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Pierce writes: "It's time for everyone to start getting used to the fact that, unless some massive legal apocalypse intervenes, the president* is going to get at least one more nominee for the United States Supreme Court and that, barring a sudden desire to keep the republic from turning entirely to guacamole, the Senate is going to rubber-stamp Justice Wingnut McWingnutty onto the Court for the next 40 years."

The U.S.-Mexico border. (photo: AP)
The U.S.-Mexico border. (photo: AP)


It Might Be Time to Start Fireproofing the Reichstag

By Charles Pierce, Esquire

08 January 19


Ruth Bader Ginsburg's absence signals our last line of defense is in peril.

t's time for everyone to start getting used to the fact that, unless some massive legal apocalypse intervenes, the president* is going to get at least one more nominee for the United States Supreme Court and that, barring a sudden desire to keep the republic from turning entirely to guacamole, the Senate is going to rubber-stamp Justice Wingnut McWingnutty onto the Court for the next 40 years. That's not the bleakest speculation. The bleakest speculation is that he gets more than one.

Happy Monday!

The most recent speculation was prompted by the fact that Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg missed oral arguments on Monday for the first time since she's been on the Court. From CNN:

Ginsburg's absence came midway through the term as the justices will consider petitions concerning some of President Donald Trump's most controversial policies, including the phase-out of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program and his ban on most transgender individuals from serving in the military. Ginsburg was released from the hospital about two weeks ago, according to the court, following the surgery earlier last month. The court said there was no evidence of any remaining disease following the surgery. The nodules themselves were discovered incidentally following tests after a fall she sustained in November. The key liberal justice returned to the court shortly after the fall that fractured three of her ribs last November.

Unmentioned in the CNN story is the fact that the administration* is giving off unmistakable signs that it might be wise to start fireproofing the Reichstag. From USA Today:

"We can call a national emergency and build it very quickly," President Donald Trump said Friday. "But if we can do it through a negotiated process, we are giving that a shot." The president repeated that assertion Sunday and acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney said on CNN's "State of the Union" that Trump had directed "every single Cabinet secretary and the Office of Management and Budget to go out and find money that can be used legally to guard the southern border." "Presidents have authority to defend the nation," Mulvaney said, adding that he was personally involved in the hunt to find funds that could be steered toward a border wall.

Now, he has announced that he will give a Big Boy speech on TV Tuesday night, which will be followed by his taking his unending road show to the border on Thursday because that's just what the border needs. He can go there because there is no emergency. There is no emergency just because the president* will say there is. (I think the networks who will cover this dog-and-lizard show are obligated to give the Democrats time for rebuttal.) In any event, if he tries this foolishness, it's invariably going to end up in the courts, which are the last line of defense, and they're thinning precipitously.

There is a huge constitutional crisis brewing over an endless series of lies from the executive branch. And there are dozens of embryonic Kavanaughs waiting in the wings.

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+16 # DPM 2012-09-27 10:16
The on site protesters need our support! If nothing else, we should spread this story to everyone we know.
 
 
+8 # HowardMH 2012-09-27 10:45
TWO -- JUST TWO people arrested - why bather. Need to have thousands arrested not TWO.

Until there are two hundred thousand really, really pissed off people on Capital Hill (all at the same time) raising some serious hell against the Lunatics, absolutely nothing is ever, ever going to happen to these totally bought and paid for by the richest 50 people in the world that are becoming more and more powerful with each passing rigged election thanks to the stupid people.
 
 
+12 # Richard Miller 2012-09-27 10:48
You assume that they would not murder blockaders? WRONG! They will stop at nothing to make a buck and insure that this pipeline is done exactly as they want it. Americans have lost their rights to a clean and safe country. Just wait to see the changes if Mittens gets elected! They will clear cut and level the country in the name of oil.
 
 
+8 # Glen 2012-09-27 11:15
Hell, the U.S. supports and has supported leaders who kill, just as the U.S. does. Killing protesters would be nothing in the grand scheme of things. The U.S., both federal and local governments, have killed and even bombed their own citizens. What would stop them now? Little is done to stop police brutality as it is.

If the U.S. gov. will allow other of their "friends" to brutalize and kill their own citizens what makes any of us think we're safe in protesting.
 
 
+3 # cordleycoit 2012-09-27 22:34
First: you know you have been successful when the police stoop to torture.
Second you know you are successful when the people who order the torture are on site enjoying watching the torture. They will not forget their pleasuring themselves while watching pain being inflicted. They end up taking it home to their once loved ones. Management types like that and the police performing for them have neat home lives, like The SEALS as they kill on command.
 
 
+1 # jetli 2012-09-28 13:47
This is Texas people. Texas has been fighting to conduct itself separate from the federal government.. The push to bankrupt the U.S. And rouse people to go against it would give power to the states and make null and void the Constitution and Bill Of Rights... NOT GOOD! The states don't have to follow federal law then... They can each make their own. Connect the dots and the players.
And with some of the new items quietly on Mr. Obama's agenda will exempt foreign (Canada is foreign) companies from complying with U.S. Laws and EPA regulations. And T. Boone Pickens owns the biggest aquafer in Texas. So much for his wind farm projects.
 

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