Sunday, September 20, 2020

Ginsburg death makes a bad season worse

 

"The Four Justices," by Nelson Shanks (National Portrait Gallery)


     The stakes, already high as could be, just got higher.
     But before we dive into politics, a pause, to contemplate the humanity too easily swept aside in the rush to spin and analyze.
     Ruth Bader Ginsburg was an American legal hero who struggled upstream against a rushing river of sexism to become a respected attorney, winning key court victories for the rights of women.
     She was a wife, mother and grandmother, and her passing Friday evening at age 87 — on the eve of Rosh Hashanah, a time of hope and renewal — is deeply felt. She is mourned by her family, friends, and a nation that had come to idolize her — well, half did, anyways — for her courage, incisive legal mind and relentless efforts for the marginalized.
     She was also a liberal associate justice on the United States Supreme Court, and her vacancy will be immediately filled by a grinning arch conservative whose name Donald Trump will blindly pluck off the list provided by the Federalist Society. A slim Republican Senate majority will lunge to approve that choice, possibly before the Nov. 3 election.
     Those frantically waving Mitch McConnell’s words from 2016, when he blocked Barack Obama appointee Merrick Garland from consideration, are painfully naive, if not fools, appealing to a sense of fairness that has utterly vanished. Amazing at this late date they could even bother scraping together outrage. We’re long past that. The gears of American life are greased by hypocrisy.

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14 comments:

  1. I'm really getting sick & disgusted with the hagiographied praise for her!
    If she hadn't been such an arrogant egomanianac, she would've retired at 75, when Obama was in his first year in office. Obama would've appointed another woman with a similar legal philosophy as her.
    But because she thought she was irreplaceable, she stayed on as if she was immortal.
    Now we have the disaster, where drumpf will get to put another extreme right-wing crackpot on the Supreme Court.
    Even worse, this election might come down to a decision by SCOTUS & then there will be six solid right-wing votes for drumpf, even if he actually loses both the popular & electoral votes.

    So, a schande fur de goyim is all I have to say in her overpraised memory!

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    1. I forgot to add, everyone should read the very relevant article in the Sun-Times in Fran Spielman's interview of Carol Marin & knowing when it was time to leave.
      RBG didn't know when to leave!

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    2. No one expected Trump to win the election. So she should be forgiven for thinking it was safe to stay.

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    3. Had Hillary won, Moscow Mitch might still be holding open the slots filled by our Cowardly Liar. RBG was never the problem, it's the deep greed and shallow minds of my generation.

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  2. I did mention that. Though I don't think holding onto a job you are still doing well at 75 makes you "an arrogant egomaniac." It makes you human. Leaving would have been heroic. She didn't, and now we are suffering for it.

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  3. I don’t know that she was an egomaniac but I’ve always been puzzled by her supposed good friendship with a true egomaniac, Justice Scalia.

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  4. Most judges, even at the trial court level, are honest, hard-working, and try desperately to do the right thing. The scary thing about Trump’s federalist society list is that they’ have little experience as judges but are committed ideologues . Amy Barret would be another in the Bill Barr mold, a True Believer and committed to pushing us all into a right-wing Catholic cult world view.

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  5. For what it's worth, and it's probably not worth much, Lisa Murkowski and Susan Collins have earlier said they would not vote for a new SC justice this close to the election. Perhaps Mitt Romney may actually have the balls to do the same. Is there another moderate Jeff Flake-type republican who will do the right thing? Or will Susie and Lisa pull the football out from under us again? My growing agita at the thought of the election just increased exponentially when they announced Ginsberg death.

    I have a limited imagination to begin with; I can't fathom what might actually happen. Saying this a few years ago seemed ridiculous, but could Trump declare Marshall Law on election day? Would the military follow his orders? Will there be crazy white nationalists with guns hanging around polling places? I want to hide under the bed now and the election hasn't even occurred yet. I think I'm sounding a little hysterical here. Sorry.

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    1. I think the chances of Murkowski and Collins doing the right thing are about zero.

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    2. I agree, Neil, talk is cheap.

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    3. I cannot believe I'm doing this, but I'm stocking up each week with extra canned goods and water. I've become a lazy-arsed doomsday prepper. I figure it can't hurt.

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  6. Despite appearances, I'm not a complete moron, so I understand why this column is written the way it is. Personally, though, I'd have appreciated one, especially immediately after her death, which was simply an appreciation of her life and accomplishments. Anybody who cares knows what this development portends for the near and not-so-near future, and there's going to be plenty of time to wail and gnash one's teeth about that.

    She was a remarkable figure, who accomplished so many important things against overwhelming odds, and regardless of anything else, that's what I'm choosing to focus on for the time being.

    That being said, I couldn't help noticing in my brief foray into the Twitterverse, that "We're gonna take the White House, the Senate and then we're gonna stack the court with 13 justices if Trump appoints another conservative at this late date" seems to be a popular talking-point among many of the lefties that I generally admire. Uh, how 'bout we just get folks to fucking vote, for starters? Paraphrasing (or quoting, I don't know) my favorite columnist: "And ponies for the children, too!"

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    1. Yes, I would have relished Neil’s skills with an RBG obituary. I’m out of town, so I haven’t seen the paper, but I assume that duty was covered by somebody else.

      No one, in this forum at least, thinks you’re a moron. Can’t speak for your personal life. ;)

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  7. She kept going and talking on and on about equal rights even when society did not want to listen. A true hero.

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