I don’t trust Clarence Thomas. He is corrupt. ProPublica has proved the corruption in a series of stunning articles that demonstrate the absolute necessity of journalism within a free society. Journalism protects liberty every bit as much as the US military.
Justice Roberts wrote the horrendous Citizens United and Shelby decisions, equating free speech with money and gutting the Voting Rights Act, respectively. Roberts' antipathy to voting rights was molded by Rehnquist, and he is impervious to the error of his ways. He was in the Dobbs majority. What's to respect? Also, in what way was Alito broken by his confirmation hearings? His mother knew he'd vote to overturn Roe. She told the press at the time; they quoted her. And I am willing to accept you were privy to considerable inside information, but from the outside, it seems Republicans didn't need any help in tanking the Miers nomination. This Democrat here doesn't know whether she was qualified for the high court, but in retrospect, I sure wish she were there instead of Alito.
I have lost any respect I might have had for Justice Roberts since he has failed to say anything about Thomas’ obvious corruption. Some institutionalist!
I think you should have lost respect for him much earlier. His destruction of the voting rights act and his pro-corruption Citizens United decisions are far worse.
Note that I said “any respect I might have had,” indicating I had none. Justice Roberts likes to pretend he is protecting the institution of the court, aside from his unwise political decisions, but his reaction to the reporting on Thomas reveals that he is just another partisan hack. And yes, those decisions were terrible.
After what happened to Merrick Garland's nomination when Antonin Scalia died, I have to wonder if it would have mattered if Justice Ginsburg had resigned. Some Republicans spoke about denying a Democratic president a Supreme Court nominee for that person's entire term. Nasty Moscow Mitch has gamed the antiquated system we have and revealed its flaws by breaking that system.
I came here to say this. If she had retired, wouldn't the Senate have held up the nomination for her replacement as well?
I'm sure Justice Ginsberg, like many of us, was confident Hillary Clinton would win, and I believe she was waiting for the first female President to take office before retiring. If over 60 percent of white men and over 52 percent of white women hadn't voted for a bloated, orange, incompetent, racist, misogynist failed businessman, that's exactly what would have happened.
If RBG had resigned two or three years before she died, I think that she might have had a decent replacement. However, your comment is excellent and I very much appreciate your thinking.
If we had all known then what we know now, RBG would have resigned the minute the 2014 returns were in, and Sen. Schumer would have called a vote to confirm her the next day.
As a woman and a mother of two daughters I am so angry that Senator Schumer has allowed the confirmation of judges to stop out of a sense of decorum and respect for Feinstein and the traditional old school ways of the senate. Feinstein should have been replaced immediately and this blue slip nonsense needs to stop. Woman are literally dying because of judicial decisions made by judges that Trump appointed. This is an emergency! With a GOP majority in the House, the Senate’s only real job is to confirm judges. GET THE JOB DONE ASAP or step down so someone else can!!! Our kids are being murdered in their schools, woman have been denied basic health care, democratic norms are crumbling. There is no time to waste.
It’s time for Schumer to be replaced by Senate Democrats. They have the power to appoint their own majority leader. We need new young, energetic, charismatic blood in power. To be the face of the modern Democratic Party. I love Nancy and she was a remarkable Speaker of the House, but she did the right thing and I am so pleased to see Mr. Jeffries take her place as leader of the House Democrats.
Also, Durban needs to get rid of the blue slips that allows the rethugs to hold up judicial nominations. After all, the rethugs are all about remaking the judiciary into a chapter of the Federalist Society.
Yes I agree. It makes me really mad that a 78 year old man chairs the judicial committee and is also showing no urgency at this perilous time for women’s basic rights. This is a four alarm fire.
I could be wrong, but I think procedurally, Feinstein had to step down from the committee, because appointing a temporary replacement requires unanimous consent by the Senate. That may be why Schumer hasn't acted yet.
Elizabeth, I agree with you 100%! This IS and EMERGENCY. Feinstein needs to put her country before her personal agenda (if she's even doing the choosing right now). We need judges and we don't have much time to get this done. I am really disappointed in her. I also agree with whomever said you could see her dementia all the way back to the Kavanaugh hearings (what a disgrace having him on the court). I am watching someone right now go through the perils and decline of Alzheimers. There is NO WAY she should be on judiciary committee. There is no way she should be a Senator... because there is no way she has the mental acuity to perform her duties on top of the fact that her mental acuity will NEVER get better. It's sad. She was a giant. It is beyond time. The woman will be 90 years old in June. This is not ageism. This is not misogyny. This is "she is unable to perform her duties and she never will be able to..." That's it. We need her to do the right thing.
Steve - please give us a follow up on Alito and why his confirmation hearings were “profoundly psychologically jarring” for him. I worked long hours back then and don’t have a memory of why that would be.
As for all the other wisdom about aging politicians - we need term limits for everyone. Yet the self-serving legislators won’t make it happen. 😡
I love my subscription to The Warning- appreciate your smarts and NJ-bred snark, always.
I remember listening to some of his hearing on the radio while driving home. Alito's wife was there, apparently not taking well the grilling her husband was getting. One of the rethug senators, don't recall whom, apologized to her for having to endure this, which caused her to break out in sobs. It was really a pathetic show.
Hey Steve, The people in the Senator’s office should be ashamed of themselves. They clearly care nothing about her legacy. As a Californian, I am grateful to have benefited from her wisdom and leadership. As a woman, I have admired her strength and tenacity. It is time to pass the torch and move aside so that a new generation of young leaders can legislate policy, tackle these complex challenges, & positively impact/shape our changing world. Their turn. I’m counting on it.
First, Thomas must resign. Yes, they need rules, but Roberts needs to have a come to Jesus moment with Thomas and get him out of there. No fan of Roberts, none. Alito, what a jerk. I support term limits. Pelosi said something this week about the push back on Feinstein being because she was a woman. BS. It is because her age is having a negative effect on her ability to function and everyone knows it. It’s time. Agree that the Senate reminds one of a retirement home for mostly old white guys.
Letting go is difficult. We all hold on to things we need to let go of, lay down. I understand wanting to remain relevant. I can appreciate that, but this has to be more than ego, of retaining relevance. Somehow the needs of the country, what is best for the future, needs to sink in and override the ego. There is truth to quitting while you are ahead.
Lastly we need to stop voting for them. Good grief.
Thomas is not going to resign and we can’t make him. Roberts will do nothing but protect the conservative choke hold the Republicans have on the High Court.
I think it is possible for both things to be true, that it's time for Diane Feinstein to retire, and that much of the push back is because she is a woman. Where was all the fuss when Strom Thurman was still serving, barely coherent at 100?
While scrolling through YouTube I came across a video of an elderly African Leader on stage, seated to take questions. He was confused, his "aides" -- aka: handlers-- unsuccessfully tried to tell him where he was but the man was clueless. I watched for a few moments and moved on. The video was posted to make fun of African governance. In truth, the US has a similar problem...our Senate looks like an assisted living facility. The House is a frat house. Truth is nothing resembling governance is going on. WeThePeople are too divided to do anything to fix it.
Fish rots from the head. When the highest court in the land is blatantly corrupt, it sullies the Judiciary all down the line. If, as you say, CJ Roberts is a man of honor, why has he been looking the other way? We hear press reports that Roberts wanted to uphold the integrity of the Supreme Court. He is doing a pi$$ poor job of it. Trump appointed unqualified & openly political judges with the approval of the Republican Senate. They are as culpable as Trump & Thomas in the decay of the Judiciary. We can no longer call Murkowski, Collins or Romney “normie Republicans” as they too voted for these appointments. Roberts must push Thomas to resign. It is also time for new leadership in the Senate Judiciary committee. Durbin is not acting like he understands the gravity of the moment.
I do not celebrate either of your choices for Supreme Court. Furthermore, I believe it is time we have term limits on Justices. Perhaps if we had term limits we would have Justices who actually reflect our values as a society. 15 to 20 years would be a good starting place. If the time of service was staggered it would make it more difficult from one administration selecting multiple candidates for the bench. Since you opened this can of worms, we should also talk about limiting the number of years Senators and Representatives could serve. Now let's talk about lobbyists and their influence on government. That is where corruption happens and flourishes. If we could eliminate or regulate lobbyists more openly we could possibly get our government back from extremists who have taken up residence in our nation's capital.
I think the Supreme Court should become a tribunal of 13-15 term limited justices. The constitution does not specify how many justices can be appointed to the court so we can start appointing new justices now, during Biden’s remaining term so we can bring back a balance to the court. We can work toward those term limits later. The Republicans will do this if we don’t beat them to the punch.
I am all in on getting lobbyists out of the sphere of politics or term limits will mean that lobbyists will still be the most powerful position in Congress because they will be the only ones who know how government works to show the newly elected people. That is a bigger nightmare than what we have now.
It would be nice to have SC Justices who don't view ideas from the 17th century as valid ideas to apply to the 21st century that we live in. They are applying flat-earth technology to round-earth living. What could go wrong? Is the new MAGA slogan to bring back witch burning?
Apparently a poor little snowflake white man got his feelers hurt during his hearings and became an even more entitled Bitter Betty who bided his time to proudly burn Democracy down into First National Christ of America (representing nothing of Jesus' teachings) without a shred of self-awareness or shame. The poor thin-skinned dear.
With this we also have a man elevated to the highest court who believes being on the take is perfectly acceptable behavior because all you have to do is declare you didn't know it was a law while resting your butt on your billionaire super donor's yacht.
But that's not all! All of this is overseen by someone who likes to tout himself as an institutionalist, one who hides his head in the sand, shrugs and says, "Whatcha gonna do? Boys will be boys?" Does he put his fingers in his ears and taunt us with he can't hear us? When your answer to finding the leak of a decision to take away half of American's rights is to hire a mall cop to do the investigation, you are not held in esteem at my house.
But sure, let's continue to gaslight ourselves about how this country is #1. Talk about that spec in our eye vs the log in the other's.
Term limits so that justices “reflect our values as a society”? Be careful what you wish for. The political composition of Congress reflects our divided values as a society. Half of Americans are determined to enforce white supremacy, plutocracy and patriarchy.
Gerrymandering is indeed a serious problem in local and national elections. But Ron DeSantis overwhelmingly won the Florida governorship by 19 percentage points over the Democratic opponent. That statewide outcome is not simply the result of district gerrymandering. Point is, a very large percentage of Americans do not share democratic core values of racial and gender equality, honesty and transparency, separation of church and state, voting rights, etc.
I don't disagree with the gist of your message. My only quibble would be to point out that DeSantis, while his personal election didn't depend on gerrymandering, look at what he did to the boundaries in and around Jacksonville. Pure Crack and Pack. That was unnecessary, but it's how he rolls. He wants to turn us into Hungary.
Totally agree. When it’s time to go, you should know and go. And have to be told....The youngsters are coming and we need to support them so they can be ready to right this ship!
I hope they are taking a lesson from the errors and foolish, dangerous behavior of todays leaders who are running the Constitution into the ground, and risking the survival of the greatest country on earth. The future is theirs, and this country's, and I hope they can protect and cherish it.
I have been wondering when I was going to see this essay. Feinstein’s mental slippage has been obvious since the Kavanaugh hearings and every time she has been on camera ever since, she should have been gone a long time ago. McConnell has hidden his mental distress ever since his “fall” at a dinner at a hotel in DC. How do you fall at dinner? The fact that we still haven’t seen his despicable face speaks volumes, libraries in fact. They both need to be gone yesterday. We need people in the senate with fully functioning brains, not just large amounts of money, something that we have been sorely lacking. I too thought John Roberts was a man of integrity, but the Citizens United decision has brought great harm to our democracy, maybe in hindsight he would vote differently but we have no evidence of that. Thomas needs to go, if Roberts can engineer that it might restore some of my faith in him, that and reversing Citizens United. We shall see. 👀
Dick Montagne, I'm no fan of Mitch McConnell, but remember that he is a polio survivor. I am married to one, and let me tell you, they are at risk of falling every time they take a step. My husband has had dozens of falls over the years, the worst of which left him with a broken hip. The older they get, the more at risk they are for a serious fall.
Steve, I’ve come to really appreciate your perspective and insight, but per enoomai enoomai above, your undying respect for the chief justice is a troubling tell.
I have yet to see from the cohort of Never-Trump, disillusioned “Former Republicans” any really awareness or understanding, and certainly nothing approaching an “imminent critique” of how “conventional,” supposedly mainstream Republicanism actually created MAGA, enabled Trump, and split our country virtually in half.
My big fear in the “Never Trump” coalition is that this significant cohort of “Country First” Republicans simply want, not unlike MAGA, the return to what they still consider some magical “good old days” of the Grand Old Party. The almost universal inability and/or unwillingness to really own the mainstream of the Republican Party’s policies and actions that led to where we are is not just extremely discouraging, it’s also downright scary.
Here’s a very short list of the direct legacy and lineage of modern mainstream Republicanism:
*More than 40 years of Reaganism, including the cynical ruse of an economic policy called “Trickle-down economics,”
*the demonization of “Others”, including not just the complex of policies that criminalized black boys and men, but also those that branded black women as degenerate “Welfare Queens,”
*The demonization of liberals and liberalism
*the modeling of the denigration and opposition to “other” identities and life choices, such as LGBTQ rights and even their right to exist;
*The unrelentingly-misogynist, paternalistic policies of denying women equal rights and protection under the law, including control over their own reproductive healthcare are decisions;
*The equally relentless fear-mongering and, yes, demonization of non-white and non-Christian immigrants and the seeding of the “Replacement Theory” of outright bigotry and cruelty;
*the fetishization of unfettered capitalism and “Free Trade,”
*the mantra that government IS the problem and the related mania around privatizing almost all public goods and governmental institutions and their agency staffing,
*the crushing of unions and any other efforts by workers and their communities to exert some control over their own lives and livelihoods,
*the gleeful embrace of the turn of the NRA to the darkest of dark sides and the amplification of their efforts for the “militia-ization” of America, with all of the predictable dystopian terror and tragedy that has ensued;
*The resulting immiseration of the working class, and the indignities thereby visited upon them, their families and communities, which led directly to:
*Transforming millions of “Heartland” Americans into the dissilutioned, dissaffected, resentful, grievance-filled and vengeful, populist movement that Trump activated and emboldened.
I mean, one can just go on and on and on about how the so-called moderate, mainstream Republican Party not just intentionally birthed every single aspect of what MAGA has grown into.
And every time I have ever raised this issue, all I have ever gotten back is a defensive version of “both-siderism.” In fact, it’s almost always to argue that “The Democrats” went too far on this or that, etc.
Fine, we can talk about how it takes a village.
But not until all of the outraged “Country First” Republicans own-up to harboring, more than anything, a return to their own fairytale version of Making American Great Again, can we possibly have a viable pro-democratic outcome from all of this mess. Failing to learn from our own history and mistakes, going back to a village dominated by a party of these never-examined and demonstrably divisive values and their not -infrequently monstrously pernicious outcomes, only to do the same thing(s) again, would be not just a marker of insanity, but of a tragedy of world-historical significance.
Jon, thank you for laying all of this out. You are 100% correct. The only thing you left out is the years-long denial of climate change by the Republican party that has led to a crisis from which we may not recover. All for the sake of big oil and capitalism.
Jon, I want to thank you for laying it all out there too. We've been watching this for decades, and my patience is thin for the defense of it. Our work is to reroute this train with the clear intention of righting these wrongs with the collective wisdom of our existence as a country. My hope is we can make a giant turn toward a more perfect union and mean it.
Of course, even though clarence is corrupt, like anyone else in this country in a position of power and influence, nothing will be done to seek justice...just a lot of hot air and bullshit excuses. So tired of it.
Apr 16, 2023·edited Apr 16, 2023Liked by Steve Schmidt
Bless you for reaching out to me they’re great doctors and one dealing with left eye retina emergency and the right eye blasting material flew into surface of cornea and came within hair of destroying cornea But
I believe that Gods arms are giving me
Hugs and with Grace I’ll have my eyesight intact… even without sight I can still do hospice counseling and
Do foundation grant work for kids
Surgeries ..Iistening to your voice was comforting as you spoke of the disgraceful pilot fish Lindsey Graham
And made me wonder how many
Sightless people are blessed to hear your wisdom …you may bless people
Steve, I would love to people-watch at an airport with you and hear your thoughts as they go wherever. Enjoyed that opportunity tremendously. And every flight should have a therapy dog. Absolutely. But the twin problems here -- judicial corruption and representation beyond capability (which becomes a lack of representation with far-reaching consequences) have left me with no expectations for those “public” servants. They breed the cynicism that keeps so many of us home on Election Day. It is easy to reach the conclusion that a vote means nothing when such as Thomas and Alito have such an out-sized voice in how we live and means even less when McConnell can change the rules of judicial appointments on the fly, hypocrisy be damned. As for Feinstein, ugh. Nothing good can come of whomever is managing her final days in office. A classy retirement would serve us all.
Read the book “When the Cheering Stopped” by Gene Smith . I read it when it first came out in 1964. It is the story of Americas first women President, Edith Galt Wilson. That’s right, the nations first women president. Like Steve notes, Diane Feinsteins staff is in effect in control of her seat in the US Senate, and this book tells the story of how President Woodrow Wilson’s wife assumed control of the nations highest office after her husband suffered a paralyzing stroke. She made sure that only she and the Presidents personal physician had access to his bedroom. When the congress sent over legislation for the Presidents signature she would take them into his room and shut the door. Emerging later with the signed documents in hand. That continued for over two years and she had “ less than an elementary school education.” What is going on today in Senator Feinstein case is similar in that unelected Feinstein staff are basically in control of one of two of Californias senate seats. We can’t let this continue and Governor Newsom and California’s leading Democrats need to step in and take control of this travesty. Let me remind you that California, by itself, has one of the largest economies in the world.
Dang,,Steve! Awesome truth! Power addicts in our various legislatures can only be dealt with via term limits! As for SCOTUS, what a sh#t show! The confirmation process is a joke, also driven by power addicted influences seek to push their agenda on everyone else. Frankly, I am sick and tired of all of it. People need to wake up and smell the stench!
Justice Roberts wrote the horrendous Citizens United and Shelby decisions, equating free speech with money and gutting the Voting Rights Act, respectively. Roberts' antipathy to voting rights was molded by Rehnquist, and he is impervious to the error of his ways. He was in the Dobbs majority. What's to respect? Also, in what way was Alito broken by his confirmation hearings? His mother knew he'd vote to overturn Roe. She told the press at the time; they quoted her. And I am willing to accept you were privy to considerable inside information, but from the outside, it seems Republicans didn't need any help in tanking the Miers nomination. This Democrat here doesn't know whether she was qualified for the high court, but in retrospect, I sure wish she were there instead of Alito.
I have lost any respect I might have had for Justice Roberts since he has failed to say anything about Thomas’ obvious corruption. Some institutionalist!
I think you should have lost respect for him much earlier. His destruction of the voting rights act and his pro-corruption Citizens United decisions are far worse.
Note that I said “any respect I might have had,” indicating I had none. Justice Roberts likes to pretend he is protecting the institution of the court, aside from his unwise political decisions, but his reaction to the reporting on Thomas reveals that he is just another partisan hack. And yes, those decisions were terrible.
Does he? Does he like to pretend he's protecting the court? I don't even see him pretending! more just MIA...
We can all agree at least that Roberts let us know who he was as a supporting player in Bush v. Gore, along with Kavanaugh and Coney Barrett.
After what happened to Merrick Garland's nomination when Antonin Scalia died, I have to wonder if it would have mattered if Justice Ginsburg had resigned. Some Republicans spoke about denying a Democratic president a Supreme Court nominee for that person's entire term. Nasty Moscow Mitch has gamed the antiquated system we have and revealed its flaws by breaking that system.
I came here to say this. If she had retired, wouldn't the Senate have held up the nomination for her replacement as well?
I'm sure Justice Ginsberg, like many of us, was confident Hillary Clinton would win, and I believe she was waiting for the first female President to take office before retiring. If over 60 percent of white men and over 52 percent of white women hadn't voted for a bloated, orange, incompetent, racist, misogynist failed businessman, that's exactly what would have happened.
I couldn’t agree more! BTW, Hillary won the popular vote. It was the small states and the electoral college that did her in.
Not to mention Russia and the October Comey surprise. If only...
Agree. A botch job.
Our country would NOT be in this court mess IF Hilary Clinton had won!
YOUR vote does count! Take action every time you have an opportunity!
Register and VOTE!
If RBG had resigned two or three years before she died, I think that she might have had a decent replacement. However, your comment is excellent and I very much appreciate your thinking.
If we had all known then what we know now, RBG would have resigned the minute the 2014 returns were in, and Sen. Schumer would have called a vote to confirm her the next day.
itch macdonald deserves everything he gets -- and then some. Greed, pride, manipulation -- the man is nothing.
As a woman and a mother of two daughters I am so angry that Senator Schumer has allowed the confirmation of judges to stop out of a sense of decorum and respect for Feinstein and the traditional old school ways of the senate. Feinstein should have been replaced immediately and this blue slip nonsense needs to stop. Woman are literally dying because of judicial decisions made by judges that Trump appointed. This is an emergency! With a GOP majority in the House, the Senate’s only real job is to confirm judges. GET THE JOB DONE ASAP or step down so someone else can!!! Our kids are being murdered in their schools, woman have been denied basic health care, democratic norms are crumbling. There is no time to waste.
It’s time for Schumer to be replaced by Senate Democrats. They have the power to appoint their own majority leader. We need new young, energetic, charismatic blood in power. To be the face of the modern Democratic Party. I love Nancy and she was a remarkable Speaker of the House, but she did the right thing and I am so pleased to see Mr. Jeffries take her place as leader of the House Democrats.
Also, Durban needs to get rid of the blue slips that allows the rethugs to hold up judicial nominations. After all, the rethugs are all about remaking the judiciary into a chapter of the Federalist Society.
Yes I agree. It makes me really mad that a 78 year old man chairs the judicial committee and is also showing no urgency at this perilous time for women’s basic rights. This is a four alarm fire.
I could be wrong, but I think procedurally, Feinstein had to step down from the committee, because appointing a temporary replacement requires unanimous consent by the Senate. That may be why Schumer hasn't acted yet.
Elizabeth, I agree with you 100%! This IS and EMERGENCY. Feinstein needs to put her country before her personal agenda (if she's even doing the choosing right now). We need judges and we don't have much time to get this done. I am really disappointed in her. I also agree with whomever said you could see her dementia all the way back to the Kavanaugh hearings (what a disgrace having him on the court). I am watching someone right now go through the perils and decline of Alzheimers. There is NO WAY she should be on judiciary committee. There is no way she should be a Senator... because there is no way she has the mental acuity to perform her duties on top of the fact that her mental acuity will NEVER get better. It's sad. She was a giant. It is beyond time. The woman will be 90 years old in June. This is not ageism. This is not misogyny. This is "she is unable to perform her duties and she never will be able to..." That's it. We need her to do the right thing.
Steve - please give us a follow up on Alito and why his confirmation hearings were “profoundly psychologically jarring” for him. I worked long hours back then and don’t have a memory of why that would be.
As for all the other wisdom about aging politicians - we need term limits for everyone. Yet the self-serving legislators won’t make it happen. 😡
I love my subscription to The Warning- appreciate your smarts and NJ-bred snark, always.
I remember listening to some of his hearing on the radio while driving home. Alito's wife was there, apparently not taking well the grilling her husband was getting. One of the rethug senators, don't recall whom, apologized to her for having to endure this, which caused her to break out in sobs. It was really a pathetic show.
I don't remember any of that. I will google it and learn. Thank you.
The hearings been nasty since Ronnie put up Bork.
Hey Steve, The people in the Senator’s office should be ashamed of themselves. They clearly care nothing about her legacy. As a Californian, I am grateful to have benefited from her wisdom and leadership. As a woman, I have admired her strength and tenacity. It is time to pass the torch and move aside so that a new generation of young leaders can legislate policy, tackle these complex challenges, & positively impact/shape our changing world. Their turn. I’m counting on it.
Amen!
First, Thomas must resign. Yes, they need rules, but Roberts needs to have a come to Jesus moment with Thomas and get him out of there. No fan of Roberts, none. Alito, what a jerk. I support term limits. Pelosi said something this week about the push back on Feinstein being because she was a woman. BS. It is because her age is having a negative effect on her ability to function and everyone knows it. It’s time. Agree that the Senate reminds one of a retirement home for mostly old white guys.
Letting go is difficult. We all hold on to things we need to let go of, lay down. I understand wanting to remain relevant. I can appreciate that, but this has to be more than ego, of retaining relevance. Somehow the needs of the country, what is best for the future, needs to sink in and override the ego. There is truth to quitting while you are ahead.
Lastly we need to stop voting for them. Good grief.
Thomas is not going to resign and we can’t make him. Roberts will do nothing but protect the conservative choke hold the Republicans have on the High Court.
I think it is possible for both things to be true, that it's time for Diane Feinstein to retire, and that much of the push back is because she is a woman. Where was all the fuss when Strom Thurman was still serving, barely coherent at 100?
Pelosi said that??!!! Insane!!!
She did. I had to read it twice, because I was stunned.
While scrolling through YouTube I came across a video of an elderly African Leader on stage, seated to take questions. He was confused, his "aides" -- aka: handlers-- unsuccessfully tried to tell him where he was but the man was clueless. I watched for a few moments and moved on. The video was posted to make fun of African governance. In truth, the US has a similar problem...our Senate looks like an assisted living facility. The House is a frat house. Truth is nothing resembling governance is going on. WeThePeople are too divided to do anything to fix it.
Fish rots from the head. When the highest court in the land is blatantly corrupt, it sullies the Judiciary all down the line. If, as you say, CJ Roberts is a man of honor, why has he been looking the other way? We hear press reports that Roberts wanted to uphold the integrity of the Supreme Court. He is doing a pi$$ poor job of it. Trump appointed unqualified & openly political judges with the approval of the Republican Senate. They are as culpable as Trump & Thomas in the decay of the Judiciary. We can no longer call Murkowski, Collins or Romney “normie Republicans” as they too voted for these appointments. Roberts must push Thomas to resign. It is also time for new leadership in the Senate Judiciary committee. Durbin is not acting like he understands the gravity of the moment.
Agree. I have never warmed up to Durban.
I do not celebrate either of your choices for Supreme Court. Furthermore, I believe it is time we have term limits on Justices. Perhaps if we had term limits we would have Justices who actually reflect our values as a society. 15 to 20 years would be a good starting place. If the time of service was staggered it would make it more difficult from one administration selecting multiple candidates for the bench. Since you opened this can of worms, we should also talk about limiting the number of years Senators and Representatives could serve. Now let's talk about lobbyists and their influence on government. That is where corruption happens and flourishes. If we could eliminate or regulate lobbyists more openly we could possibly get our government back from extremists who have taken up residence in our nation's capital.
I think the Supreme Court should become a tribunal of 13-15 term limited justices. The constitution does not specify how many justices can be appointed to the court so we can start appointing new justices now, during Biden’s remaining term so we can bring back a balance to the court. We can work toward those term limits later. The Republicans will do this if we don’t beat them to the punch.
And the Chief Justice should be elected to that position by the vote of those 13 appointed justices from their own ranks.
I also like Elie Mistal’s proposal that the SCOTUS be set up more like District Courts with 20-21 judges.
I am all in on getting lobbyists out of the sphere of politics or term limits will mean that lobbyists will still be the most powerful position in Congress because they will be the only ones who know how government works to show the newly elected people. That is a bigger nightmare than what we have now.
It would be nice to have SC Justices who don't view ideas from the 17th century as valid ideas to apply to the 21st century that we live in. They are applying flat-earth technology to round-earth living. What could go wrong? Is the new MAGA slogan to bring back witch burning?
Apparently a poor little snowflake white man got his feelers hurt during his hearings and became an even more entitled Bitter Betty who bided his time to proudly burn Democracy down into First National Christ of America (representing nothing of Jesus' teachings) without a shred of self-awareness or shame. The poor thin-skinned dear.
With this we also have a man elevated to the highest court who believes being on the take is perfectly acceptable behavior because all you have to do is declare you didn't know it was a law while resting your butt on your billionaire super donor's yacht.
But that's not all! All of this is overseen by someone who likes to tout himself as an institutionalist, one who hides his head in the sand, shrugs and says, "Whatcha gonna do? Boys will be boys?" Does he put his fingers in his ears and taunt us with he can't hear us? When your answer to finding the leak of a decision to take away half of American's rights is to hire a mall cop to do the investigation, you are not held in esteem at my house.
But sure, let's continue to gaslight ourselves about how this country is #1. Talk about that spec in our eye vs the log in the other's.
Term limits so that justices “reflect our values as a society”? Be careful what you wish for. The political composition of Congress reflects our divided values as a society. Half of Americans are determined to enforce white supremacy, plutocracy and patriarchy.
Congress is a gerrymandered joke.
Gerrymandering is indeed a serious problem in local and national elections. But Ron DeSantis overwhelmingly won the Florida governorship by 19 percentage points over the Democratic opponent. That statewide outcome is not simply the result of district gerrymandering. Point is, a very large percentage of Americans do not share democratic core values of racial and gender equality, honesty and transparency, separation of church and state, voting rights, etc.
I don't disagree with the gist of your message. My only quibble would be to point out that DeSantis, while his personal election didn't depend on gerrymandering, look at what he did to the boundaries in and around Jacksonville. Pure Crack and Pack. That was unnecessary, but it's how he rolls. He wants to turn us into Hungary.
Totally agree. When it’s time to go, you should know and go. And have to be told....The youngsters are coming and we need to support them so they can be ready to right this ship!
I hope they are taking a lesson from the errors and foolish, dangerous behavior of todays leaders who are running the Constitution into the ground, and risking the survival of the greatest country on earth. The future is theirs, and this country's, and I hope they can protect and cherish it.
I have been wondering when I was going to see this essay. Feinstein’s mental slippage has been obvious since the Kavanaugh hearings and every time she has been on camera ever since, she should have been gone a long time ago. McConnell has hidden his mental distress ever since his “fall” at a dinner at a hotel in DC. How do you fall at dinner? The fact that we still haven’t seen his despicable face speaks volumes, libraries in fact. They both need to be gone yesterday. We need people in the senate with fully functioning brains, not just large amounts of money, something that we have been sorely lacking. I too thought John Roberts was a man of integrity, but the Citizens United decision has brought great harm to our democracy, maybe in hindsight he would vote differently but we have no evidence of that. Thomas needs to go, if Roberts can engineer that it might restore some of my faith in him, that and reversing Citizens United. We shall see. 👀
Dick Montagne, I'm no fan of Mitch McConnell, but remember that he is a polio survivor. I am married to one, and let me tell you, they are at risk of falling every time they take a step. My husband has had dozens of falls over the years, the worst of which left him with a broken hip. The older they get, the more at risk they are for a serious fall.
Dick Montagne have enormous respect for your thoughts and your writing talent Ty marsha
Steve, I’ve come to really appreciate your perspective and insight, but per enoomai enoomai above, your undying respect for the chief justice is a troubling tell.
I have yet to see from the cohort of Never-Trump, disillusioned “Former Republicans” any really awareness or understanding, and certainly nothing approaching an “imminent critique” of how “conventional,” supposedly mainstream Republicanism actually created MAGA, enabled Trump, and split our country virtually in half.
My big fear in the “Never Trump” coalition is that this significant cohort of “Country First” Republicans simply want, not unlike MAGA, the return to what they still consider some magical “good old days” of the Grand Old Party. The almost universal inability and/or unwillingness to really own the mainstream of the Republican Party’s policies and actions that led to where we are is not just extremely discouraging, it’s also downright scary.
Here’s a very short list of the direct legacy and lineage of modern mainstream Republicanism:
*More than 40 years of Reaganism, including the cynical ruse of an economic policy called “Trickle-down economics,”
*the demonization of “Others”, including not just the complex of policies that criminalized black boys and men, but also those that branded black women as degenerate “Welfare Queens,”
*The demonization of liberals and liberalism
*the modeling of the denigration and opposition to “other” identities and life choices, such as LGBTQ rights and even their right to exist;
*The unrelentingly-misogynist, paternalistic policies of denying women equal rights and protection under the law, including control over their own reproductive healthcare are decisions;
*The equally relentless fear-mongering and, yes, demonization of non-white and non-Christian immigrants and the seeding of the “Replacement Theory” of outright bigotry and cruelty;
*the fetishization of unfettered capitalism and “Free Trade,”
*the mantra that government IS the problem and the related mania around privatizing almost all public goods and governmental institutions and their agency staffing,
*the crushing of unions and any other efforts by workers and their communities to exert some control over their own lives and livelihoods,
*the gleeful embrace of the turn of the NRA to the darkest of dark sides and the amplification of their efforts for the “militia-ization” of America, with all of the predictable dystopian terror and tragedy that has ensued;
*The resulting immiseration of the working class, and the indignities thereby visited upon them, their families and communities, which led directly to:
*Transforming millions of “Heartland” Americans into the dissilutioned, dissaffected, resentful, grievance-filled and vengeful, populist movement that Trump activated and emboldened.
I mean, one can just go on and on and on about how the so-called moderate, mainstream Republican Party not just intentionally birthed every single aspect of what MAGA has grown into.
And every time I have ever raised this issue, all I have ever gotten back is a defensive version of “both-siderism.” In fact, it’s almost always to argue that “The Democrats” went too far on this or that, etc.
Fine, we can talk about how it takes a village.
But not until all of the outraged “Country First” Republicans own-up to harboring, more than anything, a return to their own fairytale version of Making American Great Again, can we possibly have a viable pro-democratic outcome from all of this mess. Failing to learn from our own history and mistakes, going back to a village dominated by a party of these never-examined and demonstrably divisive values and their not -infrequently monstrously pernicious outcomes, only to do the same thing(s) again, would be not just a marker of insanity, but of a tragedy of world-historical significance.
Jon, thank you for laying all of this out. You are 100% correct. The only thing you left out is the years-long denial of climate change by the Republican party that has led to a crisis from which we may not recover. All for the sake of big oil and capitalism.
Jon, I want to thank you for laying it all out there too. We've been watching this for decades, and my patience is thin for the defense of it. Our work is to reroute this train with the clear intention of righting these wrongs with the collective wisdom of our existence as a country. My hope is we can make a giant turn toward a more perfect union and mean it.
Of course, even though clarence is corrupt, like anyone else in this country in a position of power and influence, nothing will be done to seek justice...just a lot of hot air and bullshit excuses. So tired of it.
Celeste K you speak truth bravely
Ty I respect you..having eye scary surgery Monday please think Angel thoughts for my sight💕marsha
Marsha,
We will all be thinking of you. Wishing you a speedy recovery.
Steve
Bless you for reaching out to me they’re great doctors and one dealing with left eye retina emergency and the right eye blasting material flew into surface of cornea and came within hair of destroying cornea But
I believe that Gods arms are giving me
Hugs and with Grace I’ll have my eyesight intact… even without sight I can still do hospice counseling and
Do foundation grant work for kids
Surgeries ..Iistening to your voice was comforting as you spoke of the disgraceful pilot fish Lindsey Graham
And made me wonder how many
Sightless people are blessed to hear your wisdom …you may bless people
That can’t read your words also!
Gratefully appreciate you, marsha
I'll be sending you great karma, and I wish you well.
Celeste k. I believe deeply in Karma!!!
You’re such a gift of tenderness and nurturing and I truly appreciate you
Heartfelt love, marsha
Steve, I would love to people-watch at an airport with you and hear your thoughts as they go wherever. Enjoyed that opportunity tremendously. And every flight should have a therapy dog. Absolutely. But the twin problems here -- judicial corruption and representation beyond capability (which becomes a lack of representation with far-reaching consequences) have left me with no expectations for those “public” servants. They breed the cynicism that keeps so many of us home on Election Day. It is easy to reach the conclusion that a vote means nothing when such as Thomas and Alito have such an out-sized voice in how we live and means even less when McConnell can change the rules of judicial appointments on the fly, hypocrisy be damned. As for Feinstein, ugh. Nothing good can come of whomever is managing her final days in office. A classy retirement would serve us all.
Read the book “When the Cheering Stopped” by Gene Smith . I read it when it first came out in 1964. It is the story of Americas first women President, Edith Galt Wilson. That’s right, the nations first women president. Like Steve notes, Diane Feinsteins staff is in effect in control of her seat in the US Senate, and this book tells the story of how President Woodrow Wilson’s wife assumed control of the nations highest office after her husband suffered a paralyzing stroke. She made sure that only she and the Presidents personal physician had access to his bedroom. When the congress sent over legislation for the Presidents signature she would take them into his room and shut the door. Emerging later with the signed documents in hand. That continued for over two years and she had “ less than an elementary school education.” What is going on today in Senator Feinstein case is similar in that unelected Feinstein staff are basically in control of one of two of Californias senate seats. We can’t let this continue and Governor Newsom and California’s leading Democrats need to step in and take control of this travesty. Let me remind you that California, by itself, has one of the largest economies in the world.
Dang,,Steve! Awesome truth! Power addicts in our various legislatures can only be dealt with via term limits! As for SCOTUS, what a sh#t show! The confirmation process is a joke, also driven by power addicted influences seek to push their agenda on everyone else. Frankly, I am sick and tired of all of it. People need to wake up and smell the stench!
Michael J Russ agree 100% kudos✅
🙏🏽🙏🏽🙏🏽Kudos to Steve!