Yeah, but Kavanaugh and Gorsuch are fairly boilerplate Republican leaning judges. Surely they can go in for a true believer now.
Judge Jeanine Pirro? Or is she too old?
Where have we gotten to that a probable rapist and definite drunkard with no impulse control is a “boilerplate Republican”?
It was about the point where Brett Kavanaugh said Devil’s Triangle is a drinking game, not a sex game, and the Republicans said “sorry to bother you, Supreme Court Justice.”
senoy:
What’s their authority to do so? When Ken Starr was appointed, the Independent Counsel Law allowed it. But after Bill Clinton turned Starr into the most hated man in America, Congress gutlessly allowed it to expire, and now such matters are once again (as in pre-Watergate America) in the hands of the Justice Department, which answers to the President.
This probably isn’t going to be that ugly. Sitting back in DC is the remaining FY18 appropriations work. There’s a continuing resolution in place until early December and neither party made the early moves to make it look like they were preparing for a serious round of shutdown chicken. Congress even passed a couple of the big departmental appropriations, like DOD’s, before the campaign recess. Congress had a full slate of work waiting no matter how the election turned out. That work requires a bipartisan vote to pass. If they can’t get it done, they don’t recess for the holidays. The wildcard is Trump’s veto while he’s in poor loser mode.
I expect Jan to be when things get really ugly as Trump responds to having a newly energized opposition. He had Twitter rants when the GOP majority Congress was just ignoring his priorities. Active opposition… ugly might not be a strong enough word.
Trump campaigned on infrastructure spending so it’s one of the big ones.
Trump’s done some executive branch work on prescription drug pricing. I saw drug pricing as a talking point for some of the Democrats here in the midwest who mostly weren’t on the Medicare For All train. That’s another possible area where Trump can be leveraged to get something done.
Trade offers another issue. Some of China’s trade practices have earned the label of unfair on both the left and right. China is an area the where trade protectionists and free traders may be able to find some common ground. Trump is certainly susceptible to being coaxed into a more nuanced, but still aggressive, trade position with respect to China.
Well, broken hips are almost always repaired surgically. Not all come through it and the immediate post-op period.
And, if you’ve fallen, you’ve demonstrated a vulnerability right there. If the fall also breaks your hip, you’ve demonstrated even greater vulnerability; you’ve shown your bones are brittle - a marker of a more generalized frailty and risk.
If you survive your fall, and the fracture, and the surgery, and the risky postoperative period, you’re then unlikely to be as active (you’re still tired from the episode and you’re afraid you’ll fall again if you do get active, so you stay inside, inactive). Inactivity leads to all sorts of bad things for the elderly: pneumonia, delirium, clots, mental changes, . . . , and none of it is good. Your bones begin to rot even faster.
And (I love this one), if you’ve had you’re fractured hip repaired, you’ve ‘come to medical attention’ - new medications will be prescribed and more investigations will be done. With them come side-effects, angiograms, biopsies, . . . and each carries its own risk.
This is just off the top my head. There must be more.
You could end up with a 2nd constitutional showdown.
One would be if Mueller lasts long enough to subpoena Trump, it goes to the Supreme Court, majority rule he has to comply. I’d still bet he’ll refuse.
Now Richie Neal who will be chairman of the House Ways & Means committee, is hinting that he (or someone else) may subpoena Trump’s tax returns. I think a Supreme Court order requiring Trump to comply with that is more iffy, but if it were to go against him, again I think he’d refuse.
I don’t think Ginsburg’s gonna make it another two years.
Infrastructure bill? How you gonna pay for that? With more tax cuts?
Donald is just getting warmed up. He’s gonna try to squash the investigation, pack the courts with his Heritage Foundation-trained flunkies and then go after minorities’ rights to vote. And he’s gonna do it all openly, with a sneer and a taunt for good measure.
It’s your time, righty whiteys. “We’re coming out, guns blazing!”
she went home from the hospital today and is working at home
They had to hold their breath on what Collins or Murkowski might do. There was suspense over whether Collins would go in on Kavanaugh or not, and she eventually did.
With what looks now to be a 53-47 majority instead of 51-49, Republicans won’t have to worry about those two moderates anymore. They can go hardline right-wing and even if Collins and Murkowski and one more Republican go “no,” it’ll still be a 50-50 tie and Pence will break it.
Seen on Facebook:
Scientists believe that the first person to live to be 150 years old has already been born. Please let it be Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
There is an op-ed at truthout.org that is mostly about the elections, but ends with this conclusion:
I can’t say I disagree with the analysis.
The of the latest issue of Bloomberg Businessweek reads “The smoothest period of Trump’s presidency is over. Really. It only gets craziest from here.”
When business magazines are saying this, its time to hunker down in the survival shelters and go on an all Real Housewives binge to shut the world out.
McConnell and Trump are going to try to ram through 179 or more judges onto circuit and other lower courts in the next two years.
Short answer? No.
Long answer?BWA HA HA HA HA HA HA ha no.
UnwittingAmericans:
Get Mexico to?
And that’s what I think the Dem’s plan should be. Pass a lot of House bills that support the things Trump said he wanted, that would also benefit real working people. The infrastructure plan, the drug price plan, maybe expanding re-training for displaced workers, maybe funds for moving from places where there are no jobs to places where there are jobs. Throw in increased healthcare and education for veterans, while we’re at it. But every one should have some provision attached for producing tax revenue to pay for it.
If the bills pass, the Dems run in the next election on how may great things they got the GOP to finally agree to. If, as I expect they will, the Senate and/or Trump refuse to pass the bills, the Dems run on “Senator Rich Whiteguy voted against widows and orphans 10 different times!”
nm