Here’s the Deal

Judge Amy Coney Barrett, the end-dream of the far-right move to control the courts.

Here’s the deal, as Joe Biden would say. The moderates in the Democratic Party constantly complain that the progressive wing won’t support them, won’t turn out for elections featuring moderate candidates, and complain that the moderate policies they push are, well, too moderate.

The progressive wing says that they have no seat at the table, that their ideas are consistently ignored, even ridiculed, and their support, when granted, is rarely rewarded. Why bother when they’re not listened too, are given no power in return for your support, and left out of major policy decisions?

In the past, campaigns have been won using the progressive’s ideals and style: Bill Clinton’s 1992 campaign was a progressive (for its time) campaign, and Obama’s 2008, and especially his 2012 campaigns were as well. And then they turn into moderates. It’s almost a bait-and-switch. What happened?

Clinton ran hard into a wall GOP hate, constant bogus investigations, and he quickly tacked right. Obama was always more moderate than he campaigned, and was only too happy to run a center left administration. He also faced strong GOP opposition, taking too long to take their threats seriously, not believing the Republicans when they said they wanted to destroy him.

The deal is? The Republicans DO want to destroy you! Believe them when they say this, they’re serious. And they have been working towards this for decades. Denying Obama more than a hundred judicial nominees, and a SCOTUS seat, to pack the courts with far right (and unqualified) judges. It was a major, long awaited play for them and now this last rush to pack the Supreme Court is endgame, probably checkmate.

How does our moderate Democratic candidate want to address this? With a plan to take back the stolen courts with a legal expansion, to protect rights and laws that have been passed?

No.

He wants a blue-ribbon, bi-partisan committee.

Joe.

Pal…

No.  

Buddy, you’re a nice guy, I like you, already voted for you. But this is not the way to handle what the Republicans have been up to. This is pretty much what they (barring killing it altogether) want you to do. It’s like this; you know when you would ask your parents “can we go the movies” or “have pizza tonight” and they would say ‘We’ll see.” “We’ll see” was always “No.”

Always.

It’s a parent’s way of saying ‘no’ without have to disappoint expectant, hopeful faces by slapping them with a blunt declaration.

A ‘committee’ is the “We’ll see” of government.

This is just a way to get the subject off the table and kill momentum. This is exactly why the left has had it with the moderates and why the Democrats have gotten steamrolled by the right time after time. The moderates seem to think they're dealing with a reasonable, functioning GOP, and no amount of evidence will convince that they face a party of radicals, intent on destroying them and repealing the 20th Century. Haven't they been paying attention to the hearings going on right now?!

The moderates will dither, think, investigate and when they finally decided to act, it'll be a year too late. The right has no compunction to follow rules and will be throwing case after case at the now far-right SCOTUS to kill voting rights, healthcare, kill gun restrictions, and destroy protections for the LGBTQ community. They’re achieved their dream, and they’re giddy with power. They will move as fast as they can, while a bi-partisan, blue-ribbon panel meets, drinks coffee and snags Costco poppy seed muffins from the muffin basket. And talks and talks…

The GOP is seeing their electoral power shrink as the country changes and diversifies, and instead of trying to appeal to a larger majority, they doubled down on what they have, and threw themselves into a decades long quest to install their minority power in such a way that they can still control the country without being elected by a majority. Packing the courts (as McConnell himself called it) would do just that.

If the GOP insists on going forward and voting in this last attempt to killing the Living Constitution, the Democrats must take steps to reign them in, using every tool at their disposal. We have to hit the ground running, prepared to contain and repair the damage done by righting the system and restoring some fairness to institutions that have been deliberately broken.

We don’t have time to stop and think too much about it, and I doubt that are any sane Republicans who would participate in such a committee (the party would never forgive them).

It’s up to us, Joe, don’t tie our hands when we need them to fight.

No One Is Coming

Romney has the look most of the country has right now. By Drew Angerer/Getty Images.

Seriously, people, did you expect Mitt Romney to go any other way?

Yes, he took a token stand when it meant nothing, and he knew it. He voted ‘guilty’ on one charge in the impeachment, but he knew it wouldn’t pass. He was already high on Trump’s shit list, he was in a safe seat, he had little to lose. But now? This vote is different and he knows it. So, he’s reminding everyone he’s the same stuffed shirt Republican he always was. No, this vote is different, this isn’t time for a symbolic stand on ‘principle’, this vote is about power, power that could change American life for the next 30 years. No, he's not about to risk everything, including a SCOTUS nominee that will kill the popular Roe v Wade and the ACA, for some silly 'reputation' as a ‘Reasonable’ Republican.

You kidding?

Ha!

It is long past time to get over yourself.

Did I know? I used to be a Mormon, and I know this; his church would not have forgiven him, and he is a sincerely religious man. I had a fleeting hope, but I figured his 'integrity' would go so far and no farther. In that safe vote 'against' Trump he was good, but denying his voters a chance to own the libs on the hated ADA (insuring some 10 million + people, and killing Roe v Wade, popular among a majority of voters) he folds like origami.

No, not surprised.

So, no, the fact that Mitt is an opportunistic Republican is not news (I followed his career, and that's what he's ALWAYS been) the fact that the ever-hopeful Democratic base thought he'd be anything else disappoints me.

Get over yourselves.

NO Republicans are going to step up and save you.

COME ON.

They have proved over that you can't work/trust with them, that should have been made clear in the past 30 some years, right? Good lord.

Fight.

Democracy is on the line.

The Trump Party will do ANYthing to win/steal this election. They believe they're entitled to do so. They have been gearing up for months to seize power by any means necessary. They can’t do it by ballots, they will do it with the courts, and now they have a bigger court majority than they did in 2000 with a 5-4 split gave the election to George W. Bush, a man who did not win the popular vote.

They have the Supreme Court, that don’t need the popular vote. They will shout ‘FRAUD!’, seize the ballots and throw enough confusion and lawsuits to drive it to the SCOTUS where a 3rd of the judges owe their seat to Trump. They will not recuse themselves.

Fight.

They steal SCOTUS seats? Expand the Court, expand the federal judiciary. Make territories actual states. Get rid of the Electoral College. Don't bother with what the GOP will scream, they will do that regardless. They play hardball, so the Democrats need to play hardball, and have to stop apologizing for it. Just stop.

Fight.

Fight everything. Make the GOP pay for the shit they pull, for a change.

Fight.

Democracy needs you now.

They Just Don’t Care About You

Mitch McConnell, looking to get the F’ out of Dodge.

Congress has left town. They left for a ‘vacation from… what? The House has actually been doing something, they’ve passed some 400 bills that Mitch McConnell is using to hold up his TV so he and Lindsey can watch their ‘stories'. Not read the bills, not allow them to go to an up or down vote… nope, just sit there while Mitch puts up his feet and laughs. Now, they’re gone. They packed up their little brief cases and figured out ways to avoid their voters. Vacation until September 8th.

Of course.

So, no covid relief bill, Right now, the GOP is pretending to be ‘concerned’ about ‘spending’. They’re a couple months early, they usually only get concerned when a Democrat is in the White House. They probably wanted to be back in practice as they have faced the probable reality of Trump going down in a crushing Blue Wave (gonna capitalize that, yep). Maybe the GOP will lose the senate as well.

So, what happened? The GOP did. They’re busy denying the pain of millions of unemployed so they can politicize the virus even further. They don’t care. They will use the virus to pass tax cuts, to deregulate our water, air, and land, to try and protect companies from any responsibility for their re-opening and the safety of their workers, but they won’t help the ordinary people, you know, the people who can’t afford their own politician. They didn’t even bother to start ‘work’ on one until a couple days before the last one ran out. They don’t care.

Well, what about the Democrats? What have they been up to, huh? Yeah, huh? What?!!

Well, the Democrats passed a bill, two months ago that would help with virus relief. It's a big and pretty thorough bill with money for schools, cities, states, individuals, and extends the unemployment payments. But the bill would do something else; it would help Donald Trump.

Yep, it would help Donny.

 You get money out to people, they will spend it; pay bills, pay rent, buy food, the money going right back into the economy. This is what Trump supposedly wants, get the economy going or at least in a place where it's not going down anymore.

And he said 'no.'

And the GOP backed him up. Mark Meadows, professional bomb-thrower is supposedly 'negotiating' a deal. This is a guy who have never saw in deal in congress that he didn't blow up, and he's doing the same here. The whole Tea Party DNA is deep with this one.

The whole thing is not only against the interest of the people, but against the interests of Trump and the GOP as well. His policy of, basically, letting people die and now making sure those still here will be as miserable as possible is hurting us and hurting him. It's building a huge blue wave that is coming right at them. Their actions seem to welcome it.

And now congress has left town. Even the latest Fox News poll tells us people are hurting and need help. This would have made Trump and the GOP look good. For a change.

But… No.

The whole thing is insane. I'm not being cute calling it that, it is literally not sane.

The Filtered & the UNfiltered

Here’s the thing, I’m on social media waaaaay too much. On Facebook, I have my posts set to ‘public’ because I’m obviously a glutton for punishment. I get a lot of support, and a lot of well, ‘Trumpers’, (Trump supporters ya know), and they love to threaten me, or call me names, the usual crap. Sometimes these love notes are attached to posts, but sometimes, they PM me and it lands in my ‘filtered messages’ folder. Sometimes it’s spam accounts featuring busty women looking for ‘friends’ (uh huh) sometimes threats:

“Hey pussy...come to Michigan so i can kick your teeth down your throat.” (Real message, blocked and reported.) Sometimes it’s a thank you for speaking up, sometimes it just a comment. Which brings us to…

Today's unfiltered message:

"You must like to cause trouble."

Do I like to cause trouble. Nah, not really. I don't like confronting people, I don't like being an 'againster', don't really like to make waves.

But.

I was a little brother, and as a little brother, I got blamed for stuff I didn't do, and felt that the siblings above me got things I didn't (which is true, and not true), and felt that justice (my mom) was not really on my side (she really wasn't, but that's another day). So I had to form my own idea of justice. It was a powerless-versus-the-powerful view. I have that little brother view of justice to this day.

That's the key word here, 'justice'. As a kid, I was fascinated with American history, not the big stuff, but the margins, the back waters, the seedy alleys were the real history lies. I read everything contained in that rabbit hole of forgotten history. Forgotten? No, purposely shoved aside and stamped down into the darkness. I was a pain to my history teachers, wanting to know more, questioning what they were teaching and wondering what was behind Big History and the narrative it taught.

 Before the internet, I had to search, I had to go to the library, (when I could convince my mom to take me, which wasn't often) and dig through the Dewey Decimal System (970 for North American history) for things that would tell me the other history, the backstories, the behind-the-flats stories of those whose shoulders many stood on. I wanted to know what they weren't telling me, and slowly (usually pieced together through several different sources) I learned. Today, I am still learning. Thank god.

 So, no I don't like pointing out people whose arguments are canvas, paint, and paste deep, who are are coming at me through belief and not facts, who would rather address my picture and looks than my argument (this won't surprise women, but yeah, I get a lot of comments on my looks from angry white guys). Don't like any of that, causes me stress, and worries my wife, but I have to. You know?

I have to. That stupid little bother in me is standing up to my mom and saying 'nuh uh!'.

I didn't do that.

Your argument ignores the facts

Your argument ignores reality

Look around you, is this the America you wanted?

So, I cause trouble. I set up this site to try to throw a little more justice out there in the world. I have that little bother's sense of justice. I don't like it. I want a quiet, easy life, no confrontation, no worries, just let the world wash over me.

I wish I could do that, I really do.

Aw well.

Come back around, because there’s more to come.