a man that does not believe in science
... a man that does not believe in justice-rule-of-law
... a man that does not believe in morality-decency-honesty-integrity
... a man that does not believe in having regard-caring-respect for-lives-of-others

... a man that to-this-day we-continually-choose to-defend-support regardless

... a man belonging-with all-those he-deeply-admires.. (himself-included)
... Trump ... Putin ... Bolsonaro ... Xi Jinping ... Jong un ... Aziz Al Saud ... Duterte ... et al

... a man that we-avidly-want to remain-as-POTUS
... a man that is always to-command our-vote 

"Let us not hedge about one thing. Donald Trump may win or lose, but he will never concede."... (url-link)

 

 ... we'll-not-let-him