[Cause]

I’d say gay rights are def under threat, not anytime soon perhaps but Clarence I believe sent a strong signal that he is open to it. Same sex marriage, sodomy and contraceptives were called out by name no? Although I believe oral sex will also be at risk.

Depending on how the people and democrats politicians respond, either passing a federal law or some kind to protect abortion or failing outright this court is say is now happy to play the long game on the March to ending the protection for same sex marriage next.

[Gwynn ap Nudd]

Alito and Thomas have both previously come out against same sex marriage. Coney Barret has never ruled on it, but is against it personally. I won't really be surprised if one of gay marriage or access to most forms of contraception is gone by this time next year (basically condoms only).

https://www.npr.org/...marriage-rights

I was thinking about this a bit today, and it is clear to me from the recent rulings just how far outside the mainstream the current court is. Way out there to the right. You can basically expect every decision to be in favour of advancing the goals of the religious right or big business, with some forays into restricting voting rights and preventing police from being prosecuted, until/unless the make up of the court changes. The Dobbs ruling shows that with five "justices" to his right, Roberts has no control of the court. The belief that he would convince the others to make incremental changes and not outright overrule precedent has been shown to be false. I expect large changes, and none of them good.

[Macros]

America is become increasingly terrifyingly insane and right wing.

Holy shit guys get it together

[Gorefest]

Thing is, this is not the majority opinion, it is the result of Trump being allowed to load the suppreme court with idiotic zealots. The left wing is playing too nice and allowing dirty play from religious fanatics without any moral compass (oh, irony) to cripple the country. And drag it back into the stone age.

This post has been edited by Gorefest: 27 June 2022 - 06:13 PM

[QuickTidal]

I've heard now that they've also rolled back the West Virginia v. the Environmental Protection Agency, which would minimize the ability of the EPA to keep it's oversight....thus "allowing power plants to pollute as much as they want now too without any of said real oversight"?

The other interesting news is that Gen Z (never underestimate the generation that was weaned on the damned internet) has not only doxxed the addresses of the SCOTUS judges on social media but also their CC #s?

Now you need a general strike too.

Oh and speaking of....Mitch McConnell DEMANDING the democrats give the SCOTUS judges even MORE security (they already all have private security) right now....is laughable to me...the Democrats should say "Mitchy Mitchy Mitchy....this is and election year, let's let the PEOPLE decide shall we?"

[Malankazooie]

So I think the Jan. 6 committee doodad is about to wrap up. Sadly, I don't think many Americans are bothered to care. I don't even think Cipollone's testimony will lead to Trump taking a sip from the cup of justice <<< see what I did there? I dearly hope and wish I'm wrong, and more than happy to eat crow in it, but I just don't see anything happening. I'm curious to see what kind of show Bannon puts on if he follows up on his reversal of position to appear and if the committee goes through with it. Not sure if they get the deal with him, but he'll make it a show that blows the whole thing up and Trump will come out the other side the better for it. Should be entertaining nevertheless.

https://www.cbsnews....contempt-trial/

This post has been edited by Malankazooie: 11 July 2022 - 07:33 PM

[Azath Vitr (D'ivers]

Malankazooie, on 11 July 2022 - 07:32 PM, said:

So I think the Jan. 6 committee doodad is about to wrap up. Sadly, I don't think many Americans are bothered to care. I don't even think Cipollone's testimony will lead to Trump taking a sip from the cup of justice <<< see what I did there? I dearly hope and wish I'm wrong, and more than happy to eat crow in it, but I just don't see anything happening. I'm curious to see what kind of show Bannon puts on if he follows up on his reversal of position to appear and if the committee goes through with it. Not sure if they get the deal with him, but he'll make it a show that blows the whole thing up and Trump will come out the other side the better for it. Should be entertaining nevertheless.

https://www.cbsnews....contempt-trial/

'"Like interviewing the Joker": [...] predicts "zero" value from Steve Bannon’s potential testimony

[...] "I can only tell you I've interviewed Steve Bannon before. I was one of the lead investigators for the Russia prosecution, for Bannon's interview. I would expect zero. Absolutely nothing," [...] "This guy was like interviewing the Joker. He's maniacal. He's insane. And it was a frustrating hours-long interview where we did not learn very much."

Bannon "had actually upset the Republicans. It was one of the only things that united us during the whole Russia investigation, was how much he upsetted the Republicans. He was joking around with his lawyers. They kept trying to get him to take it seriously. I would not expect very much. I don't think, you know, a leopard like Bannon should change its spots. So again, if the commission knows more than I know, that's great, they should proceed. But I would proceed very, very carefully with this guy,"'

'Like interviewing the Joker': Eric Swalwell predicts 'zero' value from Steve Bannon’s potential testimony

[Azath Vitr (D'ivers]

'Half of Americans agree somewhat that there will be civil war "in the next few years" and nearly one in five are similarly confident that they will soon arm themselves with a gun in a situation where political violence is justified, according to a nationally representative survey [which is probably underrepresenting Trump supporters and extremists ...]

"This is a very strong methodological study that backs up what we are seeing in a lot of other data," [...] "America is at risk of experiencing major political violence."

[...] Nearly one in five Americans agreed strongly or very strongly, according to the Davis study, that "the 2020 election was stolen from Donald Trump."

One in five also endorsed political violence as a means to achieve an important political objective and one in four at least somewhat agreed that given America's current direction, "true American patriots may have to resort to violence in order to save our country."

[...] Nearly one in five surveyed strongly agreed that it was more important for America to have a powerful leader than to be a democracy.

[...] between 4 and 5 million Americans would be "very or completely willing" to intimidate, injure, or kill to achieve a political goal. Between 3 and 5 million would be similarly willing to commit violence against government, election, and health officials, as well as the police and military. "These individuals are not being bombastic," [...] "they are willing to say precisely what kind of violence they support."

[...] cautioned that the findings left key questions unanswered, pointing to the widespread expectation of civil war. "What I would really like to know is whether that's a good thing or a bad thing," he said, "are you pushing for civil war, or do you view that prospect as a disaster?"'

American Democracy is on the brink as a growing number of people anticipate a civil war, new survey shows.

... depends on how far along our (leftist---or at least anti-reactionary) robot armies are....

Meanwhile a QAnon far-right extremist won (with the help of Democratic 'attack ads') the Republican primary for governor in Maryland... while Maryland is a blue state it's elected moderate Republican governors in recent years, including the current governor....

[Cause]

So a law that would protect contraceptives passed in the house along party lines! How is anyone against contraceptives in the year of our lord 2022!

[Tsundoku]

Cause, on 21 July 2022 - 05:55 PM, said:

So a law that would protect contraceptives passed in the house along party lines! How is anyone against contraceptives in the year of our lord 2022!

Probably the same people who unironically use "... in the year of our Lord ..." in casual conversation.

Yes, yes I know what Anno Domini means.

This post has been edited by Tsundoku: 21 July 2022 - 07:42 PM

[Macros]

Yes yes, but those people likely have no idea what anno domini means

[Gwynn ap Nudd]

A couple of the anti-abortion bills passed at the state level earlier this year had draft versions that would have banned plan B, IUDs and probably birth control pills. Basically only permitting the use of condoms.

Basically because:



Edit: To be fair, there is also a contingent that wants to ban contraceptives because they think it will reduce the amount of people having sex out of wedlock.

This post has been edited by Gwynn ap Nudd: 22 July 2022 - 04:13 AM

[Gorefest]

Ah, the evangelical nutcase brigade again? Gotta love the US of A. They really got all the European zealots shipped over way back when.

[Primateus]

Yes, people will have less sex out of wedlock if you ban all contraceptives. Because people, especially teenagers, are that sensible.

[Malankazooie]

Oh boy, so Biden has ok'd completing a portion of Trump's (Mexico will pay for it) border wall down in Arizona. As is the case with politics, nothing is without a transaction attached, so in that spirit I guess it's supposed to help Democratic senator Mark Kelly's prospects for re-election, as folks in AZ want it completed. It would be super rad if they blew up one of those "I did that" stickers that can be found on gas pumps and slapped it on the portion of wall that goes up.

[Cause]

Republicans successfully voted against lowering insulin prices. How do these people get anyone to vote for them?

[Azath Vitr (D'ivers]

Cause, on 07 August 2022 - 06:03 PM, said:

Republicans successfully voted against lowering insulin prices. How do these people get anyone to vote for them?

'Why have 12 GOP-controlled states refused to this day to expand Medicaid for their 30 million minimum-wage working people when the federal government covers 90 percent of the cost?

Why are Republicans so committed to destroying Medicare and Social Security?'

How a serial killer set the stage for the modern GOP

[QuickTidal]

Re: Trump/Mar-A-Lago FBI raid

From NYT:
Former President Donald J. Trump said on Monday that the F.B.I. had searched his Palm Beach, Fla., home and had broken open a safe — an account signaling a major escalation in the various investigations into the final stages of his presidency.
The search, according to multiple people familiar with the investigation, appeared to be focused on material that Mr. Trump had brought with him to Mar-a-Lago, his private club and residence, when he left the White House. Those boxes contained many pages of classified documents, according to a person familiar with their contents.
Mr. Trump delayed returning 15 boxes of material requested by officials with the National Archives for many months, only doing so when there became a threat of action to retrieve them. The case was referred to the Justice Department by the archives early this year.
…
The F.B.I. would have needed to convince a judge that it had probable cause that a crime had been committed, and that agents might find evidence at Mar-a-Lago, to get a search warrant. Proceeding with a search on a former president’s home would almost surely have required sign-off from top officials at the bureau and the Justice Department.


So this stuff disqualifies him from running in 2024 as a main splash out of the actions of the FBI (they did apparently find the docs they were looking for)....but what else does this entail for him. This is a federal crime right?

As usual with American Politics I won't believe anything will happen to him until it does...but this does appear to be big enough to sink any chance he had at running again.

[amphibian]

It would take an actual felony conviction for him to not run. He's going to do the maximum fundraising/scamming possible, maybe declare anyways, and then bow out while endorsing the top 2-3 people left in the race, making sure to remind them that they have to give him what he wants if they want his endorsement or cash or access.

The grift continues as long as the money keeps coming in.

[QuickTidal]

amphibian, on 09 August 2022 - 01:14 PM, said:

It would take an actual felony conviction for him to not run. He's going to do the maximum fundraising/scamming possible, maybe declare anyways, and then bow out while endorsing the top 2-3 people left in the race, making sure to remind them that they have to give him what he wants if they want his endorsement or cash or access.

The grift continues as long as the money keeps coming in.

Ah okay.

I would hope that for a Federal Judge to sign off on an unannounced warrant on a former President's home that they have something big enough to put him away....we can hope, but I won't hold m breath.

Fox News is acting like he has every right to take and hold classified documents in his home...