Wednesday, June 27, 2018

BREAKING: Justice Kennedy Announces Retirement




Great.  The possibility of another Gorsuch- style ultra- reactionary SCOTUS nomination for malignant narcissist Donald "Rump" Trump.  Let's hope that Justices Ginsburg, Breyer, Kagan and Sotomayor stay healthy, right?

As to Kennedy:  thanks a lot for nothing you dessiccated reactionary.

Here's what the immediate impact is likely to be:

13 comments:

donnah said...

We're well and truly fucked. McConnell has written the rules and the Republicans will fall in line. Kennedy may have been a Conservative, but he did vote against making abortion illegal. There will be hundreds of lower court challenges launched, as the Right to Lifers have been readying for this for years.

Trump will appoint someone extreme and the new Judge will help overturn Roe v Wade as soon as judicially possible. The Right Wing wins, women everywhere lose. I can hardly imagine what other atrocities await us.

Anonymous said...

donnah - Oh yeah. I'm expecting a complete attack on all woman's rights including voting, the right to own property, the right to birth control, the right to work.. help me out here, I'm so enraged by what I'm seeing and for what is coming. Every single minority will suffer and suffer horribly. Civility? Screw that. It's over. Time to go for the jugular.

I'm glad I never had kids. I'm glad I have less time than more time.

donnah said...

Trump will turn the Supreme Court into the Supreme Circus. I, too, see big leaps backward in women's rights, gay rights, gun control, more damage to immigration, basically anything we've fought for over the decades. I'm sixty years old and have been dreading the overturning of Roe V Wade for a long time, knowing it would be on the chopping block as soon as the Republicans got a majority. And now it's happened. It's only a matter of time before it's all gone.

Can't find a silver lining right now. I'm sure Trump and his Republican base will be gloating and dancing in the streets. Trump's appointment will be up in record time, no doubt. And then the lights go out.

Anonymous said...

I'm sixty three. We are on the same page. I always had a feeling this could happen and here it is.

donnah said...

I was in Junior High when Roe v Wade was signed. Even then, I knew how significant and important it was to women in this country. And I've always been worried that it would be demolished by the Republicans, first with Reagan, then with the Bushes. Still it stood strong, in spite of attacks to take it down.

I just read a tweet that said Trump has a list of 25 judges who passed his “litmus test” to repeal Roe v Wade.

I don't know how to cope with this. I just emailed my Senator, Sherrod Brown, expressing my concern and asking for him to fight for us.

I can't even.

W. Hackwhacker said...

donnah and anon - I wish I could say something comforting, but maybe this is not the time to be comforted. It's the time to stand up and fight harder than ever. We also have to try to take the long view that there's always a political pendulum swinging back and forth between left and right. We just need to get that pendulum to swing back before it flies off entirely.

Dem leaders need to be bolder than we have any expectation of them right now. The "McConnell Rule" said you don't nominate a justice in an election year. Can Dems get a coalition in the Senate to go along with that? Probably not, but they should give it everything they've got to stop business as usual.

donnah said...

Hack, I don't know what you COULD say in comfort. We've been outsmarted and outmaneuvered yet again by McConnell and the Republicans. This has been their endgame for decades. Democrats just never had the pull to make things safe in the Supreme Court.

I am already fired up for midterms and contacting Representatives about what we want. But this is personal and it's historic. It's an attack on our human rights and for that we have no answer. I don't know what happens next, but it ain't good.

But having your blog is great. You provide tons of information, give us some tunes, and let us voice our thoughts and opinions, uncensored. And for that I am eternally grateful, even in my time of despair.

Thank you

W. Hackwhacker said...

donnah - your kind words mean a lot to us, so thank you very much. We'll hang in there if you hang in there!

Infidel753 said...

Here's how I see this.

There are a lot of voters, especially younger ones, who support abortion rights but don't feel much pressure to vote on that basis or take an interest in state-level races, because deep down they don't really believe those rights could be taken away. If Roe v. Wade is reversed, or even looks likely to be reversed, the threat will become very real, in the form of the decision-making power on the issue being returned to state governments. And then the Republicans will face the mother of all electoral backlashes as voters mobilize to protect rights they suddenly realize can be taken away.

I'm not saying this is a good thing. I abhor the Susan Sarandon "let everything become horrible so the backlash will make it better" stance. This really would be horrible. People would suffer terribly; people would die. I'd rather see Roe preserved. But if the Republicans finally get their wish on the issue, they'll be opening a Pandora's box which will blow up in their faces.

As to the Supreme Court, I hope the Senate Democrats will do whatever they can to block any nominee Trump chooses. McConnell held a seat vacant for most of a year; we should hold this one vacant for two and a half years, if we can. Make it clear that there's only one case in which Democrats would approve a nominee -- and that's if Trump re-nominates Merrick Garland.

More likely, our Senators won't or can't keep the seat vacant that long. But the next time Democrats win full control of Congress and the Presidency -- likely with the 2020 election -- it will be time to undo McConnell's treachery once and for all. The size of the Supreme Court is not fixed by the Constitution; it can be changed. Enlarge it and appoint more judges. Let the Republicans howl. McConnell's actions have forfeited any right they might claim to be treated honorably. We should back any legal measure necessary to undo his and Trump's betrayal of the Constitution's intent.

Anonymous said...

I second the thank you for this blog and the hard work you do. I can take a day off from reading all the insanity if I need to. You don't.

donnah - I wrote to Senator Casey. He's a good guy. He knows exactly how this Democrat feels about trump, republicans and civility. I encouraged him and the rest of the party to go for the throat and take no prisoners.

dm

W. Hackwhacker said...

Infidel - Good points about the unintended consequences of a Roe reversal for Repubs. We're with you on what Dems must do -- go all out -- whether they succeed or not. They'll be on the popular side (roughly 60 percent support abortion in the first trimester) and also on the right side of history, too.

Anon - we thank you and we're happy to be in this foxhole with you!

DivaNewYork said...

Don't know what I can add to what's already been said except to second (third?) Donnah's cmoment on your awesome, informative posts each and every day. You are my go-to blog for commentary and breaking news.I'm so grateful for the service you provide, Hackie.

W. Hackwhacker said...

Diva - thank you so much for your support and encouragement. It's very much appreciated!