The Political Junkie Thread

[CrazyNotCrazie]

I was traveling this weekend, and wish this opinion had come out about 12 hours later. I was stuck near a bunch of people who were celebrating the decision, as if the disease goes away because a judge makes a piss-poor ruling.

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/18/us/p ... lanes.html

And yes, this absolutely deserves to be in the politics thread. Judge Kathryn Kimball Mizelle is the youngest Trump appointee given a lifetime federal judicial appointment, was confirmed by the Senate on a party-line vote (the Senate changed cloture rule from 30 hours' debate to two back in 2019), during the lame duck session, and was deemed Not Qualified by the ABA because she didn't have sufficient practical experience. Virtually every citation in her opinion that refers to a named judge or justice is to a Republican appointee. (I found before two outliers citing Democratic appointees, the most recent of which was Byron White, before I decided I was wasting my time.) It's an excruciating exercise in what I call "targeted textualism", which is where interpretive alternatives are not mentioned or are deliberately excluded in order to reach the desired result. It's a very weak ruling, IMO, and shows why the ABA voted the way they did.

C'mon. You'd really rather have doctors making health policy decisions than judges? Don't you know that the pre-law curriculum at colleges has a heavy emphasis on science, over 2/3 of the questions on the LSATs are science-related, and much of the course work at the best law schools is about science, specifically medicine?

When I took the GMAT 20+ years ago, the hardest part for me was that there was a reading comprehension section and they would often give these highly scientific articles that bored me to tears, so it was very hard for me to focus. Fortunately, on the actual test I did not have one of these passages.

The selective judgement by Republicans on almost all issues these days would be hilarious if it wasn't so scary. They go hunting around for sources of information that will confirm what they believe. I am glad that Biden has prioritized getting judges confirmed, though I do not know if it will be enough.

[dudog]

The Florida senate has passed the bill punishing Disney because the governor is mad (notice I didn't say "angry"). It is expected to pass in the house and be signed into law. I am not going to capitalize any of these offices, just as I will forever refer to that thing in Chapel Hill as uNC.

https://www.wesh.com/article/florida-se ... r/39776410#

I read elsewhere that Disney has about a billion dollars in bonds that will have to be assumed by local governments. That'll teach 'em!

[CameronBornAndBred]

Dooooom! Doooooom, I say!

Democratic insiders are feeling increasingly pessimistic about their party's chances of avoiding disaster in the November midterm elections, The New York Times reported Saturday.

"Are you calling to ask me about our impending doom?" one Democratic strategist asked a Times reporter.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/democratic-i ... 25433.html

[CameronBornAndBred]

Poor lil' feller. Even his own party hates him.

Rep. Madison Cawthorn (R-N.C.) has accused the “establishment” of launching a “coordinated drip campaign” against him, a comment that comes as the congressman finds himself in the midst of several controversies.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/cawthorn-say ... 08737.html

[dudog]

There's so much I could do with this...

Title of article: Donald Trump worried 'dangerous' fruits could be thrown at him by protesters, a new deposition reveals.

"So you were speaking to the audience when you said if they saw someone getting ready to throw a tomato, just knock the crap out of them, would you," Dictor asked.

"That was to the audience," Trump answered. "It was said sort of in jest. But maybe, you know, a little truth to it. It's very dangerous stuff. You can get killed with those things."

Dictor asked, "So you were trying to incentivize people to engage in violence?"

"Objection," said the campaign's lawyer.

Trump answered anyway.

"No, I wanted to have people be ready because we were put on alert that they were going to do fruit. And some fruit is a lot worse than — tomatoes are bad, by the way. But it's very dangerous.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics ... li=BBnbfcL

This man was leader of the free world.

[CameronBornAndBred]

There's so much I could do with this...

"That was to the audience," Trump answered. "It was said sort of in jest. But maybe, you know, a little truth to it. It's very dangerous stuff. You can get killed with those things."

Death by tomato. That's a rough way to go.

[lawgrad91]

There's so much I could do with this...

"That was to the audience," Trump answered. "It was said sort of in jest. But maybe, you know, a little truth to it. It's very dangerous stuff. You can get killed with those things."

Death by tomato. That's a rough way to go.

Snort....

[OPK]

There's so much I could do with this...

"That was to the audience," Trump answered. "It was said sort of in jest. But maybe, you know, a little truth to it. It's very dangerous stuff. You can get killed with those things."

Death by tomato. That's a rough way to go.

“He got pasted”

[dudog]

There's so much I could do with this...

Death by tomato. That's a rough way to go.

“He got pasted”

Are you on the sauce again?

[OPK]

Death by tomato. That's a rough way to go.

“He got pasted”

Are you on the sauce again?

I’m crushed if you think that.

[OPK]

John Cleese tried to warn us:

https://youtu.be/ZqISLI2UQMY

[CameronBornAndBred]

“He got pasted”

Are you on the sauce again?

I’m crushed if you think that.

It's truly amazing, in Heinzsight, how none of this was a bigger warning for things to come.

[OPK]

Are you on the sauce again?

I’m crushed if you think that.

It's truly amazing, in Heinzsight, how none of this was a bigger warning for things to come.

Sorry it took me a while to respond. I was away, and so now I’m trying to ketchup.

[CameronBornAndBred]

I’m crushed if you think that.

It's truly amazing, in Heinzsight, how none of this was a bigger warning for things to come.

Sorry it took me a while to respond. I was away, and so now I’m trying to ketchup.

Took you long enough to get that one out of the bottle.

[OPK]

It's truly amazing, in Heinzsight, how none of this was a bigger warning for things to come.

Sorry it took me a while to respond. I was away, and so now I’m trying to ketchup.

Took you long enough to get that one out of the bottle.

That’s because I’m a Big Boy.

[CrazyNotCrazie]

Roe v Wade appears to be going down

https://www.politico.com/news/2022/05/0 ... n-00029473

Amazing that this got leaked - apparently this has never happened. Now that the dog has caught its tail, I'm not sure what the Republicans will do with themselves - I guess they will now focus on getting each state legislature to pass laws restricting abortion as much as possible. There are some who think this could backfire against them, which is what I am hoping.

According to this article, it sounds like Alito was snarky in his writing, which is not surprising but is truly sad.

In the mode of snarky, I am sure that Republicans will be voting for lots of social services to support these unwanted kids, and perhaps more importantly, kids born with severe disabilities and no quality of life. And they will contain to passionately oppose any restrictions on their precious right to own a gun while feeling it is their right to completely eliminate someone's right to have an abortion.

This is going to lead to the further polarization of blue states and red states.

God Bless America.

[dudog]

Roe v Wade appears to be going down

https://www.politico.com/news/2022/05/0 ... n-00029473

Amazing that this got leaked - apparently this has never happened. Now that the dog has caught its tail, I'm not sure what the Republicans will do with themselves - I guess they will now focus on getting each state legislature to pass laws restricting abortion as much as possible. There are some who think this could backfire against them, which is what I am hoping.

According to this article, it sounds like Alito was snarky in his writing, which is not surprising but is truly sad.

In the mode of snarky, I am sure that Republicans will be voting for lots of social services to support these unwanted kids, and perhaps more importantly, kids born with severe disabilities and no quality of life. And they will contain to passionately oppose any restrictions on their precious right to own a gun while feeling it is their right to completely eliminate someone's right to have an abortion.

This is going to lead to the further polarization of blue states and red states.

God Bless America.

Don't forget funding for mental health services for women, sometimes girls as young as 13, who must carry and give birth to their rapist's baby. As one Republican legislator said on video this week, these girls should look at this as an opportunity.

Maybe they'll repeal Trump's tax cuts for the rich to pay for all this.

If this doesn't mobilize women, and men who care about women, I don't know what will.

[OPK]

If this apparent draft opinion is adopted as the majority, expect a hellacious state election cycle this fall across the country.

Because we need more chaos, rancor and division right now.

[dudog]

If this apparent draft opinion is adopted as the majority, expect a hellacious state election cycle this fall across the country.

Because we need more chaos, rancor and division right now.

Do you expect it not to be? Alito and Thomas are obvious, and I'd give really good odds that the 3 Trump appointees will also.

Supposedly this leak is unprecedented. You're an attorney, any ideas on why there was this break in protocol? An angry clerk?

[CameronBornAndBred]

Roe v Wade appears to be going down

This is going to lead to the further polarization of blue states and red states.

God Bless America.

If this apparent draft opinion is adopted as the majority, expect a hellacious state election cycle this fall across the country.

Because we need more chaos, rancor and division right now.

Yep, to both. In a normal year, it's also the one thing that could possibly save the Dems' bacon, but not even such a huge issue as womens' rights (the majority of Americans do not want Roe overturned, that's been proven in poll after poll) is going to take precedence over the sad state of the nation right now, being led first and foremost by an economy heading quickly towards recession.
And with the very conservative right wing of the GOP leading the way, one can expect further insurances from state legislatures that full abortion bans will be the norm.