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babylonsister
babylonsister's Journal
babylonsister's Journal
September 19, 2020
9/19/20 12:38pm
Dahlia Lithwick: Start Scaring Republicans About Ginsburg Replacement Now
Slate’s Dahlia Lithwick urged Democrats to immediately threaten changes to the Supreme Court if Republicans try to ram through a conservative replacement for Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
By NewsHound Ellen
Video @ link~
Slate’s Dahlia Lithwick urged Democrats to immediately threaten changes to the Supreme Court if Republicans try to ram through a conservative replacement for Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
On AM Joy this morning, Lithwick and Joy Reid discussed the battle ahead over Ginsburg’s seat on the Supreme Court. Reid played a clip of Joe Biden saying Republicans should adopt the same stance now they took in 2016 when they blocked President Barack Obama’s nominee because it was 10 months before a presidential election.
Of course, we know that Republicans care more about power than democracy. And Democrats too often get steamrolled.
But there are glimmers of hope. Noting that Senate Democrats would hold a conference call today to strategize, Reid spoke pointedly about possible tactics, as she quoted a HuffPost article:
Lithwick agreed that gloves must come off now.
Dahlia Lithwick: Start Scaring Republicans About Ginsburg Replacement Now
https://crooksandliars.com/2020/09/dahlia-lithwick-start-scaring-republicans9/19/20 12:38pm
Dahlia Lithwick: Start Scaring Republicans About Ginsburg Replacement Now
Slate’s Dahlia Lithwick urged Democrats to immediately threaten changes to the Supreme Court if Republicans try to ram through a conservative replacement for Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
By NewsHound Ellen
Video @ link~
Slate’s Dahlia Lithwick urged Democrats to immediately threaten changes to the Supreme Court if Republicans try to ram through a conservative replacement for Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
On AM Joy this morning, Lithwick and Joy Reid discussed the battle ahead over Ginsburg’s seat on the Supreme Court. Reid played a clip of Joe Biden saying Republicans should adopt the same stance now they took in 2016 when they blocked President Barack Obama’s nominee because it was 10 months before a presidential election.
Of course, we know that Republicans care more about power than democracy. And Democrats too often get steamrolled.
But there are glimmers of hope. Noting that Senate Democrats would hold a conference call today to strategize, Reid spoke pointedly about possible tactics, as she quoted a HuffPost article:
REID: Democrats, you know, and I think to the relief of a lot the Democratic base, are not just talking. they're planning a response. “Democrats have now threatened, they've warned the Republican party, if they try to fill Ruth Bader Ginsburg's Supreme Court seat, we'll kill the filibuster. Democrats said that Mitch McConnell should wait and respect Ginsburg’s dying wish that the next president fill her seat. Some, however, threaten to eliminate the filibuster and possibly even pack the high court if the Democratic party takes control of the White House and the Senate next year.”
Lithwick agreed that gloves must come off now.
LITHWICK: For decades now, the Republican party has treated the court as though it’s its own plaything, its toy. It's devoted tons and tons of money, I would note dark money - Senator Sheldon Whitehouse has been working on this for a long time - to packing the courts with a certain kind of jurist. And I think there's been massive asymmetry because the Democrats have not necessarily done that. They've in some sense allowed the rhetoric of “the Scalia seat is our seat, it should have been the Bork seat and now it’s gonna be our seat,” and now, “this Ginsburg seat is our seat” allows that rhetoric to go unchecked. …
So, I think it’s exactly right that this framing that the courts just belong to the conservative movement, they belong to the Federalist society because they bought ‘em and they're there – that has to really, I think now be debunked, and the way to debunk it is to scare them.
And so you're quite right. In this one sense only, I disagree with Senator Klobuchar. I don't think we take it off the table. I don't think we say wait and see what happens and then we talk about structural reforms whether it's court packing, whether it's doing away with lifetime tenure, whether it's any number of constitutional reforms that are being floated.
I think we have to say right here, right now, we are going to make you feel the hurt if you continue to treat the court as though it's yours. And I agree with you completely. I think the notion that it is too early to start scaring them with that kind of language is exactly how we got into trouble in 2016.
So, I think it’s exactly right that this framing that the courts just belong to the conservative movement, they belong to the Federalist society because they bought ‘em and they're there – that has to really, I think now be debunked, and the way to debunk it is to scare them.
And so you're quite right. In this one sense only, I disagree with Senator Klobuchar. I don't think we take it off the table. I don't think we say wait and see what happens and then we talk about structural reforms whether it's court packing, whether it's doing away with lifetime tenure, whether it's any number of constitutional reforms that are being floated.
I think we have to say right here, right now, we are going to make you feel the hurt if you continue to treat the court as though it's yours. And I agree with you completely. I think the notion that it is too early to start scaring them with that kind of language is exactly how we got into trouble in 2016.
September 19, 2020
Jurisprudence
What Ruth Bader Ginsburg Would Want America to Do Now
Throughout all of the late-breaking notorious fame, the justice knew that she was just one link in the chain.
By Dahlia Lithwick
Sept 19, 202012:49 AM
snip//
Whenever she spoke, Justice Ginsburg was at pains to say that she stood on the shoulders of giants. At her confirmation hearings, in her prepared statement to the Senate, she was meticulous about who truly deserved the credit for her landmark career, and it wasn’t RBG: “We could not have come to this point—and I surely would not be in this room today—without the determined efforts of men and women who kept dreams of equal citizenship alive in days when few would listen. People like Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Harriet Tubman come to mind. I stand on the shoulders of those brave people.” I never heard her give a public speech in which she didn’t thank, by name, the allies, champions, fighters, of whom she inevitably saw herself as a beneficiary; she cast herself as someone lucky enough to be in a long line of champions and fighters, and also as someone set and determined to pay it forward to the people who would someday stand on her shoulders. She was a link in a chain, albeit a link lucky enough to score a crown when she was old enough to collect social security.
Justice Ginsburg was reserved and cautious and careful with her words, but I also think she never truly wanted her career and the progress for which she toiled, day in and day out, sleeplessly and through illness, to be just her own. Maybe it was because she was almost always a part of some bigger entity; an ACLU project, a law school class, a court, another court. She talked about soloists a lot, but she didn’t do a lot of solos. Instead, she saw herself as part of something bigger, some that started with her mother’s passions, and the help of her professors, and boosters, and friends. And of course, she knew that she lived as the repository of her beloved husband Marty’s hopes for a better future, and his endless efforts to do what he could to make it so. The world they envisioned was one that might be created thanks to the work we have all done, the marches we have marched, the fights we have fought, the protests we have protested. It was always a collective effort. And every time a door closed, or a clerkship was declined, or an all-male court found her to be weirdly female—whatever team she was on, she hunkered down and regrouped and pushed forward again.
Justice Ginsburg’s personal fame—the bedazzling fandom that suddenly sprung up around her—was improbable because to her, it was always about the people who paved the way, and the people who would follow after. I think perhaps she got a kick out of the idea that the young ones who came after might be moved and inspired and lit up by her stardom and her integrity and her grit; that they might go to law school or sign a petition or go on a march thanks to her. And while the loss of Justice Ginsburg is gutting, and lacerating, and brutally sad, her entire life and work has been in service to the idea that the rest of us are in fact capable of being allies and helpers and boosters and supporters, and also that the generations that are disconsolate tonight, for the lack of a hero, are themselves capable of stepping into her teeny tiny mighty three-inch-heeled terrifyingly fabulous shoes and taking up the work she didn’t begin but merely inherited from those who came before.
America has lost a warrior and it’s OK to be crushed. I am flattened. And I will mourn, because she deserves to be mourned. But we are also facing an almighty battle that will rage in the coming weeks, with attempts to fill her seat in an unseemly and grotesque manner. It will be hard, and painful, but if you find yourself feeling hopeless and powerless, then you are empathically doing it wrong. Because if anyone had a right to say “nah,” it was the woman who couldn’t get a job or a clerkship after graduating at the top of her class. But she pushed on, and then she pushed forward. She stepped into the fight of the phenomenal women who paved the path before, and now, well, it’s time to step into her fight and get it finished. I think the Notorious RBG would have peered owlishly out at all of us tonight and asked what the heck we are waiting for. And I think we can probably honor her best by getting to it.
Dahlia Lithwick: What Ruth Bader Ginsburg Would Want America to Do Now
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2020/09/ruth-bader-ginsburg-remembrance-what-now.html?via=featuresJurisprudence
What Ruth Bader Ginsburg Would Want America to Do Now
Throughout all of the late-breaking notorious fame, the justice knew that she was just one link in the chain.
By Dahlia Lithwick
Sept 19, 202012:49 AM
snip//
Whenever she spoke, Justice Ginsburg was at pains to say that she stood on the shoulders of giants. At her confirmation hearings, in her prepared statement to the Senate, she was meticulous about who truly deserved the credit for her landmark career, and it wasn’t RBG: “We could not have come to this point—and I surely would not be in this room today—without the determined efforts of men and women who kept dreams of equal citizenship alive in days when few would listen. People like Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Harriet Tubman come to mind. I stand on the shoulders of those brave people.” I never heard her give a public speech in which she didn’t thank, by name, the allies, champions, fighters, of whom she inevitably saw herself as a beneficiary; she cast herself as someone lucky enough to be in a long line of champions and fighters, and also as someone set and determined to pay it forward to the people who would someday stand on her shoulders. She was a link in a chain, albeit a link lucky enough to score a crown when she was old enough to collect social security.
Justice Ginsburg was reserved and cautious and careful with her words, but I also think she never truly wanted her career and the progress for which she toiled, day in and day out, sleeplessly and through illness, to be just her own. Maybe it was because she was almost always a part of some bigger entity; an ACLU project, a law school class, a court, another court. She talked about soloists a lot, but she didn’t do a lot of solos. Instead, she saw herself as part of something bigger, some that started with her mother’s passions, and the help of her professors, and boosters, and friends. And of course, she knew that she lived as the repository of her beloved husband Marty’s hopes for a better future, and his endless efforts to do what he could to make it so. The world they envisioned was one that might be created thanks to the work we have all done, the marches we have marched, the fights we have fought, the protests we have protested. It was always a collective effort. And every time a door closed, or a clerkship was declined, or an all-male court found her to be weirdly female—whatever team she was on, she hunkered down and regrouped and pushed forward again.
Justice Ginsburg’s personal fame—the bedazzling fandom that suddenly sprung up around her—was improbable because to her, it was always about the people who paved the way, and the people who would follow after. I think perhaps she got a kick out of the idea that the young ones who came after might be moved and inspired and lit up by her stardom and her integrity and her grit; that they might go to law school or sign a petition or go on a march thanks to her. And while the loss of Justice Ginsburg is gutting, and lacerating, and brutally sad, her entire life and work has been in service to the idea that the rest of us are in fact capable of being allies and helpers and boosters and supporters, and also that the generations that are disconsolate tonight, for the lack of a hero, are themselves capable of stepping into her teeny tiny mighty three-inch-heeled terrifyingly fabulous shoes and taking up the work she didn’t begin but merely inherited from those who came before.
America has lost a warrior and it’s OK to be crushed. I am flattened. And I will mourn, because she deserves to be mourned. But we are also facing an almighty battle that will rage in the coming weeks, with attempts to fill her seat in an unseemly and grotesque manner. It will be hard, and painful, but if you find yourself feeling hopeless and powerless, then you are empathically doing it wrong. Because if anyone had a right to say “nah,” it was the woman who couldn’t get a job or a clerkship after graduating at the top of her class. But she pushed on, and then she pushed forward. She stepped into the fight of the phenomenal women who paved the path before, and now, well, it’s time to step into her fight and get it finished. I think the Notorious RBG would have peered owlishly out at all of us tonight and asked what the heck we are waiting for. And I think we can probably honor her best by getting to it.
September 19, 2020
Schumer: Ruth Bader Ginsburg seat should be filled by next president
By Jordain Carney - 09/18/20 08:13 PM EDT
Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) said Friday night that the Senate should wait until next year to fill the Supreme Court seat left vacant by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg's death.
"The American people should have a voice in the selection of their next Supreme Court Justice. Therefore, this vacancy should not be filled until we have a new president," Schumer said in a tweet.
Schumer's tweet comes less than an hour after news broke that Ginsburg had died Friday at 87, throwing a landmine into an already chaotic presidential election year.
Schumer's tweet is a word-for-word copy of a statement Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) released in 2016 after the election-year death of the late conservative Justice Antonin Scalia.
It also points to the looming battle over whether Senate Republicans will try to fill the seat in an election year, after leaving Scalia's seat open until 2017 when President Trump appointed and the GOP-controlled Senate confirmed Justice Neil Gorsuch.
McConnell, who is up for reelection, has vowed that he will try to fill an open seat. His office didn't immediately respond to a request for comment about Ginsburg's passing.
"If you're asking me a hypothetical ... we would fill it," McConnell told Fox News in February.
But a handful of Republicans have been non-committal about if they would support filing an election-year vacancy, though they will likely face intense pressure from conservative activists and their own colleagues to do so. With a 53-47 majority, McConnell could lose three GOP senators and still let Vice President Pence break a tie.
According to the Congressional Research Service it takes an average of nearly 70 days for a Supreme Court nomination to be confirmed from the time they are nominated. That would put a confirmation vote on Ginsburg's successor, if Republicans move forward, during the end-of-year lame duck session.
Schumer: Ruth Bader Ginsburg seat should be filled by next president
https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/517167-schumer-ruth-bader-ginsburg-seat-should-be-filled-by-next-presidentSchumer: Ruth Bader Ginsburg seat should be filled by next president
By Jordain Carney - 09/18/20 08:13 PM EDT
Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) said Friday night that the Senate should wait until next year to fill the Supreme Court seat left vacant by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg's death.
"The American people should have a voice in the selection of their next Supreme Court Justice. Therefore, this vacancy should not be filled until we have a new president," Schumer said in a tweet.
Schumer's tweet comes less than an hour after news broke that Ginsburg had died Friday at 87, throwing a landmine into an already chaotic presidential election year.
Schumer's tweet is a word-for-word copy of a statement Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) released in 2016 after the election-year death of the late conservative Justice Antonin Scalia.
It also points to the looming battle over whether Senate Republicans will try to fill the seat in an election year, after leaving Scalia's seat open until 2017 when President Trump appointed and the GOP-controlled Senate confirmed Justice Neil Gorsuch.
McConnell, who is up for reelection, has vowed that he will try to fill an open seat. His office didn't immediately respond to a request for comment about Ginsburg's passing.
"If you're asking me a hypothetical ... we would fill it," McConnell told Fox News in February.
But a handful of Republicans have been non-committal about if they would support filing an election-year vacancy, though they will likely face intense pressure from conservative activists and their own colleagues to do so. With a 53-47 majority, McConnell could lose three GOP senators and still let Vice President Pence break a tie.
“When Republicans held off Merrick Garland it was because nine months prior to the election was too close, we needed to let people decide. And I agreed to do that. If we now say that months prior to the election is OK when nine months was not, that is a double standard and I don’t believe we should do it,” Sen. Lisa Murkowksi (R-Alaska) said earlier this year.
Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) indicated to The New York Times earlier this month that she also would not support filling a Supreme Court vacancy in the final weeks before an election, and would oppose filing the seat in the lame duck if the president lost in November.
“I think that’s too close, I really do,” she said.
“I think that’s too close, I really do,” she said.
According to the Congressional Research Service it takes an average of nearly 70 days for a Supreme Court nomination to be confirmed from the time they are nominated. That would put a confirmation vote on Ginsburg's successor, if Republicans move forward, during the end-of-year lame duck session.
September 19, 2020
Pelosi orders Capitol flags at half-staff to honor Ginsburg
By Jesse Byrnes - 09/18/20 08:27 PM EDT
Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on Friday night ordered flags at the U.S. Capitol to be flown at half-staff following the death of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
Pelosi spokesman Drew Hammill shared the news about Pelosi's order on Twitter. Hammill confirmed to The Hill that the flags would remain at half-staff until Ginsburg is laid to rest, as is tradition.
Ginsburg died Friday night at the age of 87 following a battle with metastatic pancreatic cancer.
A private interment service will be held at Arlington National Cemetery, the Supreme Court said, though a date has not been released.
Ginsburg was the court's liberal leader and was a trailblazing champion of women's rights.
Pelosi orders Capitol flags at half-staff to honor Ginsburg
https://thehill.com/homenews/house/517172-pelosi-orders-capitol-flags-at-half-staff-to-honor-ginsburgPelosi orders Capitol flags at half-staff to honor Ginsburg
By Jesse Byrnes - 09/18/20 08:27 PM EDT
Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on Friday night ordered flags at the U.S. Capitol to be flown at half-staff following the death of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
Pelosi spokesman Drew Hammill shared the news about Pelosi's order on Twitter. Hammill confirmed to The Hill that the flags would remain at half-staff until Ginsburg is laid to rest, as is tradition.
Ginsburg died Friday night at the age of 87 following a battle with metastatic pancreatic cancer.
A private interment service will be held at Arlington National Cemetery, the Supreme Court said, though a date has not been released.
Ginsburg was the court's liberal leader and was a trailblazing champion of women's rights.
September 19, 2020
Robert Reich on the passing of SCJ Ruth Bader Ginsburg
https://www.facebook.com/RBReichI am truly crushed. Justice Ginsburg's indomitable strength and courage was a guiding light in these dark times. We will never be able to fully convey our gratitude to her commitment to justice and equality in the face of incredible odds, which she carried out until her last breath on this earth. I am heartbroken for her and her family, and for all she meant to our country. May her legacy continue to inspire the struggle for a more just America.
September 18, 2020
The Rude Pundit
Proudly lowering the level of political discourse
9/18/2020
Trump to Over Half of America: You're Not Americans
One reason that Donald Trump ignored the COVID-19 pandemic in the early phases was because it was primarily affecting blue states. He saw an opportunity to punish the places that didn't vote for him, and he decided to let them suffer. It's likely that he thought the rest of the country would be marginally affected, and when the virus spread in the way that every legitimate medical expert said it would spread, it was too late to close the Pandora's box he had opened. Rather than admit error and change strategies, Trump merely did the bare minimum to make it look like he wasn't the accessory to murder that he was. And is.
Now, after saying it in one of his meaningless press briefings, Trump has made it a line in his cut-rate Nazi rallies: remove the states that didn't vote for him from the count of COVID cases and deaths, and he's saved the country. As he said in his Wisconsin speech last night, "But if you want to really see a great job, take New York and some of these other Democrat run states out of it."
Putting aside the absurdity of the remark - as comedian Laurie Kilmartin put it, "Hurricane Sally has not flooded a single American city if you only look at the Blue States" - and putting aside that, even by that measure, the United States would still have one of the worst records when it comes to the coronavirus, think for a moment about a president saying that deaths and disease in half the country shouldn't matter as much. Think about the cruelty of it, yes, but think about the rank dismissal of even the people who voted for Trump in those states. Think about what that says about how this president, this administration, these Republicans view us.
Essentially, Trump has been saying that we're not Americans, that we are intruders in his country, the one that worships him and believes every word he says and despises anyone who claims he's wrong and a failure.
snip//
The rhetoric Trump is using toward anyone slightly left of Violently Racist is getting increasingly unhinged, frantic, and dangerous. I've been watching politicians rant about socialists and liberals taking over since at least Ronald Reagan (who, as we constantly need to remind everyone, was terrible). It's a tradition in right-wing politics to fearmonger about how leftists will force you to use the American flag as toilet paper while making your lily-white daughters breed with non-whites and give birth to mongrels while taking all your money to give to lazy poor people. In some ways, Trump is giving morons the SparkNotes version of the entire history of anti-liberal lies. "If Biden wins, the mob wins. If Biden wins, the rioters, anarchists, arsonists, and flag burners," he said last night and at other times, tossing every buzzword from the 1920s to the 1990s into the pot. Meanwhile, the people who attend his rallies are "loyal, hard-working American patriots." In other words, you can't be a patriot if you don't support him. You can't love your country unless you love him.
more...
https://rudepundit.blogspot.com/2020/09/trump-to-over-half-of-america-youre-not.html
The Rude Pundit: Trump to Over Half of America: You're Not Americans
The Rude Pundit
Proudly lowering the level of political discourse
9/18/2020
Trump to Over Half of America: You're Not Americans
One reason that Donald Trump ignored the COVID-19 pandemic in the early phases was because it was primarily affecting blue states. He saw an opportunity to punish the places that didn't vote for him, and he decided to let them suffer. It's likely that he thought the rest of the country would be marginally affected, and when the virus spread in the way that every legitimate medical expert said it would spread, it was too late to close the Pandora's box he had opened. Rather than admit error and change strategies, Trump merely did the bare minimum to make it look like he wasn't the accessory to murder that he was. And is.
Now, after saying it in one of his meaningless press briefings, Trump has made it a line in his cut-rate Nazi rallies: remove the states that didn't vote for him from the count of COVID cases and deaths, and he's saved the country. As he said in his Wisconsin speech last night, "But if you want to really see a great job, take New York and some of these other Democrat run states out of it."
Putting aside the absurdity of the remark - as comedian Laurie Kilmartin put it, "Hurricane Sally has not flooded a single American city if you only look at the Blue States" - and putting aside that, even by that measure, the United States would still have one of the worst records when it comes to the coronavirus, think for a moment about a president saying that deaths and disease in half the country shouldn't matter as much. Think about the cruelty of it, yes, but think about the rank dismissal of even the people who voted for Trump in those states. Think about what that says about how this president, this administration, these Republicans view us.
Essentially, Trump has been saying that we're not Americans, that we are intruders in his country, the one that worships him and believes every word he says and despises anyone who claims he's wrong and a failure.
snip//
The rhetoric Trump is using toward anyone slightly left of Violently Racist is getting increasingly unhinged, frantic, and dangerous. I've been watching politicians rant about socialists and liberals taking over since at least Ronald Reagan (who, as we constantly need to remind everyone, was terrible). It's a tradition in right-wing politics to fearmonger about how leftists will force you to use the American flag as toilet paper while making your lily-white daughters breed with non-whites and give birth to mongrels while taking all your money to give to lazy poor people. In some ways, Trump is giving morons the SparkNotes version of the entire history of anti-liberal lies. "If Biden wins, the mob wins. If Biden wins, the rioters, anarchists, arsonists, and flag burners," he said last night and at other times, tossing every buzzword from the 1920s to the 1990s into the pot. Meanwhile, the people who attend his rallies are "loyal, hard-working American patriots." In other words, you can't be a patriot if you don't support him. You can't love your country unless you love him.
more...
https://rudepundit.blogspot.com/2020/09/trump-to-over-half-of-america-youre-not.html
September 18, 2020
Every Newspaper Should Be Calling on Donald Trump to Resign
It is beyond doubt that the current president has "failed to put his nation's interests first."
By Charles P. Pierce
Sep 18, 2020
My favorite statistic of this misbegotten era—and by "favorite," I mean the one most likely to make me drain the Earth's entire supply of whiskey—is the one that press critic Eric Boehlert likes to toss around when he reminds us that more than 100 of the nation's newspapers called for Bill Clinton to resign during the Great Penis Chase of 1998. Clinton, we were told, over and over again, had demonstrated his unfitness for the office of president because of his relationship with Monica Lewinsky. As Boehlert recalled in his essential Press Run newsletter:
Yet, as Boehlert points out, none of these guardians of the people's liberties has called for the resignation of a president* who dishonors the presidency just by getting out of bed in the East Wing every morning. It probably wouldn't do any material good; Clinton ignored the calls for his resignation, too. But it would be a demonstration that another institution was pushing back against a criminal presidency*, the fundamental incompetence of which has contributed to the deaths of over 200,000 citizens.
The New York Times, which has not called for the president*'s resignation either, has the latest entry in a bill of indictment that now reaches from the Potomac to a spot somewhere in north Georgia.
As the Times notes, this isn't the first time that political hacks installed at HHS have monkeywrenched documents from the CDC regarding public safety during the pandemic. BUT WE GOT FOOTBALL AGAIN! Jesus. That any thinking human being would vote for four more years of this madness makes me wonder if Darwin wasted a lot of time.
Charles P. Pierce: Every Newspaper Should Be Calling on Donald Trump to Resign
https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a34073191/trump-hhs-meddle-in-cdc-testing-guidance/Every Newspaper Should Be Calling on Donald Trump to Resign
It is beyond doubt that the current president has "failed to put his nation's interests first."
By Charles P. Pierce
Sep 18, 2020
My favorite statistic of this misbegotten era—and by "favorite," I mean the one most likely to make me drain the Earth's entire supply of whiskey—is the one that press critic Eric Boehlert likes to toss around when he reminds us that more than 100 of the nation's newspapers called for Bill Clinton to resign during the Great Penis Chase of 1998. Clinton, we were told, over and over again, had demonstrated his unfitness for the office of president because of his relationship with Monica Lewinsky. As Boehlert recalled in his essential Press Run newsletter:
"He should resign because he has resolutely failed — and continues to fail — the most fundamental test of any president: to put his nation's interests first," USA Today announced unequivocally of Bill Clinton in September 1998. "Bill Clinton should resign, echoed the Philadelphia Inquirer. "He should resign because his repeated, reckless deceits have dishonored his presidency beyond repair." The Denver Post, Washington Times, Orlando Sentinel, San Antonio Express-News, Anchorage Daily News, and Manchester (N.H.) Union Leader were among the dailies that joined the resignation chorus.
Yet, as Boehlert points out, none of these guardians of the people's liberties has called for the resignation of a president* who dishonors the presidency just by getting out of bed in the East Wing every morning. It probably wouldn't do any material good; Clinton ignored the calls for his resignation, too. But it would be a demonstration that another institution was pushing back against a criminal presidency*, the fundamental incompetence of which has contributed to the deaths of over 200,000 citizens.
The New York Times, which has not called for the president*'s resignation either, has the latest entry in a bill of indictment that now reaches from the Potomac to a spot somewhere in north Georgia.
The guidance said it was not necessary to test people without symptoms of Covid-19 even if they had been exposed to the virus. It came at a time when public health experts were pushing for more testing rather than less, and administration officials told The Times that the document was a C.D.C. product and had been revised with input from the agency’s director, Dr. Robert Redfield. But officials told The Times this week that the Department of Health and Human Services did the rewriting and then “dropped” it into the C.D.C.’s public website, flouting the agency’s strict scientific review process. “That was a doc that came from the top down, from the H.H.S. and the task force,” said a federal official with knowledge of the matter, referring to the White House task force on the coronavirus. “That policy does not reflect what many people at the C.D.C. feel should be the policy.”
As the Times notes, this isn't the first time that political hacks installed at HHS have monkeywrenched documents from the CDC regarding public safety during the pandemic. BUT WE GOT FOOTBALL AGAIN! Jesus. That any thinking human being would vote for four more years of this madness makes me wonder if Darwin wasted a lot of time.
September 18, 2020
Biden Aced His Town Hall Meeting, Trump Did Not
September 18, 2020 at 8:29 am EDT By Taegan Goddard 96 Comments
Biden Aced His Town Hall Meeting, Trump Did Not
https://politicalwire.com/2020/09/18/biden-aced-his-town-hall-meeting-trump-did-not/Biden Aced His Town Hall Meeting, Trump Did Not
September 18, 2020 at 8:29 am EDT By Taegan Goddard 96 Comments
Jonathan Bernstein: “Donald Trump is lucky that presidential elections aren’t decided by televised town-hall meetings. If they were, after his effort on ABC on Tuesday and Joe Biden’s on CNN Thursday, Trump would be lucky to clear 100 electoral votes. It’s not that Biden was all that great — he was fine, but nothing special. It’s that Trump was that bad, and in ways that made his opponent look even better.”
“The secret of these events, in which candidates answer questions directly from voters, is that they’re easy. For one thing, voters tend to ask policy questions, not process ones, and they’re usually pretty straightforward — what are you going to do about such-and-such? Normal politicians can easily anticipate the topics, and usually have a prepared riff or a five-point plan to address them. Biden did some of that Thursday night. He’s not great at it, not nearly as strong as (for example) Senator Elizabeth Warren is. But he’s good enough. And he’s usually excellent at taking advantage of the other opportunity the format provides, which is to show the ability to connect with voters and empathize with them.”
“Trump is barely able to do either of these things. He did manage to demonstrate empathy a couple of times on Tuesday, but unfortunately in one case he misunderstood the questioner and thought that her mother had died from the pandemic when in fact she had died of cancer. Most of the time, though, he didn’t bother. It’s not just that he didn’t get emotional. He didn’t seem to be listening to the questions.”
Dave Wasserman: “Watching this town hall, I’m seeing a Biden who’s actually a bit sharper/crisper than he was in the early Democratic debates. It’s almost as if he might have been out of practice early on, rather than out of it.“
“The secret of these events, in which candidates answer questions directly from voters, is that they’re easy. For one thing, voters tend to ask policy questions, not process ones, and they’re usually pretty straightforward — what are you going to do about such-and-such? Normal politicians can easily anticipate the topics, and usually have a prepared riff or a five-point plan to address them. Biden did some of that Thursday night. He’s not great at it, not nearly as strong as (for example) Senator Elizabeth Warren is. But he’s good enough. And he’s usually excellent at taking advantage of the other opportunity the format provides, which is to show the ability to connect with voters and empathize with them.”
“Trump is barely able to do either of these things. He did manage to demonstrate empathy a couple of times on Tuesday, but unfortunately in one case he misunderstood the questioner and thought that her mother had died from the pandemic when in fact she had died of cancer. Most of the time, though, he didn’t bother. It’s not just that he didn’t get emotional. He didn’t seem to be listening to the questions.”
Dave Wasserman: “Watching this town hall, I’m seeing a Biden who’s actually a bit sharper/crisper than he was in the early Democratic debates. It’s almost as if he might have been out of practice early on, rather than out of it.“
September 18, 2020
Parents and students outraged after Texas high school assigns ‘hero’ essay about Kenosha shooter Kyle Rittenhouse
By David Matthews
New York Daily News |
Sep 17, 2020 at 2:49 PM
A homework assignment from a Texas high school English class is raising a few eyebrows after students were asked to write about "hero” Kenosha shooter Kyle Rittenhouse.
Rittenhouse, 17, faces charges of first-degree intentional homicide, first-degree reckless homicide, attempted first-degree intentional homicide, possession of a dangerous weapon by a person under 18, and two counts of first-degree reckless endangerment after he shot protesters, killing two and injuring one, who were rallying following the police shooting of Jacob Blake by Kenosha, Wis., police in August.
Students at W.T. White High School in Dallas were given an assignment, dubbed “Hero for the Modern Age,” which called for students to write half-page biographies of Mahatma Gandhi, César Chávez, Malcolm X, George Floyd, Rittenhouse and Joseph D. Rosenbaum, one of Rittenhouse’s alleged victims.
The assignment also misspelled Gandhi and Malcolm X, according to CBS Dallas Fort Worth.
“From the spelling, to the grammar, no women on the list… and then a white supremacist murderer,” Kristian, a relative of one of the students who did not want to provide her last name, said to CBS News 11 while the saying the teacher’s lack of judgment made them unsuitable for teaching children. Several students who received the assignment also complained about it on social media.
more...
https://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/ny-texas-high-school-kyle-rittenhouse-hero-essay-20200917-25cpoaiqmjae3ms56wbca327w4-story.html
Parents and students outraged after Texas high school assigns 'hero' essay about Kenosha shooter..
Parents and students outraged after Texas high school assigns ‘hero’ essay about Kenosha shooter Kyle Rittenhouse
By David Matthews
New York Daily News |
Sep 17, 2020 at 2:49 PM
A homework assignment from a Texas high school English class is raising a few eyebrows after students were asked to write about "hero” Kenosha shooter Kyle Rittenhouse.
Rittenhouse, 17, faces charges of first-degree intentional homicide, first-degree reckless homicide, attempted first-degree intentional homicide, possession of a dangerous weapon by a person under 18, and two counts of first-degree reckless endangerment after he shot protesters, killing two and injuring one, who were rallying following the police shooting of Jacob Blake by Kenosha, Wis., police in August.
Students at W.T. White High School in Dallas were given an assignment, dubbed “Hero for the Modern Age,” which called for students to write half-page biographies of Mahatma Gandhi, César Chávez, Malcolm X, George Floyd, Rittenhouse and Joseph D. Rosenbaum, one of Rittenhouse’s alleged victims.
The assignment also misspelled Gandhi and Malcolm X, according to CBS Dallas Fort Worth.
“From the spelling, to the grammar, no women on the list… and then a white supremacist murderer,” Kristian, a relative of one of the students who did not want to provide her last name, said to CBS News 11 while the saying the teacher’s lack of judgment made them unsuitable for teaching children. Several students who received the assignment also complained about it on social media.
more...
https://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/ny-texas-high-school-kyle-rittenhouse-hero-essay-20200917-25cpoaiqmjae3ms56wbca327w4-story.html
September 17, 2020
Trump Charged Secret Service for Rooms It Could Not Use
Have I mentioned in the past day what a POS he really is? 
https://politicalwire.com/2020/09/17/trump-charged-secret-service-for-rooms-it-could-not-use/
Trump Charged Secret Service for Rooms It Could Not Use
September 17, 2020 at 12:03 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard
“President Trump’s luxury properties have charged the U.S. government more than $1.1 million in private transactions since Trump took office — including for room rentals at his Bedminster, N.J., club this spring while it was closed for the coronavirus pandemic,” the Washington Post reports.
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