In an effort to fire up his base, Trump identified three of the most extreme rightwing Senators as next in line for a Supreme Court appointment. One is Ted Cruz of Texas. During the 2016 campaign, Trump claimed that Ted Cruz was a key figure in the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.
Apparently he told author Bob Woodward that he placed the story in the National Enquirer, even picked the photo of Cruz to run on the first page. If Trump should win, that’s the end of abortion, federal support for health care, and gay rights, as well as public schools, environmental protection and every progressive accomplishment of the past 50 years. Expect universal vouchers for religious schools and an explosion of charter schools. Expect a dramatic contraction of federal protection for civil rights. We can’t let it happen. We can’t throw away nearly a century of modernism.
President Trump on Wednesday named Republican Sens. Tom Cotton (Ark.), Ted Cruz (Tex.) and Josh Hawley (Mo.) to his shortlist of potential nominees for the Supreme Court should he win a second term.
Trump’s announcement, aimed at firing up conservatives eight weeks before the election, reflects the degree to which he has supercharged the politicization of the judicial branch, plunging the court system more deeply into the partisan fray than at any time since five Supreme Court justices appointed by Republican presidents delivered the White House to George W. Bush in 2000.
All three senators have been plotting potential 2024 presidential campaigns of their own. Each man has been crystal clear that he would support overturning reproductive rights codified in Roe v. Wade, strike down the Affordable Care Act in its entirety and rule against LGBTQ rights if given the chance.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
This also from the Huffington Post this morning:
THE SENATE’S HARD AT WORK… CONFIRMING MORE JUDGES The Senate is back in session after a month of recess and Republicans’ first order of business isn’t a comprehensive coronavirus relief bill. Or emergency stimulus in response to high unemployment. Or legislation addressing nationwide unrest over police violence targeting Black Americans. It’s confirming more judges. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), who has long said his top priority is getting Trump’s nominees settled into lifetime federal court seats, didn’t disappoint on Wednesday. [HuffPost]
CBK
THIS! from CBK. The Democrats have underestimated the significance of the right wing takeover of the courts. McConnell has made an unprecedented number of judge appointments by steamrolling Schumer at every turn. The result is a reshaped judiciary in favor of ultra-rightwingers for a generation.
Elie Mystal has been documenting this for years. This excerpt is from his article in the Nation July 15, 2019
https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/trump-mcconnel-court-judges-plot/
“But Trump’s Court—the collection of judges and justices now swarming our judicial system, nominated and confirmed to lifetime appointments on his recommendation—will linger, like an infected wound poisoning the body politic even after the initial injury has scabbed over. As of this writing, the Trump administration has had 123 federal judges confirmed, including 41 to the federal courts of appeal—the circuit courts just one rung below the Supreme Court. By comparison, at this point in his presidency, Barack Obama had pushed only 19 circuit-court judges through to confirmation. Trump’s appointees now account for some 14 percent of the federal judiciary and more than 22 percent of the judges on the nation’s courts of appeal—and he has been in office for just two and a half years. Many of Trump’s other offenses could be overturned by a new president with the stroke of a pen. Trump’s Court will remain as his legacy.”
You are right. The legacy of Trump’s time in office is the vast number of rightwing federal judges, rushed through by McConnell. He didn’t “steamroll” Schumer. McConnell had the votes. Schumer didn’t.
And every time that Trump has incensed the public with something he has said, everyone gets focused on the bluster while behind the scenes, the courts are being filled and the real work of the GOP is getting accomplished. It has worked remarkably well for the GOP. THIS is the reason why the Senate wouldn’t follow through with the Impeachment. Trump “may” be gone by Jan 3rd, but he will remain in infamy for years to come…..G-d help us all!
jcgrim I have often thought, it’s a good thing they are for life–because Trumpists cannot unseat the one’s who are already on the bench and who are not right-wing zealots; which means these lifers may be the ones to contribute best to our transition back to institutional normalcy, that is, if we get one. CBK
Why does this surprise anyone?
Everyone absolutely knew that Mitch McConnell was preventing almost all federal judgeships — he even held up a Supreme Court appointment!
The blame for this is not on the democrats in the Senate who are powerless to stop this, but on every person who refused to vote for the democrat against Trump because they absolutely didn’t care one iota about whether the Supreme Court and federal courts were entirely right wing or not.
This is exactly what we knew would happen, which is why people that cared voted for the democrat, and people that were perfectly fine with this happening did not vote for the democrat.
Here’s another zinger: “NYT/Breaking News: Bahrain will normalize relations with Israel, following the U.A.E., in another sign of dynamics that are bringing Arab nations closer to Israel.”
I read a couple of days ago that someone had nominated Trump for the Peace Prize on account of events surrounding the above. CBK
Let’s see. Who would be the worst possible appointments to the Supreme Court?
Hmmm.
Ted Cruz. Oh yeah, definitely.
Tom Cotton. Yikes. Yes.
Josh Hawley. So backward one is surprised to learn that he is a young man.
Negan from The Walking Dead? Oh, yeah. He’s fictional. Too bad one can’t say that about these others.
Bozo the Clown would be an improvement over these three. As would Spongebob Squarepants.
Definitely
Bob: I like the two old guys up in the balcony. CBK
One of those guys is me!
Spongebob is ready:
Thanks, Greg! I love Spongebob!
I saw the Broadway play twice! He was courageous, modest, sweet, persistent. And the music was wonderful.
I vote for Ciocciolina, who would be more competent.
David Duke? Father Coughlin? Francisco Franco? Stephen Miller?
What about Bolsonaro?
The Manson clan . . .
Quick poll:
Which is the more dangerous pathogen, SARS-CoV-2 or the Moronavirus trumpinski orangii?
Moronavirus trumpinski orangii is the most dangerous pathogen by a HUGE margin. So dangerous, if unleashed without restraint, it would destroy not only our species and civilization but the planet as we know it and then go in search of extraterristrial alien civilizations to eat them, too.
Easy: Moronavirus trumpinski orangii
He literally TURNS my stomach.
The people around him all look like zombies. Their faces are frozen and so are their very souls.
BUT….Trump the Magnificent was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. I’m sure ALL Fox watchers KNOW he deserves that honor. I believe Moronvirus trumpinski orangii is a danger to the whole planet. Fortunately he didn’t get any support for nuking hurricanes or injecting Clorox. How much support is he getting for killing aliens who might attack us from distant galaxies? Space Force, definitely needed.
…………………………………..
Trump Nominated for Nobel Peace Prize
September 9, 2020 at 7:37 am EDT By Taegan Goddard 92 Comments
Fox News broke an “exclusive” that President Trump had been nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize.
Daily Beast: “What it didn’t mention was that hundreds of people are nominated every year, and that Trump’s nomination—for his role in the new Israel-United Arab Emirates agreement—came from one of Norway’s most well-known anti-immigration cranks.”
Netanyahu (NOT a fan, make no mistake–almost as bad as it45) has recently said that the U.A.E. deal had been “in the works” for some time, before Kushner & it45 minions even got involved. Glad that he made that statement, & it was, to me, surprising, seeing that Bibi & it45 have been pretty cozy. Hoping that similar statements come from
B.N. regarding any further positive movement in that region.
Talk about the worst case scenario or the zombie apocalypse, the idea of a Cruz or Cotton with a lifetime appointment to the SCOTUS is enough to turn you to stone in a nano-second. This is why we should not even worry about who Biden will select as his Secretary of Education because at least it’s not a lifetime appointment. The SCOTUS and the lower courts are the huge reason alone to vote for Biden/Harris, period, end of story.
Joe Jersey That’s why O’Connell is so dead-set on filling the the lower court appointments right now. CBK
Only 3?
“President Trump’s list of potential Supreme Court nominees demonstrates his commitment to appointing originalists, who will abide by the Constitution, and textualists, who will implement the plain meaning of statutes,” said White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany. “They will uphold the rule of law and ensure that America continues to shine as a beacon of freedom and justice around the world.”
?ref_src=twsrctfw|twcamptweetembed|twterm1303789982029672451|twgrshare_3&ref_url=https://thepatriotictimes.com/trump-stuns-after-releasing-supreme-court-justice-hotlist/
Just goes to show you that one does not have to have ethics and brains to be a lawyer and to pass the BAR exam.
I’ve passed more bar exams than I’ll ever be able to count and I’m still not an attorney!
A low Barr
To pass the bar
You need some luck
To pass the Barr
You pass a buck
9-10-2020 (Freedom from Religion Foundation)
“Trump’s Supreme Court Shortlist is a ‘Nightmare of Christian Nationalists’…a common thread is the Federalist Society (founded by Leonard Leo)…”
Various potential nominees from the list are described. For those blog readers who think “Christian” is limited to evangelicals, the article will disabuse you of that notion.
Ted Cruz’s slimy partner in Crime, Mike Lee of Utah, who pretends to love the Constitution (he passes out copies all the time), but really stomps all over it. And I’ll be the other people on the list are all the same way;
The president knows his election is at risk so he wants to turn it into a vote for the Supreme Court.
That he made this list one thing.
Demanding that VP Biden do the same is the issue. He wants the people to base their presidential vote on SC lists. He knows conservatives have and will sell their souls and their integrity out the window for ultra control of the courts.
Ted Cruz?
Why is it so many right-wing nutcases were educated at Harvard Law school?
Oh, yeah. Alan Derschowitz.
If Senators ask nominees, questions about the influence of religion on their decision making in court cases, you can expect groups like the Knights of Columbus to shout about religious discrimination. Kamala Harris knows all about that treatment when she came under attack for her questions to Trump’s latest SCOTUS appointment.
The Freedom from Religion Foundation spelled out what to expect from a Trump SCOTUS, in an article, 9-10-2020.
Trump has made the pretense of a right wing separate from conservative religions, much more difficult (to the dismay of many who prefer compartmentalization).
Leonard Leo of the Federalist Society is a greater threat to the nation than the well-known Christian nationalists like those connected to Liberty University.
Linda FYI I wrote a comment to you that went into moderation. CBK
Trump is a walking pile of ___________________!! It is really hard to understand why anyone would support such a lunkhead. Of course, Khashoggi worked for WaPo and we all know it is ‘fake news’.
………………………………….
RollingStone : Trump Bragged About ‘Saving’ Saudi Crown Prince’s ‘Ass’ After Khashoggi Murder
The president is proud of helping an autocrat escape accountability for his role in the murder of a Washington Post journalist
September 10, 2020.
…Trump told Woodward in January that he “saved” the prince’s “ass,” justifying his efforts by noting that the Saudis bought arms from the United States, and explaining the country has oil and “religious monuments” that bestow “real power.”
Asked repeatedly if he believed bin Salman ordered Jamal Khashoggi’s murder, Trump answered “He says he didn’t do it.” The CIA has concluded Salman did order the murder. Intelligence reports indicate that 15 Saudi agents flew to Istanbul in October 2018, where they murdered Khashoggi inside the Saudi Consulate, sawed his body into pieces, and removed it in several plastic trash bags.
Acting on that assessment, members of both parties advanced measures to hold bin Salman accountable, including a resolution labeling him complicit in Khashoggi’s murder. The Senate unanimously voted to approve that measure in December of 2018, and every member of the House — save for seven Republicans — voted for the resolution as well.
But Trump and members of his administration have openly and consistently expressed doubt about bin Salman’s involvement, contradicting the U.S. intelligence community’s assessment. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has said there was no “direct reporting” of MBS’s guilt, while former Secretary of Defense James Mattis maintained there was no “smoking gun.”
Trump’s refusal to hold bin Salman accountable has had major consequences for the region. A majority of lawmakers have voted to end U.S. support for Saudi Arabia’s military efforts in Yemen — a war that has perpetuated a horrific humanitarian crisis in the region. In 2019, bipartisan majorities in the House and Senate passed legislation to block or limit U.S. weapons sales to Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Jordan. The votes came after the Trump administration used an emergency declaration to ink a deal that would sell $8.1 billion in armaments to the three countries without Congress’ approval.
But the bills to limit arms sales never became law. Trump blocked them with a veto that lawmakers were unable to override…
https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/trump-woodward-khashoggi-murder-saving-ass-1057940/ – Trump Bragged About ‘Saving’ Saudi Crown Prince’s ‘Ass’ After Khashoggi Murder
carolmalaysia What a twist: Trump lies; but then pretends to expect other autocrats DO NOT LIE. “They said so,. . . ” so they must be telling the truth. But we know now that this is only because it’s what he wants to hear.
The worst thing is how stupid he thinks everyone else is. There’s a special place in Hell for Fox News. My relative said I was only repeating what I heard on CNN, ABC, and MS-NBC.
DUH: I told them it was because they document, give evidence, correct errors when they make them, do interviews with REAL experts with their own track records, and have track record themselves of telling the truth.
Also, I don’t always agree with David Brooks; but in his column today he speaks a simple but profound truth.
It’s a matter of where your heart is. I have come to know that these journalists’ hearts are in the right place–professional journalism in this case; and Trump’s heart is either gone or he never had one in the first place.
CBK (Brooks’ column below)
Sadly, the article is behind a paywall. Can someone post a link that will work? I really want to read it!
(I miss being able to read the NYT at my local library which is open for book pick-ups only.)
September 11, 2020. If you mean the David Brooks’ article, he writes: “On Dec. 26, 2004, the French author Emmanuel Carrère, his girlfriend and their respective sons were vacationing at a cliff-top hotel in Sri Lanka. Their relationship was dying and, feeling out of sorts, they decided not to go down to the beachfront scuba diving lesson they’d signed up for. It was a consequential decision, for that was the morning the tsunami hit.
“A family they knew was staying on the beach. That morning the grandfather, Philippe, was reading the paper while his 4-year-old granddaughter, Juliette, happily played in the wavelets nearby. Suddenly Philippe felt himself swept up by an enormous wall of black water, pretty sure he would die, certain his granddaughter already had.
“In his memoir, Carrère bears witness to the days of suffering and endurance that followed the wave. When Philippe tells his daughter and son-in-law about the death of their child, Juliette’s mother, Delphine, screams. Her husband thought, ‘I can no longer do anything for my daughter, so I will save my wife.’
“Carrère had lamented that he had always been unable to love, but in those horrific days he and his girlfriend stayed with the family, searched among the corpses, enveloped the family with compassion and practical care. He observes how at mealtime Delphine’s hand shakes as she brings a forkful of curried rice to her lips.
“He is with Delphine when they come across a woman, Ruth, who was on her honeymoon and has lost track of her husband, Tom. For two days she sat outside the hospital, not eating or sleeping, convinced that if she nodded off Tom would never emerge alive from wherever he was.
“’Her determination is frightening,’ Carrère writes. ‘You can sense that she’s quite close to passing to the other side, into catatonia, living death, and Delphine and I understand that our role is to prevent this.’
“Carrère’s memoir describes how a self-absorbed man is altered in crisis and develops a deep and perceptive capacity to see the struggles of others. The book is called ‘Lives Other Than My Own.’
“I thought of that book this week because the sensitive perceptiveness Carrère displays is the opposite of the blindness Donald Trump displayed in quotes reported by Jeffrey Goldberg in The Atlantic and Bob Woodward in his latest book about the administration, ‘Rage.’
“Goldberg says Trump told people that he sees the war dead as ‘suckers’ and ‘losers.’ Trump can’t seem to fathom the emotional experience of their lives — their love for those they fought for, the fears they faced down, the resolve to risk their lives nonetheless.
“If he can’t see that, he can’t understand the men and women in uniform serving around him. He can’t understand the inner devotion that drives people to public service, which is supposed to be the core of his job.
“The same sort of blindness is on display in the Woodward quotes. It was stupid of Trump to think he could downplay Covid-19 when he already knew it had the power of a pandemic. It was stupid to think the American people would panic if told the truth. It was stupid to talk to Woodward in the first place.
“This is not an intellectual stupidity. I imagine Trump’s I.Q. is fine. It is a moral and emotional stupidity. He blunders so often and so badly because he has a narcissist’s inability to get inside the hearts and minds of other people. It’s a stupidity that in almost pure clinical form, flows out of his inability to feel, a stupidity of the heart.
“In most times and cultures, people realized that understanding a person or situation is as much an emotional process as an analytical one. In the Bible the word “to know” covers a range of activities, from having a conversation with, to having sex with, to entering into a commitment with and much else — all the different ways we come to understand each other.
“St. Augustine’s theory of knowledge begins with emotion. Love is a focus of attention. Love is a motivation to learn more about a person. Love is a reverence for the image of God in each person.
“Through his own failures, Trump illustrates by counterexample that the heart is the key to understanding. To accurately size up a human situation you have to project a certain quality of attention that is personal, gentle, respectful, intimate and affectionate — more moving with and feeling into than simply observing with detachment.
“Carrère achieved that quality of attention after the tsunami.
“Maybe I spend too much time on Twitter and in media, but I see less and less of this sort of attention in America, even amid the tragedies of 2020. Far from softening toward one another, the whole country feels even more rived, more hardened and increasingly blind to lives other than our own.” END QUOTE
retiredbutmissthekids : NYT puts up paywalls allowing only so many a month.
Here is a link to the article:
When a Heart Is Empty
The consequences of Donald Trump’s inability to feel.
I’ll try again. The link isn’t posting.
carolmalaysia I posted the whole article by David Brooks below. CBK
Catherine King: Thanks. I didn’t know that was the full article.
More enlightening words from my brother:
Trump will win every time. Believing that the Communist manifesto is your party’s bible instead of the Holy Bible. BLM and antifa (pantifa) are here in Boise, the Idaho militia and the Boise police came out and they ran like little girls. Those sick people are from you communist party. Time to repent and grow up.
Unfortunately, there are others who think like my brother. He never asks what I think, he already knows. He has also said that Trump is the best president this country has ever had AND that Obama was the worst president this country has ever had.
I’m sure my brother has no idea that Andrew Johnson, 17th president, was impeached nor has any idea of why. Obama wasn’t impeached. I also doubt that he knows what is in the communist manifesto. [I don’t but would look it up before calling anyone a believer.] My brother knows that the bible states that homosexuals are going against the will of God.
He is a misplaced person. Sad. I don’t know where his hatred comes from except for something far R on the internet. He listens to Rush L and Hannity, both of which spew hatred.
carolmalaysia “He never asks what I think, he already knows.”
My relatives also . . . . They know all, even what I am thinking. CBK
Tomorrow I am posting a review of Michael Cohen’s book about Trump.
One point is clear: Trump looks on people like your brother as a chump, a mark that he can use and exploit.
He has contempt for the fools in his base.
He only admires people who are rich and powerful.
Not your brother.
Linda and all: By way of filling in some historical background, the below article is from the Smithsonian Magazine. It gives a brief history of Thomas Jefferson’s famed rewrite of the Bible.
From reading this article, I found that my own understanding of that “rewrite” was not fully informed . . . Jefferson’s writing was apparently more of a cut-and- paste than what I thought of as a “rewrite.” I’ve put it on my reading list.
I would also add that the question of (1) how we relate to God . . . is intimate-with, but distinct from (2) how we relate to one another, aka in the social-moral-political domain.
With that in mind, like many of the great religious traditions and texts, the core of Christianity, especially in the New Testament, need not be named “Christian” to embody a high level of answers to both questions, but particularly the question of how we relate to one another, regardless of how we related to God, even as atheists.
The religious right, on the other hand, and in my view, seems too-often to overlook the above distinction; and remains ideologically tribal in their thinking . . . about the value of secular culture; and where our representatives from any religious order can (and have for centuries now) adhered to an oath of office that requires loyalty to the U. S. Constitution which, in turn and with no irony, affords freedom of religion to all concerned.
The point to Linda and perhaps others here, is that, to be religious or to claim to be associated with any particular religious tradition is not necessarily to desire to impose some ideology or other on all concerned.
We need not see “religious people” as somehow automatically involved with covert theocratic or totalitarian wishes. I haven’t done a poll, but I have often though that the religious right, for many badly-founded reasons, is just more defensive and louder than other religious people, including a vast number of Christians of all denominations.
Below is the link to that Jefferson article: CBK
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/why-thomas-jefferson-created-his-own-bible-180975716/?utm_source=smithsoniandaily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=20200908-daily-responsive&spMailingID=43407143&spUserID=NDcwMTU4MTg3NTk2S0&spJobID=1840744438&spReportId=MTg0MDc0NDQzOAS2
I think I’d written on an earlier post having to do w/it’s SoTUS “picks” announcement about yet, again, more it45 cruelty & inhumanity. It appears he’s looking forward to the death of RBG, before his term is up. Even if he’s reelected, it’s the same hope because, as aforementioned, a SoTUS seat is for life.
But what does one more death mean to it45?
It has been the cause of so many already.