Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy Is Retiring

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1. patriciasplaceblog says:

   June 27, 2018 at 2:52 pm

   And I thought I was having a bad political day yesterday. Will there ever be a good day again? Get out the vote in the midterms. It is about the only thing we have the potential to control now. Reading “The Handmaid’s Tale” recently has only added to my agitation. Well, I will do what I vow to do on days like this, take one step to support the resistance–make a call, write and email, join a march. I will go to DC this weekend. Resist despair!

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2. Arthur Goldstein says:

   June 27, 2018 at 2:56 pm

   Who’s next? Rudy Giuliani? George Zimmerman? Roy Moore? That sheriff who runs a concentration camp and blows up dogs? I’m confident Trump will make SCOTUS great again.

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   • FLERP! says:

     June 27, 2018 at 2:59 pm

     https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/heres-trumps-list-of-25-possible-supreme-court-nominees

     Amy Coney Barrett of Indiana, U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit
     Keith Blackwell of Georgia, Supreme Court of Georgia
     Charles Canady of Florida, Supreme Court of Florida
     Steven Colloton of Iowa, U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit
     Allison Eid of Colorado, U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit
     Britt Grant of Georgia, Supreme Court of Georgia
     Raymond Gruender of Missouri, U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit
     Thomas Hardiman of Pennsylvania, U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit
     Brett Kavanaugh of Maryland, U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit
     Raymond Kethledge of Michigan, U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit
     Joan Larsen of Michigan, U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit
     Mike Lee of Utah, senator
     Thomas Lee of Utah, Supreme Court of Utah
     Edward Mansfield of Iowa, Supreme Court of Iowa
     Federico Moreno of Florida, U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida
     Kevin Newsom of Alabama, U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit
     William Pryor of Alabama, U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit
     Margaret Ryan of Virginia, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces
     David Stras of Minnesota, U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit
     Diane Sykes of Wisconsin, U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit
     Amul Thapar of Kentucky, U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit
     Timothy Tymkovich of Colorado, U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit
     Robert Young of Michigan, Supreme Court of Michigan (retired)
     Don Willett of Texas, Supreme Court of Texas
     Patrick Wyrick of Oklahoma, Supreme Court of Oklahoma

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     • NYC public school parent says:

       June 27, 2018 at 4:14 pm

       Is this the Federalist Society/Heritage Foundation approved list?

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   • FLERP! says:

     June 27, 2018 at 3:00 pm

     Here’s his list:

     Amy Coney Barrett of Indiana, U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit
     Keith Blackwell of Georgia, Supreme Court of Georgia
     Ch@rles Canady of Florida, Supreme Court of Florida
     Steven Colloton of Iowa, U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit
     Allison Eid of Colorado, U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit
     Britt Grant of Georgia, Supreme Court of Georgia
     Raymond Gruender of Missouri, U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit
     Thomas Hardiman of Pennsylvania, U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit
     Brett Kavanaugh of Maryland, U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit
     Raymond Kethledge of Michigan, U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit
     Joan Larsen of Michigan, U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit
     Mike Lee of Utah, senator
     Thomas Lee of Utah, Supreme Court of Utah
     Edward Mansfield of Iowa, Supreme Court of Iowa
     Federico Moreno of Florida, U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida
     Kevin Newsom of Alabama, U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit
     William Pryor of Alabama, U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit
     Margaret Ryan of Virginia, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces
     David Stras of Minnesota, U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit
     Diane Sykes of Wisconsin, U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit
     Amul Thapar of Kentucky, U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit
     Timothy Tymkovich of Colorado, U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit
     Robert Young of Michigan, Supreme Court of Michigan (retired)
     Don Willett of Texas, Supreme Court of Texas
     Patrick Wyrick of Oklahoma, Supreme Court of Oklahoma

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     • dianeravitch says:

       June 27, 2018 at 3:27 pm

       Why isn’t Bozo the Clown on this list? Too leftwing?

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   • NYC public school parent says:

     June 27, 2018 at 3:05 pm

     But I kept hearing that this is exactly what Hillary Clinton would have appointed if she were elected by the smug people who kept insisting that the Democratic Party was so evil that it absolutely didn’t matter who won.

     And now they will blame the Democrats for not nominating their perfect candidate because that is so much easier than recognizing that they were played for fools by rich billionaires who can’t wait until the Supreme Court strikes down more of the laws that protect democracy.

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     • Norwegian Filmmaker says:

       June 27, 2018 at 10:25 pm

       Really?

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     • NYC public school parent says:

       June 28, 2018 at 12:02 am

       Not sure what “really?” means.

       I am sure that if Hillary Clinton had 2 Supreme Court appointments, we would be a very different country.

       Many of the Christian right voted for Trump because they wanted exactly this outcome — Trump turning the Court to the far right. Many of us who voted for Hillary wanted her to win because they wanted exactly the opposite outcome — the replacement of Scalia and other retiring justices with moderate or liberals to swing it more left.

       And other people didn’t care. It made no difference to them who appointed the Justices. I expect they have nothing to add to this discussion since they made their point already — they don’t really care who appoints the next Justices.

       I just hope they have changed their minds and will admit that they were wrong not to care. Or if they still don’t care whether the Supreme Court is run from the far right for the next decade or more, then they have the right to that opinion. I don’t agree.

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     • bethree5 says:

       June 28, 2018 at 6:56 pm

       I expect Hillary’s first appointment would have been Merrick Garland.

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   • FLERP! says:

     June 27, 2018 at 3:11 pm

     There’s a list of 25 judges that Trump published late last year. Tried to post it twice — the first post got hung up in moderation and the second one just disappeared after it went up.

     Impossible to say, obviously. Brett Kavanaugh is one name that will probably float to the top quickly, as he’s a former Kennedy clerk. If I had to bet, I would not bet on Trump picking someone who’s totally out of left field. He’ll probably go with an established federal judge, or maybe a state supreme court justice. Think Gorsuch, part II.

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     • NYC public school parent says:

       June 27, 2018 at 4:27 pm

       Brett Kavanaugh was Ken Starr’s right hand man.

       I doubt that McConnell will allow any hearings on whoever Trump appoints — the Senate will have to approve it with no oversight — but if there were, I’d love to hear Kavanaugh under oath explain why Linda Tripp changed her taping of Monica Lewinsky from getting details of her sex life to non-stop encouraging her to ask the President for a job. Coincidentally, Ken Starr’s office could not use audiotapes of a President’s illegal affair. But they COULD use audiotapes if the President helped Monica get a job. Good thing Linda Tripp just happened to encourage Monica to do just that after meeting with Kavanaugh’s lawyer buddies from the federalist society. I’m sure Kavanaugh would testify under oath that he knew nothing about it. Or maybe he would be afraid of committing perjury.

       I still vividly recall Ken Starr under oath being asked when he had first heard that a woman was (illegally) recording a woman who had an affair with Bill Clinton. Starr’s stammering and stuttering and hemming and hawing reminded me of Eva Moskowitz when John Merrow asked her why her schools were suspending so many 5 year olds. Like Moskowitz, Starr never actually answered the question.

       Starr could not answer a simple question about when his office — including Brett Kavanaugh — first knew that a woman was illegally recording conversations with Lewinsky. Which suggests that they knew about this illegal activity and looked the other way instead of doing their obligation to report it. That makes Kavanaugh the perfect Trump nominee since they share the same lack of ethical or moral standards.

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     • Threatened Out West says:

       June 27, 2018 at 11:39 pm

       I, myself, am looking for Senator Mike Lee of Utah to explain his pre-senate financial dealings, and his push for the government shut down in 2012.

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3. NYC public school parent says:

   June 27, 2018 at 3:00 pm

   VOTE. Democrat. And quit helping the right wing do their dirty work by blaming the Democrats for not offering up your perfect candidate and repeating the absolute lie that there is no difference between the two parties.

   Only those who claim there is no difference between Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Neil Gorsuch have the right to say there is no difference between the two parties. And if you want to make that truly ignorant argument, then go right ahead and I hope no one believes your nonsense.

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   • NYC public school parent says:

     June 27, 2018 at 3:01 pm

     ^^Correction: Saying there is no difference between Gorsuch and Ginsburg is not “nonsense”. It is an outright lie. And that fact is enough to make anyone who claims there is no difference between the Democrat and Republican party an outright liar.

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4. Gary Turetsky says:

   June 27, 2018 at 3:03 pm

   I’m guessing Michael Cohen is on the short list of replacements. Alan Dershowitz would also be perfect except for his age. But I’m betting on Jay Sekulow to give Trump the majority he needs to overrule Roe v Wade and to declare that this is, indeed, a Christian nation as the Founders intended.
   God help us.

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5. Arthur Camins says:

   June 27, 2018 at 3:19 pm

   If it wasn’t clear before, it certainly is now. We all must vote. It matters. We need Democrats who will steadfastly run on issues that will end the cynicism of stay-at-home, it makes-no-difference, they’re-all-the-same non-voters. That means Democrats standing unabashedly on the side of all working people. It means being explicitly, out-loud for unity and against racist divisiveness. It means rejecting the campaign contributions of self-serving wealthy donors. It means no compromises on Trump’s Supreme Court nominee.

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   • NYC public school parent says:

     June 27, 2018 at 8:33 pm

     We just need DEMOCRATS. The ones who stood “unabashedly” on the side of working people got defeated with help from those who convinced them the entire party was corrupt (see Russ Feingold).

     I’m not going to give the Democrats who oppose the Trump/Koch Brothers agenda a litmus test to decide whether it would be better if some right wing Republican won instead of them because “there’s no difference.”

     Susan Collins HELPS the right wing agenda because she is with them when it counts.

     Susan Collins not being in lockstep with the right wing agenda doesn’t do anything to prevent their agenda. And neither will any Democrat. First they need to win.

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     • Arthur Camins says:

       June 27, 2018 at 9:01 pm

       NYC public school parent:

       Maybe I wasn’t clear. I’ll vote for any Democrat that opposes the Trump/Republican agenda. I voted for Bernie Sanders in the primary, but supported Clinton in the election. In fact, I argue vociferously against those who said they could not bring themselves to vote for a “neoliberal.” (https://www.huffingtonpost.com/arthur-camins/dont-mourn-organize_b_11393230.html). I am making a strategic case for the platform that I think will garner the most support for Democrats. I don’t believe that ambivalence about Democrats is the fault of progressives who argue that candidates have to take stronger stands for working people. See this link for a much longer article about how Democrats lost allegiance: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2018/6/24/1774957/-Mutual-Obligation-Makes-Us-Human?_=2018-06-24T12:30:11.937-07:00

       🙂 Arthur

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     • NYC public school parent says:

       June 28, 2018 at 12:17 am

       I love when progressives say that Democrats have to take stronger stands for working people.

       I hate when progressives say that Democrats are corrupt and money hungry and can’t be trusted because they aren’t taking stronger stands for working people (and they decide what those stands are).

       Hillary Clinton would have done a lot of good for the “working people” with help from the mainstream Democrats. I certainly believe that a more progressive Democrat could have done even MORE good. But until America starts voting in more progressives locally, it seems ridiculous to throw out the good she would have done and be the willing fools of the right wing by mis-characterizing it — lying about it — and calling it corrupt and evil.

       Democrats lost allegiance because voters believed the propaganda and they were helped by the left (and fake left) who fooled them. Meanwhile, the Republicans just gain and gain power while completely abandoning the working class. Maybe you can explain that to me.

       I support honest progressives who fight for their beliefs and work to convince voters why their ideas and policies are better.

       I don’t like dishonest progressives who scapegoat and demonize the Democratic Party because that’s easier than admitting that sometimes the majority of primary voters still prefer more moderate ideas to their progressive ones.

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     • bethree5 says:

       June 28, 2018 at 8:08 pm

       Trump certainly is the slap-in-the-face that should awaken lackadaisical Dems from their non-voting torpor. I’ll admit I went grudgingly to the polls to vote for Hill, but never would have considered doing otherwise. The younger & more apolitical of my millennial sons was too slow off the dime to vote for Bernie, but registered in a hurry when Trump got the nomination. He was at a hockey game the night of 11/7, having voted Dem earlier in the day. He & his friends formed a facebook round-robin at the game, getting every slacker they knew registered/ voted online by deadline.

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6. M says:

   June 27, 2018 at 3:20 pm

   Let’s hope RBG holds out.

   Or we are facing a conservative majority for at least the next half century. And they do not like a pluralistic view of people or that just maybe the framers of the constitution would apply what they wrote 200 years ago in slightly different ways as the republic and social issues changed.

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7. jscheidell says:

   June 27, 2018 at 3:27 pm

   The left is probably going nuts – abject panic today in the Democrat Party – momentous and huge this is. A lot of people are focusing on it, properly so, just like a lot of people are focusing on Joe Crowley losing in New York to the 28-year-old Millennial Marxist. And, of course, on that, people are gonna worry the Democrat leadership, is this a wake-up call for them? Just one district, doesn’t really represent anything.

   The Supreme Court today ruled 5-4 that nonunion workers cannot be forced to pay fees to public sector unions.
   Sam Alito, Samuel Alito wrote the court’s opinion. He said, “Compelling individuals to mouth support for views they find objectionable violates that cardinal constitutional command, and in most contexts, any such effort would be universally condemned.”
   Meaning, these people cannot have their First Amendment rights violated by unions. The unions can’t first coerce money from them and then redirect that money to causes people don’t believe in. Do you know how long this has been going on? This has been going on not only with fees, but union dues and any other myriad number of ways unions collect money from members.

   The American Federation of Teachers 2017-2018 donated six and a half million dollars to the Democrat Party and various liberal groups, none to Republicans. The American Federation of State, City, Municipal Employees, $5,027,000, all to the Democrat Party and liberal groups. We are up to 11 and a half million just with two unions. The National Education Association, $2,300,000, 95% of it the Democrat Party and liberal groups.
   The American Federation of Government employees, $1.8 million. Same scenario; most of it to Democrats and liberal interesting. A smidgen to Republicans. The International Association of Firefighters, one and a half million dollars. Now, it looks like about 30% of that went to Republicans; the rest to the Democrat Party. The National Association of Letter Carriers, $833,000. The American Postal Workers Union, $611,000. This is all in one year.
   The National Active and Retired Federal Employees Association, $481,000. The list keeps going. There aren’t but three of these groups that gave any money to Republicans. That’s why there is abject panic today in the Democrat Party. Let’s go to the audio sound bites starting with sound bite number 2. Jeffrey Toobin on CNN — did you hear about CNN’s ratings? CNN’s audience last week fell below that of the Food Network. The Food Network outrated CNN.

   CNN. The anchorette, Poppy Harlow is talking to Toobin, is a chief legal analyst. She says, “Jeffrey, how significant is it anatomy when we’ve already seen the decline of unions in this country?”
   TOOBIN: It’s a real blow. This is another 5-4 conservative-winning decision like the travel ban case yesterday, like the abortion free speech yesterday, three opinions in two days, all of which illustrate how successful it was that Mitch McConnell stopped Barack Obama from appointing Merrick Garland and saved that seat for Donald Trump, many Democrats believe stole that seat for Donald Trump.

   the Supreme Court is defending the presidency here in some of these cases. Not Trump. They’re defending the Constitution because your little judges out there in the hinterlands are usurping their authority by claiming they can stop federal executive action from their little courthouse bench

   NAPOLITANO: The word is “catastrophic.” The only reason, the principal reason the public sector labor unions have survived to 2018 — they’re a hundred years old — is because states have forced employees to join them. If you look at it from Republican versus Democrat — as you were just discussing with Andy McCarthy — because of some crazy phenomenon where blue-collar union members tend to be more Republican, But their labor union leaders tend to be more Democratic. This is catastrophic for the Democrats.

   • AP: Supreme Court Deals Big Setback to Labor Unions
   • SCOTUS Blog: Gorsuch Stays Mum on Union Fees

   Over the last few days – this retirement Trumps the last 3 decisions – momentous and huge they are. The Presidency powers are solidified and Constitutional!

   Demshave to be scratching their heads and are focusing on Joe Crowley losing in New York to the 28-year-old Millennial Socialist/Marxist/Communist. Bernie Sanders is at least happy – he might offer her a million dollar home in a few years – just think, a socialist making another million but not dispersing it to others hmmmm

   The Supreme Court today ruled 5-4 that nonunion workers cannot be forced to pay fees to public sector unions.

   Sam Alito, Samuel Alito wrote the court’s opinion – “Compelling individuals to mouth support for views they find objectionable violates that cardinal constitutional command, and in most contexts, any such effort would be universally condemned.”

   Meaning, these people cannot have their First Amendment rights violated by unions.

   Some like to do math here – so go figure the possible impact since some of the unions are losing memberships:

   The American Federation of Teachers 2017-2018 donated six and a half million dollars to the Democrat Party and various liberal groups, none to Republicans. The American Federation of State, City, Municipal Employees, $5,027,000, all to the Democrat Party and liberal groups. We are up to 11 and a half million just with two unions. The National Education Association, $2,300,000, 95% of it the Democrat Party and liberal groups.
   The American Federation of Government employees, $1.8 million. Same scenario; most of it to Democrats and liberal interesting. A smidgen to Republicans. The International Association of Firefighters, one and a half million dollars. Now, it looks like about 30% of that went to Republicans; the rest to the Democrat Party. The National Association of Letter Carriers, $833,000. The American Postal Workers Union, $611,000. This is all in one year.
   The National Active and Retired Federal Employees Association, $481,000. The list keeps going. There aren’t but three of these groups that gave any money to Republicans.

   Did you hear about CNN’s ratings? CNN’s audience last week fell below that of the Food Network. The Food Network outrated CNN. Another reason not to follow another one of your mainstream medias – the International CNN is holding the fort!

   Today on CNN – Jeffrey Toobin on CNN —

   CNN. The anchorette, Poppy Harlow is talking to Toobin, is a chief legal analyst. She says, “Jeffrey, how significant is it anatomy when we’ve already seen the decline of unions in this country?”
   TOOBIN: It’s a real blow. This is another 5-4 conservative-winning decision like the travel ban case yesterday, like the abortion free speech yesterday, three opinions in two days, all of which illustrate how successful it was that Mitch McConnell stopped Barack Obama from appointing Merrick Garland and saved that seat for Donald Trump, many Democrats believe stole that seat for Donald Trump.

   The Supreme Court is defending the presidency here in some of these cases. Not Trump. They’re defending the Constitution because your little judges out there in the hinterlands are usurping their authority by claiming they can stop federal executive action from their little courthouse bench

   NAPOLITANO: The word is “catastrophic.” The only reason, the principal reason the public sector labor unions have survived to 2018 — they’re a hundred years old — is because states have forced employees to join them. If you look at it from Republican versus Democrat — as you were just discussing with Andy McCarthy — because of some crazy phenomenon where blue-collar union members tend to be more Republican, But their labor union leaders tend to be more Democratic. This is catastrophic for the Democrats.

   • AP: Supreme Court Deals Big Setback to Labor Unions
   • SCOTUS Blog: Gorsuch Stays Mum on Union Fees

   I still await collusion issue….

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   • dianeravitch says:

     June 27, 2018 at 3:28 pm

     Jscheidell, are you paid by Koch or DeVos or just dumb?

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     • homelesseducator says:

       June 27, 2018 at 5:52 pm

       This is exactly why Trump has said he loves the poorly educated. They can be easily fooled. He calls them smart today. He’s had no problem repeatedly lying to and manipulating the ignorant.

       Pray tell, Trump base: Name all the times in the history of humankind that a wealthy person in power did something life-changing to stop the rich from exploiting the poor and genuinely helped working people to improve their lots in life, including at the expense of their fellow already advantaged family and friends. Describe what they did to remedy the human condition.

       Or how about just in American history? (Hoping for trickle-down and the invisible hand to lift all boats doesn’t count, since decades later, many are still waiting for that, while wages have stagnated, the middle class has diminished and the inequitable distribution of wealth has increased.)

       Surely your list includes both president Roosevelts, TR & FDR. If not, then look them up, because it’s their accomplishments which contributed to the rise of the middle class and that are at risk of being undone by those you voted into power.

       Who else? What other rich people in power looked out for the little guy and aimed to make significant improvements in the quality of life for the less fortunate masses?…..

       At a loss? They didn’t exist. The Roosevelts were an aberration, but the tax on the rich in the 90% range begun under FDR and continued under Eisenhower helped to further grow the middle class.

       This situation is precisely why I voted for the lesser evil, not Don-the-Con.

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     • Norwegian Filmmaker says:

       June 27, 2018 at 10:36 pm

       Most of us are fighting the ignorance of people and NOT the politicians.

       People keep voting against their interests and have become narrow issue or single issue voters, the very symptoms of a very uninformed, disenfranchised, and under-educated population . . . . Also the symptom of a spectacular and breathtaking acumen developed and held by the ruling elite to use propaganda and distraction to shape the people. I call it soft fascism; you call it whatever you want.

       Propaganda is especially embedded in the pop culture, the messages within TV series, the commercials, the mainstream media, you name it.

       I will never give up the notion that with all the new and increasing pain and oppression caused by the overclass, there will arise new parties, new progressivism, new civic participation, newer generations fighting to have a dignified life, and reform, recycling, repurposing, and radical reinvention of some very institutionalized entities, entities of all kinds and of all labels.

       Where there is horror, there is also beauty, hope, and transformation.

       I will never relent on that notion . . . .

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     • bethree5 says:

       June 28, 2018 at 9:10 pm

       “Pray tell, Trump base: Name all the times in the history of humankind that a wealthy person in power… genuinely helped working people to improve their lots in life…?” I think you misunderstand that base.

       As a 20+-yr-each resident of country, then city, then suburb, I had a treasured Sunday comic strip long posted on fridge (it fell apart). It was probably Garry Trudeau, dating from an era when it was common in NYC to see a “No Radio” sign posted in car windows to discourage smash&grabs. The 3 frames were labelled “City,” “Suburb,” “Country,” each depicting the sign in the car window.

       “City” read NO RADIO, with a smaller-print para sympathetically suggesting social services that might help the would-be vandal improve his lot. “Suburb” read RADIO! – with a detailed brag specifying the bells and whistles. And the “Country” sign said, “RADIO? None of Yer G-D Business.”

       The rural culture I grew up in has changed little in the 45 yrs since I’ve left it as far as I can tell (still have relatives onsite). It is a stubbornly self-help crowd which spurns hand-outs, mistrusts outsiders, and lives as far off the grid as humanly possible. They do not want you to know or opine about their way of life. They want to be left alone – and will go to the polls and vote for anyone promising to get the govt out of their life.

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     • Norwegian Filmmaker says:

       June 28, 2018 at 9:56 pm

       Bethree5,

       I pity their ignorance.

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     • bethree5 says:

       June 28, 2018 at 11:02 pm

       Norwegian filmmaker: Whatever. Just good to know who you’re dealing with – might help in crafting a message that gets through.

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     • homelesseducator says:

       June 29, 2018 at 5:08 pm

       Bethree5: Are you saying that people in rural communities are against getting things like Disability and Social Security benefits (not to mention government funded farm subsidies)? If so, then why are they taking them at such high rates?
       “Did you know in rural America, disability benefit rates are twice as high as in urban areas?”
       https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/social-issues/in-rural-america-disability-benefit-rates-are-twice-as-high-as-in-urban-areas/2017/07/22/3e600722-575c-11e7-a204-ad706461fa4f_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.ce8e611c614e

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   • Joe says:

     June 27, 2018 at 4:22 pm

     The republic party is rabidly anti-union. Why would unions give money to a cult that is openly and actively trying to kill unions off. Yes, for the most part, the unions do give to the DEMOCRATIC (DON’T FORGET THE IC) Party though I do admit that too many Democrats like Cuomo are no big friends to teacher unions. jscheidell bloviates just like Rush Limbaugh or Sean Hannity. Hey jscheidell, if you can say Democrat Party, then I can say republic Party. Actually, nowadays, it’s repulsivecans.

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   • Threatened Out West says:

     June 27, 2018 at 11:43 pm

     “Anchorette????” Charming sexism there, along with all of the other ways you’re wrong.

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8. Ed says:

   June 27, 2018 at 3:31 pm

   See this:

   wzzm13.com | Gay rights, climate change could disappear from Michigan social studies
   https://www.wzzm13.com/article/news/education/gay-rights-climate-change-could-disappear-from-michigan-social-studies/69-565649424

   Regressive brainwashing accelerates in the increasingly right-wing United States of AmeriKKKa.

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   • Laura H. Chapman says:

     June 27, 2018 at 3:51 pm

     Yes.

     Comports with the idea that: “Compelling individuals to mouth support for views they find objectionable violates that cardinal constitutional command, and in most contexts, any such effort would be universally condemned.”

     The ruling seems to approve of active censorship of texts in public schools, and the denial of science as the basis of public policy. Clog the courts so bigotry can be affirmed and the work of science can be demonized long after Trump is gone.

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     • bethree5 says:

       June 28, 2018 at 9:32 pm

       It seems a stretch that even a conservative SCOTUS would extrapolate this part of its anti-union-agency-fee decision to a hypothetical case challenging the content of public-school textbooks. More likely they would refer such issues back to the states. Which is where I think it belongs: the last thing we need is SCOTUS or any fed branch involved in specifying textbook content. We’ve seen what fed micromgt in state ed matters buys us. This is an area where the global market can actually help. High-tech mfg is where we’re headed, & hi-tech mfrs do not seek ignorant socially-unaware drone employees.

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9. Wait, what? says:

   June 27, 2018 at 3:40 pm

   5 women out of 25 (possibly more or less – can’t tell completely from names)
   Can’t tell race or ethnicity but should be easy to predict all / most white men

   The gop blocked President Obama’s choice because it was too close to the election (what, a year?). Now they will ramrod their right-wing pro-corporate pro-gerrymandering anti-immigration gun toting white male before the mid-terms.

   Freaking hypocrites.

   Please
   1) GOTV for EVERY SENATE RACE! he picks ’em, SENATE confirms and there will be another vacancy sooner than later
   2) CALL OUT YOUR gop SENATOR and REPRESENTATIVE now is he (presuming they’re mostly “he”) complained or refused to act on Obama’s recommendation. Hypocrites. Freaking hypocrites.
   3) End game question again. This is a perfect storm of right-wing conservatism like we’ve never seen. Then what?

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   • FLERP! says:

     June 27, 2018 at 3:50 pm

     Wait to focus on the important stuff.

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     • dianeravitch says:

       June 27, 2018 at 3:56 pm

       Sorry, but this past 24 hours is hard to bear. I’m feeling as rude and angry and uncivil as that barbarian in the White House everyday. I keep reminding myself that he was not the people’s Choice. The American people chose Hilary, not this reckless fool. Wonder if he will tell Putin to take control of Crimea, Ukraine, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. After all, Europe has been so “unfair” to the USSR.
       I despise Trump. He is destroying our democracy.

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     • Máté Wierdl says:

       June 27, 2018 at 8:25 pm

       Diane “Sorry, but this past 24 hours is hard to bear. I’m feeling as rude and angry and uncivil as that barbarian in the White House everyday. ”

       Well, this Nation article advises not to bury your feelings. It’s ok to put civility aside, for

       To cling to civility is to allow the powerful to commit crimes, as long as they do so with a smile and a handshake.
       

       https://www.thenation.com/article/against-civility/

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     • Mamie Krupczak Allegretti says:

       June 27, 2018 at 4:05 pm

       I agree, Diane. I am very disheartened not to mention pretty frightened by the way this country is going.

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     • NYC public school parent says:

       June 27, 2018 at 4:11 pm

       How is a Supreme Court nominee “unimportant”?

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     • dianeravitch says:

       June 27, 2018 at 4:47 pm

       Are you suggesting that the Muslim Ban and Janus Decision are unimportant? I don’t follow. McConnell has announced that whoever is nominated will be swiftly confirmed this fall.

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     • FLERP! says:

       June 27, 2018 at 5:03 pm

       No, I’m referring to the accounting of how many names on Trump’s list are women and how many are “white men.” Not the politics or jurisprudence or ideology, but the gender and race. (Perhaps “Wait, what?” would prefer another Justice Thomas?) To be frank, this fellow traveler finds the nonstop inveighing against “white men” on the left a bit alienating.

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     • FLERP! says:

       June 27, 2018 at 6:54 pm

       Oh, Diane, I see the confusion. I meant to type “Way to focus on the important stuff,” not “Wait to focus on the important stuff.” (The intended sentence was meant sarcastically.) Autocorrect strikes again.

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     • NYC public school parent says:

       June 27, 2018 at 6:49 pm

       To be frank, I find the nonstop inveighing against this mythical “left” to be quite alienating. Especially when this nonstop inveighing includes the outright lie that the left never stops victimizing the poor white men and supposedly talks non-stop about how they are going to get back at them.

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     • bethree5 says:

       June 28, 2018 at 10:23 pm

       Mâté: good article, good comment thread. Puts Huckabee-Sanders & Nielsen restaurant incidents in context. I was disturbed for a long time at lack of civil disobedience in response to outrageous govt moves – & shocked that when peaceful protests eventually developed, they were called violent &/or illegal by right-wingers – & ‘liberals’ winked/nodded! And thankful that mass civil protests by teachers in underfunded states are yielding results. Ludicrous that Axelrod et al supposed liberals decry these restaurant incidents as uncivil. Huckabee-Sanders & Nielsen deserve every bit of civil backlash they receive & can’t hide behind ‘privacy’: if the kitchen’s too hot, get out of it!

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10. Joe says:

    June 27, 2018 at 4:27 pm

    “Remind me again why the choice for president in 2016 didn’t matter?” Amen, never were truer words spoken. Thanks, Diane.

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11. Laura Lee's Writings says:

    June 27, 2018 at 4:52 pm

    Indeed!

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12. Laura Lee's Writings says:

    June 27, 2018 at 4:55 pm

    Indeed.

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13. John Ogozalek says:

    June 27, 2018 at 5:04 pm

    Depressing. Very, very depressing.

    But I will wake up tomorrow, pull it together, and keep fighting. Because, as a longtime union leader I know said to me many years ago, “This is what we do.”

    But it sure ain’t easy.

    And, it could get worse, much worse, judging from the past.

    Democracy has been the exception to so much of recorded human history.

    I think there is some real confusion these days in our country….So many people seem to confusing being a consumer with being a citizen.

    I hope and pray for some leaders with wisdom. And for millions of citizens to stand up for the things that make the United States truly great -not fakery, ignorance and hatred.

    Luckily, we have you, Diane, and the other people who post on this blog.

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    • dianeravitch says:

      June 27, 2018 at 5:17 pm

      Thank you, John. Sometimes we have to help one another get through these dark days.

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    • LeftCoastTeacher says:

      June 27, 2018 at 10:43 pm

      Well said.

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    • bethree5 says:

      June 28, 2018 at 10:38 pm

      I would like to hear more on “So many people seem to confuse being a consumer with being a citizen.” Sounds intersting. Could you elaborate a bit?

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      • John Ogozalek says:

        June 29, 2018 at 10:55 am

        I’ll try to give you an example of what I’m thinking about (Thanks for asking, by the way.)

        A former student from long ago who is a pretty smart guy…he has a very responsible job…lives are literally in his hands….He posted something on FB recently about the Red Hen/Sarah Sanders issue. He compared it to the baker not wanting to make a cake for a same sex couple. (This is standard FB type stuff….calling out perceived hypocrisy…tut, tut etc..etc…) Anyway, this former student (who I like a lot) then launched into this whole thing about not spending your money at the Red Hen, and trust the capitalist, free market to settle issues on and on. The whole focus was on participating in our society by spending (or not spending) money. The attitude is, well, that’ll show ’em. Solve the debate through the market.

        And, yeah, money DOES count. Boycotts do move the political dial. (For example, Montgomery, AL 1955)

        But, I find that so many people nowadays are busy shopping….online, in stores, practically half their waking hours… that they are confusing spending dollars with casting votes. Being a consumer with being a citizen. Shopping is an economic activity. Going to a public meeting, supporting a candidate, showing up and filling in a ballot, are political activities.

        Of course, Citizens United and our supposed business “genius” president (Yeah, right!) are only further blurring the line between citizen and consumer. A conspiracy theorist would argue it’s actually planned. I don’t know…

        I am fascinated with the how people are using their TIME these days. How DO typical working people have so much time online.. Hours…. What did we do in the past that we are NOT doing now? Or, maybe more accurately, how are we doing those past activities differently now?

        People use this phrase “spend your time.” It’s an old idea. But more and more people are “spending their time”, really, exhausting their moments on this earth, with a dizzying array of tantalizing activities.

        Does our citizenry even have the TIME anymore to participate in our government?

        Or, are so many people willing to cede that freedom to a strong man, an authoritarian like Trump? We’ve almost sort of outsourced part of our political culture to Russia, China and a weirdo little (but VERY dangerous) dictator in North Korea.

        We will see…. I HOPE citizens do get involved in this upcoming midterm election cycle, that’s for sure.

        Thanks again for asking. Sorry to be long winded. I just have this idea rattling around in my brain all the time. I’m just trying to understand it. I’d guess someone like Noam Chomsky has written about it already….named it…..and done a good job of it, too.

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      • bethree5 says:

        June 29, 2018 at 9:04 pm

        Ah, yes. Luckily I don’t run into that much in my bubble, but I totally recognize it. It was a point of honor with my grandfather and a great-uncle, both [long-gone] proud free-market conservatives.

        Here’s some input for your question about how did we used to spend our time: for me the downfall is TV when the house is empty. Today comcast did me the favor of going down for 4 hrs & I immediately reverted to bookworm mode! It was so nice, I left the thing off for another couple of hrs after it was up again.

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14. GregB says:

    June 27, 2018 at 6:35 pm

    How low we have fallen. We are lamenting the departure of a man who—just because he was on the correct side of a few, important issues—has authored and joined with some of the most profoundly destructive decisions in the history of the Supreme Court. By any standard, Kennedy was a regressive and his only saving grace is that he will surely be followed by an activist reactionary. He might even be our Dear Leader’s Roland Freisler. (Look him up, it’ll give you a glimpse of our future). It’s like lamenting the removal of a rotting animal carcass because you know a truckload of smellier carcasses is coming soon.

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    • NYC public school parent says:

      June 27, 2018 at 7:01 pm

      No, we are lamenting the fact that if Hillary Clinton was President, we would not only have Merrick Garland but also another justice who would have provided an important bulwark against the fascist takeover of our democracy.

      Obviously, the people who didn’t vote for Clinton would not think any of this is important. The point was to replace Kennedy with someone who wouldn’t join with the right wing. We all knew this was coming but only some of us thought it was important. Sadly, others were fooled by the propaganda from the right who are laughing at the fools who bought it all as they break out the champagne.

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    • dianeravitch says:

      June 27, 2018 at 7:04 pm

      Given the choice between Justice Kennedy and some Judge to the right of Gorsuch, I prefer Kennedy. He was conservative but had occasional flashes of humanity. More than I can say for a Gorsuch, who always chooses corporations over people.

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      • GregB says:

        June 27, 2018 at 8:12 pm

        Interestingly, Kennedy wrote the decisions for Citizens United and Bush v. Gore. I see your point and agree with it. My point is that we judge “very bad” to be a very good choice when compared to “catastrophe.”

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      • GregB says:

        June 28, 2018 at 10:02 am

        Here’s a nice summary of what I tried to convey poorly: https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/opinion-greenesmith-kennedy-legacy_us_5b343fb4e4b0b745f17aa1a0

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      • NYC public school parent says:

        June 28, 2018 at 12:55 pm

        Thank you, GregB, that is a good article.

        I would be delighted to see Kennedy retiring if Hillary Clinton had been the one choosing his replacement. Obviously, there were some voters who are delighted that Trump is choosing his replacement and other voters who didn’t care who chose Kennedy’s replacement. The ones that did care voted to make sure Trump did not choose. Unfortunately, we lost because there were more voters who wanted Trump to choose, or who didn’t care who chose Kennedy’s replacement as long as it wasn’t Hillary Clinton.

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    • bethree5 says:

      June 28, 2018 at 10:45 pm

      I so agree, GregB. That Kennedy is so far to the right & yet considered our ‘swing vote’ says mountains, & shows that SCOTUS, far from being a neutral interpreter of law vs Constitution, in fact directly reflects the political whims of our day. Perhaps SCOTUS was always thus? [Historians, please advise.]

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15. FLERP! says:

    June 27, 2018 at 7:37 pm

    Since I sense that the ban on rehashing the 2016 election has been temporarily lifted by this post, I’m reminiscing now about all arguments in the summer of 2016 on this blog about Hillary/Bernie/Trump. For the most part the arguments all bleed together in my memory, but I do recall one particularly ridiculous exchange where I tried to lay out what seemed to me to be the very obvious point that if Hillary Clinton lost the 2016 election, it could result in as much as a four-seat swing in the Supreme Court, with the consequence that what people have come to think of as bedrock American law could be pretty much washed away. I remember the irrepressible Michael Paul Goldenberg’s response, which was that I could not know for a certainty that a President Clinton would nominate judges who would be materially different from those nominated by a President Trump. I remember it clearly, because I think it is the most willfully naive thing I have ever heard a smart person say.

    Well, here we are. One never knows, of course, but at best, we are probably looking at a SCOTUS where the “swing vote” is Chief Justice Roberts. Think about that for a moment. Thomas, Alito, Gorsuch, Roberts, and the new guy. That’s the new bulletproof majority.

    Roe v. Wade? The hope now for the left is that Justice Roberts saves that precedent, and instead leads a Court that whittles abortion rights back and back and back. But Roe could be toast.

    Gay rights? That’s built on a lot of 5-4 cases. Gay rights are going to get rolled back.

    Affirmative action. It seems unlikely that they would roll the clock back to Bakke (or before). But remember that it was just a 4 to 3 vote that held that the University of Texas’s “top 10%” admissions plan was constitutional. Kagan was recused, and Scalia was dead. The four votes were Kennedy, Breyer, RBG, and Sotomayor. Dissenting very strongly were Alito, Roberts, and Thomas. Take away Kennedy, and add Gorsuch and another like-minded justice, and you have 5 bulletproof votes the next time affirmative action comes before the Court. (Harvard, anyone?) The scope of permissible affirmative action will certainly be scaled back substantially by the next Court. And at this moment, although overturning Bakke does not seem likely, I can’t say it’s unthinkable.

    And a lot of other stuff that people are going to be writing about a lot.

    I know it sometimes feels “right” to say that the “liberal” Justices are only “so-called’ liberals, and that everything is under the control of the corporate hegemony blah blah. But it’s just not true.

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    • dianeravitch says:

      June 27, 2018 at 8:14 pm

      FLERP,

      I was criticized by many Bernie-or-bust voters because, after Hillary won the nomination, I endorsed her. I argued as best I could that Trump would be a disaster. Some agreed, sone couldn’t see any difference between Trump and Hillary. Some said the Democrats needed to lose in order to have a catharsis. I kept harping on SCOTUS, to no avail. I worry now about the future of our democracy, especially as we see trump insulting our allies, ridiculing Merkel and Trudeau, alienating the Brits, and cozying up to dictators. He is far worse than I imagined. I fear for our country. I think we elected a fascist. I despise this man and what he is doing to us.

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      • NYC public school parent says:

        June 27, 2018 at 8:43 pm

        Thank you, FLERP and Diane, for saying what needs to be said.

        Anyone who didn’t see how much of a disaster Trump would be was either willfully denying reality or a right wing troll pretending to be a Bernie voter. There is a lot of evidence of how many of those were posting all over social media.

        This is exactly what we all knew would happen. We all had a choice when we voted as to whether we cared or whether we didn’t care. Those who didn’t care had every right not to care. But they don’t have the right to blame anyone but themselves for this outcome.

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16. danielwalldammit says:

    June 27, 2018 at 9:04 pm

    …and the swamp deepens.

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    • GregB says:

      June 28, 2018 at 7:56 pm

      Widens? Swamp creatures need access to air, however foul it may be.

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17. Máté Wierdl says:

    June 28, 2018 at 1:10 am

    It’s one of the most ridiculous part of the Constitution that it allows judges (any judges) have their political views influence their evaluation of the laws.

    Judges need to be apolitical. As a minimum, they shouldn’t be affiliated with any political parties.

    Other parts of the Constitution that needs change:

    The 2nd amendment

    The electoral college

    That the elected president chooses the whole cabinet.

    That the president appoints the Supreme Court judges.

    Others?

    In general, the Constitution is too permissive, vague. It allows people to pursue their own “dreams” at the expense of others.

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    • bethree5 says:

      June 28, 2018 at 11:28 pm

      How do you find an apolitical judge? Does one even exist? Law is inherently political. Morals evolve; law follows. The most you can hope for is judges that look into the future & care about how their decisions affect individuals brought before the court down the line – & are guided by some extemporaneous moral sense – as opposed to judges who got where they are courtesy of special interests & rule accordingly.

      Should lower court judges be elected or appointed? (This is ultimately the bullpen for SCOTUS). Either route is political – but given today’s corrupt pay-or-play politics, at least election guarantees representation of common folk, whereas appointment is tainted with corporate money… But even local elections can be inundated w/big-$ campaign-funding to warp the vote away from common-folk, toward big-$ interest.

      To me, these questions bring me back to the theme I always harp on. Get the $ out of politics. All elective campaigns need to be publically funded. Only from there can we start re-bldg a govtl structure that works for the people.

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18. homelesseducator says:

    June 28, 2018 at 4:52 am

    The good news is that a Democrat was just elected to replace the Senate seat previously filled by Jeff Sessions in Alabama, so they are R 51 v D 49 now. Maybe the Dems can do the same thing McConnell did to prevent Obama from making a SCOTUS appointment after Scalia died.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7sZ0YOKthbA

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    • homelesseducator says:

      June 28, 2018 at 10:52 pm

      Since the video got deleted, take a look here instead:
      “MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow Explains What Democrats Will Need to Stop Trump’s Next Supreme Court Pick”

      https://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/msnbcs-rachel-maddow-explains-what-democrats-will-need-stop-trumps-next-supreme

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      • bethree5 says:

        June 28, 2018 at 11:44 pm

        Yay, Rachel! I love how she boils these complex issues down to the essential. & you go, Dems! All we need is all Dems plus one Republican to block a right-y Trump nomination. And I’m guessing there’s at least 1 Republican w/tentative backing in mid-terms who doesn’t want to take the risk of shooing-in a nominee guaranteed to overturn Roe v Wade (or god knows what other decision on the fringe-right’s hit-list).

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19. LaLaura says:

    June 28, 2018 at 6:14 pm

    Of course it matters, it all matters, but instead of harping on the left, or whomever, for “losing” this election, what are the Democrats going to do differently? TEAM DEM is losing. They don’t have the WH, Congress, or 3/4 of all state governorships. Something is terribly wrong. But what do the Dems do? They double down. Pelosi said the party has to be open to anti-abortion candidates. I’m often accused of being a purist, but when I ask liberal Democrats if they’d vote for an anti-abortion candidate, the answer is a resounding no. So we all have our “purist line in the sand” non-negotiable items.

    Yet the Dems keep moving rightward, in search of the elusive white RWNJ male voter who they think will come back to the fold. In the meantime they ignore the traditional Dem voters figuring they’ll just come along. Outreach to minority voters was weak, even while the Dems were courting Joe the Plumber. Do you think that doesn’t matter? That it doesn’t have consequences? 11% fewer blacks voted, and a whopping 30% of Latino votes went to Trump, which even when you tease out the Cubans, is surprising.

    Right or wrong, real or imagined, HRC was highly disliked by many people. So, will the Dems again run someone who is that hated? And then just tell people they’re misogynists, or whatever, and STFU and vote? I’m here to tell you that didn’t go over well. SO DON’T DO IT AGAIN. I mean, who expected a Democrat to lose to this crazy mofo? (Although I guess Bernie supporters will say they saw it coming. Wasn’t there polling indicating as much?)

    If the Democratic Party can’t get its base to get out and vote, they need to do some serious soul-searching. Which, of course, has not happened. So I expect nothing to change.

    https://www.forbes.com/sites/omribenshahar/2016/11/17/the-non-voters-who-decided-the-election-trump-won-because-of-lower-democratic-turnout/#5bb16c6653ab

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    • NYC public school parent says:

      June 28, 2018 at 11:54 pm

      “HRC was highly disliked by many people”.

      Actually, HRC was one of the most admired women in the country. She was “highly disliked” only when the right wing hit jobs on her took hold.

      And the same thing happened with Al Gore (went from serious environmentalist to lying exaggerator) and John Kerry (went from concerned liberal Democrat who chose to serve honorably in Viet Nam instead of using his rich family to get out of it like Bush to a lying liar who lied all the time and only faked his service when he was actually the world’s biggest coward.) The same thing happened to the centrist Democrat Mike Dukakis who was suddenly the poster boy for letting criminals rape women and telling children that the pledge of allegiance was an evil thing that should never be said.

      Bernie Sanders would have been the most disliked man in America after the right wing hit jobs finished with him. The Republicans didn’t have to use them but they would have done so just like they did against Clinton, Gore, Kerry and Dukakis. With the so-called left wing media helping them out.

      Just like Elizabeth Warren is likely to get that treatment if she dares to become Trump’s general election opponent. Suddenly everyone will say “why did those stupid Dems nominate her, she is so disliked.”

      But if we want to stop this madness, we won’t say that, we will say “stop lying about her and start telling the truth.” Just like we should have done with Dukakis, Kerry, Gore, and Clinton. Who were all quite likable until the right wing hit jobs did their thing.

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      • dianeravitch says:

        June 29, 2018 at 12:23 am

        I liked Hilary just fine. I voted for her. I think she would have been a superb president, far different from the egomaniac and traitor who is now in the Oval Office, destroying the Western Alliance and cozying up to the world’s tyrants.

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    • bethree5 says:

      June 29, 2018 at 12:03 am

      I think you are right on the money, and I think the time has come. We can thank Trump for being the slap-in-the-face lackadaisical non-voting Dems – & deluded 3rd-party progressive voters – needed to put the Dem party on the front burner. And the diluted vote for Hillary [pop vote yes, electoral college no] is the red flag for Dem party that neoliberal centrists cannot inspire hope for a better future among non-voting Dem & former Dem middle-class voters. It is time for Dems to grab onto & promote Democratic-Socialism à la European countries who have managed to ride the waves of automation & globalism w/their middle-class intact.

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20. bethree5 says:

    June 28, 2018 at 10:32 pm

    Diane, you wrote “Sorry, but this past 24 hours is hard to bear. I’m feeling as rude and angry and uncivil as that barbarian in the White House everyday.” Perhaps this is the moment to post the ‘sermon’ I’ve been writing in reaction to these 2 SCOTUS decisions…

    Many see the politics of recent decades as backlash against the civilized advances of the ’60’s – the current/ soon-to-be SCOTUS as the ultimate revenge against the Warren court – the clock is being turned back 50 years, we’re entering a mini dark ages. I look through the lens from a different angle.

    You can never advance all the people at once, there is always push and pull, it’s a spiral with laps back thro previous territory, picking up a little more each time. To me, the advances of the ’60’s reached their apex with Roe v Wade, the end of the VN war/ universal draft, Nixon resignation.

    That point was not the beginning of the promised land. It was the point at which determined conservative forces began re-introducing and pushing terrible ideas we thought we’d left behind, buoyed in part by social backlash to ’60’s, in part by sudden vacuum as all those liberal triggers disappeared, and soon to take wings on the back of fear as tech/ automation and globalization brought economic turmoil. In came the pusillanimous political response – Reps undoing every legal knot that lay between prosperity and depression in a scurrilous rush to grab all the big pieces – Dems moving right to join Reps in the middle – Reps rushing to grab votes from the lunatic fringe.

    To my mind, the last 40 yrs have been a big spiral down for the economic and labor underpinnings that are required to support equal opportunity, and the clawback of civil rights already started in response to terrorism [aided by the failure of law to keep up with tech advances – which is part & parcel of dénouement of laws protecting democracy against corporate power].

    Bottom line: Trump and his SCOTUS are accelerating us into the bottom curve of this spiral. It’s all up from here.

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    • dianeravitch says:

      June 28, 2018 at 11:10 pm

      Be three, you are an optimist. Trump doesn’t want to turn the clock back 50years. He and the GOP want to turn it back before the New Deal. No unions. No civil rights laws. No women’s rights. No civil liberties. No gun control. No child labor laws. And added to that, public money for religious schools, which rolls the clock back 200 years.

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      • bethree5 says:

        June 29, 2018 at 12:40 am

        Trump’s core wants whatever Trump wants. They are the anti-govt, anti-immigration, scared-of-change folks. They are maybe 30% of the voting public. Another 20% followed him into the breach, disgusted w/ 20 yrs of Dems’ “Third-Way” abandonment of working/ middle class, looking for better jobs/ future – they will be casting about for alternatives as Trump’s agenda inevitably fails to provide. (THIS is the moment for Dems to offer what has succeeded elsewhere, i.e., Democratic Socialism).

        The agenda you describe belongs to libertarians and “Freedom Caucus”, an even smaller proportion of the 30% core. These are the ALEC/ Koch folks. Let’s remember that Dems scored +3 million in the popular vote. And that states captured by ALEC/ Koch have been spiralling down economically for 20 yrs – they are ripe for beginning to catch on to the game.

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