Tag: Political Hacks

SCOTUS Will End Democracy

If you have been paying attention you will see just how SCOTUS under the leadership of a political hack, Roberts, has been stripping away the powers of Congress and subverting the course of democracy.

Over the past several decades, the Supreme Court has slowly whittled down the power of Congress and, in large part thanks to President Donald Trump’s chaotic second term in office, has already managed to dethrone Congress’ role as the most powerful branch of government, argued legal scholar Duncan Hosie Tuesday.

“For now, the supernova of Donald Trump’s presidency has muted this systemic conflict in public view,” Hosie wrote in an analysis published Tuesday in The Atlantic.

“His second term – defined by galloping abuses of executive power buttressed by Trump v. United States – has played out against a Republican Congress and Republican Court aligned, if not enthralled, with him. But this alignment is likely temporary and contingent. Should a Democratic Congress return, the conflict will roar back into view.”

That conflict, Hosie argued, is the Supreme Court’s decades-long “power grab” to strip Congress of its ability to check the power of the executive branch, define rights for Americans, and even make laws — a “power grab” that has only accelerated during Trump’s second term. And, in large part to Trump’s unprecedented tenure in the White House, the “power grab” is going largely unnoticed, Hosie wrote.

“The short-term convergence of the branches should not obscure the larger transformation: Congress is no longer the first branch of government,” Hosie wrote. “The same gale-force winds of polarization that split Congress into warring camps has also produced a Republican-appointee-dominated Court systematically constraining congressional power while expanding its own.”

The threat of the Supreme Court’s ongoing “power grab” was so dire, Hosie warned, that it could very well bring about an end to the United States’ “constitutional democracy.”

https://www.rawstory.com/supreme-court-2674879295/

This exactly the outcome that the outcome that I have been warning about over the past decade (probably longer)….this is just what will happen when political hacks are nominated then confirmed….they are destroying democracy and helping those that are doing the deeds in every way they can.

If these people cannot do their part at preserving this democracy then it is time to get rid of them and start over….when I say ‘get rid’ I mean remove them from office in any fashion that is necessary.

If they continue down the path they have chosen it will not be long to there is nothing left of the nation we built over the past 250 years.

Time for a change!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

SCOTUS Out Of Control

In the last days of June SCOTUS has made several rulings along with other for the past few years that point to it being out of contro0l and partisan when it should be the neutral referee….

Bernie has called for it to be stopped before it does even more harm to our nation…that is if it is not already too late…..

In the aftermath of the right-wing U.S. Supreme Court’s potentially deadly rampage against federal regulators, its ruling in support of the criminalization of homelessness, and its decision to grant former President Donald Trump sweeping immunity from criminal prosecution, Sen. Bernie Sanders said late Monday that nation’s highest judicial body is “out of control” and must be reined in before it can inflict even more damage.

“Over the years, among other disastrous rulings, this right-wing court has given us Citizens United, which created a corrupt, billionaire-dominated political system,” Sanders (I-Vt.) said in a statement. “It overturned Roe v. Wade, removing women’s constitutional right to control their own bodies. Last week, the court chose to criminalize poverty by banning homeless encampments in public spaces—forcing more poor people into the cycle of debt and poverty.”

“With the Chevron case,” the senator continued, “they have made it far more difficult for the government to address the enormous crises we face in terms of climate change, public health, workers’ rights, and many other areas. And, today, the court ruled in favor of broad presidential immunity, making it easier for Trump and other politicians to break the law without accountability.”

Such far-reaching and devastating decisions, Sanders argued, highlight the extent to which unelected Supreme Court justices—with the backing of right-wing billionaires and corporations bent on sweeping away all regulatory constraints—have arrogated policymaking authority to themselves with disastrous consequences for U.S. society and the world.

“If these conservative justices want to make public policy, they should simply quit the Supreme Court and run for political office,” said Sanders. “At a time of massive income and wealth inequality, billionaire control of our political system, and major threats to the foundations of American democracy, it is clear to me that we need real Supreme Court reform. A strong, enforceable code of ethics is a start, but just a start. We’ll need much more than that.”

https://www.commondreams.org/news/bernie-sanders-supreme-court

SCOTUS has given corporations personhood, taken away the freedom of choice, tied regulators hands in holding corporations accountable for shoddy practices, and went on to making a king for this country….

While I agree that it, SCOTUS, must be stopped from destroying the very fabric of our nation I also recognize that an impartial referee is desperately needed….party politics should have NO bearing on who serves on the court.

So I agree with Bernie these d/bags need to be stopped in whatever way possible.

I cannot think of much more to say about SCOTUS….I have said it all.

Since tomorrow is a holiday there will not be many visitors to IST so let me wish all those people to have a safe and fun day/weekend.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Closing Thought–27Jul22

With the recent rulings by those political hacks on SCOTUS the public is started to see just how worthless and owned the Court has become…..it has lost all respect by the majority of the people.

Many of us have been calling for term limits on judges for a long time….a lifetime job gives them way too much power.

About 2 in 3 Americans say they favor term limits or a mandatory retirement age for Supreme Court justices, according to a new poll that finds a sharp increase in the percentage of Americans saying they have “hardly any” confidence in the court, the AP reports. The poll from the AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research finds 67% of Americans support a proposal to set a specific number of years that justices serve instead of life terms, including 82% of Democrats and 57% of Republicans. Views are similar about a requirement that justices retire by a specific age.

The poll was conducted just weeks after the high court issued high-profile rulings including stripping away women’s constitutional protections for abortion and expanding gun rights. The poll also shows more Americans disapprove than approve of the court’s abortion decision, with just over half saying the decision made them “angry” or “sad.” In the prior poll, conducted in April before a draft of the court’s Roe v. Wade decision was leaked, 18% said they had a great deal of confidence, 54% said they had only some and 27% said they had hardly any. Now, 17% say they have a great deal of confidence, 39% only some, and 43% hardly any.

Of course being an opinionated SOB I had stuff to say about SCOTUS…..

I Have Lots To Say About SCOTUS

I see the rest of society is started seeing (finally) that SCOTUS is a rigged game and that something needs to be done…..and soon.

Right on cue the Dems after the poll came out have introduced a new bill…..

A group of House Democrats introduced a bill on Tuesday to enact term limits for Supreme Court justices, arguing that the move will “restore legitimacy and independence to the nation’s highest court.”

The legislation, titled the Supreme Court Tenure Establishment and Retirement Modernization Act, would authorize the president to nominate Supreme Court justices every two years — in the first and third years after a presidential election. The justices who have been on the court the longest will be moved to senior status first.

If confirmed by the Senate, those individuals would serve a maximum 18 years on the bench. After their tenures are complete, the Supreme Court justices would retire from active service and assume senior status.

Justices on the bench at the time of the bill’s enactment would switch to senior status one by one as justices are confirmed to the bench in the first and third years after a presidential election.

Under senior status, justices will still hold their office on the Supreme Court, which includes official duties and pay. If the number of justices dips below nine at some point — because of a vacancy, disability or disqualification — the justice who most recently attained senior status would serve as the ninth associate justice.

(thehill.com)

Were they paying attention to the people’s wants or is it electioneering?

I am suspicious of the timing of the bill….after all the Dems are not looking good for 2022….were they trying to find a leg up for the upcoming campaigns?

Please say what is on your mind.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

SCOTUS–Only The Beginning

The recent rulings by our political hacks on the Supreme Court have ripped into the very foundation of our beloved nation….and sadly this session is only the beginning of the dismantling.

Disastrous rulings are crippling the process we call democracy….

No single day has better captured the current state of the Supreme Court than Thursday. At 10 a.m., the court issued a devastating assault on the Biden administration’s ability to regulate greenhouse gases in a 6–3 ruling joined by all of the court’s reactionary block. Ten minutes later, it issued a 5–4 opinion that just barely confirmed that the president, rather than a rogue judge in Texas, has authority over border policy, with Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Brett Kavanaugh lending the lone votes preventing an absolutely insane outcome. Shortly thereafter, the court issued a bombshell orders list that tees up, for next term, one of the most important and dangerous democracy cases in American history, which asks whether state legislatures have near-unlimited authority over election laws.

The court’s most immediately lethal decision remains Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which overturned Roe v. Wade. But do not let Dobbs distract from the onslaught that followed it. If anyone still doubted that the Supreme Court served as the nation’s chief policymaking institution after Dobbs, Thursday should put that to rest. The court is ruthlessly efficient, putting our gridlocked Congress to shame with its speedy and definitive resolution of the most pressing issues facing the country today. It does not require hourslong hearings or endless negotiations to operate. The six-justice conservative majority chooses which conflicts to prioritize, takes up cases that present them, then picks a winner, nearly always for the benefit of the conservative movement and the Republican Party.

Consider the issues that SCOTUS has resolved this term—the first full term with a 6–3 conservative supermajority. The constitutional right to abortion: gone. States’ ability to limit guns in public: gone. Tribal sovereignty against state intrusion: gone. Effective constraints around separation of church and state: gone. The bar on prayer in public schools: gone. Effective enforcement of Miranda warnings: gone. The ability to sue violent border agents: gone. The Environmental Protection Agency’s authority to regulate greenhouse gases at power plants: gone. Vast areas of the law, established over the course of decades, washed away by a court over a few months.

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2022/06/climate-change-epa-supreme-court-revolution.html

A friend of my granddaughter asked the other day just how it came to this…..40 years of dark money is the best answer.

Over the past several decades, corporate lawyers, right-wing activists, Republican officials, and dark money groups with deep pockets have been laying the groundwork for a far-reaching legal assault on the federal government’s ability to regulate U.S. industry—including the oil and gas sector threatening the planet.

On Thursday, their investments bore major fruit.

In a 6-3 decision along ideological lines, a Supreme Court packed with right-wing judges handpicked and boosted by some of the same forces leading the yearslong crusade against the power of regulatory agencies—which conservatives often dub the “administrative state”—dramatically restricted the Environmental Protection Agency’s authority to rein in greenhouse gas pollution from power plants.

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2022/07/01/payoff-40-years-dark-money-supreme-court-delivers-corporate-america

All this abuses are standard fare these days….history is being crapped on by the very people that are suppose to guard our rights……

The Supreme Court under Chief Justice John Roberts is the most reactionary ever in American history.  Its Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision taking away abortion rights from American women is the first time the Court has ever overturned a constitutional precedent to take away rights.  But let us not forget that this Court has also killed the Voting Rights Act by declaring most of it unconstitutional in  Shelby County v. Holder and Brnovich v. Democratic National Committee.  It has also killed union rights and unleashed corporate political money in Citizens United.  And it has consistently chipped away at the separation of Church and State as evidenced in the recent Carson v. Makin.  For a Chief Justice so worried about his legacy and the reputation of the Court, history will not be kind to him.

Ironically, history is central to the Roberts Court assault on rights.   Better yet it is the abuse of history in its method of legal analysis and reasoning.

Starting back with Ronald Reagan’s Attorney General Ed Meese conservative jurists, including Justice Antonin Scalia and the members of the Federalist Society, argued that the Constitution should be interpreted in light of the intent of the framers.  Such an approach, asking us what a bunch of slaveholders, bankers, and land speculators who were White and Christian thought about the rights of average people such as women, the poor, and people of color most certainly would doom their rights.  That is why Justices such as  Earl Warren, William Brennan, and others argued that rights need to be looked at in terms of the evolving standards of decency that mark the maturing of society.  We need to read our Constitution with an evolving political morality that reflects political sensibilities reflective of today, not fixed in stone in 1787.

The Supreme Court and the Abuse of History: Rights Will Always Lose

Thanx to radical right wingers like the Federalist Society have worked for decades to undermine the Constitution….basically it is a power grab by the Neo-fascists of this country….and they are succeeding….

https://www.salon.com/2022/07/01/radical-power-grab-new-case-could-allow-right-wingers-to-ignore-voting-right-laws_partner/

As the republic is dying and the people that pretend to love this country are by-standers….unless that changes all is lost.

There are ways to fight back…..impeachment (the magical word)……

There is a movement afoot to impeach Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. Per Newsweek, the petition on MoveOn.org was created earlier this year after revelations that Thomas’ wife, Virginia “Ginni” Thomas, pressured lawmakers and White House aides to overturn the 2020 election results. Meanwhile, Justice Thomas was the lone dissenting vote early this year when the Supreme Court rejected former President Trump’s attempt to withhold presidential records from Jan. 6 Capitol riot investigators. “Thomas’ failure to recuse himself warrants immediate investigation and heightened alarm,” the petition states, “and it’s only the latest in a long history of conflicts of interest … and mixing his powerful role with his conservative political activism.”

The petition was appended and gained considerable attention after the Supreme Court’s recent decision overturning Roe v. Wade. In denouncing Thomas and the majority for overturning 50 years of precedent, the petition adds that—in the same ruling—the justice suggested reconsidering decisions that established the right to contraception and same-sex marriage, according to the Hill, which notes that Democratic Rep. Alexandra Ocasio-Cortes also called for impeaching other justices for misleading testimony during their Senate confirmation hearings. “If we allow Supreme Court nominees to lie under oath … and then issue—without basis, if you read these opinions—rulings that deeply undermine the human civil rights of the majority of Americans, we must see [impeachment] through,” Ocasio-Cortes said on Meet the Press.

According to Salon, Ocasio-Cortes also raised Justice Thomas’ past failure to disclose nearly $700,000 in income his wife took from the conservative Heritage Foundation. “I believe that violating federal law in not disclosing income from political organizations, as Clarence Thomas did years ago, is … potentially an impeachable offense,” Ocasio-Cortes said. Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar backed up her colleague in a tweet, saying, “We need an impeachment investigation into Clarence Thomas’s role in the January 6th coup, as well as into Gorsuch, Alito, Barrett, and Kavanaugh’s testimony on Roe during their confirmation hearings.”

This will probably go nowhere….but at least it is a start.

Enough Said!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Pompeo–Water Boy

Back in 2016 when president elect announced his choice of SecState, Rex Tillerson, I was aghast…..I thought because he , Tillerson, had very little foreign service experience that he would go down in history as our worse SecState…..

I wrote of my concerns in 2016…….https://lobotero.com/2016/12/15/tea-for-the-tillerson/

But since that was an age ago here is a small reminder of what Tillerson brought to the State Department……https://www.politico.com/story/2017/01/rex-tillerson-state-issues-233353

Since Tillerson’s departure and the naming of a Trump toady as SecState…..https://lobotero.com/2018/03/14/my-opinion-us-state-secretarys-rex-tillersons-replacement-is-the-presidents-toady/

I may have been mistaken in my judgement over Tillerson……

That is right…I am admitting that I may have been mistaken when I said that Tillerson would be our worse SecState of all time…..and then Trump brings in Pompeo to carry his water for him (a toady)….

We have worked for a half dozen secretaries of state in both Republican and Democratic administrations and rarely if ever have we encountered one more ill-suited for the job. Pompeo, who seems to be motivated by his own political ambitions and his desire to keep his job, has produced little of real consequence to advance the nation’s interest. If he continues on his current trajectory, Pompeo may end up being remembered as the worst secretary of state in modern times.

To be fair, Pompeo works for a mercurial and undisciplined President who trusts and empowers no one, interferes in foreign policy when his vanity and mood swings move him, and sees everything through the lens of his own personal and political needs. It may well be that no secretary of state can navigate these turbulent waters.
After John Bolton was ousted as national security adviser, Pompeo became the most influential foreign policy voice in Washington after Trump. And yet it appears Pompeo is either unwilling or incapable of using that influence to advise the President. There is no speaking truth to power here. Pompeo seems unwilling to apply any brakes on Trump’s impulses and in fact seems willing to keep one foot on the accelerator — particularly when it comes to defending Trump’s trade war with China and defending Saudi Arabia.
 
To be fair Pompeo is a Trump toady and a Neocon slug…none of which bodes well for our foreign policy.
 
The latest story of the Ukraine and Trump just illustrates what a total lackey Pomeo is to Trump…..

If it wasn’t clear that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is President Donald Trump’s lapdog, his actions around the Ukraine scandal have left no doubt.

He feigned ignorance about the president’s call with Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky and later admitted he was on the call after press reports exposed him. He used to be all for Congressional oversight of the State Department when he was in the House and now says questions about the administration’s conduct toward the European nation amounts to “bullying.” And instead of standing by the ambassador to Ukraine, he let the president recall her seemingly for personal reasons.

It would be astounding if it weren’t so predictable. Time and time again, Pompeo has gone out of his way to defend and protect the president. As CIA director, he publicly distorted intelligence to favor his boss. As America’s top diplomat, he’s continued to defend Trump’s most questionable actions and overseen a highly politicized State Department.

I feel that he, Pompeo, will go down in history as the worse most clueless and fickle SecState….and the country will take decades to repair the damage that Trump and his water boy, Pompeo, has done to our policies.
 
I Read, I Wrote, You Know
 
“Lego Ergo Scribo”

October Surprise, 2016

A departure from my norm on the weekends……as much as I hate it….there is some political news that needs posting…..

This has been a fascinating, if not a bit disturbing, presidential election this time around…..BAM!  …..and as it is true to form there was an October surprise……

Donald Trump is issuing a rare apology after a video caught him making lewd, sexually charged comments about women in 2005, the AP reports. But he also downplayed the comments as “locker room banter.” He issued the statement after the Washington Post revealed video of Trump caught on a hot mic while talking with Billy Bush, then of Access Hollywood. In the video, Trump is heard saying he “did try and f— her,” referring to an unknown woman, whom he admitted was married. The video was recorded months after his own marriage to Melania Trump, but it was unclear when the encounter he was describing took place. “I moved on her, and I failed. I’ll admit it,” he said.

More comments followed after the pair noticed actress Arianne Zucker, who was waiting to meet them outside the bus for a taping. “I’ve got to use some Tic Tacs, just in case I start kissing her,” Trump says. “You know I’m automatically attracted to beautiful—I just start kissing them. It’s like a magnet. Just kiss. I don’t even wait. And when you’re a star, they let you do it. You can do anything.” He adds, “Grab them by the p—–.” In a statement, Trump said: “This was locker-room banter, a private conversation that took place many years ago. Bill Clinton has said far worse to me on the golf course—not even close. I apologize if anyone was offended.”

A 6 word apology and the rest was all campaign……

As disgusting as this was….the question is why release it now and not sooner……answer….more bang for the buck in October….just before the actual vote takes place.

Will this be the stake needed?

Depending on the reaction….there is more waited to drop……

Must Not Mistreat Israel

I try to stay away from these religious types that see Jesus returning for everything that happens and now that we have a black president he will make an appearance soon.  If you believe that then I have a bridge for sale.

I bring this up because everybody’s fave religious d/bag, Michelle Bachmann, is at it again……another one of those people that just cannot keep their ignorant mouth shut…….she has said that Obama’s bad attitude toward Israel will bring the second coming……

Bachmann explained that if Obama and the United States turn their back on Israel, this would bring  severe “curses” upon the United States, similar to those seen in the end of days.

“We need to be so on fire right now about the things of Christ and the things of God, that needs to occupy our time and our thoughts virtually from morning to night because we have very little time — in my opinion — left before the second return of Christ. That’s good news!” the former congresswoman said. “The world is embracing degeneracy, but what that also tells us as we look at what the world is doing that they’re going according to God’s time clock. Pastors, preach it from the pulpit!”

“If we actually turn our back on Israel as we have seen Barack Obama do today, if that happens then I think we will see a scale and a level of push back in the United States, negative consequences,” Bachmann told Understanding the Times radio host Jan Markell on Sunday. “I don’t know what they are, but I believe that the Bible is true. And believe what the Bible says is that our nation and the people of our nation will reap a whirlwind, and we could see economic disasters, natural disasters.”

YAWN!  She is so mindless…..would that be the same Israel that condemned him, Jesus, to death?  Would that be the same Israel that he attacked on all sides?

Speaking of the Jesus thing.

I struggle with the whole Jesus thing…….as a historian I cannot find evidence, other than the Bible, that such a person actually lived.

Call me a heathen but I like for historical facts confirm the stuff people try to convince has happened…….so read the below and weigh in……

5 reasons to suspect that Jesus never existed – Salon.com.

Before the inevitable religious tirade start let me say…..I am not saying Jesus did not exist only that there has been no evidence in the historic record……it is possible that some will surface….until then I still question…….

Giuliani: Quintessential Political D/Bag

The statement by Giuliani has taken wings….I was so not going to write about it but then he is a moron and a colossal political hack……he deserves whatever criticism is leveled at him.

My Turn!

Remember back in ’08 when Rudy was running for the GOP nomination?  No?  That’s okay….nobody else does either.  But his talking points whether foreign policy or immigration or health care was easy…..it was one sentence that had a subject, a verb and 9/11 in the composition.

So as usual this mental midget has crapped in his chili………

Has Rudy Giuliani heard the phrase, “When you’re in a hole, stop digging?” Giuliani, under fire for private-dinner comments that President Obama doesn’t love America and wasn’t “brought up the way you were brought up,” has explained that he wasn’t attacking Obama’s race, just his upbringing. “Some people thought it was racist—I thought that was a joke, since he was brought up by a white mother, a white grandfather, went to white schools, and most of this he learned from white people,” Giuliani tells the New York Times. “This isn’t racism. This is socialism or possibly anti-colonialism,” he says, challenging the Times to find examples of Obama saying he loves his country “without all the criticism.”

Obama was “brought up in an atmosphere in which he was taught to be a critic of America,” Giuliani tells CNN. “That is a distinction with prior American presidents” like Ronald Reagan, he says, though he admits there have been an “awful lot of patriots who were critics.” White House deputy press secretary Eric Schultz told reporters yesterday that he wasn’t going to “pile on” with criticism of Giuliani, though he said he agreed with the former New York City mayor’s own description of his remarks as “horrible,” the Hill reports. But Politico, which first reported Giuliani’s comments, notes that after Obama designated three new national monuments yesterday, a White House tweet had the hashtag #ObamaLovesAmerica.

Giuliani is a political joke….he just does not realize it…….he is still on the dialog from 2008….I would be surprised if his IQ was anywhere near his shoe size……Rudy boy has NOTHING worth listening to for any reason…….he is the GOP’s class clown.

Do yourself a big favor and ignore the ramblings of a mental midget…..who has NOTHING after 9/11!

The Disease of American Democracy | Perspectives | BillMoyers.com

About 14 days before we Americans go to the polls to make the wrong decision….something we excel at doing………

I have pissed and moan about just how unimportant the American voter really is…..that special interests are the key to moving legislation…..the voter is only important during campaigns and after they are a minor inconvenience that must be tolerated….in short, the people are of NO use to an elected politician…..

Have you noticed that the MSM has all but refused to point out problems in our system?  They feel compelled to analyze it until it makes most of us nauseated….but seldom a word that is negative…..why is that?

An excellent piece with some provocative thoughts……..

Read and sound off!

 

The Disease of American Democracy | Perspectives | BillMoyers.com.