They know he will assure a RW Supreme Court for decades to come.

But, but, but the fetuses!

MoonRiver - I'm also a boomer and I recently posted a blog entry in which I recounted all the advances flowing from the New Deal and the Warren Court. Republicans, I concluded, are hoping to reverse all of that, accomplishing judicially what they can't accomplish legislatively. That this should result, in large part, through votes cast by working class men and women would have been unimaginable when we were growing up.

Oh, and welcome to DU stephensolomita! (Wish I could have welcomed you with a more positive post.)

Hey, I've been getting my liberal ass kicked since 1964 when Goldwater, after voting against the Civil Rights Act, won five states in the deep south. I've learned to roll with the punches.

With each passing day with the House and Senate propping up Putinism Western Division, they are looking less and less like the bodies as described in Article I of the Constitution and thus have no legitimacy.

This is looking like this might be the only way to save the court.

Then we will have fewer of the "vote my principles" or "the candidate must excite me" types when an election is simply about stopping a clear and present danger from becoming a daily reality.

constitutional conventions in the making...where the repukes amend the constitution...we better stop with the circular firing squad and put some serous effort into state and federal elections.

And the Kochs have the votes to pull it off. Right now, The Heritage Foundation is a terrorist group. They could do way more damage to this country than ISIS ever could.

If it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, it's....a right wing coup.

I became a little hopeful that we could get a grip on things after Obama was elected twice. But the criminals have many evil tricks up their sleeves.

didn't retire early in Obama's terms(s) as a tactical move, just to allow Obama to appoint decent judges to replace them. I mean, if you are 75 or 80, why not retire a few years before you really want to, especially if it means non-crazy judges replace you?

They just couldn't let go, and the country will suffer horribly as a result.

It would have had to happen when we had the Senate, and even then, with some of the conservative democrats and Obama, would we have gotten any real liberal justices?

still riding the wave of approval, and also when there were YEARS ahead of him in office. It's hard to stonewall SC judges for 4 or 8 years! And if Pubs stonewalled all of Obama's first term, I think we'd have been primarying the little bastards in the next elections. Since Garland was 15(?) months away from Obama's term end, the Pubs figured they could get away with screwing a lame duck president. And they did.

and Russian.

others for whatever inane reason do not vote. FFS, I often wonder just where I do live.

I really am beginning to lose hope that this country will ever get better in my lifetime.

what Americans really like. Stripping away all party labels, etc. and just looking at the person, he is disgusting. I never ever thought millions of Americans would want someone like that for president. I've never seen a president in my lifetime as disgusting as Trump. The other presidents at least had some dignity about them. This guy is ripping off the country and millions still praise him. I'm just looking at the individual, no party, no labels, what a disgustingly gross individual.

I am a member of a favored group. I will have rights regardless of who is in charge. Before you roast me, I am a loyal Democrat because I believe that every single person in this country should have my rights without contest. I often vote against my maximum interests because voting for them produces a screwed up society where rights and economic opportunity are denied some.

We'll be among those getting a big tax break. We will give it to charity. I want to live in a civilized country, not one that kills the poor and disabled, while rewarding the rich.

There was no way I could morally justify doing anything else.

but yeah, we are in trouble ...how many of us warned that if we lost the courts ...we lost the 'revolution' too...it happened on a certain Tuesday in November when people chose darkness over light.

If we can, I think there's a very good chance the Thugs go down.

but it is very hard to steal elections that are not close. We need to vote as if our live depend on it because they do...and stop with the criticizing of Democrats and the Democratic party...(not you in general) we always lose when we start that shit. United we stand....we win if not the repukes win.

I do still have hope.

Yes, we likely win and retake control in 2020. But then the Susan Serandons, Cornell Wests, Tavis Smiley start their bullshit that enough is not being done to undo the massive damage done by Trump. We then go into the 2022 midterms crippled and lose another generation of opportunity.

special election and there were a couple at least.

Mark Halperin said he would weigh in and just say "We're going to be talking about this soon for the show's entire three hours."
I took that as a sign that he (Halperin) has information of what Kennedy is going to do and it will be of such importance the show will focus solely on the matter. I instantly got nauseous.
Boomer here also and I can't believe this is happening. A coup by the fucking, traitorous 'Wingers'.

But we're pretty damn close.

This shit stops there.

That much was plain on November 9th.

I know that the Supreme Court was the deciding factor in the area that I lived in Mid Wisconsin.
I couldn't believe the amount of people that said they couldn't stand Trump, but this was why they were voting for him.
The right did a much better job of convincing their voters to overlook Trump the person, and vote for Trump the Republican, than the left did.

Thanks to anyone who did not vote for Hillary.

The right won't do what we do, find beyond middle aged consensus picks. They will put very young true believers in there that can rule for 30-40 years. Our best hope is they Fup and put a Souter or two into the seat, or once Democrats have firm control of government, the President at that time challenged the Court by telling them they should resign because the Anerican people no longer has faith in their rulings.

But, after seeing DU's age profile from a few days ago, most of us will be dead long before the Court once again becomes moderate.

Elections have consequences, and this is going to hurt for the rest of my life.

And I'm of mixed feelings about it. Thomas is the worst Supreme imaginable, but I fear / know Trump will just appoint a younger version of Thomas.

He seems rather disengaged from the business of the Court, at least he did when Scalia was there. Seems like he recently poked his head up in a recent ruling.

There is a Black woman on the Fifth Circuit that make him look sane. My guess if Thomas goes, they appoint someone like her unless we win back the Senate and tie up Trump, aka McConnell. We have to stop being fair toward those bastards because when they get control, they go for our jugulars.

He basically naps during session and his clerks do the heavy lifting in terms of drafting. In return, he's paid a nice salary with benefits, and his wife makes a fortune in the wingnut world.

$251,800 for thre rest of his life to be retired.

Not sure about Kennedy. That is who I am more worried about since he is more of a moderate and would be getting replaced by a more conservative Justice. If Ginsburg leaves IMHO, it will be due to her dying or becoming medically incapacitated. :-/ Hang in there K & G!!!

The best we can hope for are non-radical jurists like Gorsuch--don't get me wrong, He's a bigoted dick, but has a mixed record.

Elections have consequences and at the height of any preferred candidate debate, was the Spector of the Supreme Court.

Or that someone like Roberts moderate to restore balance. I am afraid that our only hope may be Roberts moderating if the Court swings too far right, maybe becoming a swing vote like Kennedy. Remember that Kennedy and O'Connel came to the Court and were for a long time rigid conservatives. O'Connell became a near closet liberal during her last year's and before that was a critical swing vote for the left.

It's small comfort, but there we are.

The SCOTUS was lost on November 8, 2017 when some lazy assed and stupid as fuck extremist leftists decided they wouldn't vote for Hillary in order to "teach the Democrats lesson."

That's when the SCOTUS was lost.

OF course, these lazy assed stupid as fuck extremist leftists most certainly did teach the Democrats a lesson. Lazy assed stupid as fuck extremists are not reliable voters and their agenda must be ignored in favor of reliable voters in the center who can actually be swayed into voting for Democrats who refuse to cowtow to the notions of the lazy assed stupid as fuck extremist leftists. That's valuable message learned!

We should ignore the concerns of the extreme left unless those concerns match ours 100%. Gain moderates, they are more reliable during a fight for survival.

Funny, I've received several warnings over the past few months from DU, saying my posting privileges would be revoked since I was making critical and negative comments towards Democrats, yet posts like this get to go through.

Some of us supported Bernie, not only because we agreed with his policies and liked him, but because we were genuinely concerned that Mrs. Clinton would have problems with getting elected. We're not all Bernie Or Bust voters, and to say that it was Democrats who cost Hillary the election, is pretty insulting.

Besides, I still tend to believe she really did win the Electoral College AND the Popular Vote, but that there was Russian hacking on Election Day, which fixed things for Drumpf. I know.....pure fantasy, but I honestly can't see how she, even with the baggage she was carrying, got beaten by that Buffoon.

was talking about people who didn't bother to vote at all or who wasted their votes on spoilers. If you don't fit into either category and you voted for HC, there's no need to feel insulted.

Funny, the rules on divisive posts seem to apply sometimes, but not others. The rule, as I read it, says any posts which attack fellow Democrats, is not allowed. This post attacks fellow Democrats.

And again, where are all these Bernie Or Bust people who cost Hillary the election? Perhaps some proof of their existence in the swing states is warranted. Unless it can be proven that there were 10's of thousands of these "Democrats refusing to vote for Hillary" in the swing states, posts like these are nothing more than baseless attacks.

It's almost like they can't blame the repub voters, or even Hillary herself, for the loss, so attack those who thought Bernie had the best chance at winning. But it's not a surprise, given the way some here outright attacked and criticized the pro-Bernie voters here, once it began to look like Hillary was going to win the nomination. Perhaps if the response had been different, some of those folks would not have been off put so much that they began to dislike the pro-Hillary & anti-Bernie Democrats who more or less dismissed the pro-Bernie voters, and said support the nominee or get lost.

ARE NOT DEMOCRATS.

They are fools.

It is up to us to get our shit together and win 4 or 5 of the republican Senate seats and hold our own. That way Schumer becomes Majority Leader and he can pull McConnell's stunt of refusing a hearing for anyone Trump nominate until after the 2020 elections. It is us that shoot ourselves in the foot, we have to stop that.

When they got old and couldn't work anymore, they just went into abject poverty and died. The poor just died. Chronically ill - just died.

To Republicans, those were the good old days and they want that back and make NO mistake that is where we're headed.

The GOP will vote for anyone, and that means anyone to hold power. Democrats need to do the same.

A defacto Apartheid Court is going to be a problem, no question.

And now we see the results of all the talk about how the court wasn't a legitimate reason to vote Democratic. This is the court those people voted for.

So many people shrugged because they felt it more important to make a statement. To make the Democratic Party pay because they didn't get what they want. All the lives that will literally be lost because of the make up of the Supreme Court. The only part of the government we had a chance to keep any kind of balance at all.

I am disgusted too, as we put younger and younger people that will be there a couple decades or more.

When at the drop of the hat, the Constitution can be rewritten by these corporate stooges, and any efforts to rein in their power declared unconstitutional, where is this America we profess to love?

We had a lot of checks and balances in place to slow the rot, but the system seems broken almost beyond repair. Which corporate-sponsored heroes are going to be able to fight the gerrymander to take office, then find the time between fundraisers to undo the damage done by Big Money?

My hope is fading.

actual decisions are only part of it. The make-up of the court determines what cases the court hears and decides. A different court makeup means that different cases would have been heard and some of the favorable decisions that were made may not have even had a hearing.

I was looking over landmark decisions and it struck me that a large percentage concerned student rights.
That seemed strange.

every branch of government, federal and state levels, delegated to people who strongly believe government's primary purpose is to serve the richest and whitest among us, with a side order of religious fanaticism.

i really don't see how we continue from here with any of the progressive/liberal policies of the last century intact

Supreme Court or anywhere else. We could not afford to lose 2016.

If you think a health care bill will be bad, it will be worse, and pass.

And so forth.

And that the Emoluments Clause and several of the first ten Amendments no longer apply, then why should we really give a fuck about what the Supreme Court says about anything?

I am dead serious about this. It never dawned on me my entire life that the foundation of our entire government was built on the fragile sand of hoping that someone isn't a dick.

was built on the fragile sand of hoping that someone isn't a dick" was going to be a thing, either. We are in the quicksand of nearly ALL the Pubs being dicks, who elect dicks, promote dicks, put dicks in as heads of agencies they want to destroy, etc. It seems impossible to reverse. There certainly isn't much constitutionally that can be done. The VP has to push the button on the 25th Amendment. And the AG has to bring up charges dealing with the Emoluments Clause. They're all dicks -- they aren't going to do a damn thing until Trump is unable and/or unwilling to sign their evil bills.

No one can do a goddamned thing until REPUBLICANS decide they want to dump Trump. Roll that around in your head for a while. And EVEN IF they pull the plug on him, we get PENCE as prez!! Pence! The crazy Catholic theocrat who is actually efficient! He scares me more than Trump!

This is what HRC and her supporters said all through the GE. I clearly remember some "progressives" saying SCOTUS wasn't important.

You are correct that the Supreme Court is likely lost, particularly if Trump wins a second term.

Settled, accepted due process rights, equal protection rights, and privacy rights jurisprudence will be destroyed, allowing hateful, bigoted red states to again engage in discrimination, where those adversely effected will be unable to find relief in the courts.

For example, with Griswold/Eisenstadt/Roe/Casey/Whole Women’s Health overturned by a reactionary, extremist conservative Court, rightwing states could once again compel women to give birth against their will through force of law.

McConnell has guaranteed that all decisions will be decided by the extreme right for decades to come.

Better change your values to conservative Republican if you want to remain satisfied with life.

And its destination is Sheer Hell. The USSC is pretty much a goner now. Installing #45 iced it. We screamed like the Aztec priests did about the coming of the Spaniards, but to the same effect. And now, they're here. In power.

Hope all those young people who were too pure to vote enjoy a country without unions and civil rights. Thank god I won't be here after 30 years of this shit. The Messenger family dies around 70-75 and I'm 46.