[Malankazooie]

Was listening to the news on the drive in. WH insiders say Trump isn't practicing for the debates. I don't think that is a surprise. From what I recall about 2016, he just gave everyone a nickname and cried and moaned about emails. It will be an ugly mess for sure. When Trump goes on stream of conscience, from the gut, mouth diarrhea, it's a car wreck that is hard to look away from. 4 Pinocchio rating after every debate is a safe bet.

What I am really looking forward to is watching Kamala Harris excoriate the walking bowl of tapioca pudding, Mike Pence. Do you think "mother" will allow Pence to at least elbow bump Harris?

[Azath Vitr (D'ivers]

'More Detained Women Emerge With Claims of Nonconsensual Surgeries by ICE Doctors

[...] Many of these surgeries were reportedly performed by gynecologist Mahendra Amin, who migrant women held at Georgia's Irwin County Detention Center said they feared. Amin has told reporters that he's only performed one or two hysterectomies in the last three years; lawyers for the women told the AP that he's performed surgery and other gynecological treatments on at least eight women detained since 2017, and that additional women are coming forward. Accounts from the women claim Amin removed one migrant woman's fallopian tube without her consent, coerced a different woman into a hysterectomy when doctors confirmed to AP that there were other less invasive procedures to be taken, and more.

[...] Detained women have said Amin was not the only doctor who did surgeries without their OK and jeopardized their ability to have children. An internal watchdog at the Department of Homeland Security launched an investigation of the allegations this week.'

https://www.thedaily...octors?ref=home

This post has been edited by Azath Vitr (D'ivers: 18 September 2020 - 07:55 PM

[Malankazooie]

Ruth Bader Ginsburg has died.

[Terez]

It would be very difficult to overstate how catastrophic this is likely to be.

[amphibian]

2020 might be the most significant year in the last 75 years for Americans. Wowza.

[QuickTidal]

That’s it. Trump will nominate and McConnell will approve. I realize this isn’t how any of this is meant to be done legally or constitutionally....but they have stopped at nothing before. They will just continue to plow this shit through and I can’t speak this loudly enough...who will stop them? No one has stoped any of this before.

I’d love for someone to throw McConnell’s whole “obama scotus pick” election year bullshit in his face...but he simply won’t care.

I feel so bad for you all. It’s going to get so much worse.

[Slow Ben]

To reiterate. Fuck this fucking year.

[Slow Ben]

Lisa Murkowski has already said she won’t vote to replace until after the election.

A chance a few more could join her.

Where ya at Mitt?

[QuickTidal]

If mconnell rams a pick through before the election...the dems who win need to pack the court now. 15 justices. Do it.

[Azath Vitr (D'ivers]

Slow Ben, on 19 September 2020 - 12:10 AM, said:

Lisa Murkowski has already said she won't vote to replace until after the election.

A chance a few more could join her.

Where ya at Mitt?

'Democrats hold 45 seats, and independents caucusing with the Democratic Party hold two seats.'

'Article I of the Constitution invests the vice president with the power to vote in the Senate on the occasion that the chamber's votes are "equally divided." The vice president's power to do so is unchallenged and subject to no qualifications, but Vice President Michael Pence has exercised this power often and has shown a willingness to wield this power in new ways.

[...] Confirmation votes for Supreme Court justices are unique and wholly unlike the legislative deadlocks that vice presidents of the past have typically broken. A vice president's tie-breaking vote, whether Democratic or Republican, should never be used in such a manner.' But that's not going to stop them....

https://www.baltimor...0705-story.html

So, even assuming Romney also comes on board, two more Republicans would be needed to reach 51... Collins?...

Though I guess if there is a tie and Pence breaks it, his face is appropriately apocalyptic for the history books Trumpble....

This post has been edited by Azath Vitr (D'ivers: 19 September 2020 - 01:11 AM

[QuickTidal]

I just thought of something else. They could Bush VS Gore the election if trump loses...and rule in trumps favour.

[Azath Vitr (D'ivers]

'Trump was in the midst of one of his mostly mask-free campaign rallies on Friday night when news broke of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg's death. Apparently unaware of her passing, Trump bragged to supporters about naming Sen. Ted Cruz as a potential nominee for the Supreme Court. [...] "I have to have somebody that we're going to make sure we get approved, and the only one I could think of was Ted because he's going to get 50 Republican votes and he'll get 50 Democrat votes"'

https://www.thedaily...-death?ref=home

"If you killed Ted Cruz on the floor of the Senate, and the trial was in the Senate, nobody would convict you." - Lindsey Graham

https://www.bbc.com/...s-2016-36164195

This post has been edited by Azath Vitr (D'ivers: 19 September 2020 - 12:40 AM

[HoosierDaddy]

Well this is distressing.

I so badly want to shove how bad not voting smart can hurt in people's faces....

What a dumpster fire of a year in a rapidly escalating dumpster fire of a country.

[Azath Vitr (D'ivers]

Collins is facing a difficult reelection battle, and she claims to be pro-choice---so there's a decent chance she'll refuse to confirm....

Who could be the fourth, to prevent Pence from breaking a tie?...

[amphibian]

Collins won't turn. She tells a decent hype story and then just goes with the GOP every time.

[Mezla PigDog]

What was RBDs reason for not quitting during the Obama administration so they could replace her with a liberal? I guess in principle the Supreme Court shouldn't be so partisan that such a thing would be necessary and she also still had a lot to give. But the US system is what it is and she must have known that.

I had not seen before what Mitch McConnell said about the replacement in Obama's final election year. The rank hypocrisy is staggering.

I'm awake in the small hours and catastrophising and I've just decided that Biden is going to die from coronavirus before the election takes place.

[Terez]

Mezla PigDog, on 19 September 2020 - 01:36 AM, said:

What was RBDs reason for not quitting during the Obama administration so they could replace her with a liberal?

She said she didn't have confidence in the Senate's ability to confirm someone, even when Democrats controlled the Senate, because McConnell was abusing the filibuster.

[Mezla PigDog]

Fair enough. Standing down and then still being replaced by an arse would be a bitter pill to swallow.

[Tsundoku]

The Dems absolutely need to do what that POS McConnell did in Obama's last year and use every dirty trick in the book and if necessarily invent new ones in order to not let another conservative stooge on the SCOTUS bench.

Sorry Michelle, but "when they go low, we go high" does. Not. Work. Not in the USA that gave rise to Fox News, Rush Limbaugh, Tea Party, Trump, Qanon et al and didn't sack and indict Trump years ago. The gloves need to come all the way off. Any move to compromise or do what's right etc will not be reciprocated, it will be jumped on and used against you.
Thy took the high road for the last 4 years and it just enabled the bastards even more.

Dammit RBG, you were awesome, but FFS the worst possible time ...

The USA will be fucked for at least a generation and I think QT's theory about SCOTUS doing a Bush v Gore in favour of Trump isn't far-fetched. They will simply ignore all evidence that doesn't suit their intent after retroactively nullifying other results against them somehow. Hell, I'll bet some Trumpist POS like Miller or Barr is probably already trying to find ways to get SCOTUS to change voting results in the electoral college or something.

EDIT:
excellent quote from the comment section of an article I just read - "The US lost their mind when they elected Trump and now they have lost their heart with the death of Ginsburg."

This post has been edited by Tsundoku: 19 September 2020 - 10:57 AM

[amphibian]

Calling Ginsburg the heart is an absolute mangling of what she actually did as justice. She was on the good side of some important decisions, but her best friend on the court was Scalia. That says a lot.