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The Kavanaugh Affair

Republicans Have Now Realized Their Decades-Long Dream of Taking Over the Supreme Court.

I reached adulthood in the late 1960s, and looking around the political environment in those days, I thought the country was firmly set in the ways of fairness, honesty, compassion and unity. Before I was born, rich guy Franklin Roosevelt had reached “down” across the class barrier to offer federal support to regular folks during the Great Depression. Harry Truman had desegregated the Army. Social Security, which had been attacked by conservatives since its inception, had matured into a popular, successful program no longer questioned by the majority of Americans. When I was still a kid the Voting Rights Act and the Civil Rights Act were passed. Medicare was passed. The war in Vietnam was ended more or less by popular declamation. In the years to come the Supreme Court would hold that women had a right to control their own bodies, police couldn’t beat confessions out of suspects, and gay couples could marry if they wanted to. We were imperfect, but we were generous. We sought justice.

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Brett Kavanaugh Will Be Confirmed

Republicans in the Senate are going to push through confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh, and it will look and feel as if they’ve scored a “win,” but little good can come of it for them.

Photo: Wall Street Journal

The Supreme Court was specifically designed to be a non-partisan institution. That’s what the lifetime appointment was intended to accomplish. Justices wouldn’t have to answer to those in the political wings of government who put them on the court . Their only agenda would be to measure the law against the Constitution, and rule on cases based on whether the legislation in question adheres to the intent of our founding document.

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Who Will Replace Rod Rosenstein?

Your Handy Guide to What Might Happen Next.

Last Friday the New York Times ran a story suggesting that Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein had attempted to remove Donald Trump from office by secretly recording a conversation with the president and then getting Mike Pence, half the members of Trump’s cabinet, and two-thirds of both houses of Congress to invoke the 25th Amendment (unfit to serve) and throw him out. Rosenstein has emphatically denied the allegation (given to the Times by a source they decline to name), but frankly I think if there is anyone in the administration who doesn’t want to remove Trump, someone should check to see if that person might be unfit.

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Donald Gets His Trump On

After acting more or less like an adult for a couple of days, the Celebrity Apprentice President turns to Twitter to lash out at Christine Blasey Ford for daring to disrupt his Supreme Court party.

When Dr. Christine Blasey Ford’s identity was leaked and she decided she had to come forward with her story about Brett Kavanaugh trying to rape her when they were both in high school, everyone in Washington knew she’d have to be treated carefully. Mainly, they understood that they would have to act as if they believed her, and they would have to pretend to respect her as a woman, and not go down the Anita Hill road like they did in 1991. Mainly, this meant somehow stopping the president from tweeting something insulting or demeaning at her.

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Bob Woodward and Chaos in DC

Robert Costa (of the Washington Post and Washington Week) interviewed Bob Woodward (famously of the Washington Post)…

…on Friday night. They talked for a half hour, preempting Costa’s usual panel discussion in favor of an in-depth look at Woodward’s book, his methods, his concern and — sort of — his conclusions.

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Sometimes It’s Just Not Funny

Donald Trump is a circus act and his presidency is little more than absurdist theater.

Source: Brett Kavanaugh’s Dangerous Right-Wing Judicial Activism

Yes, he is damaging our environment. Yes, he is enabling racists and fascists at all levels of society. Yes, he is making the U.S. look ridiculous on the world stage. Yes, his ignorance is dangerous.These situations represent real harm to our system and our people, but the destruction can be reversed, maybe in as little as a decade. So I have decided it’s better for my mental health to mock him rather than let his childish tantrums and incoherent tweeting and his obvious self-dealing raise my blood pressure.

But tomorrow is a different thing: Brett Kavanaugh starts his Senate hearing to be confirmed as a Supreme Court justice, and his presence on the Court will be something Americans will have to live with for perhaps 40 years, and for another 40 after he’s gone the decisions in which he takes part will continue to haunt the nation.  

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Revenge of the Dog

Well, who could have seen this coming? After “firing” Omarosa Manigault-Newman three times on his old game show, then hiring her for real as a “senior advisor” before canning her one last time, here she comes with a tell-all book about her year in the White House, and she’s apparently armed with a suitcase full of recordings that she made on the sneak while she worked there. Maybe Donald should have fired her personally, instead of having John Kelly do it in the Situation Room, because what he’s got on his hands now is, well, a Situation. At least he could have offered her hush money on the spot, instead of having his daughter-in-law Lara do it — apparently too late. Continue reading “Revenge of the Dog”

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Helsinki Sinkhole

I guess I don’t really care…
Trump and Putin at Helsinki
Photo: YURI KADOBNOV/AFP/Getty Images
…about all the bullshit patriotic complaints about Donald Trump’s wimpy show in Helsinki yesterday. If the United States were a sports team (something else I don’t care about, by the way), it would have been a defeat, and a humiliating one. He truly showed himself to be a coward, and to the extent that he is seen as representing the U.S., it was embarrassing. Putin clearly was the boss of Trump.
But we as Americans can’t act as if we are shocked, shocked! to learn that nations meddle in each others business, or that by “standing up to Putin” our idiot president would have been supporting The American Way of Life, or furthering the values of justice and truth. All he would have been doing is NOT embarrassing us all, and NOT acting like the chickenshit little weasel that he appears to be.
American presidents are always judged by how tough or how lax they appear to be on the world stage, and most of them play the game they are expected to play, because they want to get reelected, or they want their party to gain seats in Congress. The power they are struggling to maintain is breathtaking, they know the voters (and the Other Party) are watching, and they will take part in pretty much any political theater that allows them to keep their power.
Donald Trump is different. I know a lot of voters chose him for exactly that reason: he’s different. And in a way I can’t blame them, after seeing so many politicians turn out to be like all other politicians, after they’re elected. Unfortunately, Trump is different in a bad way: He really doesn’t give a fuck about anything or anyone but himself.  He is ignorant, selfish and purely transactional. All Donald Trump wants to know is “What’s in it for me?” Continue reading “Helsinki Sinkhole”
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The Russians are STILL Coming

Given the damage being caused daily…
…by our Celebrity Apprentice President and his bumbling gang of corrupt incompetents, it’s more important than ever for the voters of this country to return one or both houses of Congress to Democratic control. How? Pretty simple, really: Get registered NOW, and go vote on November 6. If everybody voted every time, Republicans would never win another election. They are the minority party, and they are in power because Democrats allow it.
 
But as we head into this election season, there’s something extra we have to watch out for: Russian interference in the election. Our entire intelligence community and the Senate Intelligence Committee agree that they influenced the 2016 election in favor of Donald Trump, and succeeded beyond even their own wildest dreams. They are already coming back for more.
 

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